Chapter 92

Chapter 92 – Between the Living and the Light

It had been three nights since the battle ended. Three nights since Selene rewrote the fabric of fate, giving herself to the very thing that once cursed them.

Valerian hadn't spoken to anyone since.

Not Lucien. Not the healers who came to check the wound that wouldn't heal—not on his body, but in his soul. He barely fed. He barely moved.

The world could celebrate peace.

But the Night King mourned in silence.

He wandered the northern cliffs at dusk, wind thrashing his long coat, the sea raging below like a creature that had also lost something precious. In his hand, he still held Selene's ring. It glowed faintly—never dimming, never warming.

> "Why did you leave me?" he whispered.

But the wind didn't answer.

Neither did the stars.

He fell to his knees at the edge, shadows curling around him, drawn by the echo of his power. His grief was ancient. Titan-sized. Not loud—but deep. It stirred the stones. It stirred the veil.

And something stirred… back.

Behind him, the air shimmered.

He turned.

A figure stood at the edge of the veil. She wore white—no, starlight. Hair the color of moonbeams. Eyes like soft eclipse. She wasn't solid. She wasn't spirit. She was memory, echo, promise.

Selene.

But this time, it wasn't just an illusion.

This was her.

> "You've broken something, haven't you?" he whispered, voice trembling.

She smiled faintly. "Not broken. Bent. I asked them to let me come back. Just for a moment."

Valerian rose slowly. "You're not real."

"I am," she said. "But only until sunrise."

He stepped forward. "Then I'll stop the sun."

"No." Her voice was gentle, but firm. "You have to live now. Without me."

"I don't know how."

Selene touched his chest. "You do. Because I'm still here. In every breath you take."

His hands wrapped around hers. "I should've stopped you."

"You would have doomed the world," she said. "And yourself."

"I would've kept you."

"But you would have lost you," she said. "And I love you more than anything else."

Valerian pulled her close. She felt like warmth, like home, like always. He didn't know how she smelled like lilac and thunder still. Or how she looked exactly as she did when she first told him she hated vampires.

They kissed like it was the last kiss. Because it was.

Not fire, not frenzy. But depth. Knowing. Eternity compressed into one breath.

When she pulled away, she held his gaze with fierce tenderness. "I have one gift left."

"What?" he asked.

Selene pressed a hand to his heart. "You will never forget me. Not even in the next life. Not in any life."

She stepped back.

He reached for her—

—and she vanished with the first sliver of dawn.

Gone.

Again.

But this time, not shattered.

This time, whole.

Valerian sank to the ground. His chest rose with a single, steady breath. He opened his hand.

The ring no longer glowed.

Because she no longer needed to linger.

Because he had found her again.

And he would again.

In the next lifetime.

In every one after.

Because love like this never ends.

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Ready for Chapter 93, guys? Let's keep going until the final star fades.