Page 30 of Luna's New Reign

As I hold her, the faint crackle of her power wraps around me, familiar and strange all at once. Her magic is evolving, changing her, and I know we’re not even close to understanding what she’s becoming. Nepheline doesn’t stay long, gathering up the courage to march right back outside and continue working with Victoria.

“Now,” Ilara cuts through the silence. “Tell me what’s really going on. It has nothing to do with the fact that you aren’t picking up new skills.”

A heavy sigh falls from my lips as I finally let myself take a break. Sleep hasn’t been my friend for weeks now. Every time I close my eyes, it’s the same—visions that flicker like broken film reels, pieces of something I can’t make sense of.

Dark. Gloomy. No end in sight.

I keep telling myself therehasto be a light, that it’s there somewhere, just beyond the edges of what I can see. But every time I try to look closer, to grasp at something hopeful, it slips through my fingers like smoke. The frustration digs into me. It’s worse than the sleeplessness. Worse than the tension I’ve been carrying since the Sapphire wolves arrived. And if I’m being honest, it’s not even really about them.

But Ilara—

Ilara snaps her fingers in front of my face, jolting me out of my thoughts. “I need to know what’s going on. Why won’t you train your magic? As a seer, my visions can be painful but as an Oraculum, your visions could kill you. The magic, the power you wield wasn’t meant to be kept inside of you.”

I scowl, turning away from her. “It’s burning me,” I admit. “From the inside out. It’s too much, Ilara.”

I’ve kept it to myself for too long, the way the magic curls under my skin like wildfire, licking at my nerves until I can barely think. My visions have always been sporadic, unpredictable, but now they’reconstant. Nothing that makes sense—just flashes of nonsense that I fail to interpret. And the magic? The magic feels alive, like it’s clawing its way out of me whether I want it to or not.

Ilara crosses her arms, her lips pressing into a thin line. “And yet, you’re still holding on to it.”

“What do you want me to do? Let it go?” I snap, the edge in my voice sharper than I intend. “You keep telling me to ‘relax,’ but you don’t understand. If I let this go, if I lose control—”

“It will be disastrous,” Ilara interrupts. “Yes, I know. You’ve told me that a dozen times.”

“Because it’s true,” I growl, my hands curling into fists. I feel the hum of the magic now, sparking just beneath my skin and I shove it back down before it can spill out. “You want me to relax, but Ican’t. This isn’t like Nepheline’s magic. It’s not just power—it’s visions. Things I can’t stop seeing. And none of it is good, Ilara. Not one damn thing.”

I don’t realize I’ve raised my voice until she takes a step back, her gaze softening slightly.

“What do you see?” she asks, quieter now.

I shake my head, staring at the counter instead of her. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all shadows. Ruin. War. Nothing that can help us prepare but I don’t see a way out of it.”

Ilara sighs, the sound heavy, and steps forward again. “That’s because you’re clinging to the magic like it’s a curse instead of letting it show you what it’s meant to.”

I let out a bitter laugh, dragging a hand through my hair. “Let it show me? You don’t get it. It’s not something I can just… let flow. If I let it go, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t even know whatIam anymore.”

Ilara doesn’t respond right away. She just watches me, her gaze too steady, too unyielding. Finally, she exhales, the sound almost disappointed. “I can’t train you if you won’t trust me or yourself. You’re fighting the magic instead of working with it and it’s eating you alive because of it.”

Ilara leaves me with those words, my stubbornness making all of this worse. Everyone else has a position, aplacewhile I flounder and try to figure out where I fit in. Before all this began, I was just helping Nepheline find her pack. And then I becameher Alpha but that’s all it was supposed to be. Now, I’m an Oraculum with so much magic it’s eating me alive.

I head into the living room, letting my feet guide me, intent on spending the morning on the couch as my thoughts run wild. By the time I push open the door to Asani’s clinic, I’m not even sure how I got here. Through blurry vision, I see Remi sprawled across the lounge in the corner, his legs kicked up over the armrest, a soft hum escaping his lips as he flips lazily through a book. His head pops up the second he hears me stumble, his carefree grin falling away.

“Maverick?”

I don’t answer. I can’t. My knees buckle, and before I hit the floor, strong arms catch me, steadying me. “Asani,” I mumble, my voice slurred, the sound of his name barely recognizable even to me.

“I’ve got you,” he says, laced with something I can’t place—panic, maybe. He lowers me gently, my body sagging against him as blood drips from my nose. I feel it, trickling down my upper lip and over my chin.

“Too… hot,” I whisper, though my body shivers violently. My skin burns while ice creeps through my veins, the clash of sensations leaving me reeling.

Asani’s hand presses against my forehead, his other arm wrapping around me as if he’s trying to hold me together. “Shit. You’re burning up. Remi, grab a cloth—now!”

The sound of Remi scrambling is faint, far away, as my vision flickers in and out. The magic won’t stop. It’s everywhere—under my skin, in my bones, in my damn teeth. I can’t breathe. Can’t think.

I let go.

And then everything goes dark.

I wake up to warmth and the faint feeling of fingers brushing through my hair. “Finally,” a voice breathes out softly—Remi. There’s panic in his tone and I blink slowly, trying to make sense of the room around me. The lights are dim, but it’s enough to make me wince.