Chapter 29 – The Curse Beneath the Crown
The sky bled red.
Not with sunset—but with omens.
Selene stood at the edge of the Dead Garden, her gown torn and dusted in ash. Moonlight flickered against her skin like it was trying to warn her, but the deeper she stared into the distance, the more she knew: something was wrong with the night.
Valerian hadn't spoken since the kiss.
He stood beside her now, silent, jaw locked, his mind clearly warring with memories he'd buried for centuries. His power pressed against the air, thick with dread and restraint. Something about him had changed since that kiss, since her words—Then don't let them do it again.
"What are you thinking?" she asked gently, her hand brushing his.
He didn't look at her. "That if I choose you again… I might destroy everything."
"Then let it burn," she whispered. "I already did. Once."
His gaze finally met hers. Those haunting, ancient eyes.
"I can't protect you from what's coming."
"I don't need protection," Selene said, stepping close. "I need the truth."
He hesitated. Then:
"The curse doesn't just bind me, Selene. It's inside you, too."
She froze. "What do you mean?"
"There's a reason you're the only omega left of your kind. A reason the prophecy points to you. Your bloodline isn't just rare. It's forbidden."
Selene's heart thudded in her ears.
"What are you saying, Valerian?"
He closed his eyes. When he opened them, his voice dropped to something inhuman. Ancient.
"I drank your blood once. Centuries ago. Before the curse."
"You—what?"
"In a time that was buried. When you were someone else. I loved you then. I lost you then. And when you died…"
His voice cracked.
"I made a deal. To bring you back."
The ground trembled.
Selene stepped back from him, her skin blazing with memory. She saw flashes—visions not her own.
A blood moon. A crown forged in death. A knife through her heart—held by someone she once trusted.
"You cursed me," she breathed. "You did this to me."
"I tried to save you!" he roared. "But they twisted the spell. They used your death to trap me. And when you came back—when you were reborn—they made sure you would never remember."
Selene's legs gave out. She dropped to her knees in the dirt, the scent of ancient roses rising like ghosts around her.
"You were the one," she whispered, tears streaking down her cheeks. "The shadow in my dreams. The voice that called to me when I was small. I thought it was madness."
"No." Valerian knelt in front of her. "It was me. Always."
And then—she saw it. The ghost of a mark etched beneath his collarbone. A circle of thorns wrapped around a crescent moon.
The same mark she'd seen in her own dreams, carved into a lover's skin.
"You were mine."
They weren't just fated now.
They had always been.
Before kingdoms. Before the Night Court. Before memory itself.
But the truth was a double-edged sword.
If they had defied fate once before—it meant fate had already punished them once before.
And this time?
It would make sure one of them didn't survive.
Far away, in the obsidian spires of the Night King's ancestral palace, the high priestess lit the final candle.
The blood moon rose.
And every vampire who bore the Night King's sigil felt their power shift.
A silent decree had been made.
The King has chosen his mate. The curse will resist. And blood will follow.
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