All Chapters of Moonlight Pact: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

(POV: Aria)The forest had always been my refuge. When the noise of life pressed too close—deadline fever at school, customers at the bookshop who arrived five minutes before closing with twenty minutes of errands, the way our small house could feel crowded with silence—I came here. The path behind our backyard wasn’t just a place I walked; it was a route my body knew without thinking. The maple that leaned like a drunk over the trail. The old oak with roots like knuckled fists. The log split clean down the middle, as if a giant had tried to bite it. I knew where puddles formed after rain, where the mushrooms came up like tiny ears. It was predictable. It was mine.Tonight, nothing felt predictable.The moon had risen huge and white, not soft but stark—like a coin hammered flat and nailed to the sky. Its light made edges cruelly clear. The moss didn’t blur into shadow; it glittered with frost. My breath came out in ghosts. The air was so sharp with pine and damp soil that I tasted it,

(POV: Aria / Kai / Darius)AriaThe neighbors’ yard lights blinked off one by one, like tired eyes closing. I stood at the kitchen window until the dark felt settled again.Maya had texted earlier — u alive? — and I’d sent a single thumbs-up. Anything else would’ve meant questions I wasn’t ready to answer.The hum under my skin hadn’t left. It was quieter than last night but not gone — like a radio tuned just off-station, buzzing softly in the background. Pretending all day had been exhausting. I’d eaten, showered, even laughed at something Mom said at breakfast, but night stripped away all the pretending.He was already there.Kai stepped from the tree line the way smoke slips from a fire — quiet, inevitable.“You said we’d start,” I said, hugging my arms around myself.His eyes swept over me once, like he was making sure I was whole. “Shoes you can run in. Good.”“I’m

POV: AriaBy the time my legs stopped shaking, the sun had climbed high enough to burn pale gold through the trees. I hadn’t realized how long we’d been at it until I tried to straighten my back and something popped in protest.Kai noticed.Kai always noticed.“That’s enough for now,” he said. “You’re starting to push past what your body can hold.”“I’m fine.”“You’re stubborn,” he corrected. “Not fine.”He stepped back, giving me air, but watching carefully—like he was making sure the ground didn’t fall out from under me.“Come on,” he said. “Break.”Break.Not rest.Break.Like he knew if I stopped long enough to think, I might fall apart.We walked back toward the yard, not speaking. The air felt thinner outside the trees, like the forest had held me together more than I wanted to admit.I slipped into the house to grab water. My hands still trembled when I twisted the cap. The kitchen felt too bright, too normal, like stepping into the wrong world by accident.And taped to the fri

POV: AriaBy the time the sun began slipping toward evening, the adrenaline had burned out and left a heavy, hollow ache behind.I lay on my bed staring at the crack in the ceiling—the one shaped like a crooked river. When I was little, I used to follow it with my eyes and pretend it led somewhere better. Now my world felt like it had expanded too fast, and I was barely catching up.My phone buzzed beside me.MAYA:Are you SURE you’re okay??I can skip my shift & come overI typed, deleted, typed again.ME:I’m okay. Just tired.If you skip work, your boss will combust 😅Don’t get fired because of meThree dots.Disappear.Return.MAYA:Ugh fineBUT if you faint in the middle of the bookstore I’m going to be sooo offendedI snorted.ME:Promise I won’t faint at workIf it happens, I’ll pick somewhere more dramatic 😌MAYA:Drama queen.Text me later.The chat bubble vanished.The silence in my room felt too loud, too full.If I stayed in bed any longer, I’d talk myself into catastrop

POV: Aria / Kai / DariusAriaBy the time dusk settled over the yard, my pulse had finally stopped racing from the morning’s training. But the trees—they hadn’t calmed. They never really did anymore. The forest watched me the way someone watches a bruise they’re waiting to see darken.I wrapped my arms around myself and exhaled.“Okay. Nothing weird. Just a normal night,” I whispered.A lie. Everything felt tilted, like the world was balancing on the edge of something thin.My phone buzzed.MAYA:I’m staying at work late. Don’t burn the house down.Love u.I smiled, just barely.Then the air changed.Not colder. Not warmer.Tighter.Like the space between the trees inhaled and didn’t let go.I stepped onto the porch—slow, careful.“Kai?” I called softly.No answer.But the forest heard my voice. Something in it shifted.A crack of pressure went through my ribs—Not a call.Not Darius.Something else.An echo.Like my own instinct had ricocheted off the trees and come back sharper, lou