The hours passed like shadows stretching over the land. By evening, Kael, Nyra, and Draven prepared to leave. The castle gates opened, and the three slipped into the gathering dusk.
The ruins were deep within the forest, a place of broken stones and forgotten magic. The trees seemed to close behind them, swallowing their footsteps.
As they reached the center of the ruins, a figure stepped out from the shadows. It was an old woman, her silver hair flowing like a river under the moonlight, her eyes sharp and filled with secrets.
"Welcome, heirs of the bloodline," she said in a voice that seemed to echo from the earth itself. "I am Seris, keeper of the lost knowledge."
Kael stepped forward. "Why have you summoned us?"
Seris smiled faintly. "Because the curse you carry is not just a punishment. It is a promise made long ago-a promise to guard the balance between worlds."
Nyra's eyes narrowed. "We have already heard this. What new truth do you bring?"
Seris raised a hand, revealing an ancient amulet, glowing faintly red. "This is the Heart of Vareth. The key to breaking the curse or binding it forever."
Draven reached for it, but Seris stopped him. "Beware. The power within can corrupt even the purest soul."
Kael took the amulet cautiously. "How do we use it?"
Seris's eyes darkened. "To wield the Heart, you must face the truth inside yourselves. Your greatest fears, your darkest secrets."
Nyra looked at Kael. "Are we ready for that?"
Kael swallowed hard. "We don't have a choice."
Suddenly, a chilling howl tore through the night, followed by the sharp crack of arrows. Shadows moved swiftly through the trees.
"Ambush!" Draven shouted. " Oh no, this can't be happening. I said it. I had a feeling this would happen."
"Nyra, Draven" Kael shouted, " We have to fight really hard."
"It's time we make use of the powers we have"
" No no, we can't do such, mother already warned us not to show our powers, it has to remain a secret. We can't disobey our mother." Nyra said angrily.
"Nyra, if we don't fight back really hard with the use of our powers, we might lose our lives."
"Yes that's true ,we have no choice but to use our powers and magic," Draven said.
The trio drew their weapons, back to back, as figures cloaked in black surrounded them, they were from Varek's Shadow Court.
Seris's calm vanished. She chanted an incantation, and a barrier of glowing runes erupted around them. Then the heirs got to know Seris was in support of them and never wished them harm.
The battle was fierce. Arrows whistled, blades clashed, and magic flared in bursts of light and shadow. Kael fought with the strength of the wolf within, each strike fueled by desperation and hope.
In the chaos, Nyra was knocked back, her hand flying to the amulet.
The moment her fingers touched it, the world shifted.
Visions flooded her mind, faces of ancestors, battles lost and won, and a voice that whispered warnings and promises.
Nyra gasped, shaking off the visions. "The Heart... it's alive."
Kael fought closer, cutting down a shadowy figure that lunged for Nyra.
"Hold on!" he yelled, dragging her behind the barrier.
Seris's voice was strained. "The Heart chooses its master. If it falls to Varek, all is lost."
Outside the barrier, the Shadow Court roared in fury, pounding against the glowing shield.
Kael looked at Nyra. "We must take the Heart to the Queen. She is the only one who can break the curse."
Nyra nodded, though her eyes reflected doubt and fear.
The battle stretched on, but the trio escaped the ruins under cover of darkness, hearts pounding, knowing that the real war was just beginning. This was the first battle the heirs ever got involved in.
Now, they are becoming stronger and wiser.
Back in the palace,
Amira removed the stone necklace around her throat-the only thing she wore since the coronation. A gift from the temple, a symbol of protection.
But tonight, she needed more than symbols.
She needed answers, her body shook from the feeling of her children being in danger.
That night, dressed in a dark robe, Amira stepped out through the palace gates. She walked deep into the forest beyond the city walls. Past the guardian trees, past the howling stones , to the Forbidden Grove.
A guard watched her from behind, "why will the queen move out at night? Where could she be going? She is exposing herself to danger."
" Varek forces are everywhere,they might try to kill her." Even though the guards saw her, he did not dare confront the Queen directly.
He left for his quarters peacefully. All he said was a heartfelt prayer for the Queen, "gods of our land, protect the queen, she is all we have."
The wind howled through twisted trees. The moon was a blood red sickle.
She reached the heart of the grove-an altar made of bone-white stone. The air smelled of ash and flowers long dead.
