The council chamber emptied fast.
Not because Ronan dismissed them.
But because the elders decided they valued their lives too much to stay in the same room as Evelyn any longer.
Ronan didn't look at them as they fled.Didn't acknowledge their mumbled prayers, their shaking hands, their wide, terrified eyes.
He only watched Evelyn.
Her breathing was shallow.
Her hands trembling.
Her mark glowing faintly beneath the fabric of her clothes, like a heartbeat that belonged to someone else.
"Evie."Ronan stepped toward her slowly, like approaching a wounded creature.
She took a step back.
"Don't," she whispered. "Just… give me a second."
That single step backward cracked something in him.
But he didn't push.Didn't reach.Didn't touch.
He just waited.
When her voice came, it was barely held together.
"I'm not supposed to exist, Ronan. You heard them."
"I heard idiots panicking," he snapped.
"No," she said shakily. "You heard the truth."
Her eyes were glassy, distant.
"A conduit," she murmured. "A bridge between light and shadow. A weapon. A threat. A prophecy piece—"
"Evelyn."Ronan's voice dropped into something deep, quiet, and absolute."You are not a prophecy."
But she wasn't listening.
Her fingers dug into her hair.
"Maybe the Shadow Father was right. Maybe I am changing—maybe I'm not meant to be part of your world. Maybe I—"
Ronan closed the distance in two strides.
"Evie."
She didn't look up.
"Evelyn."His voice sharpened. "Look at me."
Slowly, painfully, she lifted her eyes.
Ronan cupped the sides of her face, his thumbs brushing her flushed skin.
"You are not a mistake," he said. "You're not an omen. And you're damn sure not a prophecy toy."
Her breath faltered.
"You're Evelyn. You're the girl who laughs at my temper. The girl who tries to save everyone but herself. The girl I—"
He stopped abruptly.
Evelyn blinked."Ronan…?"
His jaw tightened.
But he didn't look away.
"The girl I'm terrified of losing," he finished quietly.
That broke her.
Not in the way the Shadow Father had.Not in the way the council had.
This broke her anger.Her fear.Her spiraling panic.
She leaned into him, her forehead pressing to his chest.
Ronan exhaled shakily in her hair.
"Good," he whispered. "Let me hold you."
She did.
For a long moment, they stood wrapped around each other—two storms finding the same center.
But peace didn't last.
It never did in Moonfall.
A sharp knock rattled the chamber doors.
Ash barged in, face pale.
"Alpha—there's a problem."
Ronan didn't let go of Evelyn.
"What now?"
Ash swallowed hard.
"Moonfall's moonstone barrier… it didn't just collapse."
Evelyn stiffened.
Ash continued, voice cracking:
"It's reversing."
Ronan's eyes narrowed."What does that mean?"
Ash gestured frantically.
"It means the barrier isn't breaking outward…"He took a shaky breath."It's being pulled inward."
A sick, cold feeling crawled up Evelyn's spine.
"Pulled where?" she whispered.
Ash met her eyes.
"Into you."
The air stopped moving.
Ronan immediately stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body again.
"That's impossible," he snapped.
Ash shook his head violently.
"Alpha—I saw the stones myself. The moonlight isn't dispersing into the forest like it's supposed to. It's streaming through the air—straight toward the fortress—and then it's disappearing into Evelyn like she's a…" He hesitated. "…like she's a moon-core."
Evelyn's stomach twisted.
"I don't know how to stop it," Ash whispered.
Neither did she.
Ronan didn't move for several seconds.
Then he turned slightly, gripping Evelyn's cheek.
"Evie. Look at me."
She did.
"You feel anything? Pain? Pulling? Any shift in your power?"
She started to say no—
—but her mark pulsed violently.
She gasped, bending forward as a shockwave of cold electricity shot through her spine.
Ronan caught her instantly.
"Evelyn?!"
She clutched his shirt.
"It's inside me," she whispered, horrified. "The moon's power—it's inside—it's trying to—"
The torches blew out.
Every single one.
Darkness swallowed the chamber whole as Evelyn's mark erupted in a burst of blinding white and black light at the same time.
Ash stumbled back.
Ronan held her tighter, refusing to let go even as energy crackled around them like lightning trapped in skin.
Evelyn's voice trembled:
"Ronan… something's happening to me."
And then—
The world shifted.
Heat.Cold.Light.Shadow.
All merging.
Ronan's voice was distant now, muffled beneath the roar building inside her skull.
"EVIE—STAY WITH ME—EVIE!"
But the power didn't answer to him.
It didn't answer to her either.
The moonlight finished pouring into her body—
—and the room exploded with a pulse that knocked everyone but Ronan to the ground.
Only he stayed on his feet.
Only he held her.
As her eyes finally opened—
They were no longer the eyes she was born with.
One glowed silver-white.The other glowed shadow-violet.
Two forces.Two worlds.Two destinies.
Merged.
Ronan whispered her name like a prayer and a curse.
"Evelyn…"
Her voice was soft.
Almost echoing.
"I think the moon just chose its conduit."
And somewhere, far beyond Moonfall…
Something ancient woke up.
And smiled.