All Chapters of MOONBOUND SECRETS : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Zara’s POV The doors slam shut with a finality that vibrates in my teeth. The spire’s walls pulse faster, silver light strobing like a panicked heartbeat. Silas grips my hand, his shadows bristling. Selene stares at the crystal shard in her palm, its glow reflecting in her wide eyes. Ryland steps in front of us, his broken arm hanging limp, but his wolf’s snarl sharp and ready. “Show yourself!” I shout, my voice swallowed by the cavernous room. The murals ripple. Figures peel from the stone—wolves with pelts of starlight, their claws raking at shadows that bleed and scream. The scenes *move*, the battle raging across the walls, closing in. *“You stand in the cradle of creation,”* the voice purrs, echoing from everywhere and nowhere. *“Where I carved the first laws of light and dark. And where your Goddess learned her first lesson in… fragility.”* A shadow detaches from the mural, coalescing into a towering figure with antlers of twisted obsidian and eyes like shattered mirro

Zara’s POV The city rises from the horizon like a mirage, its spires glinting under a sun that feels too gentle, too kind, after the horrors we’ve survived. Selene’s weight in my arms is a fragile reminder of how close we came to losing her. Her silver veins pulse faintly beneath her skin, a map of secrets I can’t decipher. Ryland walks beside me, his broken hand cradled to his chest, his jaw set in that stubborn way that means he’s biting back pain. Silas trails behind, his shadows coiled tight around his small frame, eyes darting like he expects the Architect to claw back from the dirt. *We’re alive*, I tell myself. *That’s enough for now.* But the quiet part of me, the part that remembers the Goddess’s whispers and the Veil’s collapse, knows better. --- The city gates loom ahead, wrought iron twisted into shapes that make my wolf uneasy—serpents with too many eyes, wolves with wings, humans with hollow faces. A guard steps forward, his armor etched with symbols that mirror

Zara’s POV The void isn’t empty. It’s full. Full of whispers that aren’t voices. Full of colors that aren’t light. Full of a pressure that isn’t air. It presses against me, through me, as if I’m the ghost here, not this place. My body feels distant, untethered—a marionette with its strings cut. But my mind… my mind is a storm. You’re awake. The voice is mine, but warped. Cold. I recoil, but there’s nowhere to go. The void stretches endlessly, a canvas of nothing that somehow *watches*. “Where are you?” I demand. Where you left me.The voice drips with mock sweetness. ***In the cracks. In the quiet. In you. Silver threads bloom under my skin, glowing brighter as panic surges. The Architect’s corruption. His final gift. Don’t fight it***, my voice purrs. It’s easier if you don’t fight. “Get out of my head.” ***But we’re having so much fun.*** The void twists. Memories flash—Ryland’s arms around me, Silas’s laugh, Selene’s tiny hands braiding wildflowers into my hair.

Zara’s POV The city screams. Or maybe it’s me. Smoke chokes the air, thick with the stench of burnt ozone and crumbling stone. My ears ring from the explosion, my vision swimming as I stagger to my feet. Ryland’s arm wraps around my waist, hauling me upright before I faceplant into the rubble. “Move!” he barks, shoving Silas and Selene ahead of us. “*Now!*” The Architect’s shadow looms above the city, a living tempest of ink and teeth. It peels back the sky, the Veil’s fragile threads snapping like cobwebs. Buildings dissolve as it passes, reduced to ash and memory. The ground quakes, fissures splitting the streets, and for a heartbeat, I see *through* the world—into the void, into the Architect’s grinning abyss. ***Run, little wolf***, his voice purrs in my skull. ***You’ll die tired.*** “Mom!” Silas grabs my hand, his shadows lashing at the debris raining down. “This way!” We bolt down an alley, the shadow’s roar shaking the earth. Selene stumbles, her light flickering.

Zara’s POV The twins’ power is a wildfire in my veins—beautiful, brutal, *theirs*—but it’s not enough. I can feel the Architect’s poison slithering deeper, a serpent coiling around my spine. My body flickers like a dying star, half here, half *there*, the Veil’s static clawing at the edges of my vision. “Mom, stay with us!” Silas’s voice is sharp, frantic. His shadows fuse with Selene’s light, their combined energy pressing against the hollow in my chest where the shard once lived. “I’m trying,” I rasp, but the words dissolve into static. Ryland’s grip on my hand tightens, his warmth a tether. “Look at me,” he growls, his face gaunt, his eyes blazing gold. “You don’t get to quit.” A laugh ripples through the meadow—not mine, not the Architect’s. *Hers.* The spectral army crests the horizon, a legion of distortions wearing our faces. There’s a Ryland with hollow eyes and jagged claws, a Silas whose shadows writhe with serpents, a Selene whose light bleeds black. And leading th