Triple Moon Rising: An Omega's Destiny

Chapter 162: The First Emotion

LILY POV

The scream that tore from my throat as Luna’s memories vanished wasn’t human.

It came from somewhere deeper than my breath, deeper than my heart. It was the sound of a soul being ripped in half. The basement walls shook with the force of it, cracks spreading across the concrete like spider webs.

"Luna!" I lunged toward her crumpled form, but the Void Walkers stepped between us, their empty eyes watching me with new interest.

"Fascinating," the lead thing said. "Your emotional response is... unexpected."

I wanted to tear them apart. I wanted to destroy Elena for what she’d done. I wanted to bring Luna back from wherever her mind had gone. But as I reached for the dimensional energy that had been getting stronger inside me, something strange happened.

Nothing came.

The power that had been growing for weeks, the energy that made Elena so afraid of me, just... stopped. Like someone had turned off a switch in my chest.

"What did you do?" I demanded, spinning to face Elena.

She wiped blood from her mouth, her void energy sparking around her fingers. "I took what was mine," she growled. "All those stolen memories, all that power Luna was meant to have. It flows through me now."

"You’re lying." But even as I said it, I could feel the emptiness where my dimensional powers used to be. The steady humming under my skin was gone. The sense of being connected to various realities had vanished.

"Am I?" Elena’s laugh was sharp and cruel. "Try to link, little omega. Try to move between dimensions. You’ll find that particular gift has been... redirected."

I reached desperately for the power, stretching my awareness toward the space between worlds. Nothing. It was like trying to grab water with my bare hands.

"The transformation is reversing," one of the Void Walkers noted. "Without dimensional energy to fuel it, she returns to her original state."

"No!" Caleb stepped forward, his face twisted with worry. "There has to be another way."

"There is," Elena said pleasantly. "Give me what I want, and I’ll return Luna’s memories. Refuse, and she stays an empty shell forever."

I looked down at Luna’s still form. Her chest rose and fell steady, but her eyes stared at nothing. When I touched her hand, there was no recognition, no reaction. She was breathing, but the person who had argued with me, protected me, and finally called me sister was gone. noveldrama

"What do you want?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"The Triple Moon Mark," Elena said instantly. "Transfer it to me, and everyone gets what they need. I become the Guardian, Luna gets her memories back, and you return to being a basic omega who can live quietly with her mate."

"You can’t transfer a mate mark," Aiden argued. "It’s impossible."

"Not impossible," Viktor corrected quietly. "Forbidden. And dangerous. The process would require..." He stopped, his face going pale.

"What?" Brock asked. "It would require what?"

"A willing sacrifice," Viktor finished. "Someone would have to give up their life force to break the original bond and create a new one."

Elena’s smile widened. "I’m sure someone here would be happy to help. After all, isn’t love about sacrifice?"

My heart clenched as I looked around the room. I could see it in their faces - Caleb, Aiden, Brock, even Prince Ash and Dmitri - they were all considering it. They would die to save Luna and give me a normal life.

"No," I said strongly. "Nobody is sacrificing themselves for anything."

"Then Luna stays empty," Elena shrugged. "Your choice."

I knelt beside Luna again, taking her limp hand in both of mine. Her skin was warm, but it felt wrong somehow. Like holding a beautiful doll instead of a real person.

"Luna," I whispered. "I know you can’t hear me, but I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t figure out who you really were sooner. I’m sorry we wasted so much time as enemies when we should have been sisters."

For just a moment, I thought I felt her fingers twitch. Hope flared in my chest, but when I looked at her face, her eyes were still empty.

That’s when it happened.

As I sat there, holding my sister’s hand and feeling totally powerless for the first time in weeks, something unexpected bloomed in my chest. It wasn’t the wild energy of dimensional power or the burning feeling of transformation. It was quieter, warmer.

It was peace.

Not the kind of peace that comes from having no problems, but the deep, settled feeling of knowing exactly where you belong. Even with Elena threatening us, even with Luna’s mind stuck somewhere I couldn’t reach, even with my powers gone - sitting here, surrounded by people who cared about me, I felt... right.

"Lily?" Caleb’s voice was soft, worried. He sat down beside me, not touching, just being close. "How are you holding up?"

I looked at him - really looked. His hair was messy from running his hands through it. His clothes were torn from the fight. There were dark bags under his eyes from worry. But when he looked at me, there was nothing but love and acceptance in his face.

"I feel..." I started, then stopped, surprised by the words that wanted to come out. "I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be."

It was such an easy thing to say, but as the words left my mouth, something shifted inside me. The empty space where my dimensional powers used to be wasn’t empty anymore. It was filled with something else. Something that felt more like me than the cosmic energy ever had.

"Impossible," one of the Void Walkers breathed.

"What’s impossible?" I asked, but I was looking at Caleb, not the thing.

"You’re generating emotion," the Void Walker said, its voice filled with something that might have been wonder. "Pure, undiluted human feeling. We’ve never seen anything like it."

Elena’s confident face flickered for the first time. "That’s not possible. Without dimensional energy, she’s just a normal omega."

"Look at her mark," Prince Ash said quietly.

I glanced down at my wrist. The Triple Moon Mark was shining, but not with the harsh silver light of before. This glow was soft, warm, like candles. And as I watched, amazed, the mark began to change.

The three intertwined moons were splitting, yes, but not the way they had during the Winter Moon ceremony. Instead of moving toward different people, they were reforming into something new. Something that looked less like moons and more like...

"Hearts," Caleb whispered. "They’re becoming hearts."

The lead Void Walker stepped closer, its empty eyes fixed on my changing mark. "This was not predicted in any timeline."

"What does it mean?" I asked.

But before anyone could answer, Luna’s hand suddenly gripped mine with crushing force. Her empty eyes snapped to focus on my face, but when she spoke, it wasn’t her voice that came out.

"The Emotion Walker awakens," she said in a voice like wind through ancient trees. "The balance changes again. What was lost shall be found, what was found shall be lost, and what should never have been shall finally come to pass."

Her grip tightened until I could feel my bones grinding together.

"The real enemy approaches," Luna’s voice continued, but the words seemed to come from somewhere far away. "And she has been watching all along."

Then Luna’s eyes rolled back, and she fell again - but this time, she wasn’t breathing.