When The Moon Hides Her Crown novel Chapter 172

Chapter 172 The Cury of Allence

SERAPHINA

It didn’t take long for me to discover what kind of curse had been set upon

1. me.

It was silence.

Not the kind of silence that soothes, but the suffocating stillness that has shadowed me my entire life. My curse wrapped itself around me, pulling me back into that heavy, airless void. Images rose unbidden, me standing alone and motionless beside my mother’s grave, frozen in grief that no one else would bear with me.

I ran. Harder, faster, desperate. Each Alpha I passed, I pressed into the bond, but the curse only deepened, thickening like fog as it mirrored the very silence that had defined my existence. The silence of my father’s averted gaze. The silence of countless empty meals. The silence of rejection, over and over again.

“You are my pack member,” an Alpha blurted, his voice trembling with panic as his own curse clawed at him.

His words snapped me free from the vision. Another Alpha rushed toward me. I parted my lips, forcing the words out, anchoring myself in the bond.

“You are…my pack member.”

The connection sparked to life between us, and we broke apart, running past each other without pause. But the curse was relentless, sliding after me like a shadow, pressing, reminding, suffocating.

“I can’t even keep count anymore,” Phina snapped, her voice sharp with frustration. “These hallucinations are messing everything up.”

I gritted my teeth, sharing her anger. Alpha Gideon told us to complete the task, yes, but he had also promised we would find a White Feather Door. So far, all I had found was endless fog, endless running, and endless silence. Time blurred, I had no idea how long I had been here.

Still, those brutal ten days of training weren’t for nothing. There was no food. No water. No rest. My body had been conditioned to endure. Stopping wasn’t an option anyway. The curse only grew worse if I faltered, even for a second.

Yet a new realization crept in. Not once had I crossed paths with the same Alpha twice. Each one was new. Still, how many had I already met? How many

Chapter 172 The Curse Of Silence

bonds had I formed? The curse gnawed at my thoughts, twisting them, feeding the cracks in the walls I had built around my memories.

My fists clenched as the images bled back in. Memories I had sworn never to revisit.

Until, movement in the distance. Two Alphas broke apart after their bond recognition. One of them turned toward me.

Asher.

My heartbeat stumbled, racing wildly at the sight of him, dredging up doubts I had tried to bury. The problem was my legs didn’t falter. Like me, he kept running, determination steady in his eyes. Phina stirred restlessly inside me as his wolf surfaced in his gaze.

He stretched out his hand. Without hesitation, I reached for it. Our palms met, bloodline marks pressing together. The contact sent a strange jolt rushing through me, stirring something unfamiliar in my chest.

The bond surged alive. Our eyes locked.

“You are…my protector,” I whispered, breathless. I was even surprised to know the bond between us. My protector?

His lips curved into a faint smile as he answered, voice low and steady.

“You are my crush.”

My breath hitched. His crush?

The word struck me harder than the curse ever could. That meant…my suspicion was true. He knew…I was a woman.

Terror shot through me, colder than the snow beneath my feet. How long had he known? Since when?

And why hadn’t he said anything?

We held each other’s gaze for a heartbeat longer before instinct forced us apart, tearing us back into the run. Though my mind unraveled with every step.

He knew.

Chapter 122 The Curse Of Silenc

And Finn–Finn knew too.

My throat tightened, fear closing around it like a noose. Both of them…had feelings for me?

The revelation sent ice racing through my veins. More terrifying than the curse, more devastating than the hallucinations, was the truth that my secret was slipping. Their sudden changes in behavior flashed through my mind, subtle shifts I had ignored. Their teasing. Their flirtation. The meaningful looks, heavier since we returned from Sinspire.

My heart stuttered. Did they realize in Sinspire? Or had they already suspected, and that place only confirmed it?

My hand trembled at my side. The curse whispered behind me, but its weight was nothing compared to the horror clawing at my chest now.

How many more knew?

What would happen if someone exposed me, if the Academy discovered the truth?

Just as that fear gripped my chest, the curse smothered me with another wave of silence, one I knew too well.

The silence of the Elders. Of my so–called well–wishers. All of them stood before my father, saying nothing, doing nothing, when he dismissed me not as his heir, but as the mistake of being born a daughter instead of the son he desired.

The silence that strangled me every single day.

The silence when I watched him clap my cousin on the back for some meaningless little victory, while I stood in the shadows with an achievement that eclipsed it a hundred times over…an achievement that carried no value in his eyes.

The silence of being born a woman.

A raw gasp tore from my throat. The memories shattered, but not before leaving my eyes damp and my body trembling violently.

The curse knew. It knew it all. And it was smiling. I could feel it, lips curling in satisfaction, mocking me in its soundless way.

Chapter 172 The Curse of Blen

My hands balled into fists. My glare cut through the mist.

‘If you want me to face you, then show yourself. Look me in the eye.

If you want my death, you’ll have to earn it. You’ll have to see why I’ll fight you until the end, why I’ll tear you apart for playing with my silence.

I forced myself forward, but soon, something shifted. The forest thinned. The air turned sharp, foreign. The trees fell away until i found myself in a wide, eerie clearing where white stretched endlessly in every direction. Mist rolled thick, swallowing everything.

Only then did I notice it, the ground beneath me felt wrong.

Confused, I glanced down. The snow I had been pounding across was gone. Beneath my feet was a hard, pale surface laced with jagged veins.

A chill slid down my spine.

The cracks spread wider under my weight. My stomach dropped.

This wasn’t solid ground.

This was ice. Ice frozen over a river.

Panic surged within me. Each step, each desperate run widened the fractures. The surface ahead was thin, weak, straining to hold me. Disaster loomed. I couldn’t stop, stopping meant the curse would devour me instantly. But running forward meant the ice would break and pull me under.

Behind me, I could feel its smile stretching wider. A smile made of silence.

My fists tightened, my chest pounding so hard it thundered in my ears.

The ice was about to give.

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