The Werewolf's Bride
“I won’t go alone.”
“You might have to.” His voice cracked on the words. “The prophecy says the bridge must stand alone at the moment of ritual. Blood of the bridge. Tear of the betrayed. Fang of the betrayer. If we storm the stones together, he’ll trigger whatever failsafe he’s prepared, poison gas, hidden archers, something worse.”
Elara’s stomach twisted. “Then we change the rules.”
He laughed, bitter, broken. “We’ve been trying. Every scroll, every whisper from Seraphine’s ghost, every warning carved into the crypt walls, it all circles back to the same demand: the bridge must bleed willingly, alone, under the dark moon.”