I leaned in, my voice dropping to silk.

“I will bear his child.”

Her breath hitched.

“And when I do,” I whispered, “this pack, the palace and this kingdom will see who the true Luna is. You won’t just lose your title, you’ll lose your place here and in history, you’ll be erased.”

I stepped back and turned slightly, letting my robe catch the wind.

“Enjoy your twilight days Madelyn,” I called, over my shoulder. “You won’t be here for long.”

Then I walked away, slow and triumphant, the echo of my footsteps trailing behind me like the warning of a storm.

~

Madelyn's POV

I didn’t scream, didn't shout back, I just turned and walked away.

One foot in front of the other, because if I stopped, if I even breathed, I would break.

By the time I reached my room, the tears were already slipping down, silently and burning.

I closed the door, locked it and pressed my back to the cold wood. Then I collapsed onto the floor, my knees bruising against the stone, my fingers clawing at the silks around my waist like I could rip the emptiness out of myself.

She knew, Angela knew the one thing I never spoke of. The one failure I never voice out, not even to the Moon Goddess when I pray.

Five years.

Five good years I was with Jace. Five years as a Luna bleeding each moon, alone in the bath and staring at water that never turned red with life.

I told myself it was stress, that the war wore on him, that there would be time that love would be enough. But now? Now it's ammunition, and she fired it straight to me.

~

I lay there for hours curled against the cold stone like a dying thing. No mother to comfort me, she passed two years into my marriage, right after the winter eclipse. No father nor siblings, just me and a bond that frayed more each day.

I used to go to Jace when the pain grew too loud. He would pull me into his arms and hush me with his heart, the way only he could.

But now… He has someone else's to run to.

I wept until my throat ached, until my chest rattled and my lips cracked. Until there was nothing left in me but silence.

~

Morning came, I didn’t rise because I couldn’t.

My body felt heavy, my head burned and my stomach churned like bile lived in my bones.

The servants knocked but I didn’t answer.

When Evelyn came, one of the servants. I think I muttered something, she must’ve gone for the healer or for Jace because the next thing I remember is his voice.

Soft, familiar and wounded.

“Madelyn?”

I blinked.

Jace was at my bedside, his brows drawn, one hand hovering near my arm but not quite touching.

“Goddess,” he whispered. “You’re burning up.”

I looked at him, not quite seeing.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I rasped.

“I had to be,” he said.

His hand touched mine, carefully, like I might break. I already had.

“I heard you didn’t leave your room,” he said, his voice tight. “You couldn't stand. Evelyn said you weren’t waking up properly.”

“You shouldn’t worry,” I whispered.

He looked at me, really looked and I saw it in his eyes. Fear, guilt and regret. All of it swirling beneath the surface like a tide he couldn’t hold back.

“I always worry,” he said, quietly.

And that's the worst part because I know it's true, but it meant nothing now.

~

He stayed for a while, ordered for soup I couldn’t stomach. Laid a cool cloth on my forehead like he used to when I caught a fever during the flood season. He even tucked the covers around me, his hand lingering at my shoulder.

“Rest,” he said, just before he left. “Please.”

I wanted to ask him to stay, wanted to beg but I just closed my eyes and let him go.

~

Later that day, I heard the whispers that Angela has fallen sick too. Not badly, just a sudden wave of dizziness, possibly... a sign.

I closed my eyes again and turned my face to the wall.

I will let her play her games, let her pretend but deep down, under the hurt and under the sickness, something colder stirred.

This isn’t over, not yet.

~

I was awake when she came but still too weak to rise, still burning from the inside out, but the door creaked open and her scent came in first, honeysuckle and venom.

Angela.

She didn’t knock, of course she wouldn’t.

The sound of her silk heels clicked softly across the stone floor as she crossed the room, slow and graceful, like a serpent admiring a wounded deer.

I didn’t move, I wouldn’t give her that satisfaction.

“Oh, the ex Luna,” she cooed, voice dipped in false concern. “You look so pale you poor thing.”

I turned my face away, saying nothing.

She came to a stop beside the bed, her figure shadow above me.

“I heard Jace was here,” she said with a smile in her voice. “So sweet of him to check up on you. He have always had such a kind heart, haven’t he?”

I stared at the wall, silent.

Angela leaned in slightly, voice lower now, so private and poisonous.

“But we both know this sudden little sickness of yours isn’t just about a fever, is it?”

My heart thudded.

“You thought tugging his heartstrings might pull him back to your bed,” she whispered, her smile sharpening. “Maybe he’d remember how things used to be and forget that I’m the one the Goddess has chosen.”

I clenched my jaw.

She laughed lightly, like it was all a joke, like my pain was a game she's winning.

“But it won’t work,” she continued. “Nothing you do will bring him back to you, not even your tears, or this, shaking like a fragile little leaf in this bed.”

She circled slowly toward the window, trailing her fingers along the curtain edge. “And if you’re thinking you’ll somehow slip back into the council, or the pack’s good graces” she turned back to me, her smile gone, eyes like molten gold. “you won’t.”

I sat up slightly, breath ragged. “You’re afraid.” I said.

Angela stilled.

I met her eyes, my voice hoarse but steady. “That’s why you’re here, because even now that I am broken and sick, you still think I’m a threat to you.”

Angela tilted her head and then, she laughed loud and cruel. Like the sound of a blade dancing over bone.

“You?” she spat. “You’re not a threat but a ghost, a relic and a pretty little placeholder who couldn't even bear a child after five years of playing house with her Alpha.”

The words slammed into me like ice through my ibcage.