Chapter Nine: The Rise of the Starblood
ARIA
The trees pulsed with energy.
Not just magic.
War.
Valra stepped from the shadows like a wound cut into the world. Her blade glinted silver in the moonlight, humming with something ancient and wrong. Her cloak was windless. Her eyes were twin voids.
"Step aside, Lucian," she said.
He didn't move.
He was already shifting.
Not all the way—but enough. Bones cracked. Skin shimmered. Claws broke through his fingers. His canines lengthened.
"You'll have to kill me first."
"Gladly."
She lunged.
And the forest exploded.
---
LUCIAN
I met her steel with claw and blood.
Valra moved like shadow—fast, precise, no wasted motion. She wasn't just a Council enforcer—she was the blade of the gods. Her sword screamed as it struck my shoulder, slicing through skin, just missing bone.
I retaliated, catching her side with a swipe of my claws.
She staggered—but smiled.
"You're still weak for her."
"I'm strong because of her."
We clashed again.
Metal on magic.
Pain on purpose.
I could feel the Moonwell behind me—throbbing in time with Aria's pulse. Her power was rising. The Soulforge wasn't done.
Valra knew it too.
That's why she was here.
To stop it before Aria fully awakened.
---
ARIA
Lucian was bleeding.
The air burned with rage and power.
I couldn't breathe.
I should have been afraid.
But I wasn't.
I was furious.
Everything inside me ignited—like starlight set to fire. My veins pulsed with memory. My bones ached with a thousand forgotten promises.
And suddenly—I wasn't watching anymore.
I was becoming.
Light burst from my skin. My eyes stung. My feet lifted from the earth.
The Moonwell rose beneath me, surrounding me in a cocoon of silver.
I remembered.
The girl I once was.
The warrior I became.
The queen I could be.
The one who died not as a victim—but as a sacrifice.
I reached out—
And Valra screamed.
---
LUCIAN
Her scream shook the trees.
I turned—and what I saw dropped me to my knees.
Aria hovered above the Moonwell like a goddess reborn. Her hair lifted on unseen wind. Her skin glowed like silver flame. And behind her—
Wings.
Not feather. Not bone.
Light.
She raised a hand.
Valra's sword shattered in mid-air.
The enforcer dropped to her knees, clutching her chest. Her face twisted in terror.
"You shouldn't remember," she gasped.
Aria landed softly, her bare feet touching earth.
"But I do."
She stepped closer, every inch of her radiating divinity and wrath.
"And if you ever come for me again—"
She leaned in.
"I'll burn your name from every thread of the veil."
Valra vanished in a flash of black smoke.
Gone.
Defeated.
But not destroyed.
---
ARIA
The power faded slowly.
Too slowly.
It didn't hurt.
Not yet.
But I felt the cost rising.
My heartbeat slowing.
My mind slipping.
Lucian caught me before I collapsed.
"You awakened the forge too fast," he said. "You weren't ready."
Tears welled in my eyes. "I had to. She was going to kill you."
He held me close, his heart beating against mine like thunder. "Then let me carry it now."
I clung to him.
"I don't want to forget again," I whispered.
"You won't."
"Even if the curse—"
"I'll fight it. I'll tear the gods apart before I let them take you."
I believed him.
Even as darkness licked at the edge of my vision.
---
THE COUNCIL — ELSEWHERE
Six shadows stood in a circle.
One was missing.
Valra.
"She failed," one said.
"The Starblood has awakened."
"And the Soulforge was completed."
"Too soon."
"Too fast."
Another shadow stepped forward.
"The girl's soul won't hold."
"She'll fracture."
"And when she does…"
"Lucian will break with her."
Silence.
Then—
"Let them fall."
"And when they shatter—"
"We will rebuild the veil in our image."
---
ARIA
I woke up three days later.
Lucian was at my side, asleep in the chair beside my bed, a faint scar across his shoulder where Valra had cut him.
He looked peaceful.
For once.
I reached for him.
His eyes snapped open the moment I touched him.
"Hey," I whispered.
He grabbed my hand, bringing it to his lips. "You came back."
"Where would I go?"
He exhaled shakily. "The Council won't stop."
"Let them come."
I sat up slowly, fire licking under my skin.
"I'm not just remembering anymore, Lucian."
