The Sickened Luna's Last Chance novel Chapter 499

Chapter 499

A thought occurred to me. “Wait. If you’re stuck here, does that mean-

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“I’m not in the sea because I haven’t fully died,” Maria said. “My body is gone, but my spirit is anchored here. Waiting, My fathers have been trying to bring me back for so long that I can’t move forward. I’m just… frozen.”

“That sounds horrible.”

“It’s not so bad.” She smiled slightly. “I get to watch over the souls. Make sure they’re not alone. It’s peaceful, in its own way.”

I turned back to the sea. The souls were still reaching, still screaming. Nothing about this seemed peaceful to me.

Then I felt it.

A pulling sensation in my chest, like someone had hooked a string around my ribs and was tugging. I gasped and pressed my hand to my sternum. The crystal–I could feel it pulsing, but it was faint. Distant.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

Maria’s expression darkened. “The procedure. It’s pulling you toward the sea. Your tether to the physical world is weakening.”

The pulling sensation grew stronger. I took a step back from the edge, but it didn’t help. My feet started sliding forward, dragging me closer to the drop.

“No, no, no.” I dug my heels in, but the stone was smooth. I couldn’t get traction.

Maria grabbed my arm, holding me back. But even she was struggling. The pull was too strong.

“You need to make a choice,” she said. “Now.”

“I don’t have a choice!” I shouted over the wind. “There’s no one willing to-”

And then I looked at Maria. Really looked at her.

She was staring at me with those too–old eyes, her expression calm despite everything. She wasn’t part of the sea, but she wasn’t truly alive either. She was stuck. Frozen. Trapped in this place for who knew how many years.

“No,” I said. I knew what she was thinking. “Absolutely not.”

“Ella-”

“You said you didn’t want to be reborn in my body. Fine. But I’m not going to destroy you either.”

The pulling grew stronger. My feet slipped another inch toward the edge. Below, the souls seemed to sense what was happening. Their screams grew louder, more frenzied. Translucent hands reached for me. A pillar of them began to form, clawing atop one another. They wanted to pull me down.

“Listen to me,” Maria said. She was still holding my arm, but I could see the effort it was taking. “I’ve been here for so long. Watching. Waiting. I’m tired, Ella. I want to rest.”

“Then rest! But not like this!”

“There is no other way for me.” Her voice was steady, far older than her years. “My fathers won’t let me go. As long as they keep trying to bring me back, I’ll be stuck here. But if I’m gone–truly gone–then they’ll have to move on. They’ll have to let me go.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” She smiled, and for the first time since I’d met her, she looked young. Like the teenage girl she should have been. “And besides, you have a son. A family. People who need you. I don’t. Not anymore.”

My feet slipped again. I was only a foot from the edge now. The souls below were reaching up, so close I could almost feel their

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Chapter 499

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cold fingers.

“Please,” I begged. “There has to be another way.”

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