A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 303: Not true

Everything happened too fast.

Yet the world spun too slow around Autumn.

She felt numb for a few dreadful moments...and then it all crashed right on her shoulder...too wrong.

One second Kieran was standing in front of her...golden, burning, furious...and the next...

He was ripped backwards.

Sucked into the writhing mass of eyes and shadows.

"Kieran!" A loud gasp finally left her lips and then... " KIEEEERAN... "

Autumn’s scream tore straight out of her chest as she lunged forward, grabbing at the dissolving air where his hand had been.

Her fingers clawed nothing but cold.

Her arm stretched...

shook violently...

then dropped...like dead weight... because he was gone.

Truly gone... who knew where...

Freya’s tiny body jerked at the scream, and she clung to Autumn’s shirt with a terrified whimper...her eyes finally fluttered open...she looked around with fright and confusion...then started in the direction Autumn was staring.And finally extended her tiny palms , calling out, "Dada... "

Autumn’s throat bobbed hard.

Her vision blurred at the sight of her daughter’s misery.

Her heart...it didn’t break so much as ruptured from the realisation what it might be for Freya. Her perspective was disastrous.

For a few frozen heartbeats, she just stood there...One hand holding her daughter.

One hand trembling in the emptiness.

Eyes wide.

Breath stolen.

Soul screaming.

"No darling,please don’t cry...Dada will be right back...right back I promise.You need to be strong for Dada. Don’t you, darling?"

Her voice shook violently, cracking mid-word.

"He...he was right here...he was... hem.."

She cut herself off, biting down hard on a sob that almost ripped her apart.

Her shoulders spasmed with grief, but she forced herself to straighten.

She wiped her face with the back of her shaking hand.

"No. Not yet. Not now."

She panted the words, forcing control she didn’t have.

"Freya first. Freya first.WE NEED TO MOVE.COME ON. Come on baby."

She hugged Freya closer in desperation...a protective, feral hold...as her other hand flattened against the stone floor.

Her power was nearly gone.

Her veins throbbed with emptiness.

She could barely feel her own legs.

"Come on..."

Her voice cracked.

"Come on, Autumn, don’t you dare fall apart now...please...just once...for the sake of the little one..." She tried to talk to herself.

Her skin sparked.

Blue light... thin as a hair... flickered across her fingertips.

Her back arched from the strain, jaw locked, breath shaking.

Her power surged.

A swirl of shimmering runes coiled around her feet, climbing her calves, wrapping her waist..

She was almost there.

Almost...

Autumn gritted her teeth and poured everything she had left into that last attempt at escape from that mess.

Her knees buckled.

Her heart hammered.

Her vision went white at the edges.

"YES...YES...ALMOST THERE...JUST A LITTLE MORE..."

The world began to ripple around her as she tried to find an escape route...And then a shadow fell across her.

A long, elegant, bone white hand lifted into the air... almost lazily.

"Are you sure you want to leave, Autumn?"

The voice dripped behind her ear... too close, too soft, too smug.

Autumn’s entire body stiffened.

The teleportation light hiccuped.

Crackled.

Trembled violently...

Freya whimpered, burying her face into Autumn’s neck.

Autumn slowly... painfully slowly... turned her head.

Kieran’s mother stood inches away, her smile stretched too wide, too delighted, too cruel..too triumphant.

Her eyes gleamed with sick amusement.

"I might have something..."

She lifted a single finger.

"...you love."

All effort Autumn had put into finding that escape route, shattered.

The slowly building runes around her burst like dying sparks.

Autumn’s face drained of color as the light died beneath her.

And the last thing she felt was...Freya shivering in her arms.

Slow motion.

Breath held.

Terror thick enough to choke on...

Autumn swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly too dry to form sound.

But she forced the words out anyway, her voice tiny, trembling, cracking at the edges...

"Wh...what... thing... could you possibly have... that I love...?"

Even to her own ears, the question sounded terrified.

Too terrified.

Kieran’s mother smiled.

Not kindly.

Not cruelly.

But like a serpent pleased the mouse had finally realized it was cornered.

"Oh, Autumn..." she purred, tilting her head with exaggerated pity. "Such fear. Such trembling...such delicious desperation."

Her bare feet whispered over the stone as she began circling Autumn and her child... slowly... deliberately... like a huntress savoring the last moments before the kill.

Autumn turned with her, body tight, one arm locked around Freya, the other half lifted to shield, to fight, to do anything...though she had nothing left to fight with.

The monstrous woman leaned in close...too close...and tapped Freya’s tiny shoulder with one long, cold finger.

