The fire-scorched training field had barely cooled when the summons came.Rowan’s message passed through the valley like a whispered storm: Tonight, at the ritual grove, all marked by magic and memory must gather.The meaning was clear. The entity stirred beneath the stone again. The blood eclipse had shattered the veil. And now, only those chosen—those willing—could prepare for the next ritual: the binding.As dusk painted the sky in rose and gold, the grove bloomed to life.It was a sacred place—older than any pack, ringed in living stone and ancient oak. Fires burned at the four compass points, smoke curling skyward. The Watchers stood in full regalia, cloaks dark as nightfall, their carved masks expressionless but heavy with purpose.Aria stepped into the grove beside Xander, her daughter wrapped in a thick wool cloak between them. The wind smelled of pine, ash, and distant storm.Rowan’s voice rang clear. “Tonight, we summon the Marked—those whose blood bears prophecy, whose live
Dawn crept over Moonrise like a hesitant breath, as though the very world feared what the new day might bring. The unity circle’s light had dimmed through the night—its runes pulsing faintly, like a heartbeat caught between exhaustion and resolve. The valley had not slept. And neither had its leaders.In the healer’s den, Aria sat curled in a blanket she hadn’t unfolded in years. The warmth did little to ease the ache in her bones or the heaviness in her chest. Every heartbeat carried the echo of last night’s fight—Xander’s words, her defiance, the splintering silence that followed. They had survived so much together. But in trying to protect their daughter, they’d begun to fracture from within.At the far side of the great hall, Xander had slept little. He had lain on the council cot, one arm thrown over his eyes, as if hiding from the truth. Each time he closed his eyes, he saw her—his child—alone in fire, or worse, vanishing into the dark with no warning. Fear clung to him like smo
Moonrise glittered beneath the stars, quiet in a way that felt like waiting.The great council chamber—once a place of solemn decisions and shared strength—had become brittle with unease. The flickering of the moon-glass lanterns cast long, wavering shadows, making every figure around the table seem both more and less than they were.Aria sat at one end, her hands wrapped tightly around a cooling mug. The lines on her face had deepened in recent weeks—etched by loss, love, and the weight of leadership she never asked for but bore all the same.Xander stood at the opposite end, his broad shoulders rigid, his expression unreadable.Between them sat Mira, Rowan, Lysa, Danica, and Varek—leaders of clans who had once shed blood across borders and now shared tents and stories. But peace, they were learning, was not a spell. It was a choice—one that had to be made again, and again, and again.“We’ve had more sightings,” Rowan reported quietly. “The mist is thickening again near the broken ed
The lunar sanctuary was a place untouched by time.Nestled in the highest hollow of Moonrise’s cliffs, it was a chamber carved by moonlight and prayer—a place where silence spoke louder than any chant, and the air shimmered with the weight of memory. Silver etched every surface. Runes older than language pulsed faintly from the walls, alive with the breath of ancestors.And tonight, it was waiting.The Moonborn stood barefoot in its center, the sacred dust rising around her in lazy spirals. She was barely more than a child—tousled curls falling over her brows, face pale with sleeplessness—but something in her eyes had changed. She was no longer only Aria’s daughter. She was a vessel now. Of prophecy. Of power. Of choice.Around her, the elders chanted softly, their voices overlapping in threads of reverence and protection. Mira knelt closest, her tone steady as a heartbeat. “Moon above, guard our hearts. Night around, guard our steps. Ancestors, stand watch, and keep the shadows at ba
By dawn, the mountaintop was still. But peace, like prophecy, was never permanent.Aria woke slowly, her back aching from the stone, her arms wrapped tightly around her daughter. Xander sat beside them, bleary-eyed, his hand resting over hers. The temple’s broken roof had given them a view of the red-hued sky, now softening to bruised purple as the eclipse waned.But the light that returned felt hollow.The air itself carried a weight. It was not just magic—it was history unearthed.Below, the valley remained intact, the unity circle still glowing. Yet something had changed. People walked differently. Spoke less. Looked over their shoulders as if expecting echoes. And when the wind shifted, it carried not spring warmth—but mourning.Scouts were the first to notice. Then the children.Shadows were seen moving through the camps—too large for wolves, too still for men. The mist did not burn off with sunrise. Voices called from empty corners, and some who answered returned confused, cold,
The world shuddered. The sky bled red. And in that trembling silence that followed the blood eclipse’s peak, Aria understood—this was not just the fulfillment of a prophecy. This was the reckoning.High atop the fractured summit, the ancient mountaintop temple trembled beneath her. Aria clutched her daughter close, the child’s body warm against her chest, trembling like a leaf against the storm. Xander stood behind them, shielding them with his frame, arms wrapped around both. Their unity was the only certainty in a world turned raw and unknowable.The land moaned.Beneath their feet, the sacred stone cracked with long-forgotten groans, a sound so deep it seemed to rise from the marrow of the world itself. Veins of unnatural blue fire splintered outward from the heart of the mountain, weaving a web of light across the ruined floor of the temple. The seal was breaking—not in silence, but in screams of earth and magic.At the chasm’s center, where once the elders had whispered prayers t