Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 351

Chapter 351

XENOIS

The man-the nightwalker-looked like he wanted to argue but couldn’t quite find the words to refute that logic.

>>))

‘My name is Lazarus,” he said instead, drawing himself up with as much dignity as he could manage while trapped in a cage of light. “I am over five hundred years old, a nightwalker of the old blood, and I swear on the darkness itself that I will have my revenge on all of

you for this humiliation.”

“Lazarus,” Riley repeated, his head tilting slightly. “You weren’t at Facility Seven. I’ve never seen you before. Which means you’re from

a different facility. Facility Nine, maybe? Or Twelve?”

I saw Lazarus’s expression flicker-just for a moment, but enough to confirm Riley’s guess was close to accurate.

And you got outsmarted by a five-year-old,” Lake added, grinning.

“That’s going to be really embarrassing when word gets out. Assuming anyone from your facility is still alive to care about your

reputation.

Lazarus lunged at the bars of the cell, his hands passing through briefly before the light intensified again, forcing him back. He

stumbled, clutching his hands to his chest, smoke rising from his skin where the light had burned him.

‘I will not spill my secrets,” Lazarus hissed. “You can torture me all you want, but I’ve endured worse than anything you can imagine.

I’ve survived centuries of-

Lake pulled something from his pocket. A scalpel, small and wickedly sharp and still stained with what looked disturbingly like old

blood. His expression had gone cold and distant, and in that moment he looked nothing like a five-year-old child and everything like

exactly what Andy had trained him to be.

“Want to bet on that?” Lake asked quietly, and the casual way he held the scalpel-like it was an extension of his hand, a tool he’d

used countless times before-sent ice through my veins.

I remembered what Riley had said during their midnight conversation. About Lake sending someone to an active volcano. About being

called a weapon. About things he’d done that haunted him. I remembered Lyn’s fright when he was told would be in the same room with

his torturer, Lake.

And I remembered that these boys had been trained by a woman who saw them as tools, as assets, as weapons to be deployed without

mercy or hesitation.

“Lake, no,” I said firmly, moving forward to position myself between him and the cell. “We’re not doing that. We’re not torturing

anyone, no matter what information they might have.”

“But he knows things,” Lake protested, though his grip on the scalpel had loosened slightly. “About the facilities, about who’s hunting

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18:57 Fri, Jan 30

Chapter 351

us, about-

‘I don’t care,’ I interrupted. “We’re not them. We’re not Andy or Sophia or anyone else who treated people like disposable objects.

We’re better than that.”

“He’s not a person,” Lake argued.

“He’s a nightwalker. He’s five hundred years old and he tried to kidnap us and-”

“He’s still sentient,” Lumina said, joining me in blocking Lake’s path.

“He’s still capable of suffering. And we’re not going to become monsters just because we’re fighting monsters.”

I gently took the scalpel from Lake’s hand, feeling him resist for a moment before reluctantly letting it go. Riley had moved closer to

his brother, his expression unreadable.

“There are other ways to get information,” I said, more gently now.

“We’ll question him. We’ll use truth serums or pack magic or any number of methods that don’t involve torture. But we’re not doing this. Not in our home, not with our children watching, not ever.”

I saw something flicker across both boys’ faces-confusion, maybe, or uncertainty. They’d been raised in an environment where torture was probably commonplace, where “effective” mattered more than “ethical,” where results justified any method. They didn’t understand yet that there were lines we wouldn’t cross, principles we wouldn’t compromise, even when facing existential threats.

But they would learn. We’d teach them. We’d show them that strength didn’t require cruelty, that protection didn’t require becoming

what you feared.

‘Out of the basement,” I said firmly.

“All of you. Now.”

Riley and Lake exchanged another of those loaded glances, then turned and headed for the stairs. Ollie had been watching everything with wide eyes, and I saw him reach out to take Lake’s hand as they climbed, a gesture of comfort and connection that made something in

my chest tighten.

Lumina and I followed, and I made sure to lock the basement door behind us. Lazarus was secure in his light prison, unable to escape or transform, and we could deal with questioning him later when we had proper protocols in place.

When we reached the main floor, I pulled all three boys into the living room-which was still a disaster but at least relatively private, They stood in a row, looking like they were waiting for punishment, and I realized with a pang that they probably expected exactly that,

‘First, I said, keeping my voice level,

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Chapter 351

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“that was incredibly dangerous. Running into a house that you knew contained nightwalkers, setting up a trap without backup or safety measures, deliberately drawing the creature to you-any of those things could have gotten you killed.”

“But they didn’t,” Riley pointed out.

“We knew what we were doing. We’ve dealt with nightwalkers before at the facility. We understood the risks.”

“You’re five years old,” Lumina said, her voice carrying a tremor of fear and fury mixed together. “You shouldn’t have to understand risks like that. You shouldn’t know how to build light prisons or trap ancient nightwalkers or any of this.”

“But we do,” Lake said quietly. “And we can’t un-know it. We can’t pretend we’re just normal kids when we have these abilities and this knowledge and threats actively hunting us.”

He was right, and I hated it. Hated that these children had been robbed of innocence, robbed of childhood, forced to become soldiers

and strategists and survivors before they’d even learned to tie their own shoes properly.

“Second,” I continued, “you need to communicate with us. If you’re planning something-especially something dangerous-we need to

know about it. We’re supposed to protect you, but we can’t do that if you’re running off and setting traps without telling anyone.”

“You would have said no,” Riley observed. “If we’d told you we were planning to capture a nightwalker, you would have forbidden it.”

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18:57 Fri, Jan 30

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart