The Banished Shy Luna Chapter 175

The moment the creature vanished back into the ground, reality snapped back around me like a rubber band.

Toren.

I dropped to my knees beside him so fast I didn’t feel the glass digging into my palms. His eyes were half-shut, his lashes clumped with blood, chest barely rising.

“Toren—Toren, look at me,” I whispered, skidding to my knees beside him.

He didn’t answer.

His breaths were shallow.

Painfully shallow.

His shirt was soaked in red, the SUV’s crushed dashboard having caught his ribs and shoulder. Every inhale sounded like it cost him a piece of his soul.

“Move,” I snapped, pushing debris away with shaking hands. “Everyone move—give me space.”

Mason and Douglas rushed past me, dragging the twins toward us, both girls limping, bleeding, but conscious.

Talon stumbled forward with Tyson’s weight slung over his shoulder. Tyson’s arm hung at a sick angle, bone jutting visibly beneath torn skin. He was bleeding heavily from a deep gash at his side.

“Get him down,” I ordered, voice breaking, “but Toren—Toren first.”

Mason knelt beside me, his hands shaking as he dialed the rogue doctor. “Come on, come on, pick up—”

Douglas glanced at me then froze.

“Why is your necklace glowing?”

“What?” I blinked, then looked down.

The black crystal was blinking.

Not glowing faintly like before—

blinking in a steady, erratic rhythm.

Pulsing.

Like a beacon.

Shyanne gasped. “Oh my god—IS IT TRACKING YOU?!”

My stomach dropped.

Douglas cursed under his breath. “If that thing’s broadcasting your location—”

Before anyone could move, Mason grabbed the chain, snarled, “Enough,” and ripped it off me with one violent tug.

The crystal hit the ground.

And the moment it left my skin—

My power roared awake.

Like taking a breath after drowning.

Heat flooded through me, sharp and alive and ancient.

It rolled down my arms in a tidal wave of shadow-light, crackling at my fingertips.

I gasped and clutched the dirt to ground myself.

“Oh gods,” I whispered. “I can feel everything again.”

Douglas backed up a step. “That is NOT a normal aura.”

Talon tightened his grip on Tyson, eyes wide. “Firefly—your eyes…”

But I didn’t stop to ask what that meant.

I focused on Toren.

I pressed both hands to his chest.

And healing poured out of me like a river breaking its dam.

Warmth.

Light.

Shadow.

All at once.

My power wrapped around his shattered ribs, knitting bone. It slid into his lungs, sealing torn tissue. It rushed into the deepest wounds, drawing the blood back into vessels, closing gashes, repairing muscle.

It was effortless.

It was terrifying.

It was right.

But something gnawed at my mind.

Why wasn’t the necklace stopping this?

It was supposed to hide my power.

Suppress it.

Mute my aura until I faded into the crowd.

But I had just:

broken an Elder-bound creature

healed Toren’s internal bleeding

and still felt my full power thrumming beneath my skin

None of this made sense.

As Toren’s breathing eased, Tyson stumbled closer, his face pale, and Talon held him steady.

“Moonshine…” Tyson rasped. “Your necklace never blocked you.”

“I know,” I breathed, voice trembling.

Shyanne stepped forward, eyes huge. “Wait—what if the doctor lied? What if he gave you something that tracks you instead of hiding you?”

“No,” I said immediately. “He was scared out of his mind. He wouldn’t lie to us. Not on purpose.”

Marianne hugged herself. “Then why was it glowing like a freaking GPS beacon?”

Good question.

Douglas crouched beside it, eyes narrowing. “This isn’t masking anything. This is sending something out.”

Mason straightened slowly, phone pressed to his ear. “Doctor’s not answering.”

Of course he wasn’t.

I forced my breath steady as I checked Toren’s pulse.

Strong.

Safe.

Alive.

A sob of relief nearly escaped me.

But the fear came back fast.

“What if the necklace wasn’t meant to block my power,” I whispered slowly, piecing it together, “but redirect it?”

Talon frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning,” I said shakily, “when I used my abilities, the necklace reacted.”

Douglas cursed softly. “Like a magical battery.”

Tyson winced, clutching his broken arm. “Meaning every time you healed or used your power— that thing pinged our location.”

My heart sank.

“No…”

“Yes,” Mason said darkly. “That blinking light wasn’t suppression. That was a signal.”

Shyanne gasped. “So the Elders—”

“Know exactly where we are,” Mason finished, voice like gravel.

“I’m heading back to that gas station we passed,” he said, already pocketing his keys. “A few miles north. I’ll… repurpose a vehicle.”

I blinked. “Repurpose?”

Talon snorted. “He means steal.”

Tyson muttered, “Fucking figures.”

Douglas sighed. “For a billionaire, your dad steals a lot.”

Mason glanced over his shoulder with a shrug. “Money’s useless if I’m dead. Or if she’s dead. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

Then he was gone — sprinting into the treeline like he’d trained for getaway driving his entire life.

Honestly? He probably had.

I sucked in a shaky breath and turned back to Toren, pressing my hands to his chest one more time just to be sure.

Warm.

Steady.

Whole.

Relief washed through me so hard my eyes burned.

Then I looked at Douglas — who was trying very badly to pretend he wasn’t limping or bleeding down his calf.

“Sit,” I ordered.

“No, I’m fine—”

“Sit,” I repeated, voice edged with power I hadn’t meant to release.

He sat.

His leg was torn open from where the car door had sliced through him, the bone bruised deep beneath the skin. I laid my hands over it and let my power seep into him.

The bleeding slowed.

The muscle knitted.

His ribs — cracked from impact — shifted back into place.

Douglas hissed, then exhaled. “Still weird as hell, but thank you.”

I moved next to Tyson.

His arm was bent wrong. His side was leaking blood. He was doing that thing where he pretended it didn’t hurt by clenching his jaw so hard it probably cracked.

“Moonshine,” he whispered as I hovered my hands over him. “I’m good. Heal the others first.”

“You’re not good,” I snapped. “You look like someone threw you off a cliff.”

“That happened once,” he said. “I survived.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, and pressed my palm to his skin.

He grunted as the bone realigned, his fingers digging into the dirt. Talon knelt beside him, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder.

When Tyson finally gasped a full breath without wincing, he slumped back, panting.

“Okay,” Talon said, rubbing the back of his neck as he stared at all of us. “That necklace? That doctor? The creature? The crash?”

“Pick one,” Shyanne muttered. “We’re drowning.”

Douglas stood, rolling his newly healed shoulder. “We need a plan. Now. The Council knows where we are, which means they’re mobilizing.”

Tyson cursed. “They were already close if they sent that creature after us. We don’t have long before they send the next thing.”

Talon cracked his knuckles. “We need to hit them first.”