The forest stood quiet under the weight of twilight. The winds no longer howled with grief. The blood had long been washed away by spring rains, and the ash left behind by battle was now part of the soil, feeding roots for the seasons ahead.
But not everything buried stayed gone.
Aria knelt at the edge of the riverbank, the same one where Kael first challenged her instincts, where fire met fury. Now, she came seeking silence. Yet even in stillness, something pulsed beneath the earth, something watching.
She dipped her fingers into the stream. The water shimmered strangely, glowing where it met her skin.
Her bond mark pulsed in reply.
Behind her, Kael approached barefoot, his steps soundless. "You feel it too?"
She didn't turn around. "It's been stronger each day since the ceremony. At first I thought it was just the power adjusting. But now…"
"It's something else."
She nodded.
Kael crouched beside her, his hand brushing hers beneath the water's surface. "Selene hasn't returned. But scouts say a new symbol is appearing near old ruins. Something in blood. Something… ancient."
"Then she's not gone," Aria whispered.
"No," Kael said. "She's waiting."
A hawk cried overhead, circling once, then vanishing into the clouds. Aria followed its path with her eyes before speaking again.
"The council will come for us. If they sense what's changing… they'll call it rebellion. Witchcraft. Treason."
Kael's jaw tensed. "Let them. We've faced worse."
"But not with a pack still healing," she reminded him. "Not with the world on the edge of something it doesn't understand."
He looked at her then, truly looked. "We are the edge, Aria. You and me. They'll try to define us, but they'll never control us."
The stream gave a sudden shimmer, like silver lightning beneath the current.
Then just for a moment a glowing sigil flared beneath the surface. A perfect circle, split by a claw. The same mark that had once been worn by the first Forsaken.
They both froze.
Kael reached for his blade instinctively.
But Aria placed her hand over his. "Don't. It's not an attack."
"What is it then?"
She stood slowly, voice steady. "A message."
Kael rose with her. "From who?"
Her gaze didn't waver. "From whatever's next."
They stood in silence, the breeze threading through their hair.
Then, with her fingers still damp from the river, Aria traced a new symbol into the earth. Not the mate mark. Not the sigil. Something new.
A fusion.
The dawn of a new bond.
When Kael looked at her questioningly, she simply said, "If our bond is the key… maybe we need to decide what door it opens."
Behind them, the moon began to rise.
But not full. Not golden. Not red.
Ash grey.
A third moon.
One not charted by any pack or recorded by the Council.
Something ancient had awakened.
And it was watching.
In the silence beneath the ash moon, something breathed and it remembered her name.