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I hated portal travel.

Reality twisted as the portal pulled us through space. That disorienting lurch in my stomach reminded me of passing through that first portal with Gavin, when I’d abandoned the careful, quiet life I’d built for myself. I told myself this was different. I wasn’t abandoning the Moon Sanctuary or the life waiting for me there; I was trying to preserve it.

For a moment, Javier and I existed in nothingness. There was only darkness and the sensation of falling, and then we crashed onto cold stone, the return to reality knocking the breath from my lungs. I landed on my hands and knees, coughing to capture some air.

Javier curved over me instantly, his arm banding around my waist as he landed in a defensive crouch. “Breathe, Luna,” he murmured against my ear, his voice pitched low.

Finally, the spasming in my lungs subsided, and I was able to take full, deep breaths. I raised my head and looked around. I’d been here before, when we rescued Javier, but then the portal chamber had been filled with a toxic smoke that made all who breathed it live out their worst nightmares. Now, there was nothing to block my view, and not a single shifter in sight.

Ancient stone walls surrounded us on all sides, inscribed with ward patterns that made my skin itch. But I wasn’t melting or combusting or screaming in pain, so Ren had been as good as her word. The air carried a trace of something dank and acrid, but maybe that was due to the Sun Keep’s underground nature.

My sense of Gavin was exponentially stronger, his pain echoing sharper with proximity, and I fought against the urge to run blindly toward him.

“Something isn’t right,” Javier said, straightening and helping me up to my feet, my legs still unsteady. “This chamber should be guarded, especially after your last incursion.” His dark eyes scanned the shadows, his head tilting as he listened closely. “Why would Veris leave the front door wide open?”

“Maybe he thought the wards would be enough?” I suggested, though doubt crept through me. Ren had been confident about breaching the Sun Keep’s defenses, but had it been too easy for her?

“Perhaps,” Javier murmured, his voice carrying careful neutrality that meant real concern. His hand found mine, his fingers intertwining with practiced familiarity.

The bizarre thing about this situation was that I wasn’t trying to avoid detection. I was here to deal with Veris directly, not to sneak around.

We moved forward cautiously, each step echoing against the ancient stone. The ward patterns pulsed, responding to our presence. Manganese veins ran through the stone walls, glinting pewter. I pulled Javier closer to the wall, sensing something disturbing, and traced my fingers along a grayish-silver vein of manganese.

I hissed in a breath and jerked my hand away. It was faint, but the foul taint of shadow corruption was there, like the metal’s magical properties had absorbed it.

“Can you feel it?” I whispered to Javier, my fingers digging into his forearm as ice crawled down my spine. “The shadow taint?”

He shook his head. “Luna…,” he warned, his body coiling tighter as footsteps echoed faintly from a corridor beyond the chamber. He placed his body between me and the broad arched doorway.

I held my breath as shifter warriors filed into the chamber, moving purposefully but not rushing. Within seconds, we were surrounded by at least twenty shifters, their eyes gleaming like wolves anticipating a kill.

“Well, well, well,” a cultured voice intoned from the corridor, smooth as silk and sharp as a blade. “What an unexpected surprise.” The guards parted as a figure stepped into the chamber, confident and lethal.

Veris. King of the shifters. Bastian’s father. Killer of my people.

He was shorter than I’d expected, not quite as tall as Bastian, but his frame was immensely powerful. His impeccably tailored charcoal suit somehow enhanced rather than diminished the sense of violence that hovered around him. His copper-bronze skin seemed to glow with internal fire.

His amber eyes held me frozen—like Bastian’s, but glacial, assessing me with dispassionate interest. The terrible symmetry of genetics had given father and son the same strong jaw and the same proud nose, but where Bastian’s features held warmth, his father’s seemed carved from stone. Beautiful but cold.

Standing before him, I felt small. A librarian who had spent twenty years hiding behind cardigans and careful smiles now faced the architect of my family’s destruction. I’d spent decades running from him, and now I’d walked straight into his waiting hands.

“Luna Sofia,” he said, my true name sounding like a violation on his lips. “Or do you prefer Sophie?” His smile never reached those cold eyes. “Such a mundane name for a High Queen.” His gaze traveled over me with invasive thoroughness. “The photos don’t do you justice. You’re much more vibrant in person.”

I stiffened, my stomach turning at the idea of him having pictures of me.

Javier’s body coiled with barely contained violence. I placed a steadying hand on his arm, silently urging him to stand down. This was why I was here, after all.

“King Veris,” I said, forcing my voice to hold steady despite the hatred burning through my veins. This was the monster who had burned my mom’s body so thoroughly that her spirit couldn’t anchor to this world. The same king who now kept Gavin prisoner while corruption seeped through the stone beneath our feet.

“You have something that belongs to me,” I said, my head held high.

