All Chapters of Moonbound Hearts: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Nyx ---I could taste metal in the air.The kind that lingered after lightning struck too close.The clearing was silent except for the wind—a restless whisper threading through the bone-colored trees. Dusk had fallen hours ago, but the moon above burned silver and full, casting pale light over the worn stones that circled the ritual site.I stood barefoot at the center.Maela watched me from the edge of the ring, her silver-blond hair unbound and floating slightly, like it didn’t fully obey the rules of this realm. She looked otherworldly. Fierce. As old as the forest and twice as dangerous."You’re sure about this?” she asked, voice low. “Once the first door opens, there’s no going back.”“I was born behind locked doors,” I said. “I’m ready to find the keys.”She nodded once, and then stepped forward, carving a symbol into the dirt with the toe of her boot. It glowed faintly—a curve of ancient glyphs that pulsed like a heartbeat.My heartbeat.“You’ll need blood,” Maela said.Of co

Caspian ---The cabin disappeared behind us like a dream fading in daylight.I didn’t look back.Nyx moved beside me, fast and quiet, her breath misting in the cold dawn air. She didn’t ask questions, didn’t stumble. Just followed.Good. She was learning.I had one pack on my back, weapons strapped across my chest and thighs, and a map etched in my head that I hadn’t looked at in years. The woods east of the Blackbend River were thick with natural barriers and old, half-dead magic. Dangerous for most. Perfect for us.“Keep your hood up,” I said low.She obeyed.I could feel her tension, coiled and sharp as a drawn bowstring. But there was something else too. A thrum just beneath her skin. Like a heartbeat that wasn’t quite hers.She was still changing.Still awakening.That scared me more than I wanted to admit.The Order didn’t hunt wolves. Not in the traditional sense. They hunted bloodlines. Old ones. Ones that shouldn’t exist anymore. The Moonbound were like a myth even among our

Nyx---I should’ve been asleep.I was exhausted—bone-deep, soul-worn tired—but the moment I closed my eyes, the silence inside me hummed.Not the wild, sparking storm from before. Not the heat of uncontrolled power.This was different.Colder.Older.Something had opened inside me, and it refused to close.Caspian was asleep beside the fire, or maybe just pretending. His steady breathing was the only sound in the hush of the forest. I wrapped the cloak tighter around my shoulders and stared at the dying embers, wondering what would happen if I truly lost control again.Wondering what was waking up with me.I must’ve drifted.Or maybe I was pulled.Because suddenly, the forest was gone.And I was standing ankle-deep in water under a sky full of bleeding stars.Not real, my instincts whispered.A dream.A vision.Or something else entirely.The air shimmered with magic so thick I could taste it on my tongue—salt and metal and memory. In the distance, trees twisted into impossible shape

Nyx --- It started with a whisper. Not a sound, not exactly—but a feeling. Like something ancient had turned its head and looked straight at me. The moment my body settled beside Caspian’s in the small, fire-warmed cabin we’d holed up in, the weight in my chest twisted. Tightened. My skin tingled like lightning was trapped beneath it, dancing just below the surface. I tried to breathe through it. I failed. “Nyx?” Caspian’s voice was low, but sharp. Concerned. I didn’t answer right away. My nails dug into the blankets, the edges of the fabric fraying beneath my fingers as a strange heat pulsed through me—starting in my spine, then spreading outward like wildfire. “I—” My voice cracked. “Something’s wrong.” Caspian was on his feet in a blink. “What is it? Pain? Vision? Did you feel something?” “Yes,” I choked, shivering despite the sweat beading along my forehead. “But it’s inside me. I can’t explain it—it’s like I’m burning but… not.” He was beside me in an instant, his ha

Nyx---I felt it before I saw it.A pulse.A pull.Like the earth itself had a heartbeat—and it was calling my name.We were still miles out. Caspian said the Sanctuary didn’t have a marked entrance, no carved gates or border stones. You had to feel your way in. Most wolves couldn’t. Their instincts rejected the place before they even got close.But I was no ordinary wolf.And the closer we got, the more the air around me thickened—sweet and electric and wrong, like honey over steel, like stormlight soaked into soil that had never seen the sun.I tightened my grip around Caspian’s waist as the bike ate up the forest trail, trees blurring into shadows at the edges of my vision.“You feel it?” he called over the roar of the engine.“Yes,” I breathed.He didn’t have to explain. I knew exactly what he meant. It wasn’t just magic in the air—it was memory. Old, feral, watching.Whatever lived here—whatever slept beneath this part of the world—wasn’t dead. Just forgotten.And now that we we