All Chapters of Blood of the Black Moon: Chapter 31 - Chapter 34

The sound of the circle closing was a low hum, the air thick enough to drink. Torches flickered, their light trembling against the stone walls as if the fire itself feared what was about to happen. Ardan stood in the center, the mark on his throat glowing faintly—gold against the bruised shadow of his skin. Power gathered like a thunderhead around him. Kaelira could taste it. Metallic. Wild. Wrong. She kept her breathing slow, steady, though her palms ached from clenching. Every instinct in her screamed to stop him. To pull him out of that circle and away from whatever dark ritual the Elders had whispered into motion. But Zevran’s hand found her wrist, a warning and a tether in one. “Not yet,” he murmured. His voice was low, steady, but the muscle along his jaw ticked. Kaelira met his eyes—those sharp amber irises that always seemed to see too much. “He’s losing control,” she said under her breath. Zevran’s gaze flicked bac

By the time they reached the northern ridge, the forest had changed.The air was colder here, sharp with pine and the faint metallic scent of frost. Mist clung to the roots, curling like smoke around their boots. Kaelira had traveled these woods countless times, but now every tree felt like a witness—silent, watchful, holding its breath.Zevran walked ahead, his pace measured. The mark on his wrist—the one that tied him to the Council—had begun to fade, its lines duller than before. He didn’t mention it, but Kaelira noticed.She noticed everything about him now.The way he ran his thumb along the edge of his blade when he thought. The stiffness in his shoulders each time the wind shifted west—the direction of the Council’s capital. The way he avoided her eyes in the quiet moments, as if afraid of what he might say if he met them too long.And beneath all that, she could feel him.Not in a mystical way, but in the simple, human gravity of proximity. The echo o