LOGINCHAPTER 155: TWO EDGESThe low ceiling of the underground war room trapped the heat from the small iron stove, making the air smell of charcoal, damp wool, and cold grease.I sat near the wooden table with my hands pulled tight inside the sleeves of my heavy coat, watching Elara and Dante double-check our supplies while Elric stood near the narrow doorway. His arms were crossed over his chest, his eyes fixed on the entrance as we waited for Corvus’s encrypted transmission from Geneva. Every minute we spent sitting in this room felt like hours, especially with the cold, faint vibration pulsing steadily under my shirt.The dark violet thread on my shoulder was humming louder than it had yesterday. It didn't hurt, but the sensation kept dragging my attention back to the mark every time I tried to focus on our route map."She's doing it again," Dante said softly, pointing a rolled-up map at my hands. "Mira, you're pressing your thumb against your collarbone. Is the mark burning?"I pulle
CHAPTER 154: WHAT WE BURIEDThe morning air in the lower valley was bitterly cold, carrying a sharp smell of wet earth and pine needle smoke that hung low over the clearing behind the safe house.I stood on the grassy incline near the edge of the woods, wrapping my wool coat tightly around my chest as I watched Alpha Theron and four Shadowfang warriors lower the first wooden casket into the freshly dug ground. There were seven graves lined up along the ridge—seven people who had been killed during Malphas’s forced ritual, including two young Silvanus scouts and five pack civilians who had been dragged out of their homes to feed the dark rift.Elric stood right beside me, his shoulder pressed against mine, keeping his arm locked around my waist to help steady my balance. My physical strength was slowly returning, but standing in the damp grass for more than a few minutes still made my legs ache with a deep, lingering exhaustion that reminded me of how close I had come to dying.Beside
CHAPTER 153: MARKEDThe warm afternoon light streamed through the small window of the safe house parlor, but no matter how thick the wool blanket wrapped around my shoulders was, I couldn't get rid of the cold sensation lingering right beneath my collarbone.I sat on the edge of the wooden bench, unbuttoning the top two buttons of my shirt so Elara could examine the skin above my heart. Elric stood right beside the table, leaning his hip against the wood with his arms crossed tightly against his chest, his gray eyes fixed on my shoulder with a sharp, vigilant intensity. Dante leaned against the doorframe, watching in quiet silence as Elara pulled a magnifying lens out of her leather bag and angled it toward my chest."Is it spreading?" Dante asked, unable to keep the worry out of his voice."No," Elara murmured, her fingers cool and gentle as she pressed them around the perimeter of the mark. "The surface inflammation has settled, but the tissue itself has fundamentally changed. It
CHAPTER 152: PULLING HER BACKThe coldness didn't leave my body all at once; it clung to my skin like frost, making my fingers stiff and my chest feel so tight I couldn't draw in a full breath. I was lying on my side in the damp grass at the edge of the well, my face pressed against the icy dirt, listening to the frantic, overlapping sounds of the clearing coming back into focus. Elric was kneeling over me, his hands shaking as he kept one arm locked under my shoulders to prop me up, while Elara rushed over with her medical kit, dropping to her knees on my other side. "Her pulse is erratic," Elara said, her voice sharp with panic as she pressed two fingers against the side of my neck. "She forced the boundary closed while her core was completely depleted. The residual feedback is pulling her frequency out of alignment again. If we don't ground her right now, her mind is going to drift right back into that rift!"I tried to speak, to tell them that I was awake, that I could hear them
CHAPTER 151: TOO CLOSEThe air in the clearing felt thick and heavy, carrying the bitter taste of burnt copper and ozone that settled on the back of my tongue. I was kneeling on the frozen dirt, my hands pressed flat against the stone base of the collapsed well, watching the jagged purple rift overhead wobble and twitch like a dying nerve. Malphas was gone, his vanguard scattered into the dark treeline by Theron’s wolves, but the tear in reality wasn't closing. The forced ritual had dragged the dimensional boundary too far out of alignment, and without an anchor to seal the breach from the inside, the Hollow’s corruption was continuing to seep into the soil. "Mira, don't!" Elric’s voice barked behind me, sharp and frantic, as his boots skidded against the loose gravel. "You seared the tether! The victims are free, but your core is completely empty. Step back from the rift!"I didn't step back. I couldn't move my legs even if I wanted to, because the residual frequency hummed right t
CHAPTER 150: FORCED RITUALThe ground beneath the safe house didn't just shake; it groaned with a sickening, metallic screech that rattled the dishes right off the kitchen counters and sent a cloud of old plaster dust showering down from the ceiling. I scrambled out of bed, my knees buckling as another violent tremor hit, but Elric was beside me in an instant, his arm catching my waist and pulling me steady against his chest. My core was still severely depleted, my skin cold and my hands trembling with exhaustion, but the raw, unadulterated terror spiking through my blood forced my mind into sharp, immediate focus. "What is that?" I asked, my voice tight as I gripped Elric's forearm, listening to the muffled, overlapping screams echoing from the forest outside. "Malphas," Elric said, his gray eyes darkening with a deadly, focused intensity as he pulled his broadsword from the table and slung the leather harness across his chest. "He didn't wait for the summit in Geneva. He's bringi
CHAPTER 6: ASHES AND SECRETS We had to keep moving because this place we're staying isn't safe anymore. I pressed harder against Elric's side, trying to ignore how much of his weight I was carrying. Blood soaked through his shirt where that packleader had torn his fang into him. The wound looked
CHAPTER 5 – BLOOD IN THE MOONLIGHT The Bloodfang charged in full motion against the trio. The forest erupted in chaos. Elric unsheathed his sword. Snarls broke through the air. The Bloodfang warriors charged like shadows unleashed. Elara threw her cloak aside, her hands glowing with wind magi
CHAPTER 2 – THE MARK OF A MURDERER & EXILE The moon hung low the next night, blood-tinged and eerie, as if the heavens already knew what was coming. I stood before the stone hearth of the Council Hall, wrapped in a borrowed cloak, the Luna mark still burning against my skin. I hadn’t slept. T
CHAPTER 1;THE MOONBRAND LUNA “You were never meant to lead.” I had spent twenty-six years trying not to be a burden. Keeping my head down, doing what I was told, avoiding the kind of attention that led to consequences. In our pack, girls like me didn’t get seen—we served, we obeyed, we endured.







