All Chapters of POWERS OF THE MOON BEARER: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Morning unfurled across the forest, yet the unease of the night before had not left Luna. The clearing buzzed with life as she stepped out of her tent. The serious, hushed tones of Alec and Kade's exchange filled the air. Jax was a little farther away, sharpening the blade of a knife while watching the perimeter; it was a ritual that had always seemed to calm him when it felt like trouble was brewing.Luna felt considerably weighted down by what she had talked to Jax about the previous night. His vision of that forest burning, her vanishing, gnawed on the inside of her like an insistent whisper of doom. As much as she wanted to dismiss it, the fear of a ritual getting out of hand bore down on her."Morning." Alec's voice interrupted her thoughts as he stood some distance away, offering her a reassuring smile. "How do you fare?" Luna half-heartedly ducked her head, trying to shake off her anxiety. "I didn't sleep much.""None of us did," Alec said, unsparingly. He waved his hand towar

A sharp bolt of pain jolted through Luna's body, reawakening her from the pool of unconsciousness. Trembling, she opened her eyes, slowly coming back to the struggle of reality around her. Against a blurry canvas of sound and motion, she heard Jax's growl but, more importantly, Alec's screeching call to her name. A heavy and sinister presence loomed nearby, that of the alpha.Her muscles twitched in varied strains, and with immense effort, she pushed herself to sit up, her sight swirling. The clearing was like hell-­burned earth where uprooted trees and scattered debris had covered the ground, the glow from the relic now pulsating at an all-time weakness. Yet what made her blood run cold was the sight of the alpha a few feet away from the relic; it hovered its massive claws over the ancient object, just waiting to pick it up.“No,” Luna said softly, her voice weak but laden with fear.The alpha's eyes glowed a deep malevolent red with crimson-tongued snarls aimed toward Luna, as if it

Chapter 16: Rise of the ChosenThe night air grew colder as Luna stood at the center of the clearing, her heart steady and calm. The relic in her hand pulsed faintly in time with the flow of her blood, and as their connection deepened, the moon shone brighter above, its rays wrapping about her like a protective cocoon.The alpha stumbled to rise, his body all squashed and broken, yet highly furious. The beauty of his red eyes shone with that hatred, but beneath that boiling rage, something deep was sensed in the alpha for the very first time by Luna—something else beneath all the rage: fear. Real fear; down to the core."You think you have won?" snorted the alpha, a combination of acute rasping pain suffusing each barbed syllable, but on the underlistening of a contemptuous malice. "You think that epitome of your ancestral folly will help you? You are nothing, Luna. A half-breed child without an ounce of claim to power."Bitter, her chest tightened in offense, her doubts thereby bubbl

Selene's monstrous shape lunged toward Luna, and time stagnated. She could faintly hear the thunderous drumming of her own heartbeat. All her instincts screamed her to dodge, to avoid the deadly strokes for her, and yet her feet felt rooted to the spot. The relic in her trembling hand surged alive, trying its best to warn her against something infinitely more sinister than the dangerous beast threatening her.Alec and Jax yelled her name, but it was distant, as if muffled just beyond the veil by the dauntless howls of dark energy surrounding Selene.A flash of silvery white light erupted from the relic in Luna's hand just before Selene's claws were upon her. With a sound reminiscent of breaking glass, the light expanded and created a pair of barriers between her and Selene. A giant wolf hit the surface of the walls, and she snarled in frustration as her claws scraped against the shimmering wall of energy.Luna staggered back, gasping for breath. The relic hummed to wakefulness at her

The morning dawned quietly. The sun rose over the village, casting a slight shadow, but the normal sounds of life-birds chirping, trees rustling seems muted, as though it somehow sensed even in the early days of disturbing darkness.Sitting on the edge of her bed, Luna stacred dully at the relic resting in her palm. It felt heavier that day-plate armor feeding on her emotions, taken on her fears. Her heart thudded a staccato in her chest, but there were no whispers now. The silence, however, gave her more shudders than it provided comforts-it was the awfully still calm before the storm.The soft rap on the door jolted her out of her reverie."Come in," she called out in a strangely empty tone.And the door creaked open. And in stepped Alec. One beady eye, his searching gaze passed over her face. "You didn't sleep, did you?"Luna shook her head with difficulty under the grip of the disc. "No. Too much Todo weighs on one's mind."Alec's brow nearly crinkled into a frown; he walked over