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The Red Moon (4)
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2024-09-16 17:15:43Seraphina's POV
At the human school, I wasn’t particularly remarkable. My grades were average, nothing special. But it didn’t matter. I had no intention of attending one of their universities. My goals were set much higher than that.
My real ambition was to attend Loisage Academy, a prestigious school known only to our kind. It wasn’t a place for ordinary humans. It was a sanctuary for wolves, witches, and other magical elites. Loisage held the kind of knowledge I desperately needed—the kind that might help me break the red moon curse that had plagued my family for centuries.
I knew that the answer had to be hidden somewhere in the academy’s vast collection of ancient texts. There had to be something, some spell or ancient ritual, that could finally free us from this cycle of death and loss. And if there wasn’t? Well, then I would find a way to create one myself.
The weight of the curse pressed down on me more heavily with each passing year. Every time I caught a glimpse of the red moon through my window, my heart clenched with dread. My mother’s ominous words echoed in my mind, and I couldn’t help but fear that, like her, my time would eventually come to an abrupt and violent end.
But I wasn’t ready to accept that fate. Not yet. Not without a fight.
I had always thought I would have more time.
The plan had been simple: attend Loisage Academy for four or five years, gain the knowledge I needed to handle the complexities of the Moonbane family, and return when I was ready—ready to assume the responsibilities that came with being the next in line for our cursed legacy. At least, that was the future I had envisioned for myself.
Though I never fully related to humans, there were aspects of their beliefs that resonated with me—especially their idea that even while shouldering family obligations, one must live for themselves. It struck a chord with me. As much as my bloodline bound me to the Moonbane family’s ancient ways, I couldn’t help but long for a life beyond its grasp, if only for a short while.
After all, my lifespan was already destined to be brief.
But now, on the night of my sixteenth birthday, the reality I had hoped to postpone came crashing down on me far sooner than I had expected. The moment I saw the red moon hanging ominously in the sky, dread gripped my heart like a vice. The glow of the moon, deep crimson like blood, seemed to sear through the night with its cursed light, a reminder of the fate that had claimed every family head before me.
Had the curse finally taken my mother too? The thought sent waves of panic crashing through me, each one more suffocating than the last. I couldn’t breathe.
"Mother... Has she...?" My voice trembled in the stillness of the night, my mind grasping at the worst-case scenario. Was she dead?
But no. I couldn’t accept that without seeing her for myself. My instincts screamed at me to check on her, to confirm with my own eyes that she was still alive. There had to be time. The curse couldn't have taken her so soon, not like this.
I turned toward Stephen, his face lit by the faint red glow of the moon. His expression was unreadable, but I could see a flicker of worry in his eyes as he looked at me. He hadn’t seen her either.
"Stephen!" I called out, my voice stronger now, fueled by a sudden surge of determination. "Have you seen Mother? Have you checked on her?" The urgency in my tone snapped him out of his daze, and he blinked, shaking his head in response. He seemed as lost as I was, caught in the overwhelming confusion that had descended on us both.
I couldn’t wait for him to gather his thoughts. "The Red Moon Curse... I don’t believe in that nonsense!" I spat, tightening my grip on his wrist and pulling him toward me. "We’re going to see Mother—now."
Even though I knew the curse was real—how could it not be, when it had claimed so many before her?—I refused to believe that it had taken her without a fight. My mother was too strong for that. Too powerful. She wouldn’t just give in. There had to be a chance, however small, that she was still alive. Still fighting.
No. I wouldn’t accept her death until I saw it with my own eyes.
I didn't fully understand why, at that moment, I felt such an overwhelming need to see her, to feel her presence once more. Maybe it was the blood that bound us, or perhaps it was a part of me that still believed she could defy the fate that loomed over us. Whatever the reason, I had to find her.
