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The sky shuddered as Li Yun and Kezhong clashed, sunlight and cold celestial force colliding in violent spirals that tore open the clouds. The sound was deafening—like mountains grinding together.
Lian Yue stumbled backward from the shockwave, her heart in her throat.
"No… no, no—stop!"
But neither man heard her.
Or maybe they refused to hear.
Her brother lay unconscious behind her, his breathing shallow and uneven. Every rise of his chest felt like a fragile promise. Every exhale felt like it might be his last.
Her hands were shaking.
Not because of fear of Kezhong.
Not because of the threat of arrest.
But because of the breaking truth inside her: she was watching the two people she cared about most fight over her.
And the worst part?
She couldn't stop it.
Li Yun launched forward again, fury twisting across his face in a way she'd never seen. He was sunshine—gentle warmth, steady brilliance. But now he looked like a star on the verge of collapsing into a burning storm.
"Stay away from her!" Li Yun roared, his voice raw.
Kezhong didn't flinch. He absorbed the attack with an icy shield, then countered with a sweeping strike that sent Li Yun sliding across the cracked earth.
"She is a threat to cosmic order," Kezhong snapped. "You are blinded by attachment."
"A threat?" Li Yun wiped blood from his lip. "You don't even understand her!"
"And you do?" Kezhong's eyes flashed with something sharp—jealousy? Bitterness? Pain? Lian Yue couldn't tell.
Li Yun surged forward again, slamming his palm into Kezhong's armor.
"I'm the one who actually sees her!"
His shout echoed through the ruins.
Lian Yue felt it in her bones.
Her breath hitched.
Because she knew.
She knew what he meant.
She could feel the emotions he kept trying to swallow around her—light turning nervous, warmth turning shy, eyes lingering a moment too long when he thought she wouldn't notice.
But this wasn't the moment to confront that.
Not when the ground was splitting under them.
Not when her brother lay dying.
Not when the Council wanted to tear her away.
Kezhong pushed Li Yun back with a burst of frigid power that left frost crawling across the ground.
"You are risking the balance of the realms."
"You're risking her life," Li Yun spat.
"She is already in danger! You know nothing of what she carries."
"Then tell me!" Li Yun demanded. "Tell her!"
Kezhong's expression twisted—something conflicted, painful, almost desperate.
"I can't. Not yet."
"You mean you won't," Li Yun said through his teeth.
The two forces collided again—light against ice, warmth against cold inevitability. The air cracked with celestial electricity.
Lian Yue pressed her hand over her heart.
She felt helpless.
That emotion—helplessness—was one she rarely allowed herself to feel. She was a goddess. A ruler of the moon. A being meant to stay composed.
But right now?
Right now she was just a girl caught between two unmovable fates.
Her eyes burned.
She hated this.
She hated watching them bleed for her.
A sudden scream tore from Lian Feng's throat.
His corrupted energy flared, a tortured blast of shadow that shook the clearing.
"Yue!" he gasped, voice breaking.
Her heart jumped.
She raced to his side.
"I'm here, I'm here—Feng, I'm right here."
His cracked fingers closed around her wrist.
"Don't… let them take you…"
His eyes opened—glazed but desperate.
"They'll use you… twist you… control you…"
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Human. Raw. Real.
She didn't bother to hide it.
"I won't leave you," she whispered fiercely. "I won't leave either of you."
But the world didn't care what she wanted.
Kezhong suddenly broke away from Li Yun, appearing in front of Lian Yue in a flash of motion.
His hand reached out—not to strike—but to grasp her arm.
"Enough. You're coming with—"
Li Yun appeared behind him like a burst of solar wind, grabbing Kezhong's shoulder and hurling him backward.
He didn't shout this time.
He didn't roar.
His voice trembled.
"Don't touch her."
Lian Yue froze.
There was something in his tone—
Something broken.
Something afraid.
Something deeply, painfully human.
Kezhong straightened, hair falling loose from the shock of the impact.
He looked at Li Yun with dark, unreadable eyes.
"So it's true," Kezhong said quietly.
"You care for her."
Li Yun didn't deny it.
He didn't even look away.
His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.
"And what if I do?"
Lian Yue's heart stumbled.
The air left her lungs.
Her pulse hammered loudly enough to drown out the clash of energies around them.
Kezhong exhaled slowly, something bitter flickering through his expression.
"Then you're a fool."
"And you're heartless," Li Yun shot back.
But Kezhong didn't respond with anger this time.
He looked tired.
Old.
Burdened by something unseen.
"You don't understand what she is," he said softly.
"Or what she will become."
Li Yun stepped closer, fury blazing in every line of his face.
"Then tell us."
"I can't."
Kezhong's voice tightened.
"If she knows… she will break."
Lian Yue's breath caught.
"Break?"
The word stabbed her somewhere deep.
She wasn't fragile.
She wasn't weak.
She wasn't something to be protected from the truth like a child.
"Try me," she said.
But her voice trembled.
Kezhong looked at her—not as an enemy, not as a criminal, but as a girl he didn't want to lose to destiny.
"Yue… please."
Her eyes widened.
He had never used her name so gently before.
Li Yun stepped protectively between them again, but Lian Yue touched his arm, stopping him.
"Let him speak."
Kezhong's jaw clenched.
Emotion flickered—real, human emotion—across his face.
Fear.
Regret.
Something else she couldn't name.
"You were never meant to awaken," he whispered.
Li Yun stiffened.
"What?"
Kezhong's gaze was locked only on her.
"Your power… that prophecy your brother mentioned… the reason the Council watches you…"
The wind stilled.
Even the shadows went silent.
Kezhong took one step toward her.
"You are not just the Moon Goddess."
Her heartbeat thundered.
"You are the vessel of an ancient celestial—
one that even the Council fears."
Li Yun froze.
Lian Yue's breath hitched.
Lian Feng stirred weakly.
And the world around them seemed to tilt.