The plaza did not cheer.
I watched.
Hundreds of eyes stared at Luna like she was no longer fully real. Witches, wolves, humans, council guards. Fear moved through them in a slow, spreading wave.
Luna felt it all.
Not just their emotions.
Their thoughts brushed against her awareness like static.
Pull back, she told herself sharply.
The dark veins beneath her skin pulsed once, then settled, as if something inside her laughed quietly.
Kael's hands were still on her shoulders. Warm. Solid. Humans.
"You're here," he said hoarsely. "You're really here."
Luna nodded, though her head felt too heavy for her body. "I think so."
Rhea stepped closer, eyes narrowed, magic bristling around her. "Say something only Luna would know."
Luna swallowed. "You hate honey tea, even though you pretend not to. And you cheated during the trials by swapping runes."
Rhea's breath left her in a sharp laugh. "Okay. That's her."
But the relief did not spread.
Because behind Luna, the Devourer's shadow still stained the ground. No longer tearing through the city. No longer attacking.
Waiting.
Maeven's voice cut through the silence. "You bound it to yourself."
Luna turned slowly to face her.
"Yes."
Maeven's face was pale, her composure finally shattered. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"I ended your leash," Luna replied.
"No," Maeven snapped. "You became one."
The dark presence inside Luna stirred at that, irritation rippling through her veins.
*Careful, little Moon*, it murmured. *She fears what she cannot command.*
Luna clenched her fists. "Get out of my head."
*You invited me in*, it replied smoothly.
Kael stepped closer to her side, sensing the shift. "Luna. Talk to me."
She forced her focus back to him. "I'm here. I'm in control."
The Devourer hummed inside her.
*For now.*
The ground trembled suddenly.
Not violently.
Deliberately.
Ancient bells rang out across the council city, low and resonant, echoing from tower to tower.
Rhea's face went grim. "That's the Concord Alarm."
Maeven straightened, dread creeping back into her eyes. "They've called an emergency convergence."
"Who?" Luna asked.
Maeven looked at her like the answer was obvious.
"Everyone," she said. "Every faction. Every realm that still honors the old laws."
The sky above the city rippled.
Circles of light tore open in the air, one by one.
Portals.
Luna felt the Devourer stir with interest.
*So many witnesses*, it whispered. *So much fear.*
Figures began stepping through the portals.
Alpha leaders with glowing marks and hardened eyes.
High witches crowned in living sigils.
Human generals flanked by machines humming with anti-magic energy.
And something else.
Something colder.
Luna's chest tightened painfully as she felt it.
"They're here," she whispered.
Kael stiffened. "Who?"
"The Watchers."
Maeven inhaled sharply. "Impossible. They withdrew centuries ago."
"They never left," Luna said. "They just waited."
At the far end of the plaza, the air split open without light.
Without sound.
A tall figure stepped through, draped in black and silver, face hidden behind a smooth mask carved with a single open eye.
The Devourer recoiled inside Luna.
Not fear.
Recognition.
*Oh.*
*No.*
Kael felt the shift immediately. "Luna?"
Her breath came shallow. "That's not a councilor."
Maeven dropped to one knee.
So did several witches.
"The Arbiter," Maeven whispered.
The masked figure tilted its head slightly, studying Luna.
Its voice echoed directly inside every mind present.
**"The Moonbound has crossed a forbidden threshold."**
The crowd erupted into murmurs and gasps.
Luna stepped forward despite Kael's grip. "I crossed it to save lives."
**"Intent does not erase consequence."**
The Arbiter raised one long, pale hand.
The Devourer screamed inside Luna's head, pain ripping through her skull.
She cried out, dropping to one knee.
Kael caught her. "Stop! You're hurting her!"
**"We are correcting an anomaly."**
Darkness surged up Luna's spine as the Devourer fought back.
*No. She is mine.*
The Arbiter's head snapped slightly. **"You should not exist."**
Power clashed.
The plaza cracked down the center, a visible fracture splitting stone and magic alike. People screamed and scattered.
Luna screamed too, clutching her head as two forces tore at her from opposite sides.
"Kael," she gasped. "I can't"
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her against his chest. "Then lean on me. Don't let go."
The Devourer snarled.
*Weakness.*
Luna forced herself to breathe. "You said power listens to truth."
She looked up at the Arbiter, tears streaming down her face.
"You want balance?" she shouted. "Because the world *you* built is broken. The one you've been maintaining through silence and fear."
The Arbiter paused.
For the first time, uncertainty flickered through the mental pressure.
"You are unstable."
"Yes," Luna said. "But so is your precious order."
The Devourer surged in agreement, power roaring through her veins.
The Arbiter lowered its hand slowly.
"Then we will observe."
The pressure eased abruptly.
Luna collapsed forward, barely staying conscious.
Kael held her tightly as she shook.
Maeven stared at the Arbiter. "You're just… leaving it like this?"
"No," the Arbiter replied. **"We are issuing a verdict."
Every portal flared at once, the gathered leaders watching in tense silence.
"The Moonbound is declared a living convergence."
Luna's heart sank.
"Neither free nor contained. Neither condemned nor absolved."
Kael's voice was raw. "What does that mean?"
The Arbiter's mask turned fully toward Luna.
"It means she will be tested until she breaks… or the world does."
The proclamation hung in the air like smoke.
Then the Arbiter did something that made Luna's blood run cold.
It turned toward the eastern horizon.
"The first test," it announced, "has already begun."
A new portal ripped open behind the Arbiter, larger than the others, edges crackling with unstable energy.
Through it, Luna saw darkness.
Not the Devourer's darkness.
Something older.
Something that had been sleeping.
The Devourer went utterly still inside her.
*Impossible*, it breathed. *They wouldn't dare*
"What is that?" Rhea demanded.
Maeven's face had gone ashen. "The Hollow Veil. The prison realm where they locked away the"
She didn't finish.
Because something moved in the darkness beyond the portal.
Something massive.
Something that had been waiting for the world to crack just enough.
The Arbiter's voice was calm. Clinical.
"The Moonbound has destabilized the ancient seals. What sleeps beneath will not sleep much longer."
Luna staggered to her feet, horror flooding through her. "I didn't, I never meant to"
**"Intention,"** the Arbiter repeated, **"does not erase consequence."**
The portal widened.
And from the darkness, a single eye opened.
It was larger than the plaza.
Larger than anything Luna had ever seen.
And it looked directly at her.
The Devourer's voice cracked with something Luna had never heard from it before.
Terror.
*Run*, it whispered. *Run now, little Moon, or we both die here.*
But before Luna could move, before anyone could react, a second voice boomed across the plaza.
Humans.
Familiar.
Broken.
"Luna!"
Her head whipped around.
At the edge of the crowd, dragged forward by council guards, was her father.
But he looked wrong.
His eyes were black from edge to edge.
And when he spoke again, it wasn't his voice anymore.
"The door is open, daughter," the thing wearing her father said. "And you're the only one who can close it."
It smiled with teeth that were too sharp.
"If you survive the choice."
The massive eye in the portal blinked.
The ground shattered.
And the world tilted into chaos.