SERA'S POV
Thousands of eyes watch me enter the arena.
The ancient Combat Arena is huge a massive stone circle where wolves have settled blood challenges for centuries. Every seat is packed. Every Alpha, Luna, and Council member in the realm came to watch.
To watch me fight my cousin to the death.
My crown glows above my head as I walk. Some wolves gasp in awe. Others whisper doubts.
She's too young
Can she really be the heir?
Theron will destroy her
I ignore them all. My eyes find the Council box where Marcus sits, looking smug and confident. Vivian is beside him, her face twisted with hatred. And next to her
Kade.
Our eyes meet across the distance. The mate bond flares painfully. I feel his fear for me, his desperate need to stop this fight.
I look away.
In the stands, I spot Ryker, Caspian, and Nova. My people. They believe in me.
That has to be enough.
SILENCE! The Combat Master's voice booms. He's an ancient wolf, older than anyone here. The challenge is called. Theron Blackwood claims the Lunar Throne. Sera Blackwood defends her birth right. The terms are simple: fight until death or yield. Yielding means accepting the other's claim.
Theron enters the arena opposite me.
He's massive bigger than any wolf I've seen. His muscles ripple with unnatural strength. His eyes glow red from the dark magic enhancements. When he smiles, I see my parents' murder in that smile.
You should have stayed dead, little cousin, he calls out.
Rage burns through me. You killed my parents.
I did. He laughs. Your mother screamed so beautifully. Your father begged. Neither helped.
The crowd murmurs, shocked.
BEGIN! the Combat Master shouts.
Theron moves first impossibly fast. He's on me before I can blink, slamming me into the ground. Pain explodes through my back.
The crowd gasps.
I roll away as his fist crashes where my head was, cracking the stone. He's so fast the enhancements make him superhuman.
I shift into my massive wolf form. The crowd screams some in awe, some in fear. My wolf is eight feet at the shoulder, fur glowing like starlight.
Theron shifts too. His wolf is just as big but corrupted red eyes, foam dripping from his jaws, dark magic making his fur smoke.
We clash.
It's brutal. Vicious. We tear at each other, blood flying. His dark magic burns when he bites me. My lunar power sears his corrupted flesh.
The crowd is screaming but I can't hear them. Can't hear anything but Theron's snarls and my own heartbeat.
He's stronger. Faster. The enhancements give him an edge I can't match.
He gets his jaws around my throat and squeezes.
I can't breathe. Can't think.
WEAK! he growls. Just like your parents. Just like all Blackwoods. You're nothing!
My vision goes dark at the edges.
In the stands, I feel Kade fighting to get to me. Guards are barely holding him back. The mate bond is screaming with his terror.
Ryker is shouting something I can't hear.
Caspian is trembling, fighting the ancient oath that demands he save me.
Nova is crying. Get up! Sera, please get up!
Get up.
I didn't come back from the dead to die here.
I didn't survive the Veil Between, the training, the pain just to lose to the monster who murdered my family.
The black mark from last night suddenly burns on my chest.
And something inside me wakes up.
Power floods through me not just lunar magic. Something else. Something ancient and terrifying and mine.
I stop holding back.
Silver light explodes from my body. Theron yelps and releases me, thrown backward by the force.
I rise, and my wolf grows. Bigger. Stronger. More radiant than ever before.
My crown blazes like a star above my head.
My turn, I snarl.
I attack with everything I have. Pure lunar magic burns away his dark enhancements. Every bite, every slash I'm faster now, stronger, better.
Theron's confidence turns to fear.
No wait he gasps as I pin him.
The crowd is silent, watching.
I force him to shift back to human. He lies broken and bloody beneath my massive paw.
Yield, I command, my voice echoing with divine authority.
I YIELD! he screams. Please yield!
Ancient law says I can spare him. Show mercy.
I think of my mother's scream. My father's plea.
I think of baby-me, crying in a crib while my parents' blood pooled on the floor.
I think of every Blackwood murdered over two centuries.
Traitors don't get mercy, I say.
My jaws close around his throat.
It's over in seconds.
The arena erupts. Half the crowd is cheering. The other half stands in shocked horror.
I shift back to human, covered in blood, my crown still glowing.
And I look directly at Marcus Ashford.
You're next.
Marcus's face goes white. He tries to run, scrambling for the exit.
But Caspian is already there, blocking the door. He'd positioned himself perfectly.
Going somewhere, High Council Alpha? Caspian asks with a deadly smile.
I walk toward Marcus. The crowd parts like water, creating a path. No one dares stop me.
You murdered my family, I say, loud enough for thousands to hear. You corrupted the Moon Court. You tried to kill me. And you thought you'd get away with it.
II don't know what you're talking about Marcus stammers.
Other Council members step away from him. Distancing themselves.
I place my hand on Marcus's head. He tries to pull away, but my power holds him frozen.
Let's show everyone the truth, I say.
My power rips into his mind, dragging out every secret, every crime, every murder.
And I make him confess.
Out loud.
In front of everyone.
I framed the Blackwoods for treason, Marcus's voice says, but his face shows he's not in control. My power is forcing the words out. I stole their resources. I ordered the assassination of every Blackwood over two hundred years. Sera's parents, her grandparents, all of them. I committed genocide to keep my family in power.
The crowd is dead silent.
I sent assassins to kill Sera. I enhanced Theron with dark magic. I corrupted the entire High Council. Tears stream down Marcus's face as my power forces him to continue. I am guilty of treason, murder, and crimes against the Moon Court.
I release him. He collapses, sobbing.
The crowd knows the truth now. The true Queen has returned.
I turn to face them all. The corruption ends today. The Moon Court will be restored. Justice will be served.
Cheers erupt. QUEEN SERA! QUEEN SERA!
But I barely hear them.
Because the black mark on my chest is burning again. Spreading.
And that voice from last night returns:
You won. But winning has consequences. The other half of your power is awake now. And it's hungry.
My vision blurs. The crowd's cheers fade.
I look down at my hands and see them changing. My fingers elongating. My nails turning to black claws.
Not wolf claws.
Something else.
Sera? Nova's voice sounds distant. What's happening to you?
I try to answer, but my voice comes out wrong. Deeper. Darker.
The mark spreads across my entire body.
Ryker pushes through the crowd. Everyone back! Give her space!
But I don't need space.
I need answers.
What am I? I gasp, falling to my knees.
The Moon Goddess's voice fills my head: I told you that you were descended from my blood. But I never said you were ONLY descended from my blood.
What does that mean?
Your father was a Blackwood lunar bloodline. But your mother... her bloodline was hidden even from her. She carried the blood of the Shadow King. The Moon's dark counterpart.
No. No no no.
You are both light and dark, Sera. Lunar Heir and Shadow Princess. Two halves that were never meant to exist in one body. And now that you've fully awakened... you must choose which half controls you.
The mark completes its spread. My entire body burns.
And standing before me visible only to me are two figures.
The Moon Goddess, radiant and silver.
And a man made of shadows, with eyes like black holes and a crown of darkness.
Hello, granddaughter, the Shadow King says. Ready to learn what you really are?