The sky tore itself open.
The moon — once pale silver — burned red as though the heavens had been wounded. The light it cast was no longer soft and sacred. It was alive, pulsing, predatory. The air thickened with it, trembling like the moment before a scream.
The Sanctuary answered. The silver trees shuddered, shedding their glowing leaves in spirals of light. Pools turned dark as mirrors of blood. And through it all, a hum rose — low, deep, ancient. It came from beneath the ground, from within the bones of the earth itself.
Luca stood beside me, sword drawn, his eyes catching the red light and turning a color I'd never seen before — like ember and stormcloud mixed.
"It's begun," he said quietly.
The First's voice echoed again, faint but sharp, rippling through the wind.
> "The blood moon awakens the forsaken. Hold your ground, child of silver."
I barely heard him. My veins were alight. My pulse stuttered in strange rhythms. The pull of the moon wasn't gentle anymore — it commanded.
Luca noticed. "Aria. Breathe."
"I am." My voice trembled. "It's not helping."
He reached for my arm, but the moment his skin brushed mine, light burst between us — pure silver light, bright enough to blind.
I stumbled back. "What was that?"
"Your power's resonating," he said, scanning the horizon. "It's reacting to the moon."
"And if I can't control it?"
"Then I'll make sure it doesn't control you."
There wasn't time to ask what he meant. The forest howled.
Figures emerged from the crimson mist — shadows that moved wrong, like the world had forgotten how to shape them. They weren't wolves. They weren't human either. Twisted silhouettes with glowing eyes, pulling themselves out of the dark like broken memories.
"The forsaken," Luca murmured. "Souls bound to the blood moon."
They came fast.
Luca moved faster.
Steel sang through the air as he met the first one, blade catching the red light and scattering it into sparks. His movements were fluid — brutal and beautiful in equal measure. The sound of metal clashing against shadow filled the night.
I wanted to help — I needed to — but my body was caught between two pulls: the instinct to fight and the call of the red moon.
And then, the world cracked.
A roar erupted — not from the creatures, but from within me. The ground split where I stood, silver fire spiraling up around my feet. I fell to my knees, clutching my chest as the light in my veins surged like molten metal.
"Aria!" Luca shouted, slashing down another shade as he tried to reach me.
I couldn't answer. My heartbeat wasn't my own anymore. It was in sync with the moon.
A voice — hers — the woman from my dreams — whispered inside me:
> "Remember who you are."
The power flooded through me.
The shadows lunged — and the light inside me exploded outward.
Silver tendrils lashed through the air, slicing through the dark forms like wind through mist. The forest blazed in argent fire. The Sanctuary woke up.
I rose slowly, the glow still coiling around me. Every breath shimmered. Every movement left light in its wake.
Luca froze mid-strike, staring at me. "Aria…"
The way he said my name wasn't fear. It was reverence.
The red moon pulsed brighter, as though daring me to do more.
And for the first time — I didn't resist it.
For a heartbeat, everything stopped.
The forest — once roaring with chaos — fell silent under the silver blaze. Even the Forsaken froze mid-charge, their twisted forms flickering in and out of shape, unsure whether to attack or kneel.
I stood at the center of it all, light spilling from every breath. The moon's crimson glow clashed with mine until the air itself shimmered in two colors: silver and red, purity and ruin, locked in a slow war.
Luca lowered his sword. "You're—" He stopped himself. "No… you feel different."
"I think it's the moon," I said, but my voice sounded layered — mine, and something older behind it.
He stepped closer, cautiously, like I was both salvation and a storm. "You're channeling the Sanctuary. It's not supposed to wake fully unless—"
"Unless what?"
A rumble interrupted him — deep, shaking the trees to their roots. From the cracks in the ground, red mist poured upward, thick and violent.
Luca's eyes narrowed. "Unless the first curse breaks."
The shadows began to merge.
One by one, the Forsaken melted into the crimson fog, forming something colossal. A shape rose — massive, skeletal, crowned with horns of light and a face carved from fire. Its voice shattered the air.
> "The blood calls to the silver. Return what was stolen."
I staggered back, clutching my chest. The light inside me pulsed in answer, like it knew the creature.
Luca moved in front of me, blade ready. "You'll have to go through me."
The creature's laughter shook the valley.
> "You think you protect her. You cage her."
And then it struck.
A shockwave tore through the clearing. Luca was thrown aside; trees snapped like twigs. I barely managed to stay upright as the red energy whipped toward me.
Instinct took over.
I raised my hand, and silver fire burst from my palm. The two forces collided mid-air, red against silver, light against light. The explosion painted the sky in spirals of molten color.
Every muscle in my body screamed, but I didn't stop. I couldn't. The Sanctuary itself was fighting through me — roots glowing, streams rising into air like ribbons of mercury.
The creature lunged again. I caught its claw between beams of light that hardened into crystal, trapping it mid-motion. My reflection burned in its eyes: half-human, half-something else.
It hissed.
> "The goddess returns."
"I'm not her," I whispered.
> "Not yet."
The words chilled me more than the battle itself.
The power inside me surged again — too strong this time. My knees buckled. The light turned wild, snapping at everything near me. Luca stumbled back to his feet and ran toward me despite the danger.
"Aria, stop! You're burning yourself out!"
"I can't— it won't listen—"
He grabbed my shoulders, his voice cutting through the chaos. "Then make it listen. It's yours, not the other way around!"
Something in those words hit deeper than magic.
I drew a breath — shaky, raw — and forced the power inward. The silver blaze recoiled, folding into me. Pain seared through every vein, but slowly the light steadied.
The creature snarled, realizing its grip was slipping. "You can't contain what was born to consume!"
"Watch me," I said.
With a cry that wasn't entirely human, I drove both hands into the air. The silver light spiraled upward, pulling the red mist with it — tearing the creature apart strand by strand until it burst into a thousand fading embers.
Silence crashed down.
The moon hung above us, dimmer now, its red bleeding back to pale silver.
I sank to the ground, breath ragged, vision flickering. The earth around me was cracked and glowing faintly like cooled glass.
Luca rushed to my side. "You did it."
I looked at him weakly. "No… we did."
He laughed once — a tired, disbelieving sound — and pressed a hand to my shoulder. "You just rewrote the oldest rule of this forest."
"Then why," I whispered, "does it feel like something's still wrong?"
As if answering me, the ground trembled again. From the cracks left behind by the battle, a faint red shimmer remained — alive, crawling slowly toward the heart of the valley.
Luca's smile faded. "That… isn't supposed to happen."
I pushed myself up, trembling. "What is it?"
He didn't answer at first. He was staring at the horizon — at the Sanctuary's edge, where a lone figure stood watching us.
The figure was cloaked in black, moonlight bending around them like water. When they lifted their head, I saw eyes like polished obsidian — cold, familiar, wrong.
Malachai.
> "Impressive," he called, his voice smooth as glass. "The moon's chosen finally awakens. Took you long enough."
My stomach dropped. "How did you—"
"Find you?" He smiled. "You lit up the sky, Aria. Even the gods must have seen it."
Luca stepped forward, sword raised again. "You're too late."
Malachai tilted his head. "Too late? Oh, Luca. You still don't see it, do you?"
The ground beneath me pulsed red again. My heartbeat followed — not my own rhythm anymore, but his.
> "The blood moon didn't die," Malachai said softly. "You just became its vessel."
A shock tore through me. Silver light burst from my eyes — but this time, it was streaked with crimson.
"Aria!" Luca shouted, reaching for me—
And then the world went white.