Chapter #4 - The Moon's Bloodline

Dawn in the Lumenwild didn’t look like dawn.

There was no sun, no horizon just only light bleeding slowly from the trees, silver and gold, as if the world itself was waking. The air shimmered with dew that glowed faintly when it touched my skin. I hadn’t slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the lake, the girl in the reflection, the way the moons had opened like eyes.

Now, standing in the Sanctum’s great hall, I felt that same stare again.

The Elders sat in a crescent of stone thrones carved into the mountain wall. They were tall, ageless, their hair threaded with silver and light. Their eyes glowed faintly with some gold, some white, some black as night itself.

Cael stood beside me, expression unreadable. The others lingered near the edges, silent.

An Elder with silver hair leaned forward. “The Moonfire has not chosen in centuries. You cross the veil without summons, yet bear her mark. How?”

I swallowed hard. “I—I don’t know. I just followed a light. It said my name.”

A murmur rippled through the chamber.

Another Elder, his voice deep as thunder, said, “The Moon does not speak to strangers.”

Kian muttered under his breath, “She’s full of surprises.”

Cael shot him a warning look but said nothing.

The silver-haired Elder rose. “The prophecy warned us of this. A child unseen, born where memory dies, marked by the twin moons.”

Auren’s eyes flicked to me, troubled. “Born where memory dies… Willowmere.”

The name fell from his lips like a secret finally uncovered.

I frowned. “What does Willowmere have to do with this?”

Cael’s jaw clenched. “Everything.”

The Elder’s gaze found his. “You knew she would come.”

“I suspected,” Cael said quietly.

“You interfered.”

“I saved her.”

The chamber’s light dimmed. The air thickened, charged with power.

Another Elder rose and her voice was softer, but it cut deeper. “You risked the balance, Alpha. The Moonfire was not meant to awaken yet.”

“And if it hadn’t?” Cael shot back. “The Riftborn would have torn through the veil. You would have felt their claws at your throats.”

The silence that followed was sharp as broken glass.

Finally, the silver-haired Elder turned back to me. “Tell us, Elara Ward tell us what do you remember before the veil called you?”

I hesitated. “Not much. Just… the town. My foster homes. Being forgotten. Like I didn’t exist until someone needed the space.”

The Elder’s eyes softened, barely. “You were hidden for a reason.”

“Hidden?”

“The Moon’s bloodline runs through you,” he said. “Long ago, one of her chosen broke their vow and crossed into the mortal realm. Their descendants carried fragments of her essence and until it found its way to you.”

My breath caught. “You’re saying I’m… what? Part god?”

Kian grinned faintly. “Congrats, Moonfire. Makes family reunions interesting.”

Cael didn’t smile. His eyes were fixed on the mark glowing faintly beneath my collarbone. “It also means she’s bound. The Moon doesn’t mark what she doesn’t claim.”

“Claim?” I echoed. “You make it sound like I belong to her.”

“She doesn’t take. She remembers,” the Elder said. “And what she remembers, she calls home.”

The words sent a chill through me.

“What does she want?” I whispered.

“To be whole again,” the Elder said. “And you, Elara, are her missing piece.”

The mark burned suddenly, flaring bright enough to cast shadows across the hall. The light struck the stone carvings and the wolves, moons, and stars and every symbol came alive, shifting into a pattern that spiraled toward me.

The Elders rose as one.

“She awakens,” one of them whispered. “The Moon’s will stirs.”

The floor trembled. Dust fell from the ceiling.

Cael moved instantly, stepping in front of me. “Enough!”

But the energy was already moving, rippling outward in a wave that knocked half the torches dead.

When it faded, I was on the floor, shaking, the air around me still crackling with silver fire.

Kian swore softly. “Well… that escalated.”

Cael crouched beside me. “You all right?”

I nodded weakly, though the mark still throbbed under my skin. “What… what was that?”

Auren’s voice came quiet. “The Moon recognized her claim.”

Nyx’s shadow stretched long across the floor. “And now every Riftborn in both worlds will feel it.”

The Elders looked shaken up even afraid.

Cael met their gaze, golden eyes blazing. “Then we stand between her and the dark. Like we were always meant to.”

“Protecting her will doom us,” one Elder warned.

“Abandoning her will doom everyone else,” Cael said.

And in that silence that fragile, glowing stillness and I felt it again.

The Moon’s voice, faint and echoing inside my head.

The veil is thinning.

The blood remembers.

Find the heart, before the dark does.

When I looked up, Cael was still watching me but not like I was a stranger anymore.

Like he remembered me too.