The clash of light and darkness tore through the forest like a living storm. Silver fire erupted from Ariana's mark, colliding with the obsidian energy radiating from the towering shadow. The ground trembled under their power, the Blood Eclipse pulsing above like a beating heart.
Ariana's breath came in sharp bursts as she pushed against the force. Every muscle in her body screamed, every nerve burned with energy—but she refused to yield. This was more than survival now. It was truth demanding to be seen.
The creature roared, its voice deep and layered, echoing like a chorus of the damned. Silver lightning forked across its dark form, revealing flashes of twisted armor—and then, carved into its chest, she saw it again.The mark. The same symbol Damon had once drawn in the dirt on a night he thought she was asleep. The mark of his past.
"Damon!" Ariana shouted over the chaos. "What is it? What is this thing?"
Damon's face was pale, eyes wide with a haunted mix of recognition and grief. "It's not a thing," he said, voice low and broken. "It's him."
Ariana blinked. "Who—"
"My brother."
The words froze her.
The shadow lunged, forcing her back. Damon intercepted, his blade of silver energy clashing against the creature's clawed arm. Sparks of moonlight and crimson burst across the clearing.
"Your brother?" Ariana cried, trying to process what she was hearing as the energy around them howled.
"He died years ago—during the first Eclipse," Damon said through gritted teeth. "But the prophecy… the darkness—it must have claimed him."
The stranger, who had remained silent until now, stepped forward, eyes cold with understanding. "Not claimed," they said quietly. "Bound. The Blood Eclipse doesn't just test the living—it reawakens what the moon once took. This trial was never yours alone, Luna. It was his, too."
Ariana's mind raced. Damon's brother… a revenant of the Eclipse… bound to darkness by fate.
The shadow's voice thundered across the forest, shaking the air itself."You abandoned me, Damon! You left me to die beneath the crimson sky!"
Damon staggered back as though struck. "I tried to save you!" he shouted. "I searched for you until the light burned out! You—" His voice cracked. "You were gone."
The creature's laughter was hollow, echoing with anguish. "Gone? No, brother. You just stopped looking. And now the moon's chosen has taken your heart the same way the Eclipse took your soul."
Ariana's pulse spiked. The creature's gaze turned to her, silver and hate-filled. "You are his weakness, Luna. The reason he failed. And I will make him lose you, too."
Before she could react, a wave of black energy surged toward her. Damon leaped in front, absorbing the blast with his shield of light. The impact threw both of them backward, slamming them into the earth. Ariana gasped, her vision flickering.
"No…" she whispered, reaching for him. But Damon didn't move. His aura flickered—dim, unstable.
The stranger appeared beside her, voice sharp and urgent. "Get up, Luna! If you falter now, he dies!"
Ariana's body trembled, but she forced herself upright. The mark on her wrist burned hotter, brighter, her power screaming to be unleashed. She closed her eyes, focusing not on fear but on will—on purpose.
She extended her hands, silver light pouring from her palms like liquid flame. The ground beneath her shimmered as symbols formed in the soil, glowing runes of protection and power.
The stranger's eyes widened slightly. "You're tapping into the Moon's Core," they whispered. "Impossible… unless—"
"Unless I was meant to," Ariana said, voice low and resolute.
The light spread outward, forming a barrier between Damon and the creature. The shadow struck it, and the forest echoed with a sound like shattering glass—but the barrier held.
Damon stirred, opening his eyes, and what she saw in them made her chest tighten—pain, yes, but also pride. "You've grown stronger," he murmured.
"I had to," Ariana said, eyes locked on the creature. "Because you still can't face your past alone."
The creature roared again, fury and sorrow mingling. "You cannot save him, Luna! You cannot rewrite what was done under the Eclipse!"
Ariana stepped forward, silver light illuminating the dark ground. "Maybe not," she said, her voice steady, "but I can decide how it ends."
She raised both hands. The crescent on her wrist flared into a blazing moon, and a beam of silver fire shot skyward, piercing the crimson clouds. The Blood Eclipse shimmered in response, as if the moon itself were watching her act of defiance.
The creature howled, shadows unraveling under her light. But as it dissolved, it reached toward Damon one last time, voice breaking.
"Brother… it wasn't the Eclipse that changed me. It was you."
And then, it was gone.
The forest fell silent. The crimson glow dimmed slightly, the oppressive hum fading into stillness. Ariana stood trembling, her power slowly retracting back into her mark.
Damon sank to his knees, staring at the empty space where his brother had stood. The anguish in his eyes was raw, tearing through the mask he always wore.
"I didn't know," Ariana whispered softly, stepping closer. "You carried that pain all this time…"
He didn't look at her, his voice barely a breath. "He was my twin. My other half. When the Eclipse took him, it took everything I was."
The stranger's tone was calm but heavy. "Pain that deep binds even the strongest. But tonight, both your fates have shifted. The moon has seen your truth, Damon—and hers."
Ariana's mark pulsed once more, softer now, as if acknowledging the words.
She glanced at Damon, wanting to speak—to comfort him—but before she could, a cold wind swept through the forest. The trees creaked, the air thickened, and her mark began to burn again—hotter than before.
The stranger's eyes narrowed. "No… this isn't over."
Ariana turned, and her heart stopped.
A second figure was emerging from the darkness—not like the shadow before, but human. Flesh and blood. A woman, cloaked in black, her aura humming with power that rivaled Ariana's own.
The stranger stepped back instinctively. "Impossible…"
Damon rose slowly, eyes widening in disbelief. His lips parted, voice trembling as the woman's face came into view under the blood-red light.
"No," he whispered. "It can't be…"
Ariana's gaze flicked between them, confusion and dread knotting in her chest. "Damon… who is she?"
He swallowed hard, the color draining from his face.
"She's the reason my brother fell." His voice broke. "Ariana… that's my mate."
The woman's eyes lifted to meet Ariana's, glowing faintly silver, and her lips curved into a smile that was both beautiful and terrifying.
"Hello, Luna," she said softly. "We finally meet."
The forest shuddered, and the Blood Eclipse blazed anew, red light bleeding through the trees like fire.
Ariana's breath caught. The air was thick with power, prophecy, and the scent of coming war.
And she realized, with bone-deep certainty—the real battle had only just begun.
Damon's long-lost mate—thought dead—returns under the Blood Eclipse, revealing herself as the true force behind his brother's fall. Ariana now faces not just the prophecy, but the tangled web of love, betrayal, and fate that threatens to consume them all.