The sound cracked the sky open.
Three sharp blasts.
One for trespass.
Two for bloodshed.
Three for betrayal.
My heart stopped.
The signal hadn't been used in over a decade since the night my father died in the Battle of the Iron Vale. No one used it unless the consequences were irreversible.
Someone was coming.
Someone who knew what I'd done.
I turned toward the sound, every muscle in my body tense, eyes scanning the distant hills where the smoke of warning fires was already rising. The moon above had paled, hiding behind the clouds like even it feared what was coming next.
Behind me, Lyra spoke. Quietly. Like she already knew.
"They've found us."
"No." I shook my head. "They've found me."
She didn't argue.
Because it was true.
I'd killed something no one was supposed to fight. I'd protected someone the elders had ordered to be hunted down and burned at birth. I'd crossed the oldest law our kind had.
I'd chosen her.
And now my own pack was coming for me.
I turned to her, feeling the full weight of the bond between us like a chain made of stars and steel.
"We have to move."
She blinked slowly. "Where will we go?"
I didn't know.
I only knew we couldn't stay here.
I grabbed her wrist not roughly, but not gently either. She flinched, just a flicker, and I hated how that hit me. She'd just watched me rip through monsters with claws and teeth, and yet it was this my touch that made her wary.
She didn't trust me.
Not fully.
Not yet.
We ran through the trees, the scent of ash still clinging to the leaves. The forest was different now off-balance. As if the battle had knocked something loose in the world that couldn't be put back. Even the birds had gone silent. The deeper we ran, the colder the air grew, like the ground itself had forgotten how to hold warmth.
I could feel the Moonbound scouts in the distance.
Fast.
Closing in.
Five of them. Maybe six.
Not the whole pack not yet.
But enough.
Enough to drag me back in chains.
Or worse.
We reached the edge of the ravine by dawn.
I'd almost forgotten this place. A crumbling edge of territory where the cliffs dropped into mist and shadow. No one ever came here. The stories said it was cursed.
Now it felt like sanctuary.
Lyra dropped to her knees beside a moss-covered boulder, panting, eyes searching mine. "We can't outrun them forever."
"I know."
She leaned back, pressing her palm to her chest. "Then why are you still helping me?"
I stared at her. Not the bruises. Not the dirt smudging her cheek. Just her. The strange, impossible girl the world had taught me to hate before I even knew her name.
"Because I don't believe the moon makes mistakes," I said finally.
Her breath caught.
She looked away, like she didn't know what to do with that.
I sat beside her, blade still in my hand, blood still dried along my ribs. The silence stretched until it wasn't silence anymore. It was weight. Pressure. Gravity.
And then she spoke.
"I had a sister once."
The words surprised me. I didn't respond. Just waited.
"They drowned her before she turned two. Said she cried during the eclipse. Said it was a sign."
My jaw clenched.
"I always thought if I stayed quiet, if I stayed obedient, they'd spare me longer. Maybe even let me go."
"Did they?"
She shook her head. "They raised me like a weapon. But they were always afraid I might choose not to be one."
I understood that far too well.
"You're not what they say," I muttered.
"Neither are you," she said softly.
Our eyes met.
And that was the moment it changed.
Not the bond.
Not the prophecy.
Just us.
I saw her, and she saw me.
Not as enemies. Not as chosen pieces in some ancient war.
Just two people who never asked for any of this and who might not survive it.
A branch cracked behind us.
I was on my feet in an instant, blade raised.
Six wolves emerged from the trees, silver and black and blood-lined. They didn't speak. Didn't shift.
They didn't need to.
I knew them.
All of them.
Mara my father's old second.
Thorne my cousin.
Kael the boy I grew up beside, who once took a blade to the shoulder for me without blinking.
And at the front… Daren.
My beta.
My brother in all but blood.
He stepped forward, slow, deliberate. His eyes locked on Lyra, then shifted to me.
"Keal," he said, voice even. "Step away from the girl."
I didn't move.
"You don't know what she is," he continued. "You don't know what she'll do."
"She's not the enemy."
"She's the prophecy."
I shook my head. "You've read the same scrolls I have. The prophecy doesn't name her as the destroyer. It names her as the key. It's the ones who use her that bring the fire."
Daren's gaze darkened. "And you think you won't be the one who lights the match?"
Behind him, Mara raised her sword.
"Enough talking," she snapped. "We have our orders."
I snarled. "And if I say no?"
Daren hesitated.
Mara didn't.
She lunged.
The moment broke.
I moved to block her, blade meeting hers with a spark of steel. Pain surged through my arm, but I held my ground. The others joined, and soon it was chaos. Teeth. Claws. Fire in my lungs.
Lyra screamed my name.
But I couldn't stop.
They weren't holding back. They were trying to kill her.
Trying to kill me.
Blood splattered the stone. My ribs cracked. My vision blurred.
But then
The ground beneath us shook.
A pulse.
A heartbeat.
The trees bowed. The wind screamed.
And Lyra stood, hands outstretched, eyes glowing silver-white.
The moon had risen.
And it had chosen.
A shockwave burst from her chest, flinging the warriors back like leaves in a storm. I stumbled, falling to one knee as power washed over me cold and old and holy.
Mara hit the tree behind her with a crack and slumped, unconscious.
Kael crawled away, face pale.
Only Daren stood, swaying.
He looked at Lyra, then at me.
And for the first time, I saw fear in his eyes.
Not of her.
Of what I had become.
"You've made your choice," he whispered.
I nodded, blood dripping from my lip.
He didn't wait. He shifted, bolted, and vanished into the trees.
Lyra collapsed beside me, gasping.
"You… you didn't have to"
"I did."
"But now they'll"
"I know."
I helped her to her feet. We didn't speak after that. There were no words left.
Only the quiet knowledge that nothing would ever be the same again.
That night, we didn't sleep.
We found shelter in a cave, deep in the forgotten cliffs. She rested against me, trembling as the aftershocks of her power rolled through the earth.
"What happens now?" she asked.
I stared into the fire.
"They'll name me traitor."
"They'll hunt us."
I nodded.
She looked up. "And when they find us?"
I didn't answer.
Because the truth was they will.
And when they did…
There would be no more time for choices.
Only consequences.
But what happens when the prophecy wakes fully?
And when the moon bleeds again… whose blood will it call for?