Aurelia found herself kneeling before Hecate’s altar.
The goddess towered above her in carved black stone, three faces gazing in different directions.
None of them looked at her.
At least, that was how it felt to her.
She shifted slightly, wincing as pain shot through her knees.
How long had she been here?
Three hours?
Four?
The candles surrounding the altar had burned noticeably lower, their wax pooling onto bronze holders.
The scent of incense clung to the air, thick and smoky, while moonlight spilled through the temple’s high windows and painted silver patterns across the floor.
Aurelia pressed her palms against her thighs.
She had been send her as punishment.
After her big secret had been discovered Aradia dragged her here by the ear and told her to speak till the goddess answer.
She had hope that maybe after the truth had come out the goddess would say something but instead, she had been met with the same silence that had haunted her for weeks.
The soft creak of a door broke the stillness.
Aurelia’s shoulders stiffened.
Unhurried footsteps echoed across the stone floor.
The air seemed to shift with their approach.
Cool and comfortable as a faint scent of lavender drifted through the temple.
Aurelia didn’t need to turn around.
She already knew who it was.
The footsteps passed behind her before moving toward the altar.
Long robes whispered against the floor.
Only then did Aurelia lift her head.
The woman standing before the altar was beautiful in an almost unnerving way.
Silver-white hair flowed down her back in loose waves, catching the candlelight with every movement.
Her robes shimmered like moonlit water, embroidered with silver thread that shimmered like diamonds.
High Priestess Asteria, head of the Isle, voice of Hecate and her biological mother.
It’s true that Aradia had raised her, but the woman that stood in front of her now was the one who birthed her
“I heard you’re pregnant.” The words were spoked almost so softly she almost fell for the elusion of softness this woman had on.
“Yes I am.” Aurelia answered quietly.
Then the woman laughed.
The sound exploded through the room cruel and sharp and mocking.
The High Priestess threw her head back and laughed harder than Aurelia had ever heard.
Tears glimmered at the corners of her silver eyes.
Aurelia’s stomach twisted.
For a moment, Aurelia simply stared.
Her fingers dug into her robes where they rested on her knees.
The fabric bunched beneath her grip.
Finally, the laughter began to subside.
Asteria wiped at the corner of one eye and stepped forward.
The scent of lavender and moonflowers followed her.
“Amazing,” she murmured.
Aurelia’s jaw tightened.
The High Priestess reached down and hooked two fingers beneath her chin, slowly, she tilted Aurelia’s face upward.
“So?” A smile spread across her lips, “Who is the father?”
Aurelia met her gaze, her silver eyes cold and amused met hers.
Aurelia understood that this wasn’t for concern or curiosity, the woman looked genuinely amused.
Asteria looked like someone who had just witnessed a long-awaited disaster unfold exactly as planned.
Aurelia swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat.
Sometimes she wondered if this woman truly was her mother.
They shared the same silver eyes.
The same pale hair.
The same sharp cheekbones.
Yet that was where the similarities ended.
Asteria was cold and cruel.
And whatever affection mothers were supposed to feel for their daughters seemed entirely absent from her.
For as long as Aurelia could remember, the High Priestess had looked at her with barely concealed contempt.
As if her very existence were an insult.
As if she had committed some unforgivable crime simply by being born.
“I don’t know why you’re smiling,” Aurelia said quietly.
Asteria’s smile widened.
“Oh, child.” The title sounded more insult than endearment.
“I am smiling because you’ve fallen Aurelia.
This disaster is yours.”
Aurelia’s eyes stung for a moment but said nothing.
Her head was lowered.
“The child is Darius Dane’s.” The words tasted bitter on Aurelia’s tongue.
Asteria stilled.
Then, slowly, a smile spread across her face.
“The werewolf?” she asked.
Her silver eyes glittered with joy “The one who rejected you?”
Every word struck like a slap.
Heat rushed to Aurelia’s cheeks.
She looked away.
Asteria laughed softly.
Not the explosive laughter from before.
This was worse.
This was amusement.
The kind reserved for a particularly entertaining tragedy.
“Oh, Aure.” Aurelia hated that nickname.
Asteria raised a hand.
Silver magic unfurled from her fingertips like strands of moonlight.
The temple air cooled instantly as the spell washed over Aurelia.
She felt it move through her body.
Searching her.
Asteria’s smile widened.
Then widened further.
“Oh.”
Aurelia’s stomach dropped, that was definitely not a good sound.
“What?”
The High Priestess looked delighted.
“Even better.”
Aurelia rose to her feet.
“What?”
Asteria met her gaze.
“It’s a boy.”
The world seemed to tilt beneath her.
A boy?
The words echoed inside her head.
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
“No.” The denial came automatically.
“It’s too early to know that.”
Asteria’s expression turned smug.
“Not for me.”
Aurelia’s hands trembled.
Even children outside the isle knew this law.
Without comprise or exceptions, no sons were allowed on the isle.
It belonged to the daughters of Hecate.
Girls were raised among the covens.
Boys?
No one even had boys on this isle.
Aurelia slowly lifted her eyes.
Asteria looked almost radiant.
She looked like someone had gifted her the whole world.
“You know what a boy means, Aure.” The nickname dripped from her lips like poison.
Her voice had become sickeningly sweet.
The way one might speak to a child moments before delivering bad news.
Aurelia’s chest tightened.
She already knew what this meant she just didn’t want to hear it.
Asteria stepped closer.
The moonlight streaming through the temple windows illuminated her silver hair, turning it almost white.
“You must leave the island.”
Silence followed.
Aurelia stared at her.
For a moment she couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
Leave?
But this was her home.
The only home she had ever known.
The cliffs.
The orchards.
The sea.
Her sisters.
Everything she ever knew resided on this on this land.
How could she leaves?
How could she even ask her if this?!
Asteria watched her realization unfold with unsettling satisfaction.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m entirely serious.”
Aurelia felt something crack inside her.
Grief and anger formed a dangerous cocktail in her soul, twisting her chest like a blade.
“You seem remarkably happy about this.”
Asteria’s smile never faltered.
Mm…
Yes I am.”
Aurelia’s nails dug into her palms.
The scent of incense suddenly felt suffocating.
Asteria had been waiting all this time for a reason to cast her out.
And now fate had handed her one.
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