Amira knelt.
Memories of what she had once done in the Grove flashed through her mind.
On the night of that fateful day when the villagers trooped into the palace to accuse the Queen of the curse and chaos she had brought into the land, out of frustration and pain, she went to the Forbidden Grove to make an oath for a peaceful kingdom and protection of her children.
"Spirits of this land," she whispered. "I am your daughter. I ask for your help."
There was silence.
Then the wind stopped. The grove grew cold. A low voice, not of this world, filled the space.
**"What do you offer?"**
"I offer my blood," Amira said, drawing a blade across her palm.
The blood hit the stone, glowing like fire.
**"Then let it be done."**
A blinding light erupted from the altar, and Amira screamed, she felt the pain through her body, then vanished. The wind returned. The trees stood still.
But something had changed.
The curse had awakened, unknown to her. She shouldn't have gone to make an oath despite the frustration. Little did she know the oath awaked a cursed mystery.
While still kneeling, Amira came back to her senses.
" Could the oath I made that day be the cause of my children's dark side?" She thought all to herself.
"Spirits of this land, what could be happening? I was here years ago to make an oath for protection and peace. And now this is happening to me and my children. Oh no! I demand an answer from you. My children shouldn't be hunted, why do they possess supernatural powers? Aren't you the gods we believe in anymore? Why are you doing this? I believed you to protect us."
Draven got missing after the trio escaped from the ruins. He had gone to the mountains again.
A cold wind was felt through the ancient pass that led to the mountains. The forest had thinned, giving way to blackened trees that looked more like twisted bones than living things.
Prince Draven stood at the edge of the cliff, breathing heavily with his eyes fixed on the jagged peaks ahead. The air was thick with silence, but deep beneath it, he could hear something, an old sound, a familiar call. A howl that echoed from the bones of the earth.
He wasn't alone anymore.
"Draven," a whisper came from behind. Nyra.
He turned slowly. She had followed him, though he had tried to escape all of them. The weight of what he was becoming was too great. The beast in him had grown wild, untamed. But Nyra's eyes glowed not with fear, but sorrow.
"You shouldn't be here," Draven said. His voice was harsh.
Nyra stepped closer. "Neither should you. We have to go home together to meet mother, she must be really worried."
The wind howled louder, and in that moment, the sky above the mountain cracked with a sudden flash of lightning. Thunder followed. The mountain was waking.
Nyra reached out. "The old witch who guides me... she warned me about this place. She said something sleeps here, something that shouldn't be disturbed."
Draven looked up at the peaks. "I've felt it. Every night since the curse started changing me. It pulls me here. I don't know what it is... but it knows me."
A gust of wind forced them to steady themselves. Nyra's eyes narrowed.
"Maybe that's what Varek wants. Maybe the thing beneath this mountain is what he's after. The gods poisoned by hatred. The same force that corrupted our bloodline."
Draven didn't answer. Instead, he began walking. Nyra followed, and together they descended into the mountain's shadow.
The gods couldn't give Amira the answers she wanted. She went back to the palace with a disturbed heart.
In the palace, Queen Amira sat alone in her chamber. Her face pale, her strength fading. The blood oath was feeding on her. Every night the visions became stronger. Her children in danger. The land tearing itself apart. And now, the whispers of war. Varek's influence spreads further than she had feared.
A knock on the door. High Priestess Lirien entered, her expression grim.
"They've gone to the mountains," she said. "Nyra and Draven."
Amira's chest tightened. "No..."
"They seek the truth of the curse," Lirien continued. "But they walk into a place that was sealed by the gods themselves. There are ancient things in the mountain. Spirits of the first wolves, witches turned to ash by betrayal. It is no place for children of a cursed line."
Amira stood, swaying from weakness. "Then we must follow them."
Lirien frowned. "You are too weak."
"I am their mother," she replied. "And I will not lose them to the past."
As Nyra and Draven entered a narrow cave, the air shifted. A heavy magic clung to the walls like mist. The stone glowed faintly, etched with runes older than any they had seen. Nyra touched one and felt a sharp jolt in her mind, visions, voices, cries from centuries past.
"Do you feel that?" she whispered.
Draven nodded. "It's like... the mountain is alive."
They moved deeper, guided by flickering torches that seemed to light themselves. Soon, they came upon a chamber, round and vast, with a stone altar in its center. Around the altar were skeletal remains, dozens of them, dressed in torn robes of both witches and warriors. It was a burial ground. Or a prison.
