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THIRTY-FIVE

SELENE

S he was weightless. Untethered. Somewhere between the breath before dying and the one you never take again.

Everything around her was light—brilliant, blinding, alive . But it wasn’t warmth that cradled her. It was memory .

Not hers. Ancient ones.

She stood—though her body felt half-formed—in the middle of a place that didn’t exist in any realm she knew. Stars burned low overhead, pulsing like veins. The ground shimmered beneath her bare feet. Not stone. Not earth.

Veil.

She knew it instinctively.

And before her stood three figures cloaked in silver and dusk. Their features weren’t clear, but their presence was undeniable—powerful and old as creation itself.

Veilwalkers.

The first.

They regarded her not with cruelty, not even expectation, but something quieter. Recognition.

“Selene Morwen,” one of them said. Their voice was neither male nor female—just truth. “You’ve come.”

“I didn’t mean to,” she whispered.

“You did,” another corrected. “You chose.”

She shook her head. “I... died.”

“You chose,” the third repeated, stepping closer. “As your foremothers did. You gave the bond to spare another. The cost of that choice is death.”

Selene’s chest tightened. Kael’s face rose behind her eyes. His arms around her. The pain. His voice breaking.

“I thought...” She swallowed. “I thought if I severed it, they wouldn’t be able to use him. The ritual would fall apart.”

“It did,” the first said.

“But you fractured your soul to do it,” the second added. “And you cannot return through the Veil unless you are whole.”

The third raised their hand.

“You must choose again.”

Selene stared at them. “Choose what?”

“Return as you are—and fade. Or reclaim what you left behind.”

“And what is that?”

A flicker—Kael’s smile, brief and stubborn. The way his eyes locked on hers as if she were the only steady thing in his world.

“Your bond,” the Veilwalker said. “Your magic. Your love.”

“But—he gave me a reason to walk away,” she whispered.

“He also gave you a reason to come back.”

The words shattered something in her. Because it was true.

He had pushed her away, yes. Lied. Pretended not to care.

But then he’d come. He always came. And now he was calling her back.

Selene closed her eyes. And when she opened them, she wasn’t afraid.

“I’m not coming back because of prophecy,” she said.

The Veil shimmered with tension.

“I’m not coming back because I’m meant to, or because the world needs me, or because of some throne.” She lifted her chin. “I’m coming back because I choose him .”

The Veil answered with silence. And then, a rush.

Color and sound and fire and everything she’d ever been, slamming into her like a second heartbeat. The bond reformed, brilliant and blazing, not as a tether, but as a vow.

She gasped.

The world jolted into her chest like lightning.

She was burning , not in pain, but in life.

Kael’s arms were around her, and his voice was the first thing she heard.

“Selene—Selene, gods—look at me, look at me ? — ”

Her eyes flew open.

He was crying. Her Alpha. Her chaos. Her wolf.

“Hey,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

He let out a sound that wasn’t quite a sob, not quite a laugh. “Don’t ever do that again.”

“You started it,” she rasped.

And he kissed her like it was the first time. Like he was memorizing every breath.

She kissed him back. Not because fate said to. Because she wanted to .