Chapter 367 - 101: What They Never Told Me

The ride back to BloodMoon was heavy with silence.

Henrik took the lead with two warriors, while Helena kept close to Marcus. Dane rode alongside Destiny, his gaze drifting from the open trail to the cloth-wrapped parcel nestled in Marcus’s saddlebag.

The Heart Stone.

Destiny’s mind kept drifting back to the clearing. When Marcus uncovered the artifact, one of the cursed wolves had briefly clawed his way back to humanity. The exact moment he spoke, an agonizing jolt had torn through her chest. When Marcus threw the cloth back over the stone, the pull vanished.

It had happened twice now. Too deliberate to be a coincidence, yet none of them could make sense of it.

She couldn’t shake the memory of the wolf’s eyes as he begged them for help. He had looked terrified—fully aware, if only for a second, of the monster he had become. Destiny wondered how many others were trapped inside their own feral flesh, waiting for a relief that might never come.

And then there was the ache that had flared inside her every time the stone awoke.

She flexed her fingers around the leather reins, trying to rub away the dull throbbing in her palm.

"Does it still hurt?" Dane asked softly.

She looked over at him. "Not much."

"That’s not a real answer."

"It’s the only one I have," she said. "My hand aches, but it’s nothing like the pain in the clearing."

He studied her face, unresolved tension in his jaw. "Tell me if it gets worse."

"I will."

He clearly didn’t believe her, but he let it drop.

They rode on in silence. Destiny tried to focus on the steady rhythm of the horses, but her thoughts circled back to the stone. It had reacted to her once before, when her blood saved Dane’s life. Now it was doing something entirely different, and she couldn’t tell if the two events were tethered or just cruel chance.

"There’s something else," Dane noted gently.

Destiny turned to him. "How do you do that?"

"You’ve been staring at the dirt for ten minutes, and I know you’re not that interested in the trail."

A faint smile managed to break through her worry.

"I’m thinking about my childhood," she admitted.

His demeanor shifted, sharpening with interest. "Your childhood?"

"Specifically, the day Marcus and Kalessie found me. I know the story they’ve always told me, but I don’t know what lies behind it."

"Have you ever asked them for more?"

"Not really. I never had a reason to dig deeper before."

"And you think there’s more to the story now?"

"I don’t know," she said, shifting slightly in the saddle. "That’s what’s eating at me. The stone reacts to me. My blood stirred something we can’t explain. I can’t stop wondering if the key to all this is buried in where I came from."

Dane considered this carefully.

"It could be," he acknowledged. "Or it could have nothing to do with your origins at all. We simply don’t have enough pieces yet."

"I know. I’m not jumping to conclusions."

"Good. When we get back, we’ll bring this to the priestess. She can examine the stone and weigh in on what happened back there."

"And if she has no answers?"

"Then we keep looking."

Destiny glanced at him. "You always make it sound so straightforward."

"It’s not straightforward," he said softly. "But drowning in every possible outcome won’t help us take the next step."

He was right, even if she was too stubborn to say it out loud.

Destiny had spent so long reacting to the immediate fires in front of her that she had never stopped to face the quiet questions lingering in the shadows. Now, she couldn’t turn away from them.

"What if I uncover something I’m not ready for?" she asked softly.

"About your past?"

She nodded.

Dane fell silent for a moment, letting the sound of hooves fill the space between them.

"Then you face it when it comes," he said evenly. "You don’t need to brace yourself for every hypothetical shadow before you even reach the light."

Destiny looked at him, grounding herself in his steady composure. He wasn’t offering empty assurances or pretending the road ahead was safe. He was just reminding her that she didn’t have to carry the entire weight of tomorrow, today.

Reaching across the narrow gap between their mounts, she caught his hand.

"Thank you."

He gave her fingers a firm squeeze before letting go so they could manage the reins.

"You don’t ever have to thank me for listening, Destiny."

Destiny turned her eyes back to the road, the knot in her chest loosening just a fraction.

By the time the high walls of BloodMoon rose in the distance, the sun was sinking into a bruised twilight. The gates swung open as they drew near, and a guard rushed over to take Destiny’s horse’s reins as soon as she pulled up.

Her boots had barely hit the cobblestones when Kalessie emerged from the main hall.

She swept down the steps, her sharp eyes scanning every inch of Destiny before she wrapped her arms tightly around her.

"You’re home," she breathed.

"I’m fine, Mama."

Kalessie pulled back just enough to hold Destiny by the shoulders, her gaze searching hers. "You always say that. That doesn’t mean I believe it."

Destiny forced a soft smile. "Nothing happened to me."

"Then why are you wearing that bone-deep exhaustion?"

"Just the road."

Kalessie shook her head, though the tension in her shoulders melted into pure relief. Pulling Destiny back in, she held her close, and Destiny rested her cheek against her mother’s shoulder.

Whatever truths lay hidden in her past, this was the woman who had raised Destiny. She was the one who had held her when she was small, taught her how to survive, and stood fiercely at her side through storms neither of them could have foreseen.

Destiny didn’t need a vision or an ancient artifact to tell her who her mother was.

When they finally separated, Kalessie turned toward Marcus, who was stepping down from his mount.

"What happened out there?" she asked, sensing the mood immediately.

Marcus exchanged a quick glance with Dane. "There is a great deal we need to go over."

Kalessie’s brow furrowed. "That doesn’t sound promising."

"It was a difficult day," Dane said, stepping into the circle. "But we’re back safe. We’ll explain everything inside."

He walked her through the events of the clearing—how the stone had awakened, how the cursed wolf had momentarily reclaimed his human mind, and how the magic abruptly snapped the moment Marcus shielded the artifact. He didn’t hide the pain Destiny had suffered, either.

Kalessie listened in dead silence. The moment Dane finished, her focus snapped to Destiny.

"Your hand. Let me see."

Destiny held it out without arguing.

Kalessie gently turned her palm over, inspecting the skin beneath the fading sunlight as if searching for a burn or a scar.

"There’s no mark," she murmured.

"There’s nothing to see," Destiny reassured her. "It just burned while the stone was exposed."

"And now?"

"Just a faint ache."

Kalessie looked as if she wanted to press further, to protect Destiny from things she couldn’t see, but instead she simply wrapped her fingers gently around hers.

"You’re resting tonight."

"Mama, I’m fine."

"I know you want me to stop worrying, Destiny, but I don’t stop just because you ask me to."

A small laugh escaped Destiny. "I wasn’t going to ask."

"Good. Because I wouldn’t listen anyway."

For the first time since leaving the clearing, the knot of tension in Destiny’s shoulders completely unravelled.

Dane oversaw the security arrangements for the Heart Stone, ensuring it remained heavily wrapped until the priestess could inspect it. Marcus took charge of keeping it guarded, while Henrik was assigned to write down a detailed account of the clearing so the priestess had a clear picture before beginning her work.

There was nothing more to be done in the dark.

They retreated indoors, and the mansion gradually fell into its familiar evening rhythm. Destiny stayed by Kalessie’s side for a long while, answering her cautious questions and proving to her that she was whole.

Yet even as she comforted her mother, the questions Destiny had posed to Dane on the trail kept echoing in her mind.

She needed to understand the Heart Stone, but even more than that, she needed to understand who she was. The priestess might offer answers about the magic and the strange bloodline connection.

But before Destiny faced her, there was one person she had to confront first.

Marcus.