Latest chapter
The Last Moonbane Reset on Our Terms (2)
Seraphina’s POV“Hidden door?”“More like hidden consent.” He stood, eyes scanning the transept. “These tiles are telling a story. You see it?”“Time that welcomes you in,” I said. “And time that snaps its teeth.”He huffed a humorless breath. “Pretty much.”We moved up the aisle. Behind the altar, a small door sat flush to the wall, its wood painted to match the paneling. It would have vanished if you didn’t know to look for uneven varnish—someone had repainted often. The handle was smooth from use. Elias tried it. It didn’t turn.“Locked,” he said.“Of course it is.”He bent, studying the bronze plate around the keyhole. It was notched at four points, tiny glints of star-metal winking from the corners. Star-iron, mined from the mountains, hammered thin, fitted clean. Too small for a blade to get purchase. Too precise for a pick.“Special key,” he said, straightening. “Not a rod. Something shaped.”“Like a sunwheel,” I said, thinking of the floor. “Or a medallion.”“Or a bookplate,”
The Last Moonbane Reset on Our Terms (1)
Seraphina’s POVMorning came without mercy.The town looked gentle beneath it—lanterns snuffed, shutters propped open, the square rinsed in gold—but the gentleness felt like a lie we’d already read to the end. Inside the inn room, our victory was simple and unadorned: four of us upright, four of us breathing. We’d held through the night. No one had fallen. No loops had snapped shut around us.Relief arrived—and passed. Because the door told the rest of the story.The iron-banded wood sagged on its hinges, hairline fractures spidering out from each gouge where claws had raked at the barrier’s skin. Splinters sprouted along the grain like a field of pale weeds. A new crack had appeared through the center panel, thin as a thread but deep, and when the light slid across it I could see it widen, the way a wound opens when the muscles beneath it flex.Thalia lifted the latch with two fingers. Even that light touch made the whole frame creak.“We won’t get another night out of this,” she sai
The Last Moonbane The Pieces in the Library
Seraphina’s POVThe sunlight was warm, almost mocking. After the hours of pounding claws and shrieking things outside the inn’s door, the town felt almost… ordinary.Birds chirped from the crooked gutters, and a thin breeze rustled through the banners strung between the houses. A farmer passed us on the street, tipping his straw hat in greeting. His donkey cart rattled over the cobblestones as though nothing in the world had ever been wrong.But the four of us knew better.The inn door behind us hung crooked now, its frame splintered where the creatures had battered against it through the night. The pale shimmer that had held them back was weaker, thinner. I didn’t need to touch the wood to know: one more night like last, and the barrier would break.We didn’t say it aloud. We didn’t need to.Instead, Thalia tightened her cloak around her shoulders and led the way down the street. “The library,” she said. Her voice was brisk, determined. “We waste no time today.”Nyra nodded, eyes nar
The Last Moonbane The Cracks in Sanctuary
Seraphina’s POVThe first light of morning crept through the shutter slats, gray and reluctant, but to us it was salvation. The sounds had ceased hours ago—the scraping claws, the pounding fists, the guttural screeches outside our door. For the first time, all four of us were still breathing when dawn returned.Relief swelled in my chest, sharp and fleeting, because it came with another realization: survival wasn’t victory. Not here. Not in this cursed town.Thalia stretched stiffly, leaning against the wall with her sword across her lap. Her face was pale, hair plastered to her temples with sweat, but she managed a grim smile. “We made it.”Elias gave a low laugh, more exhale than amusement. “Barely. But yeah. One night.”I wanted to echo them, to let relief have its place, but my eyes drifted toward the door. The iron-banded wood sagged on its hinges, deep cracks running along the grain where claws had raked again and again. In the center, a splintered hole had appeared, no bigger t
The Last Moonbane The Fifth Strike
Seraphina’s POVI woke to the sound of bells.Eleven sharp tolls, each reverberating in the hollow space of the inn’s common room.My chest rose, then fell. I didn’t need to ask what time it was. The rules of this place had already carved themselves into my bones: morning always began here, at eleven.I sat up slowly, the blanket sliding from my shoulders. Around me, the others were already awake. Thalia stood with her arms crossed near the hearth, Elias was pacing a groove into the floorboards, and Nyra crouched by the table, her dark braid falling over one shoulder.The room itself… was wrong.Loose sheets of paper littered the table, curling at the edges as if they had been torn in haste. Rust-colored stains streaked across several pages, the kind of stains no one needed to name aloud. The smell lingered, faint but metallic. My gaze dragged itself to the wall beside the hearth.Words had been gouged into the wood with something sharp. Most of them had been hacked out again, leaving
The Last Moonbane Fractures in the Loop
Seraphina’s POVWe spent most of the morning arguing over the safest way to test our theory.The four of us sat around the inn room’s small oak table, sunlight spilling across maps and scraps of notes Nyra had been obsessively keeping. The smell of the baker’s bread still drifted faintly from outside, that same too-sweet mix of wheat and honey we’d smelled on every loop since arriving in this cursed place.“This room’s not unbreakable,” I said, my fingers tracing the edge of the table. “The hits we heard last night… they were stronger than the first night. I could feel it in the wood under my feet.”Elias leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Which means it’s not a permanent shelter. But we don’t know how fast it degrades.”“That’s exactly what we need to find out,” Nyra said, flipping through her notes. “If the room’s barrier works like the rest of the cycle, maybe it needs the reset at dawn to stay intact.”Thalia blew a strand of hair out of her face. “So what, we all just
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