And carved into the wall above the altar were five symbols.
Wolf, moon, crown, fire, shadow.
Nyra's eyes widened. "These are the marks of the gods."
Draven stepped closer. "What is this place?"
Suddenly, the runes on the wall glowed bright red. The ground shook. A sound like a thousand wolves howling at once filled the chamber. The door behind them slammed shut.
And then, from the altar, a figure began to rise.
Its body was made of smoke and bone. Its eyes glowed like dying stars. When it spoke, it sounded like dozens of voices echoing at once.
**"Blood of the crown... cursed and divine. You come seeking truth. But truth demands sacrifice."**
Nyra stood firm. "Who are you?"
**"We are what remains of the gods you betrayed. Your blood is our prison. And your pain is our freedom."**
Draven growled, the beast inside him rising. "We didn't betray anyone."
**"Your ancestor did. The pact was broken. And the land was wounded. That wound is you."**
The figure raised its hand and shadows burst from the walls, wrapping around Draven, pinning him to the floor. Nyra screamed and stepped forward, her hands glowing with violet fire.
"Let him go!"
**"He is part of the curse. As are you. But you... are more."**
Nyra's fire flared, breaking through the shadows. She reached Draven and held his hand. The power between them pulsed, and for a moment, the mountain seemed to calm.
But then the figure hissed.
**"You will return. When the blood moon rises. And you will choose, life or balance. One must be given for the other to survive."**
The chamber began to collapse. The walls cracked, and rock fell from above. Draven grabbed Nyra and they ran toward the newly opened passage. Behind them, the altar shattered into dust.
Outside the mountain, Queen Amira and Lirien had arrived. The storm had grown stronger, and Amira could barely stand. But when she saw her children emerge, covered in dirt and blood, something in her broke.
Nyra collapsed in her arms.
"There's something in there," she whispered. "Something ancient... something that knows us."
Draven sat nearby, silent and shaking. His eyes had changed-brighter, more wild.
Amira looked to Lirien. "They've seen it. They know."
Lirien nodded. "Then it begins."
Far across the kingdom, in the ruined temple of the old gods, Elder Varek watched a pool of black water. His eyes glowed red. Around him, the Shadow Court chanted. The air was thick with smoke and magic.
He had seen everything. Nyra, Draven. The mountain.
"They are closer than I thought," he murmured.
A figure stepped from the shadows. It was one of his spies, a young girl with hollow eyes.
"My lord," she said, bowing. "Should we prepare the ritual?"
Varek's mouth twisted into a smile.
"No. Let them come. Let them believe they have a choice. It will make their fall even sweeter."
He stepped closer to the pool. The image of the mountain faded, replaced by the face of Queen Amira.
"You made the oath," he whispered. "And now your children will pay the price."
The water turned red.
Later that night, as the royal family returned to the palace, something had changed. Draven no longer looked restless, he looked haunted. Nyra barely spoke, and when she did, it was only about the choice the gods had given.
Life or balance.
The blood moon was only days away.
Kael waited at the gates when they returned. His eyes widened when he saw his siblings.
"What happened?" he asked.
Nyra looked up, her voice quiet.
"The gods aren't just watching. They're waiting."
Draven added, "And they want one of us dead."
The silence that followed settled like a weight none of them could lift.
And in the sky, hidden behind the clouds, the blood moon began to rise.
Back in the palace, Kael sat in the tower window, eyes glowing gold under the moon. His hand shook as he held it out and a flame danced across his fingertips.
Nyra, sitting beside him, closed her eyes.
"They will call us demons," she whispered. "The Howlers."
Kael clenched his jaw.
"Let them."
Down below, Draven crawled under his bed, growling to himself, eyes burning bright yellow.
Far beyond the walls, across the cursed mountains, Elder Varek stood before a dark altar. He crushed the message in his hand.
"So," he whispered, with a wicked smile , "the Queen has finally bled."
Behind him, dozens of shadowed figures knelt.
The Shadow Court had returned.
Varek's wicked laughter echoed through the darkness, "Amira's pain is only just beginning….and soon, the entire royal family will know my wrath."
He turned to his court, "Oh, you think Amira has suffered enough? No, she hasn't, her true agony is only just...dawning... wait and watch what I will do to them. "