I turned to the window where the stars pulsed brighter than before.
"I'm changing."
---
I couldn't sleep.
Not after what I did.
Not after what I became.
The light was still inside me. Dim now, contained—but pulsing like a heartbeat that wasn't mine alone. My skin hummed with it. My blood carried pieces of something older than I could name.
Lucian hadn't left my side.
He didn't speak much. Just watched me—quietly, intently—as if waiting for something to break. Me, maybe.
But I wasn't breaking.
I was becoming.
Even if I didn't understand all of it yet.
Even if it terrified me.
---
We sat under the stars that night, wrapped in blankets on the roof of the cabin he'd brought me to. His world. His woods.
But now, they felt like ours.
He handed me a mug of something warm. His fingers brushed mine.
Electricity surged between us—gentler than fire, but just as dangerous.
"You've changed," he said finally.
"So have you."
He glanced at me. "I've been waiting six hundred years for this version of you."
"I think I'm still figuring out who she is."
"She's stronger than I remembered."
I sipped slowly. "What if the Council's right? What if my soul can't hold it?"
His jaw tensed. "Then I'll share the weight. Or I'll steal it. I don't care what it takes, Selene—"
I flinched.
Aria. Not Selene.
And yet… both were true now.
He noticed. "Sorry."
"No," I said, softly. "It's okay. I think… I'm both."
His eyes softened. "I never stopped loving either."
The silence between us crackled with something deeper than just magic.
Desire.
Pain.
Recognition.
I leaned into him, and he didn't hesitate.
His arm wrapped around me. Protective. Devoted. Possessive.
And for a moment, I forgot about the fire and blood and curses.
For a moment, we were just two souls finding each other again in a world that wanted us lost.
---
LUCIAN
I wanted to kiss her.
But I didn't.
Because I could feel how close the curse still clung to her ribs, like barbed wire waiting for the perfect moment to tighten.
We were buying time—but not much.
Her awakening had disrupted everything.
The old magic had flared through the grove and beyond.
The Council wasn't just watching now.
They were moving.
Plotting.
And if Aria's power wasn't anchored—if her soul fractured again—we wouldn't survive the second storm.
But I couldn't tell her that.
Not tonight.
Tonight, she needed peace.
Even if it was borrowed.
Even if it came from lying in my arms beneath a sky that no longer felt safe.
---
ARIA
I dreamt again.
But it wasn't a memory.
It was a warning.
I stood on a battlefield made of starlight and ash.
My sword was cracked.
Lucian lay bleeding beneath me.
The Council surrounded us.
And the sky split open—revealing not gods, but something worse.
I screamed his name, but it echoed without sound.
The light inside me dimmed.
The stars died.
And then—
A voice.
Low. Cold. Not human.
"You cannot save what was never meant to survive."
I woke with a gasp, the air cold in my lungs.
Lucian stirred instantly, grabbing my hand. "What is it?"
I looked at him, my throat tight.
"We're not fighting the Council alone anymore."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"There's something else," I whispered. "Something older."
His eyes darkened. "The Ancients."
"The ones who made the curse?"
He nodded slowly.
"They were supposed to be gone."
"Maybe they're waking up too."
---
THE COUNCIL — ELSEWHERE
Valra knelt in the center of a glowing circle.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes burned with hatred—and fear.
"She's remembering too fast," she said through gritted teeth.
"She's not just remembering," the eldest replied. "She's evolving."
"The Starblood wasn't meant to return in full."
"It never was about return," another hissed. "It was about resurrection."
The fire twisted.
"They broke the law. The pact. The balance."
Valra rose to her feet, unsteady but determined.
"Then give me the command."
The fire flickered—then roared.
"Kill the wolf."
"And bind the girl."
---
ARIA
The next morning, the forest was too quiet.
Lucian noticed it first. The birds. The wind. Gone.
Just silence.
And tension.
He turned to me, eyes glowing. "We're not safe here anymore."
I nodded, already grabbing my jacket.
"We need to find the Soulbinder," he said.
"Who?"
"The only one who can root your soul to this timeline. Without them, your power wi
ll kill you."
"Sounds comforting."
But I followed him anyway.
Because deep down, I already knew the truth:
The Council was done watching.
They were coming to end us.
And if we didn't move first…
They'd succeed.