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Chapter eighteen - The Crimson Truth
publish date:
2026-02-03 05:57:45
Latest chapter
The Luna's Deception Chapter 100: The New Morning
Shouting from the courtyard broke through my sleep before sunrise fully touched the room.I sat up fast, reaching instinctively for the ice blade that was not there, heart hammering until I recognized the voice outside as one of Alexei's warriors, not an attacker. Beside me, Kieran was already awake, alert but calm, watching the door instead of scrambling for a weapon the way he would have only days earlier."It is nothing," he said quietly. "One of the warriors caught someone snooping near the eastern gate again. Alexei is handling it.""Are you certain?""I would know if it were something worse." He said it simply, no urgency in his voice at all, and settled back against the pillows, watching me instead of the door.I studied him for a moment, still half expecting the tension that used to live behind his eyes whenever noise broke his sleep, the readiness for violence that the curse had kept coiled in him for longer than I had known him. It was not there. He looked tired in the ord
The Luna's Deception Chapter 99: Clear Eyes
Alexei crouched over the dead attacker before anyone else moved."Sera. Kieran. Come see this."I pulled back from Kieran reluctantly, the warmth of the moment interrupted but not gone, and crossed the clearing to where Alexei knelt beside the fallen cloaked figure, cloth pulled back from the man's face. He was young, younger than I expected, and around his neck hung a chain with a small crest pressed into dull metal, the same design etched into the ring pulled from the woman at the feast."Same mark," Alexei said grimly. "Whoever is running this, they are not sending strangers anymore. They are sending people bound to something specific enough to wear it openly.""Do you recognize the crest," I asked."No. But someone in the village will."Kieran studied it a moment longer, jaw tight, before shaking his head slowly. "Not now. Whoever is behind this will still be there tomorrow. Tonight, the curse is gone."Alexei glanced between us, something almost gentle crossing his usually guard
The Luna's Deception Chapter 98: The Eclipse Ritual
The attacker came out of the treeline the instant the last light vanished.Alexei caught the motion first, shouting a warning as three cloaked figures broke from the trees, blades drawn, moving fast toward the ritual circle before any warrior could fully react. He dropped the first with an arrow before the man closed half the distance, then slung the bow and drew his blade as the remaining two came in too close for another shot, steel meeting steel while his warriors scrambled to hold the perimeter."Do not step out of the circle," I said, gripping Kieran's arm hard enough to still him. "If you leave now, everything we did in those caves means nothing.""They are trying to stop this.""Then Alexei stops them. We finished what we came here to do."He held my gaze a moment longer, jaw tight, before nodding once and turning back toward me, trusting the fight outside the circle to a man who had already proven himself at the vault and the feast hall both. Behind him, steel rang against s
The Luna's Deception Chapter 97: The Final Release
The passage did not open on its own.The moment I stepped forward, certain the sealed stone would give way the same way the cellar door had, an arrow struck the wall beside my head instead, close enough that splinters of rock cut across my cheek."Down!" Alexei's shout came half a second before he tackled the nearest warrior aside, another arrow burying itself where the man had been standing.Kieran pulled me flat against the cavern wall, blade already drawn, eyes scanning the dark ledges above us. "Someone followed us into the caves.""Or someone was already here," I said, breath tight. "Waiting for the passage to open."A figure dropped from the ledge above, cloaked, face hidden, blade catching torchlight as it lunged toward the sack of Moon Salt still strapped to Alexei's back. Alexei twisted fast, catching the blade on his own, steel ringing loud enough to echo through the chamber, the bow he kept slung across his shoulders forgotten for now, too close a fight for anything but st
The Luna's Deception Chapter 96: The Answer
The cavern floor trembled the moment I opened my mouth to answer."A promise," I said, steady despite the tremor beneath my boots. "Heavier than any mountain because it can crush you the moment you break it. Lighter than a breath because it costs nothing to speak."The bear went still, silver eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made the air itself feel thinner.You answer correctly.The massive creature stepped aside without another word, revealing a passage behind it that had not existed a moment before, walls lined floor to ceiling with veins of white salt glowing faint silver in the dark."Move quickly," Kieran said, already pulling sacks from his pack. "Whatever tampered with our ropes will not wait for us to linger down here."Alexei knelt beside the nearest vein, working salt free with careful hands while two warriors guarded the passage behind us. I joined Kieran at the far wall, prying loose chunks that hummed faintly against my palm, the same ancient current I had felt s
The Luna's Deception Chapter 95: The Deep Caves
The rope snapped without warning.One second Alexei's warrior was descending steadily beside us, torch strapped to his back, and the next the rope gave way with a crack loud enough to echo through the entire shaft. He fell only a short distance before catching a ledge, but the sound alone brought every torch in our group swinging toward the darkness below."Everyone stop." Kieran's voice cut through the chamber, sharp with command. "Check your lines. All of them."I gripped the rope in my own hands, testing it, and felt my stomach twist when I found a clean cut near the fraying edge, not a natural wear but a deliberate slice partway through the fiber."This was not an accident," I said, showing Kieran the cut end.His jaw tightened. "Someone tampered with the ropes before we left the surface.""Or someone among us is still working against us," Alexei said quietly, low enough that only Kieran and I could hear him over the warrior below calling up that he was unhurt.I said nothing, th
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