Forever Luna

cognisance

noun ~ meaning knowledge, awareness, notice, or understanding of something

NOVA

The forest vanished as if it had been ripped away from around me. The trees collapsed into nothing until only the battlefield remained. One moment I was trapped inside Cors' memory, surrounded by cold air and the horror of what Apollo had done; the next, reality slammed back into me with brutal force.

I sucked in a violent breath, sharp enough to burn my throat, and the world rushed in all at once. The stench of blood, the earth beneath me, the growls tearing across the forest... it all crashed over me so quickly I could barely separate one horror from another.

For several seconds, I couldn't move. My body stayed frozen where it was, trapped between the memory I had just witnessed and the nightmare waiting around me. Though it felt distant compared to the pounding of my heart, as it hammered so violently against my ribs that every beat hurt.

Cors's voice still echoed inside my skull, impossibly clear despite the chaos raging around us. I had heard him; I had heard my uncle speak. I had watched him stand in those woods and confront Apollo, watched him fight for my family when none of us had even known there was something to fight against.

And then the memory sharpened again in my mind: the flash of the knife, the sound of his scream, the impossible amount of blood staining the snow. Apollo had thrown Cors's tongue to that wolf as though it were nothing more than a scrap of meat, and the thought made my stomach roll with a sickness I couldn't swallow down.

'Nova... Come on, girl, wake up.' Cel's voice hummed through my mind.

I turned my head, slowly at first, as if I were afraid the movement might break whatever fragile thread still connected me together. Cors was beside me, older now, weathered by decades of silence and exile, his bleeding hand hanging loosely at his side.

For the first time in my life, I didn't see the strange recluse who had hidden himself amongst the trees for decades. I saw the man who had shouted, argued, warned, and fought until Apollo tore the truth from his mouth. I saw the man who had tried to save us.

"Cors..." I croaked.

His gaze met mine, and something passed between us. Understanding, perhaps.

My throat tightened, barely a rasp. "You tried to warn them. I saw..."

I swallowed when my chest constricted, a sharp pain as my heart picked up speed. Phoenix growled from beside me, his warmth slowly seeping into me. I accepted his touch, leaning into it as my broken body continued to heal.

Cors' expression barely changed, but his eyes did.

"You knew." I whispered. "Everything."

A tiny dip of his chin was his only answer.

I swallowed hard against the lump rising in my throat, but it refused to go away. It sat there like grief made solid, pressing against every word I couldn't say as the truth settled over me with a weight I had no way to brace for.

All these years, Cors had carried it alone. Every season, every rumour, every suspicious glance had been another punishment added to the one Apollo had already given him, and none of us had understood the cost of his silence.

Apollo hadn't merely taken Cors's tongue. He had taken his voice, his name, his place in our family, and every chance he'd ever had to defend himself against the lies that followed.

He had stolen an entire life and left Cors trapped inside the wreckage of it, forced to watch the world believe the monster was him while the real one wore power like a crown.