Chapter 37: Two Heirs, One Lie

Rhea refused to come to the Nightvale residence.

I couldn't blame her.

Instead, we met in a private room at the university library.

No guards inside.

Rowan waited outside.

Cassian sat with us because Rhea requested him.

Mom arrived last.

The moment she saw Rhea, she stopped in the doorway.

Rhea stood too.

Neither spoke.

The resemblance between Rhea and Seraphina was stronger when Mom was beside her.

Same eyes.

Same chin.

Same way of holding tension in the shoulders.

Mom whispered, "You look like her."

Rhea's face crumpled.

"You look like her too."

Mom crossed the room.

Then stopped.

"Can I hug you?"

Rhea hesitated.

Finally nodded.

Mom wrapped her arms around her niece.

Rhea stayed stiff for two seconds.

Then broke.

She cried so hard her knees almost gave out.

Mom held her.

I looked away, suddenly feeling like I was witnessing something private.

Cassian didn't.

He cried openly.

When everyone calmed down, Rhea told us the truth.

Seraphina had been held by Marcus for nearly twelve years.

Project Moon Crown tried to force her into artificial resonance with selected Alpha wolves.

Every attempt failed.

Then Marcus shifted strategies.

He created a second generation.

Rhea.

"Created?" I asked carefully.

Rhea's face hardened.

"I don't know who my father is."

Mom squeezed her hand.

"You don't have to explain."

"I want to."

She looked at me.

"Marcus used donor records. My mother never knew which man."

My stomach turned.

Rhea continued.

"She raised me inside the facility as much as they allowed. When I was six, she discovered they planned to begin testing on me."

"That's when she escaped."

"Yes."

Seraphina coordinated with Elias and Mara Venn.

They smuggled Rhea out through Moonridge Children's Home.

Seraphina stayed behind to delay pursuit.

"Did she die there?"

Rhea nodded.

"I saw the security recording later."

Mom closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Rhea's voice became small.

"She told me to run."

Silence filled the room.

Then I asked, "How did Marcus find you again?"

"When I was twelve, Elias made a mistake."

"What?"

"He contacted an old Council friend for documents."

Cassian cursed quietly.

"The Council leak."

"Yes."

Marcus's people attacked their house.

Elias and Mara died.

Rhea escaped.

But Marcus found her months later.

"He didn't imprison me again."

"Why?"

"Because he changed tactics."

Rhea looked ashamed.

"He told me he had rescued me from people who wanted to sell me to Nightvale."

Rowan, outside the room, couldn't hear.

Probably good.

"He showed me edited records. Said Aurelius caused the attack by trying to make Lunaris supreme over other Packs."

"And you believed him."

"I was twelve."

"No judgment."

"He told me my mother died because Nightvale refused to help."

Cassian's fists tightened.

"And the other heir?"

Rhea looked at me.

"He said Selene had a daughter."

"Me."

"He said if you ever awakened, the Lunaris Alpha bond would choose one of us."

"Choose how?"

"Combat."

I stared.

"He told you we had to fight to the death?"

"Eventually."

"That's insane."

"I know that now."

"Do you?"

Rhea looked at me.

"I don't know."

At least she was honest.

Mireya arrived with old Lunaris law books.

There was no death challenge.

No rule requiring heirs to fight.

If multiple direct heirs existed, recognition came through Pack support, territorial bond, leadership trials, and voluntary withdrawal.

Rhea stared at the page.

"He lied."

"Yes," Cassian said.

"About everything."

"Probably most things."

Her face went empty.

I recognized that expression.

The moment your past rearranges itself.

The moment affection becomes manipulation.

The moment you realize the person you trusted knew exactly which wound to touch.

I had experienced a smaller version with Knox.

Rhea's was far worse.

I reached across the table.

She looked at my hand.

Didn't take it.

That was okay.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"About what?"

"Lunaris."

She laughed weakly.

"I don't know."

"Good."

"Good?"

"I don't know either."

That made her smile slightly.

"We can figure it out."

"You'd share the claim?"

"If that's what the law allows and what the Pack wants."

Cassian opened his mouth.

I glared.

He closed it.

Rhea noticed.

"He's scared you'll lose."

"He's dramatic."

"I'm sitting right here."

"Exactly."

For the next several days, Rhea stayed near Mom.

She met Lyra.

Garrick.

Mireya.

She refused to meet Adrian Vale.

She barely tolerated Rowan.

But she stopped running.

Then the Moon Court requested blood verification.

Rhea panicked.

"They'll store my DNA."

"We can demand destruction after verification," Rowan explained.

"How do I know they will?"

"You don't."

Wrong answer.

She almost left.

I stopped the process.

"No test until she agrees."

The Court threatened to exclude her claim.

"Then exclude it temporarily."

Cassian pulled me aside.

"You're making this harder."

"For her."

"For everyone."

"She spent her whole life being treated like a specimen."

"I know."

"Then we're not dragging her into another room and taking blood because officials say so."

He stared at me.

Then sighed.

"Fine."

Eventually, Mireya suggested an older method.

Lunaris bloodstone.

No stored sample.

A drop of blood placed on an ancestral stone.

Direct descendants triggered gold light.

The Court reluctantly approved.

Rhea and I stood side by side.

I went first.

Gold.

Then Rhea.

Her blood touched the stone.

For one terrifying second, nothing happened.

Then light exploded across the chamber.

Not gold.

Gold mixed with silver.

Mireya gasped.

Rhea stepped back.

"What does that mean?"

Nobody knew.

Then the bloodstone cracked down the center.

Cassian whispered:

"Two heirs."

The pieces separated.

One glowed beneath my hand.

The other beneath Rhea's.

The presiding judge stared.

"In four centuries of recorded Lunaris succession, this has never happened."

I looked at Rhea.

She looked at me.

Then she laughed nervously.

"Still want coffee?"

"Definitely."