A small playful poke.Almost friendly... playful... but...

Freya flinched violently and whimpered.

Autumn stiffened.

Her eyes snapped up, wide, wild, instantly defensive.

"DON’T," she breathed, raw panic slicing the word in half.

Kieran’s mother only giggled...

a shrill, childish sound

that did not belong to anything earthy.

"Oh, relax. I won’t break her..."

A pause.

"...yet...that has to wait..."

She poked Freya again...lightly, amused...just to watch Autumn’s jaw clench and eyes blaze with helpless fury.

Autumn’s breathing switched from fear to instinct...

Her gaze flicked around, searching...stone wall

shattered floor...dark archway...collapsed pillar... smell of water nearby...

any gap, any crack, any path she could dash through if she could just get one good burst of power...

She shifted her weight, preparing to move... get out of there...

But the mother flicked her wrist.

Just a tiny gesture.

Like brushing away dust.

A violent ripple tore through Autumn’s vision.

The cavern dimmed...

then blurred...

then fractured...

And a projection materialized in the air before her.

A moving, living image.

Jasper was standing in what looked like a play area, pacing in panic. Calling her name.

And beside him was fragile little Willa.

Willa on her knees...

sobbing into her hands...

body trembling...

her cried so raw Autumn felt them in her bones.

Autumn’s breath caught.

Her heartbeat faltered.

Her grip on Freya tightened so abruptly the child whimpered too...or perhaps because of what she saw...her siblings...

Kieran’s mother’s lips curled.

"Oh my, look at them... so fragile... so breakable. It would be such a shame if something unfortunate were to..."

A choked sound escaped Autumn...

not fear...

but a sudden, fierce, almost hysterical laugh.

She shook her head.

Then shook it harder.

"You are joking..." she breathed, laughter curling out of her like a cracked flame. "You are actually joking."

Kieran’s mother blinked.

Her smile quivered.

Autumn straightened...

or tried to...

her legs trembling, her power gone, her heart shattering...

but her voice...

her voice tried to hold fast.

"I am not falling for that," she said, shaking her head with growing certainty.

"You think I will panic? That I will crumble? That I will believe every illusion you throw at me?"

She took a shallow, shaking breath.

"That’s your petty trick. Not mine.My babies are safe." She looked down at Freya then added with confidence, even though she found it hard to convince herself. " My babies are where you will never get to them. "

Her eyes narrowed, even as despair flickered behind them.

"You don’t have Jasper . And you don’t have Willa."

The projection flickered.

Kieran’s mother’s smile twitched.

Autumn exhaled, shaking her head side to side

"I am not playing your game."

Kieran’s mother didn’t flinch.

Didn’t scowl.

Didn’t grow impatient the way a normal threat giver would when their trick didn’t land.

Instead...

Her smile widened.

Not with cruelty this time.

But with amusement.

Deep, delighted, spine chilling amusement.

She tilted her head and regarded Autumn the way someone might regard a child who had just said something adorably foolish.

"Well now," she purred, eyes glinting, "look at you."

She even clapped once.

A soft, elegant clap.

Mocking applause.

"That little spark of defiance is so cute."

Autumn’s chest tightened.

Her arms instinctively curled protectively around Freya, pressing her closer as if she could shield her with just a heartbeat and a breath.

Kieran’s mother shrugged lightly...a small, elegant rise of her shoulders as her hair fell over her collarbone like a living shadow.

"You may be right," she said airily. "Maybe I am lying. Maybe those two are sitting at home eating fruit pies or painting toenails. Who knows?"

She leaned forward, studying Autumn’s face as though savoring every micro expression.

"I love your confidence," she whispered.

"So brave. So stubborn. So utterly... what ever."

Her hand slipped into the folds of her gown.

For a moment Autumn dared to hope it was another illusion.

Another lie she could shake off.

Then the woman slowly pulled out two small objects.

A tiny beaded bracelet. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Willa’s bracelet.

Autumn’s breath shattered out of her lungs.

And a small, worn,fabric badge...Jasper’s.

Autumn’s knees almost buckled.

Her throat constricted so fast her next inhale stuttered like a sob she tried to choke back.

But Kieran’s mother didn’t give her time.

"As I said," she murmured, tilting her head, "maybe you’re right. Maybe it means nothing."

A sly smile.

"Or maybe... it means everything."

Autumn’s shaking hand rose without her meaning it to.

Her fingers brushed the bracelet.

A broken sound escaped her...not a sob...

"Jasper... Willa..."

Her voice wavered, then crumbled.