Chapter 86

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Chapter 86 – The Tomb of Whispers

The valley groaned beneath their feet.

Selene stood at the mouth of the Tomb of Whispers, where the snow didn't fall and the wind never howled—because this place was too old for nature. It was silence made into stone, forgotten by time, and buried beneath betrayal.

Her boots sank into ashen snow. Behind her, Valerian walked like a storm in flesh, his black armor glowing faintly with the runes of his lineage. A dozen of their elite followed—silent shadows cloaked in midnight, each sworn to the crown and her fate.

"This place…" Selene whispered, her breath ghosting in the frozen air. "It knows me."

Valerian's voice was low. "Because it was built for you."

She turned to him, startled. "What?"

He moved forward, brushing his gloved fingers along the icy carvings on the arched stone. Words in a language older than kingdoms spiraled across the entrance—until one set of symbols pulsed faintly in her vision.

Her name.

Not Selene.

Seraphyne.

Her blood name. The one no one was ever supposed to know.

"It's impossible," she murmured. "This name—only the Moon Order ever—"

"Your lineage predates the Moon Order," Valerian said. "The world has always rewritten stories that it fears. They called you omega because they didn't want you to know you were sovereign."

The tomb doors groaned open with a whisper, not pushed by hands, but by her presence alone. Inside, pale blue fire lit a path through the ancient corridor. The air was heavy, as if centuries held their breath, watching.

They moved together, deeper into the heart of the tomb. The walls pulsed faintly with sigils that matched the markings on Selene's skin—the ones she'd been born with, the ones she'd been told to hide. Here, they glowed.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the stone.

> "Blood that remembers. A crown unbroken. Come home, Seraphyne."

Selene froze.

That voice—feminine, weeping, ancient.

She turned a corner, and there, kneeling on a dais of bones, was her mother.

Or… the ghost of her.

Queen Elarya. The omega who vanished before Selene's birth. The one the Order claimed had died to protect her.

But she was here, wrapped in silver chains, her body a shimmer of light and sorrow. Her eyes were the same gray-gold Selene saw in her own mirror.

"Mother…" Selene whispered.

Elarya raised her head. "My child. My curse. My hope."

Valerian stood protectively behind Selene, claws half unsheathed. "This is a trap."

"No," Elarya said. "This is prophecy."

Selene stepped closer. Her heart raced, but it wasn't fear. It was knowing.

"Why are you here?"

"I never died," Elarya whispered. "I was bound to this tomb. A sacrifice to seal the prophecy away. They used my blood to build these walls. To imprison the truth."

Selene's hands trembled. "What truth?"

Elarya looked into her daughter's soul.

> "That the Night King and the Omega Queen were never meant to destroy the world, Selene…

They were meant to rewrite it."

Suddenly the tomb began to shake. The sigils flared to life.

Elarya gasped, her body cracking with light. "They've found us! The Moon Order—they're here!"

Outside, a horn wailed through the mountains. Shadowy figures surged across the ridges—priests in crimson, lycans with silver-tipped spears, and at their center, a tall woman with white braids and a serpent staff.

The Crimson Priestess.

"She's come for the crown," Elarya hissed. "But you must take mine before she reaches it."

A ghostly crown rose from the bones—made not of gold, but of threads of fate. Selene reached for it.

And as her fingers touched the threads—

A roar split the sky.

Valerian turned, eyes blazing. "They've breached the gate."

Selene placed the crown upon her brow.

The moment it settled—

She screamed.

Light poured from her, the ground splitting beneath her feet. The past and future collided in her veins. She saw every queen who came before her. Every betrayal. Every war. Every kiss. Every death.

And one word burned louder than prophecy itself:

"Reign."

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💛 Ready for Chapter 87? Because now the war has reached the tomb—and Selene has awakened not just power, but an identity that could unmake everything.