The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon (Celine and Bastian) novel Chapter 138

The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon

Chapter 138

i leave the temple in a hurry without looking back. I don’t want to. If I turn around, I risk meeting Larissa’s eyes again, with that unbearable way she has of looking straight through me as if she could read everything even I can’t understand. Who the hell does that witch think she is to talk to me like that?

I walk without a destination. My footsteps echo along the stone path before disappearing beneath the thick bank of togthar, like an endless blanket, never seems to leave this place. The dampness clings to my skin, chills my cheeks, and slowly soaks the ends of my hair while the freezing air fills my lungs with every breath. I can barely make out a few feet ahead of me buy at this point I couldn’t care less. I keep moving forward without any real direction, letting my boots find the path on ther/ own, wishing with all my heart that this is the same fog we crossed that day with Bastian when we went to find his grandfather in search of answers.

A weary smile barely touches my lips before fading almost instantly.

I wish this bank of fog were hiding the portal that would take me back to Greenland… and from there, home.

A tear slips free without the slightest attempt to stop it. It slowly trails down my cheek, warm and lazy, until it disappears. beneath my jaw. I swallow, or at least I try to. My throat has tightened into such a painful knot that even breathing feels uncomfortable, as if every breath had to force its way through the crushing weight of my anguish.

I want to go home.

I want to see Bastian.

I want to look him in the eyes and tell him he’s going to be a father.

The thought alone makes my chest ache with unexpected intensity. I press my lips together, forcing myself to hold back the rest of my tears before they spill over. I can’t afford to fall apart now. Not here.

The swords strapped across my back vibrate at the same time. The movement is barely noticeable, a faint hum traveling through the leather straps until it runs across my back. They remain that way for a few seconds, as if they’re trying to tell me something, as if they share an ancient language completely beyond my understanding. I close my eyes for a moment and rest one hand on one of the hilts.

“At least we’re together in this mess. Even if you’re weak, I know you can hear me.”

“Zack.”

Astra’s voice is barely a whisper inside my mind, weak and distant, as though it were reaching me from somewhere far away.

“Zack.

It’s the only word she manages to say. My chest tightens when I realize Astra misses him too. She needs Bastian’s wolf just as much as I need him.

Without breaking my stride, I reach behind my back and let my fingers brush the hilts of Erebus and Helel, clinging to the only certainty I still have in the middle of so much uncertainty. Both swords remain silent, motionless against my back, but their mere presence is enough to remind me that I’m not completely alone.

“I’ll find a way back, Astra. I promise.”

“Zack.”

One more step, and the temperature changes instantly. It was already cold when I left the forest, but this is different. The air slashes across my face like a blade, and the cold burns my cheeks and the tip of my nose. Even the smell is different. It no longer smells like damp earth and wet leaves. It smells like ice, like freshly fallen snow, like that clean, biting air that only exists in places where winter covers everything.

1/3

18

O

8

O

13:21 Tue, Aug 18 F.

The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon

B

My heart starts pounding, and the certainty I’d lost when I woke up in Montana days ago suddenly comes rushing back. filling my chest with desperate hope. This time I don’t walk. I run My legs move before I can think, carrying me forward with every ounce of strength I have left.

My boots sink into the snow with every step. The cold cuts through the leather and begins to numb my feet while the icy air scrapes my throat with every ragged breath. I feel like I’m going to freeze, but I don’t care. The fog begins to dissolve around me, and beyond it, sunlight pours across the white landscape like a promise.

I don’t dare stop.

I keep running, my heart hammering against my ribs, praying my mind isn’t playing another cruel trick on me, until atlast the final curtain of fog disappears and a trembling sigh escapes my lips.

I’m no longer in Avalon. But this isn’t the road that leads to Grandpa Silas’s castle either.

Where am I?

I spin around. The fog has vanished completely. Behind me, there’s no trace of the path I just crossed. Only ancient trees with massive trunks blanketed in thick layers of snow, enormous jagged boulders, and a silence so absolute it’s broken only by the wind slipping through the bare branches.

I close my eyes for a second and try to calm the frantic pounding of my heart. I draw in a deep breath of icy air that fills my lungs, then slowly lift my head. The sun is still high overhead.

It’s noon.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify