THE MARK OF MOON FIRE

Ari didn’t hesitate.

The silver dagger pulsed in her hand, cool as river stone one moment and burning like a brand the next. Outside, the figures crept closer their shapes no longer fully human, no longer trying to be. They moved with precision. Coordination. Like they didn’t fear consequences.

Like they knew she couldn’t stop them.

She looked at Kael. “What happens if I fail?”

“You won’t,” he said.

She raised the dagger. Her hands were steady, though her heartbeat was a war drum in her ears. She pressed the blade against the inside of her forearm.

“Wait” Kael’s voice caught in his throat. “Once you do this, there’s no undoing it.”

“I know.”

She drew the blade across her skin.

The cut was shallow but immediate.

Pain flared. Blood welled. And then the world changed.

The air vanished.

Not literally, but everything around her seemed to warp sound, colour, even time itself. Her knees buckled as a heat bloomed in her chest and shot outward. The medallion around her neck, forgotten until now, glowed white-hot and fused with her skin in a flash of searing pain.

Her blood boiled not with heat, but with something ancient, something hungry.

Memories that weren’t hers clawed into her mind: wolves under twin moons, hands covered in blood, voices chanting in a language older than any tongue she knew.

Kael caught her before she hit the floor.

“It’s starting,” he said. “Just breathe through it.”

But she couldn’t.

Every nerve screamed.

Her bones popped not breaking, but reshaping. Her fingernails thickened, sharpened. Her vision blurred, then cleared and the world looked different. The room pulsed with life: warmth from the walls, heartbeats echoing outside.

Ari gasped.

The pain stopped. Not faded stopped. Like something inside her had clicked into place.

She stood, legs trembling. “I feel...”

“Alive?” Kael offered.

She nodded, eyes glowing faintly. “Yes.”

Outside, the three figures reached the porch.

Kael grabbed her arm. “They’re not scouts. They’re collectors.”

“Then let’s give them a reason to run.”

The first impact shattered the front door.

The wood exploded inward as a creature lunged jaws wide, claws outstretched. Kael tackled it mid-air, dragging it sideways into the hallway. They crashed into the wall with a thud.

Ari didn’t freeze this time.

She moved faster than she thought possible grabbing the rifle from the kitchen table, though it felt laughably small in her now-heightened awareness.

The second Thorne-wolf came in low, slashing.

Ari dodged by instinct, spinning to the side. She heard the air split as its claws missed her by inches. Then she drove her elbow into its temple. The thing stumbled back, dazed just long enough for her to press the rifle to its chest and pull the trigger.

Boom.

It crumpled.

Not dead. But down.

The third creature entered slower, cautious. Its head tilted, golden eyes narrowing. It sniffed the air, then snarled something not quite words but not animal either.

“Pact born,” it rasped.

Ari’s lip curled. “Better than whatever you are.”

Then she lunged claws forming from her own hands now, not weapons but part of her. The two clashed hard, teeth and muscle, until Kael rejoined the fight, slamming the creature into the ceiling before tossing it through the window.

Silence fell.

Only the creak of the shattered front door and the sound of their ragged breathing remained.

Kael wiped blood from his mouth. “You held back.”

“I didn’t want to kill them.”

He eyed her. “You will.”

They burned the bodies not out of hatred, but necessity.

Pact rules demanded no trace. If the Thorns were watching, they’d see this as provocation. War.

Ari stood over the fire, skin still tingling from the shift.

“I don’t feel like me.”

“You are,” Kael said, watching the flames. “But now you’re more.”

“How do you do it?” she asked. “How do you keep it from taking over?”

Kael didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was quiet. “You don’t. Not completely. You just learn to live with the edge of it. And pray you don’t fall in.”

Ari said nothing.

She was already teetering.

Later that night, they drove into town.

Kael parked the truck on the outskirts of the Hollow, hidden between two abandoned grain silos. “You can’t go back to your normal life. Not now.”

“I’m not leaving my friends behind.”

“They’re already in danger. You being near them makes it worse.”

“Then I’ll protect them.”

Kael turned toward her. “You can’t protect anyone if you don’t know what you’re up against. The Thorns won’t stop. They’ll come in greater numbers next time. And if Saris shows up herself”

“She won’t.”

Kael raised a brow.

Ari looked out the window. “Because I’m going to find her first.”

Kael let out a slow breath. “You’re not ready.”

“I don’t care.”

A pause.

Then he nodded, once. “Then we’ll train.”

She looked at him. “You’ll help me?”

“I didn’t survive this long just to let the last Hale Walk into the fire alone.”

Ari offered a tired smile. “You’re not what I expected.”

“Neither are you.