Bound By Moonlight to My Mates (by Sofange Daye) novel Chapter 100

Aclara

That evening, the city turns violet with twilight. We pack in silence. Caleb’s movements are precise, efficient, like he’s ensuring that with every meticulous fold of fabric, he is earning his place beside me.

Then he turns to me with that annoying, but tempting grin on his face. “You know, most people spend their nights in bars, not crawling through ancient tunnels.”

I scoff playfully. “Most people don’t carry divine curses.”

“Fair.”

He zips the rest of our things in his pack and turns to me. “You really think this temple will tell you where Charlotte is?”

“If I can still reach the temple, yes.”

“And if you can’t?”

Pain flickers across my brow. “Then the world burns.”

Caleb’s face pales for a moment. “Right. No pressure.”

We stand on the edge of the building again looking down at the city that night has swallowed whole. I teeter on the ledge, and the wind tugs at my hair, as if it is asking me to jump. For a single moment, I consider it, but then I glance at the man standing beside me. He looks like he was carved by the Moon Goddess herself, and I know I would never leave him behind. I was a fool for thinking that I ever could.

Keeping my eyes on him, I see his brow furrowed with confusion. “You’re quiet.”

He looks up, plastering a fake smile on his lips. “Just thinking about how weird my life’s gotten.”

A pang of guilt washes over me. “Regrets?”

“Only that I didn’t meet you sooner.”

I laugh, but my exhaustion creeps through. “You did. You just don’t remember.”

“Then maybe I’d like to make new memories.”

I hesitate for a moment, letting my gaze soften as I look at him. For a second, I consider telling him that I want to make new memories with him as well, but I push that urge to the side. There is no time for dreams right now. I turn away so he can’t see the turmoil on my face. “Let’s go.”

He follows me into the darkness, one step behind like always.

But as we climb down into the undercity, I can’t shake the feeling that every step we take pulls him a little further away from me. The bond between us, the warmth that hums whenever he looks at me, feels thinner

somehow. It is stretched too far and might snap at any moment.

My fears begin to rise up, and I am almost positive that he can feel it through the bond that is building between us. I fear that when we finally find Charlotte, I’ll lose him all over again.

The city’s pulse fades the deeper we go. The rumble of trains turns into the groan of shifting stone, the lights thinning to a dull amber glow. The air grows heavy, tinged with the faint sweetness of decay.

Caleb walks ahead, flashlight beam cutting through the dark. It catches on wet pipes, graffiti, and the occasional rat darting across our path. I follow, every step echoing like a heartbeat that doesn’t belong to this

century.

“How much farther?” he asks, voice low.

“It depends on whether she still wants me there,” I say.

“She?”

“The temple isn’t a place,” I murmur. “It’s a memory that learned how to keep breathing.”

He glances back, brow furrowed. “You say that like it’s alive.”

“It is.”

He doesn’t argue. He’s smart and has learned not to.

The tunnel narrows, sloping down until the air hums with energy that prickles against my skin. Old magic, older than the zealots, older than my sisters, older than the Goddess herself. I can taste it in the back of my throat.

When the last step ends, the tunnel opens into a cavern so vast that the city above could crumble and never touch it.

The walls glow faintly, veins of moonstone embedded in the rock. And there, half–buried beneath dust and time, stands what remains of the Moon Goddess’s altar. Once, it would have been blindingly beautiful. Now it’s cracked, vines curl through the stone, and water drips from the ceiling onto a pool that mirrors the faintest shimmer of light.

Caleb exhales softly. “It’s beautiful.”

“It was.”

He turns to me, the faint silver reflection painting his face. “What happened to it?”

“We did,” I whisper. “The Daughters.”

He doesn’t press. He just moves closer, running a hand along the wall. His mortal fingers leave smudges on the dust, marks that shouldn’t exist here, yet somehow feel right. They make this place feel real.

The temple hums under my feet, like it remembers me. And then I feel it, another presence. Cold air travels up my spine like the point of a blade.

“Stay back,” I warn.

Before he can answer, the water ripples. A figure rises from its surface, made of light and shadow, hair floating around her like smoke. Her eyes gleam the same silver as mine.

“Aelara,” she breathes, her voice a melody I haven’t heard in centuries. “Little sister.”

My stomach twists. “Seren.”

Caleb steps beside me, knife ready. “Friend of yours?”

“She was,” I say. “Once.”

Seren smiles, a crack in something long dead. “You finally returned to us. I wondered how long it would take you to remember what you abandoned.”

“I didn’t abandon you.”

“You chose love over eternity,” she hisses. “And for that, we burned.”

Her form flickers, face shifting between beauty and ruin. My chest tightens. I remember the last time I saw her: screaming as the Goddess cast us down, silver wings turned to ash.

“I came to stop the zealots,” I say softly. “They’ve twisted our faith. They’re hunting us.”

“They’re finishing what the Goddess began,” Seren replies. “Do you think mortals should wield divine light? Do you think the Silver Wolf deserves to live while the rest of us rot in half–life?”

“She was innocent.”

“No one’s innocent. Not you. Not the wolf. Not your mortal toy.” Her gaze snaps to Caleb, cold and knowing. “You’ve found him again, haven’t you? The curse always finds a way back.”

Caleb stiffens beside me. “If you’re trying to scare me…‘

99

“You’re already afraid,” she laughs. “You should be. Love is the poison that killed gods.”

I step between them. “Stop. This isn’t why I came.”

Seren’s light dims. “Then why, sister? To ask forgiveness? To drag another mortal into our curse?”

I swallow hard. “To save what’s left of us. To find Charlotte.”

At that name, the cavern trembles. The pool flares with light, silver waves rippling outward. Seren’s face hardens. “The Silver Wolf’s call is fading.”

“I know,” I whisper. “That’s why I need to reach her.”

“Then you must let him go.” She points at Caleb, her voice echoing like thunder. “As long as your heart beats for him, your bond to the wolf weakens. The Goddess designed it that way. Or have you forgotten?”

I shake my head. “No. There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t.”

The words hang heavy in the air.

Caleb takes a step forward, jaw tight. “I’m not leaving her.”

Seren’s gaze slices through him. “You were never meant to stay. You’re an echo of a past that is no longer needed, nothing more.”

“Maybe,” he says. “But I’m real enough to bleed for her.”

That earns the faintest smile from me, and the darkest fury from Seren. The water churns around her, the glow rising until it burns my eyes.

“Love blinds you both,” she whispers. “And it will kill you both. Again and again and again.”

Then she’s gone. The water stills, the light fading into silence.

The temple seems to sigh, exhausted.

I drop to my knees beside the pool, breath shaking. My reflection stares back, half divine, half human, and utterly lost.

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