🩸 Crimson Moon Oath
A Fantasy Romance by Chizzy
Chapter Fifteen – The Heart Beneath the Stone
The stairs spiraled downward into darkness.
Each step echoed with a hollow note that seemed to come from the bones of the earth itself. The air grew colder, thicker—the scent of dust and ancient blood filled every breath.
Avaline held a faint sphere of light between her palms, its glow trembling as though afraid. Kael moved ahead, his sword drawn, the crimson metal flickering with reflections of her light. Lycian brought up the rear, silent but restless, every nerve alert.
None of them spoke. The silence wasn't safe to disturb.
Finally, the stairs opened into a vast cavern. The ceiling soared out of sight, lost in blackness. In the center stood a pool of liquid silver, perfectly still. Around it, a ring of runes pulsed faintly—half glowing red, half pale white.
Avaline's breath caught. "It's beautiful."
Kael's gaze darkened. "And deadly. This is the Oath's heart."
Lycian stepped closer, his eyes catching the reflection of the strange light. "Looks like it's waiting for something."
Kael nodded. "It's waiting for her."
Avaline swallowed hard. She could feel it—the pull, deep in her chest, like the power itself recognized her blood.
"What do I have to do?" she asked.
Kael hesitated. "The Oath was made by merging two essences—blood of the living and blood of the eternal. To unbind it, those forces must be brought together again… willingly."
Lycian frowned. "You mean she has to offer both? Hers, mine, and yours?"
Kael nodded. "If she doesn't, it will consume her trying to find balance."
Avaline stared into the pool. The surface rippled faintly as though it heard their words. "And if I do this, will it end the curse?"
"No one's ever undone an Oath," Kael said softly. "But if anyone can, it's you."
Lycian took her hand. His skin was warm, steady. "Then we do it together."
Kael hesitated before offering his hand too—cool and smooth, the contrast striking. Avaline placed her hands in theirs, feeling the strange balance between fire and shadow.
The pool responded instantly. Silver light flared upward, swallowing the chamber in radiance.
Avaline gasped as the power surged through her. Every memory—every heartbeat, every fear—rose to the surface of her mind. She saw her village, the night she was taken, Kael's cold eyes softening for the first time, Lycian's anger melting into something deeper.
The magic wanted all of it—her truth, her heart, her love.
Kael's voice reached her through the chaos. "Avaline, stay with me!"
She clung to their hands, trembling. "It's too strong!"
Lycian gritted his teeth. "Then let it take from me instead!"
But the power didn't choose—it took all three. The world exploded in light.
Avaline's vision blurred, shifting into fragments of memory that weren't hers.
She saw Selara, the Moon Queen, kneeling before this same pool centuries ago, blood dripping from her palm. A vampire king and a wolf guardian stood beside her. Their faces were filled with sorrow and devotion.
Selara's voice echoed faintly through time. Love was never the curse. Fear was.
The vision faded, and Avaline gasped awake. The pool had turned completely still. Kael knelt beside her, his hand cupping her cheek.
"Are you alright?"
Her pulse raced. "I saw her. Selara. She wasn't trying to destroy the world. She was trying to protect it—from herself."
Lycian frowned. "From herself?"
"She loved them both," Avaline whispered. "The vampire and the wolf. When she realized the world wouldn't allow it, she made the Oath—to bind her heart so she couldn't destroy either side. But the spell twisted. Her pain became a curse."
Kael's eyes softened. "Then this is our chance to finish what she couldn't."
Avaline rose slowly, looking down at the pool. "If her love cursed the world, maybe ours can heal it."
Lycian smirked faintly. "Never thought I'd say this, but for once, I agree with him."
Kael glanced at him with quiet amusement. "Try not to faint from it."
Avaline smiled through the weight of exhaustion. "Both of you—stop. We finish this together."
She stepped into the pool. The silver liquid rose around her ankles, warm and luminous. Kael and Lycian followed, standing beside her, their reflections glowing faintly beneath the surface.
"Now," she whispered.
The light enveloped them once more—but this time it didn't burn. It felt like breath, like warmth, like the heartbeat of something vast and kind.
When it faded, the pool was gone. In its place was a crystal of crimson and silver, pulsing faintly.
Kael picked it up carefully. "It's… the heart of the Oath."
Avaline nodded. "And it's ours to protect now. Not to break, not to destroy. To guard."
Lycian's hand brushed her shoulder. "Then we guard it. Together."
Kael's gaze softened. "Always."
Avaline looked between them, her heart heavy and full all at once. "Maybe love doesn't have to choose."
Outside the cavern, the Crimson Moon began to fade, its light softening to silver for the first time in centuries.
Far away, in the ruins of Elarion, the shadows that had haunted the world dissolved into mist.
The curse was not gone. But it was no longer a chain.
It was a promise.
And as Avaline stepped from the temple, her hand in each of theirs, she whispered into the wind—
"The night may never end… but it no longer needs to."
To be continued...