Selene stood still for a long moment. The wind moved gently around her, brushing her silver hair across her cheek. Light shimmered softly along her skin, making it glow faintly like pearl. Her gown swayed in the breeze, flowing behind her like a banner. She felt the sun's warmth on her shoulders and the steady earth beneath her bare feet.
She no longer trembled. She no longer hid her face. The world around her was broken, but something inside her was whole. She had walked through silence and shadow, and the light had not left her. The sun was with her now.
Selene took a deep breath and looked toward the distant hills. The path ahead was unclear, but she was no longer the forgotten girl locked behind iron gates.
She was awake. The sun lived in her.
She took a step forward.
As she walked through the quiet fields, memories rose inside her. Each warm step stirred something old and soft in her chest. The light of the sun brought her memories back like birds flying home. Her thoughts drifted away from the present and settled in the past.
She remembered cold stone walls and long dark halls. Her old home, the great fortress of House Castielle, had always felt like a place of mourning. Even in her earliest memories, the air inside the castle had been still, like it was holding its breath.
The servants whispered about her mother often. Some said she had known what Selene was before she was born. Others believed the curse had taken her life. They never spoke to Selene directly, but she always heard their voices—soft and afraid, like she was something too strange to touch.
From the beginning, Selene had been different.
The other vampires were frightened. They called her cursed. They said she was touched by something unholy. She should have burned in sunlight like the rest of them, but she did not.
Her father, Lord Amon Castielle, was a tall, quiet man with pale hair and sharp red eyes. He ruled the castle with a calm voice and cold hands. But he never struck her. He never shouted. He watched her closely, as if he was trying to understand something that no book had ever taught him.
When she was five years old, she fainted during a blood ceremony. The noble families had gathered to witness the child's first true drink. But when Selene drank from the ceremonial cup, her lips turned blue and her eyes rolled back. The hall erupted in alarm.
While the others screamed and accused her of being cursed, her father carried her out of the room in silence. He brought her to the highest tower, where the sun touched the stone for only a few moments each day.
He placed her on the warm floor and stepped back.
"Let the light heal you," he said. There was no fear in his voice, only quiet belief.
Selene had always remembered that moment. It was the first time she realized her father did not see her as a mistake.
Her brothers had never feared her either.
Lucien, the eldest, had the voice of a noble and the heart of a protector. His eyes were serious, but they softened whenever he looked at her. He brought her old books and told her about the history of the vampire clans. He taught her how to read and write.
Mathias, her second brother, had a laugh like bells. He snuck her treats from the kitchens and pulled funny faces through the silver bars of her garden. He made her laugh when her heart was heavy. He called her "little moonlight" and said she was brighter than the stars.
They were the only ones who did not look at her with fear.
Selene had spent most of her childhood in the sun garden. A silver fence kept her inside. The others said it was for her safety, but it was a cage. She sat alone on a white bench, day after day, watching the birds and pressing her hands into the warm earth.
She talked to the flowers. She named the clouds. She waited for visits that didn't always come.
When she was ten, she asked her father, "Why do they hate me?"
He had looked out the window for a long time before answering. "Because they do not understand you. And people often fear what they do not understand."
Selene had not truly understood those words until now.
The rumors grew with her. The older she became, the more whispers spread. Some said her mother had tried to hide the truth. Others spoke of an old prophecy—of a child born under the blood moon, whose heart beat in sunlight. It was said that this child would break the laws of the vampire world. Some believed she would bring ruin. Others believed she would bring change.
Selene had never known what to believe. All she had known was that her body grew stronger in the sun, and weaker in the dark. She had no thirst for blood. Her gifts were different from the others. And the castle, though grand and full of beauty, had always been her prison.
Now, as she walked under the open sky, she reached for the pendant at her throat. It was shaped like a tiny sun, golden and worn. Her father had placed it there on the last day she saw him.
She held it gently in her hand and whispered, "I was not a curse. I was a seed waiting for the sun."
The wind answered her softly, moving through the grass and carrying the scent of old stone and forgotten fire. The land around her was broken, but she was still standing.
The sky above her was wide and open. The sun watched over her like an old friend.
She took another step forward.
The Castielle name lived inside her, but so did something new—something brighter, something ancient. She would not let their fear define her.
Selene was no longer just a girl born under strange stars.
She was sunlight, awakened.
And she would never be hidden again.