Chapter Thirteen — When the Moon Divides

Lyra

The hall smelled of smoke and fear.

Kane stood at the head of the table, jaw locked, eyes darker than the storm gathering outside. Maps sprawled across the wood, lines of charcoal tracing patrols, borders, and the river that bled between our lands.

Mara’s voice broke the silence first.

“Nightbane patrols at the southern ridge.” They didn’t hide their tracks this time.”

“They wanted us to see them,” Ryn said, fingers drumming against his blade hilt.

Kane’s gaze swept the room. “Or they wanted to see how close we’d get before we blinked.”

His eyes found me next. I straightened under that weight.

“You felt it too, didn’t you?” he asked.

I hesitated. Lying to Kane never worked. “The air changed. The forest went quiet.”

“That’s not all,” he said softly.

I looked away. “No. It isn’t.”

The words hung heavy. Everyone knew what he meant but no one dared to name it.

Kane’s hand flattened against the map. “We can’t give them ground. Not one inch. But we also can’t go to war on a whisper.”

He paused. “Lyra—you’ll take a patrol south at dawn. Observe only. Bring back proof if you find it.”

“South,” I echoed. The word tasted like fate and ash.

Mara’s eyes widened, but Kane didn’t waver.

“I need your eyes out there,” he said. “You see what others miss.”

He meant him.

He meant Ronan.

I nodded once. “Understood.”

The meeting broke soon after, voices dissolving into murmurs and the scrape of chairs.

Kane lingered until the room emptied, then said quietly, “You don’t have to face this yet.”

“Yes, I do,” I answered. “Running doesn’t save anyone.”

For a heartbeat, something like pride flickered behind his eyes. Then it was gone.

“Be careful,” he said. “He’s not the same wolf you remember.”

“Neither am I.”

________________________________________

Later, outside, the air bit at my skin. The moon hung low and white above the pines.

Mara found me by the training yard, arms crossed, face shadowed.

“So, you’re going,” she said.

“I have to.”

“You don’t have to do it alone.”

“I always have.”

She looked at me for a long moment. “Just don’t mistake strength for isolation, Lyra. They’re not the same thing.”

I tried to smile but it didn’t stick. “Get some rest, Mara.”

When she left, I stayed until the torches burned low, staring south until my chest ached.

The bond pulsed faintly, like it was waiting.

________________________________________

Ronan

Night stretched wide and cold, the kind of silence that eats sound whole.

My wolves waited on the ridge behind me, shadows among shadows.

Daren approached, his breath frosting in the dark. “We’re too close to Ironclaw’s line.”

“I know,” I said.

“Then why are we still here?”

Because her scent was everywhere. Because I couldn’t make myself leave.

“Hold position,” I told him.

“You’re going in alone?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to. Daren’s jaw tightened, but he stepped back.

The forest swallowed me whole.

The snow muffled my steps; the scent of pine and frost clung to my coat. Beneath it all, faint but certain, came her—wild and sharp, no longer the cedar-sweet girl I remembered.

The bond thrummed, pulling at me like a tide.

I closed my eyes.

She was close—closer than she’d been in years.

Don’t, reason hissed. You’ve already taken enough from her.

But reason had never stood a chance against the wolf.

I moved deeper into the trees, every sense wide open. The wind shifted, and with it came a spark through the bond—a flare of strength, determination, and defiance.

She was awake. Preparing.

My throat tightened. “Still fighting,” I whispered.

The wolf inside me bared its teeth in something that wasn’t quite pain and wasn’t quite pride.

________________________________________

Lyra

The camp slept uneasily, the forest holding its breath.

I sat by the fire, sharpening my blade until sparks danced in the dark.

South waited beyond the trees. So did the truth I’d spent half my life running from.

When I sheathed the weapon, the air shifted again—sudden, electric.

The bond surged through me so hard I gasped.

Images flashed behind my eyes: snow, pines, a shadow moving between them.

Not a dream. A warning.

He was close.

I pressed a hand over my chest, trying to steady the rhythm that wasn’t mine.

For the first time, it matched perfectly.

________________________________________

Ronan

The same pulse hit me like lightning.

The bond snapped tight, alive, and merciless.

She was coming south.

Straight toward me.

I stood there in the silver dark, heart pounding, knowing that whatever waited next, neither of us would walk away unchanged.