Chapter forty seven: silver blood moon

Freya's pov

The wind was colder than usual. It carried something unfamiliar ,strange with it, like a whisper I couldn’t hear properly. My fingers quivered as I pulled my heavy cloak tighter around me, even though I wasn’t sure if it was the cold or the fear making me quiver.

The crescent shaped sign on my chest burned again. It'd started last moonrise, but tonight, it felt worse, hotter, deeper. Like something inside me was rising up.

I stood at the corners of the clearing, watching the sky slowly darken. The stars were beginning to reveal, faint and far away. The moon hadn’t showed yet, but I could feel it coming. My whole body ached in a way I couldn’t explain.

Finnick stood a few steps behind me. I hadn’t looked at him, not really, since the ritual. The truth we found out that night, that he had chosen me, even against fate, it should’ve made me feel closer to him. But instead, everything felt more fragile. Like one wrong step would break everything between us.

And then there was the cub.

He sat in the center of the circle we’d made from old stones and silver dust, his tiny white body glowing softly. His eyes were closed, but I could feel him watching. He always seemed to know more than he let on. Sometimes, I wondered if he understood me better than I understood myself.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Finnick asked. His voice was soft, almost afraid.

“I have to,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if I meant it for him or for myself. “The bleeding started last time the moon rose. If it means something… I need to know.”

He didn’t answer, just stepped back. I could feel his worry, even from behind me.

I looked down at the mark on my chest. The skin around it had started to change. It wasn’t just a scar anymore. It shimmered in the light like something alive. As the sky grew darker, it began to glow faintly, the same color as moonlight.

And then the moon rose.

The moment its light touched me, the pain hit. I dropped to my knees with a cry, clutching my chest. The mark burned like fire. But it wasn’t just pain. It was… calling. It was pulling something out of me.

Blood poured from the mark. Not normal blood. It shimmered, silver and thick, running down my skin and onto the ground. The air grew still. Even the wind stopped.

The cub opened his eyes.

Silver,  Bright, Full of power I couldn’t understand. He stood slowly, his tiny body strong and steady. He looked straight at me and then he opened his mouth.

But it wasn’t a howl and just words. A single word, carried on a thousand voices.

“Mother.”

The air shivered and my breath caught. He had never called me that before.

Finnick stepped forward, but the moment he crossed the edge of the circle, something stopped him. A burst of light, like a shield, knocked him back.

“Freya!” he shouted, but I couldn’t speak.

The cub raised his head to the sky and howled a long, echoing sound that made the trees around us tremble. My bleeding chest answered. Light burst from the mark on my skin and shot up into the sky like a beam.

The clouds split and then we saw it.

A star fell.

Not just any star, it was like fire tearing through the sky, screaming across the heavens until it vanished behind the forest’s edge. A loud boom followed a moment later, and the ground shook beneath my knees.

My heart pounded so hard I could barely breathe. The cub turned to the place where the star had landed.

“They’re coming,” he said in a voice that wasn’t his. It was older. Wiser. It filled the clearing like thunder.

“Who?” I whispered, but I already knew the answer.

He looked at me again. “The ones who want to take me.”

Finnick rushed to me as the shield around the circle faded. He helped me to my feet, his hands shaking as much as mine. I leaned into him, too weak to stand on my own.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “But the prophecy… it’s real.”

The cub walked toward us slowly. He looked older than he had just moments ago. Taller. His voice had changed.

“The child of blood and dusk,” Finnick murmured. “It’s him.”

The cub stopped in front of me. “You have to protect me now, Freya,” he said. “They’ve seen the light. They know where I am.”

Before I could answer, the sky cracked.

Not thunder. Not a sound. But a real, visible crack across the sky itself like someone had torn it open with claws of light and shadow.

From that tear, a figure stepped out.

It moved like smoke, but glowed like moonfire. Its body was not fully solid, and yet I could feel its presence like weight pressing against my skin. It didn’t speak at first. It simply looked at the cub, then at me.

“I have come to claim the child,” it said.

Its voice was neither male nor female. It was soft and endless. Like the night itself had learned how to speak.

I pushed Finnick behind me and stood between the creature and the cub, blood still dripping from the wound on my chest.

“You’re not taking him,” I said.

The creature tilted its head. “He was never yours to keep.”

The cub stepped forward, placing a tiny paw on my leg. “Yes, I was.”

And then, everything went silent.

The creature raises a hand of smoke and moonlight. The cub’s eyes turn black as night and he says Freya’s name with Veyrix’s voice.