All Chapters of Blood Moon Rising - The Lumenwild Trials: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

(Elara’s POV)The chamber was silent.Too silent.Even with the Tear Drop dimmed to a soft glow, I could feel its heartbeat echoing inside me, faint but insistent. The symbols under my skin had receded, but the memory of their fire lingered, a coiled warmth that made my pulse jump every time I moved. My fingers traced the faint lines along my forearm, and I shivered but not from cold, but from the echo of the prophecy.Kyren, Riven, Silas, and Ashen surrounded me, each a living anchor against the unknown storm that had just passed. Their breaths were shallow. Their eyes alert. Even in the dim light, I could see the tension carved into every muscle.“I don’t like this,” Kyren muttered, wings tightening slightly against his back. “The Tear Drop shouldn’t have reacted this way. The Fourth Seal… it shouldn’t have gone this fast.”Riven’s golden eyes flicked to me. “It’s not the Tear Drop. Something else is stirring. I can feel it pulling on the bond.”A ripple of unease ran down my spine.

(Elara’s POV)The first light of dawn crept weakly through the estate’s high windows, but it brought no comfort. The morning was still, deceptively quiet, and I could feel it, feel something hovering beyond the walls, waiting, patient and hungry.Kyren stood near the edge of the balcony, wings half-unfurled, scanning the horizon. Riven lingered at my side, gold eyes narrowed. Silas paced behind us, claws clicking on stone, and Ashen leaned against the railing, jaw tight, silent but alert. The four of them radiated a tension so thick it pressed against my chest.“I don’t like it,” Kyren muttered. His voice was low, clipped, a growl threaded beneath it. “The Fifth Seal isn’t just magic. It’s intelligence. It’s planning, moving, watching.”Riven’s fingers brushed mine, with a grounding touch I didn’t realize I needed until it was there. “And it won’t wait. Neither should we.”The bond threads pulsed faintly under my skin, still whispering echoes of the Fourth Seal’s fire. But this was di

The keep felt different after the breach.Not quieter, not louder, just… altered. Like the walls were listening now, waiting for what would happen next. The magic running through the hallways had always hummed with ancient stability. Now it pulsed, uneven and skittish, like a heartbeat thrown off rhythm.We moved quickly, my steps unsteady between Ashen and Riven as they kept me upright.Kyren kept glancing back. Not checking the corridor or checking me. His feathers trembled in tiny, involuntary shivers he couldn’t hide. Silas led the path ahead, movements precise, the rigid set of his shoulders screaming tension he refused to voice.No one spoke.Not until we reached the inner sanctum and a chamber protected by layers of old magic. Kyren pushed the heavy door shut with a wave of light, sealing us in.Then they all turned to me at once.I hated it.Not the attention—The fear in their eyes.Silas spoke first, his voice calm even when the calm was fragile. “Tell us exactly what you he

By the time we finished training, dawn had clawed its way across the sky, a pale smear of gold and rose over the mountains. The keep, normally bustling at first light, felt wrong. Too still. Too quiet. As if everyone sensed the echo of last night’s breach vibrating through the stone.Silas led us back through the corridors, every step deliberate, eyes flicking to shadows as though expecting something to lunge out of them. Riven stalked behind us, body loose but alert, wolf instincts humming beneath his skin. Ashen walked at my side, shadows shifting restlessly, refusing to settle since the breach. Kyren stayed closest, wing brushing my shoulder every few steps like he needed the reassurance that I was still here.When we reached the main council hall, we weren’t alone.A cluster of ward mages stood near the entrance, arguing in sharp, hushed voices. At the far end of the chamber, two guards knelt beside a shattered piece of the glowing stone and the remains of a ward crystal.The mome

( Elara’s POV ) The moment the chamber fully reformed around me, the air shifted from cold ruin to living magic and warm, silver, and breathing.Except it wasn’t just a memory.It felt aware.Kyren appeared at my side within a heartbeat, shadows curling protectively around him. The others followed, each one bringing their presence like anchors. Silas’s steady calm, Riven’s sharp focus, Ashen’s molten heat coiling at my back.But they felt… blurred.Like I was standing both with them and somewhere else entirely.Silas reached for my hand, and it had passed through me.“Shit,” he hissed. “She’s phasing.”Riven swore softly. “We pull her out.”“No,” Kyren said sharply. “If the ruins are choosing her—”“They might keep her,” Ashen growled.I tried to speak, but my voice didn’t leave my body and it had drifted into the memory, echoing softly.Because someone else was standing in front of the altar now.A girl.A young woman, really maybe eighteen, maybe nineteen, with moonlit braids and a