The river spat me out like something it didn't want.
Cold water dragged me across stone, scraped my palms raw, left me gasping and half-drowned on a jagged bank. Every breath burned. The world swayed between black and silver — a bleeding moon above, the whisper of dead leaves below.
Liam.
The thought hit before pain did. My chest seized, the bond inside me flickering weakly — alive, but distant. His heartbeat brushed mine, faint as a sigh. He was somewhere out there, carried off by the same current that had almost torn me apart.
I tried to stand, failed. My knees hit the mud, slick and freezing. The shadows stirred sluggishly beneath my skin, exhausted, whispering incoherently — not words this time, just hunger and warning.
"Not yet," I muttered, voice shaking. "Not… yet."
The forest ahead was silent. Too silent. Even the wind held its breath. The moonlight pooled thick on the ground, pale and heavy, turning everything to bone and smoke.
Something was wrong. The shadows knew it before I did — they hissed under my skin, twisting, trembling. I looked up, every nerve in my body suddenly awake.
And there she was.
Selene.
She stepped from the treeline as though she'd been there all along, wrapped in veils that shimmered like liquid moonlight. Her feet didn't sink into the mud. Her eyes — gods, those eyes — were the color of frozen stars, calm and ancient and utterly merciless.
"You cannot flee your thread, child of night," she said softly.
The sound of her voice was like silk dragged over a blade.
I forced myself upright, my body screaming. "Stay away from me."
Selene tilted her head slightly, the movement so graceful it made my own defiance feel ugly. "You tore the weave with your hands, and now you ask to be left alone? Foolish girl. The loom bleeds when you touch it."
"What do you want?" My voice cracked.
Her expression didn't change. "To show you what you have made."
I didn't even have time to breathe before she lifted her hand. Moonlight gathered around her fingers — cold, dense, alive — and the world shattered.
The forest disappeared.
I was standing in a city instead — one I didn't recognize. Smoke choked the air. Flames devoured the sky. Bodies lay scattered across the cobblestones, human bodies, their blood painting the ground black in the moonlight.
And there, at the center of it all, stood Liam.
My heart stopped.
He was drenched in blood. His eyes glowed crimson, bright and feral. Veins of shadow crawled beneath his skin, pulsing with every heartbeat. His chest rose and fell in short, ragged breaths as he tore into a man's throat with his teeth.
The sound — gods, the sound — it wasn't Liam. It was hunger given voice.
I stumbled forward, hands shaking. "Liam—"
He turned.
And for the first time, his eyes didn't know me.
"Aria," he rasped, his voice low and jagged, dripping with hunger. "You taste like the first night."
He lunged.
I screamed, shadows bursting out of me in panic — and the vision broke.
The world snapped back to the forest. I hit the ground hard, gasping. My nose was bleeding, my vision swimming.
Selene stood where she had before, untouched, untouched by everything.
"You see," she said softly, "what has been written cannot be undone."
I pressed my shaking hands to the ground, dirt and blood smearing my palms. "You're lying. I won't let him become that."
Selene's smile was almost gentle. "You mistake prophecy for choice. The thread doesn't bend for your love."
"I'll cut it."
"Many have said those words." Her tone didn't change, but the air grew colder. "Do you know what they became?"
"Monsters," I spat.
"Worse." Her voice was a whisper now. "Gods."
The moon brightened. Pain lanced through my veins, searing and cold. I cried out, clutching my chest as my shadows recoiled, screaming like trapped things.
Selene's words came through the agony, quiet and absolute:
"You cannot save him. You will love him, chase him, fear him. But when your story ends, it will be his teeth that close the final page."
"Stop it!" I screamed.
Her face was expressionless. "You should not ask the moon to stop shining."
Something inside me snapped.
The shadows surged — wild, unbound — black fire erupting from my hands, the ground, the air. It swallowed the clearing in pure darkness.
When I opened my eyes again, she was gone.
The rain had started again, soft and thin, washing the blood from my skin. My body trembled. The forest was silent, save for my breathing.
Her voice still lingered in my mind, cold as the moonlight that refused to fade.
"When the moon turns red, he will find you."
I sank to my knees, shaking. I could still feel Liam's pulse through the bond, faint but alive. And with it — something else. Something hungry.
"No prophecy," I whispered, pressing my hand to my heart. "No gods. Not even you."
But the shadows inside me murmured softly, almost tenderly:
He is coming.
...
I didn't make it far.
By dawn, the forest had turned to a labyrinth of silver mist. My clothes were still damp from the river, my body weak from the fight. Every breath ached.
The bond pulsed again — once, sharp — then faded into silence. It felt like losing him all over again.
I leaned against a tree, trying to still my heartbeat. My fingers shook as I reached for the dagger at my belt, but before I could even grip it—
"Still running," Selene's voice said behind me.
I froze.
She was there again — silent, impossibly close. Her veils were no longer whole; they shimmered with faint tears of shadow. I'd wounded her before, somehow. That should've terrified me more than it comforted me.
"You should have left when the river gave you the chance," she said. "Now, the tide turns against you."
"Then let it," I snarled, summoning what was left of my power. Shadows rippled around me, jagged and trembling. "I'm done listening to your riddles."
Selene tilted her head. "Riddles?" She smiled faintly. "No, little shadow. I offer mercy."
"Your mercy kills."
"Yours does too."
She moved before I could blink. One second she was standing across from me; the next her hand was around my throat, her touch cold enough to burn.
The moonlight gathered around us, so bright it blinded me. My shadows screamed and fled beneath my skin, retreating from her touch.
"You think they serve you," she murmured, voice like silk and storm. "They do not. They remember older masters."
I swung a fist. Shadows burst outward — a reflex, not control — and slammed into her side. The impact threw her back several feet, tearing her veil. The cut bled silver light, not blood.
Selene's eyes hardened. "You dare wound prophecy?"
"Try me."
I lunged.
The forest exploded into chaos.
Light and shadow collided — silver against black. Trees split, the ground quaked. Every clash of our power burned through my veins, searing both magic and bone. I was faster; she was infinite.
I barely saw her move before her hand grazed my chest. Pain blossomed like fire. My vision went white.
"Stop," I gasped.
"You still do not understand," she said quietly. "You are the wound. The world bleeds because of you."
I roared, shadows bursting again — no longer tendrils, but wings. Huge, jagged, alive. They wrapped around me like armor, then struck outward.
Selene didn't dodge this time. Her form shattered into shards of moonlight — scattering like glass before reforming, her face inches from mine.
Her eyes were sorrowful. "He rises even now. Blood and hunger. You will follow him, and it will destroy you."
My rage cracked. "Then let it!"
The shadows answered my scream. They erupted in a storm so violent that the forest split open. Light and dark devoured each other until there was nothing left but silence.
When the smoke cleared, Selene was gone. Only the faint shimmer of her veil remained, drifting like ash.
Her last whisper echoed in the stillness:
"When the moon turns red, he will find you. And your mercy will end the world."
I collapsed. My chest heaved. My body shook. The moon's light flickered faintly through the smoke above.
I crawled to the river's edge and stared into my reflection. My eyes were no longer just red — they pulsed with veins of black.
The shadows whispered his name over and over, each syllable a heartbeat.
Liam.
And I knew.
Somewhere out there, he had awakened.
Not as mine.
Not anymore.