Lunaria~
When I opened my eyes, I was no longer in that room. It was dark and cold, like an endless void. There was no ground beneath me, no sky above me, there was nothing around me. I was alone.
I breathed in, there was no air.
"Hello?" I called out and my voice echoed in layers. It was as if several versions of me had spoken all at once.
I looked down at my hand, the claws were gone, I touched my teeth, the fangs were gone and my spine was back to normal.
"Hello," a soft voice called out. I turned and was met face to face with me, well, Lunaria.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Lunaria," she responded. "You took my body."
I placed my hand on my head and grabbed my hair, it was not Lunaria's long and beautiful hair. It was my hair, Este, the witch's hair. I stared down at my hands, they were as calloused as I remembered, I rolled up my sleeves and saw all the scars I'd attained in the years.
I stared back at her, the real Lunaria. She was glowing faintly, her silver hair floated like she was underwater. Her violet eyes were warm and she watched me with calmness. She didn't seem angry or afraid.
"I…," I didn't know what to say. I didn't have an excuse for taking her body.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I was going to die."
She smiled, it was a sad smile. My heart ached, I didn't think it through. I had entered the body of a girl without thinking of what had happened to her real soul. Turns out she was trapped in the void.
"That's the least of our worries right now," she said.
I blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm here, and you're here, so obviously, none of us are in control of my body. So who is?"
Her words settled in my head. I hadn't even considered that.
"What happens when none of us is steering the wheel?" I asked.
"My wolf," she said. "She's out."
"What, you mean like dual personalities?" I frowned.
She nodded. "You could say that. We used to be one at a time, but as I grew, she only got stronger, she wanted out, she wanted freedom. And when you took over my body, you separated us."
Uh, so like. This was my fault?
"She's trying to take over my body," Lunaria added. "If she does, she will wreak havoc. No one would be able to stop her."
"How do I stop her?" I asked as I took a step towards Lunaria.
"The wolf transformation will end by daybreak. She will be forced to return here," Lunaria looked at me. "And either one of us will take control."
My stomach twisted. I could see the ambition in Lunaria's eyes.
"So what happens to the one who doesn't?" I asked.
Lunaria's eyes softened but she didn't answer. Whoever lost would be trapped here until the next transformation.
I wrapped my arms around myself. I didn't mean for this to happen. I wasn't trying to steal her life. I just…
I just got tired of it all. The way they looked at me every time, the way they always blamed me for everything that went wrong. I just didn't want to live like that anymore.
"You're trying to break my bond with Kieran," she said. "And you've annoyed Elena. You're ruining my life."
The void trembled and a crack split open between Lunaria and I. Through the crack, we could see what was happening in the real world, through Lunaria's eyes.
The room was dark but we could see thanks to the reflection of the moonlight.
The room swayed with each of the wolf's movements. Her paws scraped against the stone floor, she circled the room more times than I could count.
She lunged at the door, over and over again as she crashed into it but the door didn't budge. She was like an unhinged beast. She snarled and howled, the sound was so heart wrenching that it shook the nonexistent air in the void.
She turned to the source of light above. She leapt but jerked back midair as she slammed into the ground with a yelp. She was trapped, she couldn't get out.
She growled as she padded the perimeter and sniffed the air as if she had no thoughts in her head aside from escaping that room.
The wolf paused and looked up at the moonlight, then she threw her head back and a chilling howl pierced the silence.
Neither Lunaria nor I said anything, we just watched the wolf through the crack in the void. We waited patiently because that was all we could do. The wolf wasn't going to calm down, she was going to keep trying to escape, and it seemed like the room wasn't going to budge either, and when the sun rose, one of us would have to take control.
Only one.
"Why did you do that?" Lunaria whispered after a while.
"Do what?" I asked, my eyes never leaving the crack.
"Why did you try to break my bond with Kieran? Why did you not think about what I wanted?"
I blinked and my eyes left the crack for Lunaria. "You are the Moon Princess, aren't you?"
Lunaria didn't answer right away. Her eyes searched mine but her expression was unreadable.
"Yes," she said at last. "I'm the Moon Princess, not Elena. But I had a deal with her, she allowed me to bond with Kieran in exchange for the title."
She turned her gaze back to the crack where the wolf continued its maddening and desperate attempts to escape.
"Being the Moon Princess means I don't have a say in my life. It means I don't choose who I can love. But I don't want to live my life like that, I love Kieran and I want to be with him."
I raised a brow. "Really? Him?"
"Yeah, he's so dreamy, and he's the sweetest person ever," she smiled. "There was this time Elena and I fell into a pool, and he leapt to save Elena because she couldn't swim but he left me, because I'd always wanted to be independent. It's something I'll need to rule this kingdom."
I blinked at her. "He left you in the water?"
She chuckled. "I'd hate it if he treated me like glass. He knew that, so he chose to save Elena instead. I just want to be able to choose Kieran, he's the right choice for me, not some royal blood that my parents chose."
I stared at her. Deep down, she was just a girl who wanted love, even if it was from… Kieran.
But I couldn't afford to give her back her body. Not yet.