LUNA OF THE NIGHTBORN
img img LUNA OF THE NIGHTBORN img Chapter 4 Blood That Remembers
4
Chapter 6 The Bond That Breaks img
Chapter 7 The Stranger's Truth img
Chapter 8 Beneath the Hunter's Moon img
Chapter 9 The Vale of Shadows img
Chapter 10 The Girl with My Face img
Chapter 11 He Who Wears the Crown img
Chapter 12 The Howl Beneath the Ashes img
Chapter 13 The Path of Flame and Bone img
Chapter 14 The Monster Within img
Chapter 15 The Blood Oath img
Chapter 16 Embers Beneath the Skin img
Chapter 17 Ashes in Her Veins img
Chapter 18 The Other Nightborn img
Chapter 19 Shadows Over Bloodline img
Chapter 20 The Bond That Burns img
Chapter 21 The Moon's Gate img
Chapter 22 Shadows That Bleed img
Chapter 23 Moonborn img
Chapter 24 The Ashen Tether img
Chapter 25 Shattered Boundaries img
Chapter 26 The Veil Between img
Chapter 27 Let Them Come img
Chapter 28 Shards of Moonlight img
Chapter 29 Rise of the Marked img
Chapter 30 Ashes and Ascension img
Chapter 31 The Other Chosen img
Chapter 32 Trial by Flame img
Chapter 33 The Unraveling Veil img
Chapter 34 Beneath the Marked Moon img
Chapter 35 Born of Light, Forged in Fire img
Chapter 36 Shadows Don't Sleep img
Chapter 37 Beneath the Hollow Crown img
Chapter 38 The Vessel and the Crown img
Chapter 39 Shadows in the Light img
Chapter 40 The Price of Fire img
Chapter 41 The Echo and the Flame img
Chapter 42 The Waking Marks img
Chapter 43 What Lurks Beneath img
Chapter 44 When Fire Remembers img
Chapter 45 Flame Against the Dark img
Chapter 46 What Sleeps Beneath img
Chapter 47 The Pulse Beneath the World img
Chapter 48 The City That Waited img
Chapter 49 Flame Against the Forgotten img
Chapter 50 Ember Crowned img
Chapter 51 Beneath the Light That Remains img
Chapter 52 The Fire That Chose Her img
Chapter 53 Flame Remembers Flame img
Chapter 54 Beneath the Cracked Sky img
Chapter 55 It Breathes Below img
Chapter 56 Beneath the Breathing Stone img
Chapter 57 The Heart That Waits img
Chapter 58 The Reckoning Flame img
Chapter 59 Voice of the Flame img
Chapter 60 The Hollow King's Wake img
Chapter 61 The Flame That Remembers img
Chapter 62 Beneath the Mountain's Heart img
Chapter 63 When Stone Begins to Breathe img
Chapter 64 The Threshold of Flame img
Chapter 65 The Marked and the Forsaken img
Chapter 66 Shrine of the Lost Flame img
Chapter 67 Ashen Cradle img
Chapter 68 Descent img
Chapter 69 Vessel of Flame img
Chapter 70 The Shadow Below img
Chapter 71 The Knock Beneath img
Chapter 72 Beneath the Breathing Root img
Chapter 73 Bleeding Root img
Chapter 74 Breathing Root img
Chapter 75 The Ember's Echo img
Chapter 76 The Ember That Watches img
Chapter 77 The Burn that Remembers img
Chapter 78 The Burden of Flame img
Chapter 79 The Howl in the Roots img
Chapter 80 Shattered Oath img
Chapter 81 Ash and Oath img
Chapter 82 Footprints in the Dark img
Chapter 83 The Ash That Remembers img
Chapter 84 Beneath the Pulse img
Chapter 85 The Other Half of the Oath img
Chapter 86 Beneath the Bones img
Chapter 87 When the Flame Knows Your Name img
Chapter 88 Chains of Memory img
Chapter 89 The Choice That Waits img
Chapter 90 When the Locks Give Way img
Chapter 91 Between Fire and Frost img
Chapter 92 Out of One Trap img
Chapter 93 The White That Watches img
Chapter 94 The Door Beneath the Fog img
Chapter 95 Beneath the Shattered Basin img
Chapter 96 Beneath the Collapse img
Chapter 97 Whispers of Stone img
Chapter 98 Guardians of the Forgotten img
Chapter 99 The Altar of Ash and Flame img
Chapter 100 The Shatter of Chains img
img
  /  2
img

Chapter 4 Blood That Remembers

Elara didn't feel the earth vanish beneath her or the magic that tore her from the Alpha hall. One heartbeat she was standing in firelit judgment-her rejection echoing off stone walls-and the next, she was gasping for breath on cold, unfamiliar ground.

Mist swirled thick around her, silver and soft like spun silk, clinging to her skin. The air carried the scent of ash and damp moss, and an eerie quiet hummed around her like the world itself had stopped to watch.

Ronan stood just a few feet away, his silver eyes catching the dim light of the crescent moon. He didn't look startled. He looked like he'd been here before.

"Where... where are we?" Elara's voice cracked as she pushed herself upright.

His gaze scanned the ruins surrounding them-ancient stone walls half-devoured by vines, arches broken and forgotten. "We landed farther than I intended," he said quietly. "These are the Moonshade Ruins."

The name stirred something in her chest, like a forgotten lullaby brushing against her bones. Her mark-still glowing faintly at her neck-responded with a soft, pulsing warmth.

"The what?" she asked, eyes wide.

"Sanctuary of the Nightborn," he replied. "Before it was destroyed."

She turned slowly, absorbing the surroundings. Jagged remnants of towers stood like broken teeth in the fog. Etchings lined the cracked stones-symbols she didn't recognize, but that felt... familiar.

"They lived here?" she whispered. "My people?"

Ronan gave a slow nod. "Before the old Alphas betrayed them. Before the packs turned against their own."

She ran her hand along the mossy surface of a fallen pillar. The moment her fingers brushed the ancient carvings, her breath caught. Something... moved within her.

A memory not her own.

---

Flashback

Fire. Screams. The smell of burning fur. A silver-haired woman wrapped in a dark cloak, holding a newborn close to her chest. Her lips moved in silent prayer as warriors fell around her. A sigil-Elara's mark-flared at the woman's throat.

The image shattered.

---

Elara stumbled back, clutching her chest. Her pulse thundered in her ears.

"What was that?" she gasped.

Ronan's voice was calm, but heavy. "A vision. Passed through blood. The ruins remember."

Her knees weakened, but she didn't fall. "That was... my ancestor?"

"Yes. And she's still watching."

The words sent a chill racing down her spine.

Suddenly, a low growl echoed from beyond the broken wall. Ronan tensed.

"Elara," he said, stepping in front of her, "stay behind me."

From the shadows emerged something grotesque-a creature of twisted limbs and liquid black eyes, its body crawling low like a starving wolf but shaped like nothing born of the earth.

"What is that?" Elara whispered, fear creeping into her throat.

"A shadowspawn," Ronan muttered. "Leftover magic from the burning of this place. The land has never healed."

The creature hissed, its breath like rusted steel. It lunged-

But Elara's mark blazed with sudden fury. A burst of brilliant white surged from her, throwing the shadowspawn backward with a shriek that shattered the fog.

Silence followed.

Ronan turned toward her, astonished.

"I didn't mean to," she said, her hands shaking.

"You didn't need to," he replied. "It's waking up on its own."

Tears welled in her eyes. "I don't want this."

"I know." He didn't touch her. "But the blood remembers, whether you're ready or not."

---

They walked deeper into the ruins. The path was uneven, littered with the bones of forgotten architecture. The fog shifted like breath as Elara passed through it. Her skin prickled. The ground beneath her feet pulsed like a heartbeat-her heartbeat.

The mark on her neck flared again, this time not with fear but with recognition.

She paused at the base of a fallen arch. Stone symbols pulsed softly beneath layers of moss, glowing under her touch.

"I feel like I've stood here before," she murmured.

"Because you have," Ronan said. "Not in this body. But in your blood."

When she touched the stone, the world changed again.

---

Flashback

A moonlit night. Warriors in armor bearing the mark of the Nightborn. A circle of fire. A child placed gently inside a cradle made of vines. The woman with silver hair turned to a cloaked figure-"Protect her. No matter the cost."

---

She collapsed to her knees. "It's too much. I'm not strong enough for this."

"You don't get to decide that," Ronan said softly. "Fate already did."

Thunder rumbled far in the distance.

And then came footsteps.

Elara froze. That scent-it cut through the fog like a blade.

Kael.

---

He stepped out of the mist like a ghost from her past. Mud stained the hem of his trousers, and his expression was a battlefield of conflict.

"Elara," he said, voice hoarse. "I came for you."

Ronan stiffened. "You shouldn't be here."

Kael ignored him. "I followed the light. I didn't know it would bring me here."

Elara stood slowly, her heart pounding.

"You rejected me," she said quietly.

"I was wrong." His jaw clenched. "I let duty blind me. I didn't see you."

"You looked right at me," she said, voice hardening. "And still turned away."

"I thought I was doing what was best for the pack."

"And what about what was best for me?" she asked, her voice breaking.

The silence between them cracked like lightning.

Ronan stepped between them. "She doesn't belong to you anymore."

Kael's eyes narrowed. "And she belongs to you?"

"She belongs to herself," Ronan replied.

The mark on Elara's neck flared again-this time, defensive. A shimmering barrier of light burst from her skin, separating her from both men.

Kael flinched.

"Elara..." he said, eyes wide.

"She's not who she was," Ronan said. "And she's not coming back."

Kael stepped closer to the light, unsure. "This isn't over."

"No," Elara said, raising her chin. "But you and I are."

---

Kael looked at her one last time-longer this time, like he finally saw her not as a burden, or a duty, or a markless mistake... but as something wild and untouchable.

Then he turned, and disappeared into the mist.

---

The ruins quieted.

Ronan exhaled. "Are you all right?"

"No," Elara said truthfully. "But for the first time... I'm not afraid."

She looked up at the moon. It shone down over the ruins, casting light on the place her people had died... and the place her power had begun.

Below her feet, the ground trembled faintly-as if the sanctuary itself recognized her bloodline.

And far beneath the surface, something ancient and long-buried stirred in answer.

---

Deep in the roots of the ruins, an old presence opened its eyes.

And it whispered her name like it had always known she'd return.

            
            

COPYRIGHT(©) 2022