Chapter 8 Secrets in Moonlight

The Thorn mansion felt different at night-older, more mysterious, like the shadows held secrets from centuries past. Luca led me through corridors lined with portraits of stern-faced ancestors, their painted eyes seeming to track our movement.

"They're all werewolves?" I asked, stopping in front of a painting of a woman with Luca's storm-gray eyes.

"Every one. My family has led the Southern Pack for over two hundred years." He paused beside me, studying the portrait. "That's my great-great-grandmother, Lydia. She was the last Thorn to deal with a Moonbound."

"What happened?"

"She helped him unite the packs, just like the prophecy said. They ruled together for thirty years before he died of old age." Luca's voice was quiet. "She never mated with anyone else. Said he was her true match, her other half."

Something twisted in my chest-not jealousy exactly, but a complex mix of emotions I couldn't name. "Were they in love?"

"The records suggest they were." He looked at me sideways. "Does that bother you?"

"I don't know." It was the truth. Everything about this situation was so far beyond my experience that I had no frame of reference for how to feel. "Should it?"

Instead of answering, he led me deeper into the house, to a circular room I hadn't seen before. The walls were covered in ancient books, scrolls, and what looked like primitive cave paintings. In the center stood a massive wooden table carved with symbols that seemed to shift and move in the candlelight.

"Welcome to the Archive," Luca said. "Everything we know about the Moonbound is here."

I approached the table, drawn by the intricate carvings. The symbols were beautiful but alien, like a language I'd once known but forgotten. When I traced one with my fingertip, it glowed faintly silver.

"They respond to you," Luca observed. "That's... not supposed to happen."

"Nothing about me is supposed to happen, apparently." I pulled my hand back, but the symbol continued to pulse with soft light. "Tell me about the prophecy. The real version, not whatever sanitized story your father's been telling people."

Luca hesitated, then pulled an ancient leather tome from one of the shelves. The pages were yellow with age, covered in the same shifting symbols as the table.

"The original prophecy was written over a thousand years ago," he began, translating as he read. "'When the moon bleeds red and the old bloodlines wake, the Daughter of Two Worlds shall rise. In her hands lies the power to unite or destroy, to heal the ancient wounds or rend them wider still.'"

"Daughter of Two Worlds," I repeated. "Human and werewolf."

"It gets more specific." He turned the page. "'She who walks between worlds must choose: the path of dominion, where power flows like water and the weak serve the strong, or the path of sacrifice, where strength is shared and the many protect the few.'"

"And if I choose wrong?"

"'Should she embrace the darkness, all shall bow before her might until the stars grow cold. Should she reject her nature, the light within will consume her, and the children of the moon shall know war everlasting.'" He closed the book. "Not exactly encouraging either way."

I slumped into one of the ancient chairs surrounding the table. "So I either become a tyrant or I die trying not to be one. Great options."

"There might be a third choice." Luca sat across from me, his expression serious. "What if the prophecy isn't talking about political power? What if it's talking about something else entirely?"

"Like what?"

"Like the power to heal the division between human and werewolf worlds. To bridge the gap instead of ruling from one side or the other." He leaned forward, eyes bright with possibility. "Your mother said the Moonbound were meant to rule, but what if they were actually meant to serve? To be the connection between two peoples?"

The idea sent a spark of hope through me. "That would explain why I don't feel the urge to dominate anyone. Why the idea of ruling makes me sick."

"And it would mean there's another way to channel the power safely."

A soft sound from outside made us both freeze. Luca's head snapped toward the window, his body going tense in a way that reminded me he was more than human.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"Someone's watching the house." He stood slowly, moving with predatory grace toward the window. "Multiple someones."

Fear spiked through me. "Northern Pack?"

"I don't think so. The scent is... different." He cursed under his breath. "Aria, we need to leave. Now."

"Why? What's wrong?"

Before he could answer, the lights went out. Emergency power kicked in a moment later, bathing everything in red light that made the carved symbols on the table writhe like living things.

"Hunters," Luca said grimly. "They've found us."

"Hunters?"

"Humans who know about our world. They think we're all monsters that need to be eliminated." He grabbed my hand, pulling me toward what looked like a solid wall. "Including you, now that you've awakened."

"But I'm human too!"

"Not anymore." He pressed something hidden in the wall, and a section swung inward, revealing a narrow passage. "The moment you manifested Moonbound power, you became something else. Something they'll kill without hesitation."

We plunged into the tunnel just as the sound of shattering glass echoed through the mansion. Shouts followed-human voices calling out coordinates and orders in crisp, military precision.

"How many are there?" I gasped as we ran through the narrow space.

"Too many." Luca's voice was tight with worry. "And they came prepared. Silver weapons, wolfsbane gas, the works."

The tunnel ended at another hidden door, this one opening into the forest behind the house. We burst into the moonlight just as explosions lit up the mansion's windows.

"My father-"

"Will be fine," I said firmly, though I wasn't sure I believed it. "He's survived this long, right?"

Luca nodded, but his jaw was tight with worry. We ran deeper into the woods, following what seemed to be a predetermined escape route. Behind us, the sounds of battle grew louder-howls of pain, gunshots, the acrid smell of smoke and burning wolfsbane.

"Where are we going?" I panted.

"Safe house. It's about two miles-"

A figure stepped out from behind a massive oak tree directly in our path. Tall, lean, dressed in tactical gear and carrying weapons I couldn't identify. But it was the eyes that made my blood freeze-pale blue, cold as winter ice, and completely focused on me.

"Aria Blake," the figure said in a crisp British accent. "By order of the Hunter's Council, you're under arrest for crimes against humanity."

"Run," Luca whispered.

The hunter raised what looked like a modified crossbow. "I don't think so."

Silver light exploded from my hands without conscious thought, but this time it felt different-wilder, less controlled. The hunter dove aside as the bolt of energy scorched the tree where he'd been standing.

"Fascinating," he said, rising smoothly to his feet. "The reports didn't mention you were already manifesting Class Five abilities."

"What the hell does that mean?" I demanded.

His smile was sharp as a blade. "It means you're far more dangerous than we initially calculated." He raised the crossbow again. "Which means you die tonight."

The weapon fired with a soft whisper of sound, and I watched in horror as a silver-tipped bolt flew straight toward my heart.