The moon was swollen and white-hot, so close it felt as if a single scream could shatter it. Silver light spilled over the courtyard's new stones, turning every rune Raina had carved into living mercury. Beneath that glow, she stood barefoot inside the sacred circle, arms bare, blade bared, lungs trembling with a thousand futures.
Across from her waited Lucien. His shirt lay forgotten on marble steps; only the runic oath scrawled across his chest clothed him swirling symbols that still bled gold. His eyes, molten and unblinking, never left her.
Tonight the covenant would be sealed
or sundered.
There was no middle ground.
Wind knifed through the estate, tugging at the edges of her braid and snatching burnt petals from the garden. It carried iron, lavender, and the faint metallic tang of fear what passed for peace these days. Behind Lucien, Maeva circled like a silent wolf, crescent blade on her back. In the shadows beyond the pillars, Elias traced sigils of starlight, poised to raise a shield the moment balance tipped.
Raina inhaled. Stone beneath her soles throbbed with buried memory. This circle pre-dated every kingdom still standing; it had witnessed marriages that rewrote dynasties and betrayals that erased them. Tonight it would witness … choice.
Lucien's voice rumbled across the quiet. "Feel it?"
She nodded, throat tight. "Like thunder under the skin."
"Then let's answer it." He stepped forward, and the runes on his torso burned brighter.
Raina mirrored him. Together they lifted their palms his calloused, hers scarred and let them hover inches apart. No touch, not yet. The moment flesh met flesh, the circle would decide if it accepted their bond or damned it.
Lucien began the first verse, old lupine syllables rasping across his tongue like gravel. The air thickened. Raina followed, answering in the silver cadence of Huntress lore those high, lethal notes that once felled gods. Every exchanged vow pulled invisible threads tighter: blood to blood, magic to magic, soul to soul.
The earth groaned. Wind howled. Candle-flames stretched and died, but the circle glowed brighter, fed by their words.
And that was when the world tore open.
A slash of red fire ripped the night. Aeris strode from the rift, gown swirling like living magma, eyes brimming with midnight venom. She was supposed to be dead disintegrated during the trial by flame but hatred, Raina realized, sometimes learned resurrection.
"You chose weakness!" Aeris hissed, voice echoing on ten unnatural notes. "You could have inherited the dark instead you sing lullabies to the light."
"I chose myself," Raina answered, lifting her blade.
Aeris's arms flared black, siphoning curse-fire. She hurled it straight at Lucien.
Raina moved on reflex silver sigil blossoming from her new wrist-rune intercepting the spell in a blinding cascade that scorched the inner circle. Lucien caught her mid-spin, steadying her before she fell beyond the boundary. One mis-step outside the drawn sigils and the bond would unravel unfinished.
Maeva was on Aeris in a heartbeat. Steel kissed flame. Sparks howled sky-high as the two women clashed Maeva's crescent blade versus Aeris's seething dark. At the edge of the arena, Elias slammed his palms to stone, erecting a prism shield that boxed the chaos inside.
Lucien's breath fanned across Raina's ear. "The oath finish it."
"Can't if she keeps blasting us," Raina gritted.
"Then we speak over her screams."
Hand in hand, they resumed the chant.
Heat licked around their ankles, trying to distract them with memories of executions and forevers. They pressed on. His words deepened, became thunder; hers rose, slicing the storm. Runes throughout the courtyard ignited, feeding on their resolve, each vow etching itself into bone and star.
The ground bucked. Trees outside the wall bent nearly in half. Aeris shrieked as Maeva's blade cracked her burning shield; a second later, Elias's spell detonated, hurling the sorceress from the sacred ring.
Lucien and Raina spoke the final word.
Light pure, blinding exploded beneath their intertwined palms. It swept outward, washing the courtyard in white fire, scouring every leftover darkness until the stones themselves gleamed like dawn-forged glass.
When vision cleared, Aeris lay on cracked marble, panting, half-melted gown smoking at the seams. She dragged herself upright, hatred twisting her features
only to disintegrate as the covenant's light touched her. No grand death cry this time; she simply unraveled into ember-dust, scattered on a sigh of wind.
Raina swayed. The circle dimmed to a soft glow. The oath was complete.
Lucien's arms wrapped around her, lowering her onto warm stone. "You're mine," he breathed, voice frayed.
"Fully," she whispered, every muscle trembling but alive.
He kissed her gentle at first, then starving. The urgency between them spiked; adrenaline became need, magic became fire. Robes fell away. The circle accepted their union with a soft surge of light, runes shifting to cradle rather than judge.
His fingers traced her side, coaxed breathless moans from her lips. She arched under him, nails biting his shoulders as he entered with slow, reverent power claiming and being claimed. Every thrust echoed the vows they'd spoken: protect, cherish, endure. Around them, the leftover starlight of the oath flared, illuminating sweat-slick bodies and entwined hands.
They broke together her cry a hymn, his a growl sending a final, harmless ripple through the night. Clouds parted. Above, the moon shed its blood-stain, shining clean.
Dawn found them wrapped in linen on the grand balcony. Lucien traced the still-glowing rune on her wrist.
"I'm scared," she confessed, gaze on the waking sky.
"So am I," he answered, pressing a kiss to her temple. "But for once, fear feels like a beginning."
She turned to him, fire and sunrise reflecting in her eyes. "Then we protect this beginning."
His smile was small, real. "Together."
Below, Maeva and Elias watched the couple from a respectful distance Maeva's blade resting against her shoulder.
"It's done," Maeva whispered. "Their bond can't break now."
Elias exhaled, but his brow furrowed. "Nor can the war fate will bring them."
For the moment, though, the world was quiet. The rebuilt gardens swayed in dawn's breeze. The moon, once crimson, had faded to pearl. And somewhere deep in the earth, the ancient circle slept sated, but vigilant waiting for whatever the next night would bring.