Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 328

Chapter 328

XENOIS

Lake was quiet for a long moment, his jaw working like he was fighting some internal battle about how much to reveal.

Finally, he spoke, his voice flat and clinical in that way he used when discussing traumatic things.

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“Andy kept three nightwalkers on staff,” he said. “They were her scouts. Her spies. She’d send them out to gather information, to

watch targets, to infiltrate places that were supposed to be secure. They’re almost impossible to detect unless you know exactly what to

look for.”

“What do you look for?” I asked, leaning forward.

“Temperature drops,” Lake said. “Not huge ones, but enough to notice if you’re paying attention. The air gets colder when they’re near.

And shadows behave wrong-they move independently, or stay still when they should shift, or appear in places where there shouldn’t be

any shadow at all.”

Lumina’s expression had gone distant, like she was remembering.

“At the store. The shadows did move wrong. I thought I was imagining it, but they were too dark, too solid.”

“That’s them,” Lake confirmed. “In their human form, they can make themselves nearly invisible. Not actually invisible-they’re still

there, still taking up space-but your eyes just… slide off them. Your brain doesn’t register them as a threat, so it ignores them.”

“That’s terrifying,” Ollie breathed.

“How do you fight something you can’t see?”

“You don’t,” Lake said bluntly. “Not unless you can force them into their animal form. That’s when they’re truly dangerous, but it’s

also when they’re vulnerable to certain things.”

“What things?” I demanded, probably too sharply. “Thorne said they’re invincible in animal form.”

“They’re invincible to physical attacks,” Lake clarified. “Bullets, knives, claws, teeth-none of it works when they’re pure shadow. But

magic affects them. Specifically magic that manipulates their element.”

“Shadow magic?” Lumina asked.

“Or light magic,” Lake said. “Anything that can counter darkness. Andy used to keep them in check with spelled lights-enchanted to burn brighter and hotter than natural light. It wouldn’t kill them, but it would hurt them enough to make them obedient.”

I felt a spark of hope. “So if we had access to light magic, we could fight them.”

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Chapter 328

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“Maybe,” Lake said cautiously. “But you’d still need to know where they are. And nightwalkers are smart. They won’t reveal themselves unless they have no choice.”

Riley, who’d been silent throughout this exchange, finally spoke. “They’re here for me.”

Everyone turned to look at him. His expression was still blank, but there was something underneath-not quite fear, not quite resignation. Something darker.

“What makes you think that?” I asked carefully.

“Because Andy used to tell me,” Riley said, his voice eerily flat. “She said I was special. That I was too valuable to lose. That if anything happened to her, if her operation was compromised, there were contingencies in place to retrieve her most important assets.”

The clinical way he referred to himself-as an asset rather than a person-made my chest ache. But I pushed past the emotional response to focus on the practical implications.

“You think Andy had contingency plans to recapture you if something went wrong,” I said.

“I know she did,” Riley corrected.

“She told me. Multiple times. Said that no matter where I went, no matter who tried to protect me, she’d always be able to find me.

That I’d always belong to her.”

The possessiveness in those words, even spoken in Riley’s monotone, made my wolf surge forward with protective rage. No one owned my son. No one had the right to claim him, to hunt him, to treat him like property to be retrieved.

“She’s dead,” I said firmly. “Andy is dead. She can’t hurt you anymore.”

“But her people aren’t,” Lake interjected quietly. “Andy had an extensive network. Loyalists who believed in her cause, who thought

creating enhanced supernatural children was the key to some kind of revolution. Just because she’s gone doesn’t mean her operation died

with her.”

“So someone sent a nightwalker to scout,” Lumina said, piecing it together. “To confirm Riley and Lake are here, to assess our

defenses, to plan an extraction.”

“That would be my guess,” Lake agreed. “Nightwalkers don’t work independently. Someone is controlling this one, giving it orders,

paying it or compelling it somehow. And if they sent one scout, they’ll send more. Or worse.”

“Worse how?” Ollie asked, his voice small and frightened.

Lake hesitated, glancing at Riley like he was seeking permission. Riley gave the tiniest nod.

“Andy had strike teams,” Lake said quietly. “Groups of enhanced individuals trained specifically for retrieval operations. They’d send in the nightwalkers first to gather intelligence, then follow up with the strike teams to extract whatever-or whoever-they wanted.”

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Chapter 328

“How many people in a strike team?” I asked, already doing tactical calculations in my head.

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“Usually five to seven,” Lake said. “All enhanced in different ways. Andy liked to mix abilities-someone with strength, someone with

speed, someone with defensive powers, someone with offensive magic. They’re trained to work together, to counter multiple threat types.”

“And they’re coming here,” I said flatly. “To Silver Creek. To take you and Riley.”

“Probably,” Lake confirmed. “If I were planning this operation, I’d send the nightwalker first, gather information for a week or two,

then move in when the targets’ guard is down.”

“Then we have maybe two weeks,” Lumina said. “Two weeks to figure out how to defend against enemies we can’t see, can’t track, and

barely know how to fight.”

The silence that followed was heavy with implications. Two weeks wasn’t enough time. Not to research nightwalkers, not to establish

proper defenses, not to prepare the pack for an invasion by enemies with supernatural abilities most of them had never encountered.

But it would have to be enough. Because the alternative-losing Riley and Lake to whatever remained of Andy’s organization-was

unacceptable.

“Okay,” I said, forcing authority into my voice even though I felt anything but confident. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Lake, Riley, I

need you to write down everything you know about nightwalkers. Everything. How they move, how they attack, what their limitations are,

what weapons or tactics Andy used to control them. No detail is too small.”

Both boys nodded, though Riley’s expression suggested he was already retreating inward at the thought of documenting his trauma.

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12:56 Thu, Jan 29 M…

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart