Chapter #1 - The Light in the Woods

Elara POV

By the time I saw the light in the woods, Willowmere had already started to die.

No one talked about it, but everyone felt it. The air clung to my skin like cold smoke. Streetlights blinked out and stayed broken. The lake quit reflecting the moon. Even the willows, the ones that gave the town its name, bent lower every year, it's branches heavy with something unseen.

People whispered about gas leaks or old mining shafts or radon in the soil. They always needed an explanation. But there wasn’t one. Not for the whispers in the fog. Not for the wolves that sang in moonlight no one else could see.

I noticed. I always did. Maybe because I was the only one no one else saw.

I was seventeen and already tired of being temporary. The system had shuffled me through more homes than I could count. In this one, the walls smelled like bleach and cigarette smoke, and the woman who was supposed to be my guardian kept the deadbolt on her bedroom door.

I didn’t bother trying to belong anymore.

Most nights, I escaped to the porch with a blanket and my thoughts. The town slept early. Only the forest stayed awake. The trees were always whispering, a constant, secret hum that made me feel less alone.

That night, the air felt different. Too still. Too expectant. The moon was huge and wrong, red at the edges, as if it had bled into itself.

Then I saw it.

A flicker in the trees.

At first, I thought it was a reflection off glass. But it pulsed, soft and rhythmic, almost alive. A globe of light floated just above the ground, weaving between the trunks like it was testing how close it could come before I noticed.

I stood, every instinct telling me to stay put. But I’d spent my life obeying rules that led nowhere. I needed something….anything, to feel like my choice.

So I followed.

The moment I crossed into the treeline, the world exhaled.

Fog rolled in from nowhere, curling around my ankles like smoke. The town’s noise faded behind me, the hum of power lines, the distant sound of a car engine, all gone.

Only my heartbeat remained.

The light drifted ahead, leading me deeper. The forest floor glowed faintly silver where it passed, roots shining like veins under skin.

“Hello?” My voice came out small, swallowed by the trees.

No answer. Only that rhythmic flicker, like the world’s slowest heartbeat.

The trees opened around a clearing I’d never seen before. At its center lay the Mirror Lake. Even from the edge, I could tell the water wasn’t water, it was glass, perfectly still, and reflecting a sky that looked too bright.

The light hovered above it, pulsing faster now impatiently.

Then I heard it.

My name.

“Elara.”

It wasn’t shouted. It wasn’t even loud. But it threaded straight through my chest, soft and ancient and certain.

I should have run. I should have turned back and pretended it was a dream. But I didn’t. I walked to the water’s edge.

The light dipped once, then sank into the lake. Ripples spread outward, glowing silver.

And the reflection staring up at me wasn’t mine.

The girl in the glass had hair like light and eyes the color of mercury. She smiled, faint and familiar, like someone remembering a song.

“Come home,” she said.

The ground gave out beneath me.

________________________________

I didn’t fall into the lake. I fell straight through it.

Cold light wrapped around me, sharp as knives. My body twisted, and felt weightless. The air crackled with the sound of wind and water colliding. My lungs seized. Then, just as suddenly, it stopped.

I hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of me.

When I opened my eyes, the world had changed.

The forest was still there….but it glowed faintly, like moonlight had soaked into the tree bark. The sky above held two moons, one silver, one red, both were way too close. My breath formed ribbons of fog in the air that shimmered like metal dust.

I stumbled to my feet, dizzy. “Where….”

A growl cut me off. Deep and close.

From the shadows, something moved.

A wolf stepped into the light. It was massive, with black fur streaked with gold, and its eyes were a burning molten amber. It was taller than I was. Its gaze locked onto mine, sharp and intelligent, and for a second, I swore I heard words in my head.

*Mine.*

Before I could move, someone grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t run.”

I spun around and came face to face with a man built like the wolf itself, he had broad shoulders, dark hair, and eyes the exact same molten gold. A scar cut across his jaw. He held me steady, breathing hard.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“I didn’t exactly plan this,” I snapped, shaking free.

He studied me, his jaw tight. “You crossed the veil.”

“The what?”

Before he could answer, the forest screamed.

The air split open, and silver light poured from the soil. Shadows poured out with it, creatures made of bone and smoke, their faces flickering between human and beast.

The man snarled. “Riftborn.”

He shoved me behind him just as one lunged. It moved too fast, its claws catching moonlight. The man’s hands glowed gold. He struck, and the creature shattered into shards of shadow that melted into the ground.

Three more emerged.

Another man appeared from the trees, lean and laughing, his eyes bright as lightning. “Told you it would happen!”

Two others followed. One was silent, with eyes a haunting shade of violet, and one was wrapped in darkness so deep it swallowed the light. They moved like predators, fluid and precise.

“What is this?” I shouted.

The first man, with gold eyes and command in his every breath, glanced back at me.

“The Lumenwild,” he said grimly. “And you just woke it up.”

The ground trembled. The silver light beneath the soil pulsed once, twice, then burst upward in a column around me.

Pain ripped through my chest. I screamed as fire and frost tangled inside me. A symbol burned into my skin, crescent-shaped, glowing, and alive.

When the light faded, the men stared.

“She’s marked,” the blond one said with his eyes wide. “Moonfire.”

“What does that mean?” I managed, my voice shaking.

The golden-eyed man’s expression hardened. “It means, little wolf…” He looked toward the horizon, where the howls began again, low and rising. “You just became the reason we all die, or the reason we live.”

The forest shuddered. The two moons bled light.

And somewhere above, I felt it…..

….the Moon herself, opening her eyes.