Chapter 41: The Bond Beyond Blood
(Continuing from Chapter 40 — Valerian has fallen by Selene's hand to awaken the Beast. But fate has more than one thread, and prophecy only tells half the story.)
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The scream tore through every realm.
The heavens recoiled.
The shadows froze.
Even the Beast, risen from the gate in a torrent of dark limbs and glowing eyes, paused at the sound of Selene's cry.
It wasn't fear.
It was power.
Selene crumbled beside Valerian's body, her chest heaving as blood from their twin wounds soaked the altar stone. Her hand still gripped the dagger—the cursed blade that should have destroyed the Night King completely.
But his heart… still beat.
Faintly.
Weakly.
Yet unmistakably.
And the bond between them pulsed with more than pain. It trembled with something else.
Resistance.
The Beast rose, towering above the ruins of prophecy. It had no true form—only jagged mouths and spines of shadow, eyes like falling stars, claws that reached through dimensions.
Selene met its gaze.
"You want me," she said, voice hoarse. "Take me."
The Beast roared, a sound that shattered the last of the stone temple.
Cassian, hidden behind a broken column, shouted her name—but it was drowned out by the fury of fate unraveling.
The sky split open.
Lightning bled gold.
And the bond flared.
Selene felt it—
A thread of silver in her chest pulling back toward Valerian.
His blood called hers.
His soul clung to hers.
Even now.
Even after betrayal.
> "You were never meant to kill him," came a voice behind her.
"You were meant to awaken him."
She turned.
The First was there again, no longer wrapped in shadow.
He was human now. Pale hair. Eyes the color of storms stilled too long.
Selene glared at him. "You lied."
He nodded. "As all gods do."
"You said he would die."
The First stepped forward. "He did. The mortal part. The man."
Selene shook, arms around Valerian's body. "He's still breathing."
The First smiled.
"Because you didn't end him, Selene. You completed him."
He raised his hand.
And Valerian's body rose into the air.
The blood on the altar shimmered, spiraling in patterns too ancient for words.
And then, he opened his eyes.
Not red.
Not gold.
But white.
Moonlight burned in his veins.
His fangs were longer now, carved of silver.
His aura—divine.
Selene gasped.
Valerian floated there, his chest bare, the wound gone, his crown no longer of darkness but of starfire.
He looked down at her, and when he spoke, his voice carried across realms.
"I remember now. Who I was before the curse. Before the crown."
She stood, legs trembling. "Valerian?"
"I was born to be the gatekeeper," he whispered. "The Night King was never the destroyer. He was meant to hold the Beast back."
Selene's heart thudded.
"You weren't the key," he said gently. "You were the lock."
Behind them, the Beast howled.
It lunged.
Valerian raised his hand—and the world bent.
But it wasn't enough.
The Beast swirled, breaking through every defense, growing larger with every lie ever told, every drop of blood spilled for prophecy's sake.
Selene stepped beside him.
She took his hand.
And she howled back.
Not like a wolf.
Like a queen.
Like the moon.
And the light that burst from them both was enough to silence even the gods.
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When the storm cleared, the altar was ash.
The gate had sealed.
The Beast was gone.
And Selene lay in Valerian's arms, breathless, body torn but soul intact.
"Did we win?" she whispered.
He kissed her brow.
"No," he said softly. "We ended the war before it began."
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Far away, in the shattered remnants of a ruined realm, a woman cloaked in raven feathers stood atop a tower and smiled.
"So the Moonblood lives," she purred. "And the Night King remembers."
She turned to her shadow-born son, whose eyes were ink and ice.
"Let's see how long they survive what comes next."
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To be continued in Chapter 42…