Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 17

Natalie’s POV

My hands were still shaking, but now I knew why

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At first, I had told myself it was the cold or maybe the thin mountain air, but that excuse didn’t survive the way my fingers refused to steady, the way the tremor kept climbing up into my arms until it settled somewhere deep in my chest.

Fear, yes… anger too.

And something else beneath it all, something I hadn’t let myself name yet, because naming it would make it real.

Clark stood a few feet away, blocking the only path back down the mountain as he watched me carefully.

Like he was waiting for a decision… like he expected me to run.

But I didn’t.

The thought crossed my mind, my body even leaned forward, and instincts screamed at me to move. But I knew it would have been fruitless. I knew the slope down the mountain, and a wolfless girl like me would probably end up caught or dead.

“Jensen wouldn’t order this,” I said again, quieter now. Saying it felt different this time, I was sure about it. “He needs me.”

Clark’s jaw tightened slightly. A clear sign that I was either pissing him off or he was reconsidering it.

I took a step back, my heel slipping on loose gravel. The ground felt unstable beneath me, like the mountain itself was shifting its weight.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking; I clenched them into fists, nails biting into my palms, grounding myself in pain the way I’d been trained to. It barely helped.

“You know what that blade does,” I said. “You know what you’re about to take from me.

Clark didn’t answer.

I swallowed, my throat tight, my pulse loud in my ears.

“Why?” I asked.

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Chapter 17 The Silence

The word slipped out before I could stop it.

Clark stilled.

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For a moment, neither of us moved. The wind tugged at his coat, shifting my attention for a second.

“Why are you doing this?” I pressed, my voice shaking now despite my effort to keep it steady. “Why me?”

His grip on the obsidian blade tightened.

“I didn’t want to,” he said.

The answer came too fast, like he had been waiting to tell.

I frowned, confusion cutting through the fear. “Then don’t; you don’t have to.”

His mouth twitched, something bitter and almost sad crossing his face.

“It’s not that simple.”

“It is.” I snapped, anger flaring just enough to steady me. “You’re choosing this.”

Clark looked away.

That was all the confirmation I needed.

“Who told you to?” I asked.

He exhaled slowly, like the breath hurt.

“My life is on the line,” he admitted quietly. “And so is my sister’s.”

My chest tightened.

“She made it very clear,” he continued, voice low controlled, “that if I didn’t do this tonight, there wouldn’t be a tomorrow for me nor for my sister.”

I stared at him, trying to fix it together.

‘What did I ever do to her to deserve this?‘ I’ve been asking myself this question for as long as I can remember.

“So you destroy me,” I whispered. “To save yourself.”

His jaw clenched.

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Chapter 17 The Silence

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“I’m sorry,” he said again, softer this time. “I swear to you, Natalie, I didn’t want it to come to this.”

The words landed heavily; ‘sorry‘ didn’t change what he was about to do.

“And Jensen?” I asked, my voice barely holding. Does he know?”

Clark didn’t answer.

That silence told me everything.

Instead, he reached into his coat.

My breath caught in my chest.

He pulled out a narrow silver–tipped ritual spike its surface etched with symbols I knew by heart, and a small glass vial filled with a dark, pulsing liquid. Even sealed, it radiated

wrongness.

Wither–root.

My stomach dropped so hard it felt like falling.

Those weren’t tools of discipline; they were execution without blood. The kind meant to erase someone quietly, without leaving marks the Council would bother to investigate.

My fingers twitched toward my pocket before I consciously decided to move.

My phone.

Clark crossed the distance between us in a blink

One second it was in my hand, the next it was gone, crushed in his palm like it was nothing more than fragile glass and plastic. Sparks flared once, brief and violent, before he tossed the remains into the ravine.

I listened.

I listened to it fall, the sound diminishing, echoing, until there was nothing left to follow.

“No,” I whispered.

The word came out wrong, broken at the edges.

My hands started shaking harder. The tremor climbed, unstoppable now, spreading into my shoulders and my neck. I tried to breathe through it, and I tried to ground myself the way I’d been taught–count your breaths, and feel the air around you.

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Chapter 17 The Silence

But the mountain air felt thin and inadequate. Like it wasn’t meant for me anymore.

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“Please don’t blame me,” Clark said quietly. His voice wasn’t cruel. That almost made it worse. “I don’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice,” I snapped.

The panic bled into my voice despite my effort to contain it. “Clark, this violates the Ancient Decrees. You know it does.”

I watched his face closely, searching for denial. Anger. Anything.

He didn’t argue.

That silence hurt more than if he had shouted.

I turned, instinct screaming at me to run, but my foot barely moved before his hand clamped around my arm.

The grip wasn’t meant to bruise; it was meant to remind me of exactly how powerless I was.

And he wasn’t wrong.

“Don’t,” he warned.

My breath stuttered, and my vision narrowed.

I did the unthinkable then.

I begged.

“I’ll leave,” I said, the words tumbling over each other, desperate to escape before I could stop them. “Tonight. I’ll disappear. I won’t go near another Archive stone, I won’t transcribe, and I won’t speak the Old Tongue. Won’t challenge her. Won’t even say her name.”

The list poured out of me, each promise stripping something away.

“Just don’t take this from me.”

My voice cracked.

The tears came before I could stop them, blurring my vision and streaking the dust on my face. My hands shook so badly I had to clutch at his sleeve just to stay upright.

“Please,” I whispered. “You can pretend you did the ritual. You can tell her whatever you

want.

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Chapter 17 The Silence

My chest hitched.

“If you mute my soul,” I said, barely audible, “I’m nothing.”

For the first time, Clark hesitated.

It was brief, but I saw it, and then it was gone.

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“I’m sorry, Miss Natalie,” he said. Formal now. Distant. “You shouldn’t have crossed the Luna”

The word landed like a blade.

Luna.

“She said your gift is no longer needed,” he continued, voice flat and rehearsed. “And if the pack doesn’t need it anymore…

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t have to.

I barely had time to inhale before he moved.

His thumb pressed into the nerve cluster at the base of my skull. Light exploded behind my eyes. The world tilted, spun, and then vanished completely.

Pain dragged me back; my lungs stuttered as if I’d forgotten how to breathe. I sucked in air in broken gasps, my chest burning.

I was on the ground, cheek pressed into cold dirt. The smell of earth filled my nose, but it felt. distant, muted. My body refused to respond when I tried to move. Every limb felt heavy and foreign, like it no longer belonged to me.