A smile curved his lips. “So direct. I wonder… Are you as direct in all things?” He stepped closer, deliberately provocative. “And as stupid? The last High Queen, prophesied savior, and you walk straight into my stronghold with only a single guardian?” He clicked his tongue. “Your mother would be ashamed.”

At the mention of my mom, something flickered at the edge of my vision—a shimmer of smoky light that disappeared when I tried to focus on it.

“I came to make a deal, not to fight,” I said, moonlight pulsing beneath my skin as divine power stirred. “Assuming you’re interested in breaking the curse. If you’re not…” I turned partway, sending a meaningful glance back at the portal.

Something flashed in Veris’s eyes—surprise quickly masked. “Interesting.” He circled us slowly, like a wolf assessing his quarry. His guards, or commanders, or whatever they were, maintained their positions with mechanical precision. “You astound me, young queen, and that is something that rarely happens.”

Veris stopped directly before me, with only Javier between us. The family resemblance to Bastian faded up close, Veris’s cold calculation supplanting the physical similarities.

“I must admit,” Veris said, his voice dropping lower, “I’m curious about what my son sees in you. What made him betray his bloodline, his heritage?” His gaze traveled over me again, lingering in ways that made Javier’s muscles bunch beneath my fingers. “Though I can appreciate the physical appeal.” He rubbed his fingertips over his lips suggestively.

The crude implication made bile rise in my throat. This was a test, a deliberate provocation designed to reveal weaknesses he could exploit.

“Your son chose love over hatred,” I said steadily. “He chose building something new over clinging to ancient grievances. You could learn a thing or two from him, unless you’d rather let the curse continue to erode your power and destroy your people.”

Something flickered across Veris’s features at the mention of the curse—a tightening around his eyes that told me I’d struck a chord. Through the cracks in his control, I glimpsed genuine concern.

He laughed, masking his reaction, the sound devoid of humor but carrying tension. “Love. Such a human concept. Useful for manipulation, but hardly worth sacrificing power for.” His amber eyes hardened. “Though I shouldn’t be surprised. The boy’s mother was equally sentimental before, well…”

The silver shimmer in my peripheral vision grew stronger—a ghost attempting to manifest, fighting the suppression and expulsion wards.

“Come,” Veris said abruptly, turning away with casual confidence. “We have much to discuss, and I prefer more comfortable surroundings for important conversations.” He walked back toward the arched doorway, his guards parting before him.

Javier’s hand found mine, our fingers intertwining. “Proceed with caution, my Luna,” he whispered, barely audible. “Veris has always been duplicitous.”

As we followed the shifter king deeper into his stronghold, my mother’s moonstone ring heated on my finger, like she was sending me a warning from beyond the grave.

Each step deeper into the Sun Keep brought me closer to Gavin but also intensified that troubling sense of wrongness. The shadow taint grew stronger in the stone around us, no longer just faint traces in manganese veins but a subtle corruption permeating the walls themselves. So subtle that I might have missed it if I hadn’t been looking, if I hadn’t already felt it in Reiji’s magic.

I caught Javier’s eye, wondering if he sensed it too, but his expression remained carefully neutral, revealing nothing to our enemies. The air felt heavier here, each breath coating my lungs with something that wasn’t quite physical but wasn’t purely magical either. Something in-between.

I thumbed the back of the moonstone ring, seeking a connection to a woman whose choices I only partially understood. The curse had been a shield against something worse. I knew that. What if breaking it was exactly what the Shadow King wanted?

But as Gavin’s presence intensified through our bond, his pain echoing through me like a physical wound, I pushed those doubts away. The Shadow King was already breaking through. The time for caution was over. The ancient bargain of the curse had served its purpose—had bought us centuries—but that time was ending.

We continued deeper into the Sun Keep, moving through corridors and descending stairs that seemed to go on forever, the shadow taint growing stronger with each level. The stone beneath my feet felt almost alive, pulsing with corrupted power that reached hungry tendrils toward me.

My consorts’ blood within me responded, fueling my moonlight, pushing back against that reaching shadow.

For a moment, I saw it clearly—what breaking the curse would mean. The shifters unshackled but fully exposed to the Shadow King’s corruption. Their golden light of transformation struck through with shadow taint. How long would it take to set in? Would I notice it within Bastian right away?

The moonstone burned hotter against my skin, a silent plea from a mother who couldn’t speak. A warning I couldn’t fully understand.

But we had passed the point of caution. If the Shadow King was already breaking through, perhaps the only way forward was to tear down all the barriers between us and to face him directly. To confront the darkness that had been seeping into our world for centuries rather than continuing to patch the holes.

I clenched my hand into a fist, the moonstone’s heat spreading up my arm. The curse had to be broken, consequences be damned. Gavin had to be freed. The queens rescued. My harem whole.

And as I followed Veris into what felt like the very heart of darkness, I wondered if I was walking in my mom’s footsteps, making the same terrible choice she had made.

Was I sacrificing everything for a future I wouldn’t even live to see?