The first thing I noticed about Skarth Hollow wasn't the scent of ancient magic or the strange architecture carved into the mountainside it was the silence.
Not the heavy, suffocating kind that filled Garrick's palace. This silence was alive, like the space between drumbeats before a battle begins. It buzzed beneath my skin, charged with something raw and wild.
I stepped through the archway carved from black stone, its surface etched with forgotten runes. A shiver rolled over me as I crossed the threshold. I wasn't sure if it was the cold or the Hollow noticing me.
Kael stayed close. Eira scouted ahead, blending into shadows like a wraith. Ruvan's stride was unhurried, but his eyes missed nothing.
The Hollow was no ordinary refuge. Wolves and witches mingled openly some in ragged clothes, others in ceremonial armor or shimmering robes. Young wolves sparred with knives and claws under the moonlight. Spell casters lit bonfires without flint, murmuring in a language I didn't understand.
This place had rules.
And I was the outsider breaking them just by breathing.
A woman stepped in front of us before we could go further. She wore deep crimson robes that shimmered like blood in torchlight. Her hair was long, silver, braided with bone and ash. Her eyes pale violet glowed faintly as they studied me.
"You bring the Fallen Luna to my gate?" she asked Ruvan. Her voice was quiet, but the entire clearing seemed to still.
"I bring a survivor," Ruvan answered, bowing his head. "She seeks the Moon bind."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
The woman stepped closer to me. Her presence pressed against my senses like a tide powerful, inescapable, and cold.
"You have no wolf," she said. "No bond. And yet you carry the scent of divine dissonance."
My hands clenched. "I want to find her. I want to become whole."
She circled me slowly. "Many want. Few endure."
"I will endure."
Her eyes sharpened. "We shall see."
She raised her hand, and violet sparks danced from her fingertips. "I am Lysandra. High Seer of the Hollow. If you wish to walk the path of Moon bind, you will begin tonight."
Kael's brow creased. "She hasn't rested"
"She has rested her whole life," Lysandra snapped. "Now she must rise."
2
The ritual chamber was hidden deep beneath the mountain. A pool of still water reflected candlelight on the ceiling, where stalactites hung like the teeth of gods. Sigils were carved into the floor in a spiral, all leading to a stone dais in the center.
I stood barefoot in a thin linen shift, my old bruises still mottling my skin. Cold seeped into my bones.
Lysandra circled me, seven other witches in hooded robes chanting in a language older than blood.
"The Moon bind is not a gift," she said. "It is a contract. Your soul must call to the divine—and be heard. If there is no answer, the ritual fails. You remain Hollow."
"What if it answers?" I asked quietly.
"Then you will either ascend… or shatter."
Not exactly comforting.
She pressed a carved moonstone into my palm. It pulsed with heat the moment I touched it.
"Focus on your name," she instructed. "Not the one given to you by Blackwater. The one beneath. The name of your soul."
I closed my eyes.
What name could that be?
All I had known was Aurora Thorn Luna, then traitor, then fugitive. But under the titles… under the pain… I reached.
A whisper stirred in my mind.
Auryn.
The name rose like breath on frost. Not a name I'd ever heard spoken, but it felt right.
The stone in my hand burned white-hot.
Light exploded from the center of the chamber, and I screamed as power rushed into me—too fast, too much. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the floor, visions tearing across my mind:
A silver wolf running through snow, howling mournfully.
A girl chained in a tower, her throat raw from screaming.
The moon breaking in half above a battlefield.
Blood on Garrick's hands as he laughed.
A throne made of antlers. A woman crowned in stars.
And then…
A mirror.
I saw myself.
Not broken. Not bloodied.
But whole.
Eyes silver-bright. A crown of woven moonlight around my head. And behind me—a wolf.
Tall, sleek, and beautiful. Her fur was pale gold. Her eyes were mine.
You were never forsaken, the wolf said. Only silenced. Now hear me. I am your truth.
I reached out. Our hands or paws touched.
The light consumed us both.
3
When I woke, the water around the dais had stilled. The witches were silent. Lysandra stared at me, her expression unreadable.
"You saw her," she said.
I nodded slowly.
"Your bond is not dead," she continued. "It was sealed. Locked away by trauma, by pain, by false teachings. But the Moon has not abandoned you."
Tears slipped down my cheeks.
"I thought I was broken," I whispered.
"You were forged," she said. "Like iron in flame. But now you must temper. You must train not only your body, but your spirit."
"Will I be able to shift?" I asked.
"Not yet," Lysandra said. "The bond is awakened but fragile. If you shift before the moon is full, it may destroy your mind."
I shivered.
"So what do I do?"
"Three trials," she said. "One for the body. One for the mind. And one… for the heart."
Her eyes turned sharp. "You must face your fear. Or it will consume you again."
I nodded. "Then I'll face it."
Even if it kills me.
4
The next weeks passed in a haze of sweat, spells, and pain.
Ruvan taught me endurance how to scale cliffs with cut hands, how to breathe in snow-thin air without panic. Eira pushed my reflexes, drilling blade work and reading intent. She hated praise, but after our fifth spar, she offered me her dagger to borrow.
"Don't lose it," she muttered. "It's older than I am."
Kael… watched me transform.
He helped me meditate with the witches. We practiced resonance how to sync breath with spirit, how to feel my wolf stir when I closed my eyes.
Every night, I sat beneath the hollowed moonstone tree at the Hollow's heart and whispered the name I now held like a promise.
Auryn.
The name shimmered like starlight.
On the full moon, the first trial began.
5
The Trial of the Body took place in the Forgotten Vale a frozen canyon where winds cut flesh like glass. I was blindfolded, stripped of weapons, and left with only instinct.
"Your task is to climb," Lysandra said. "To survive the night. And to bring back a flame from the highest peak."
I barely made it halfway up the slope before falling hard. Blood painted the snow. My hands throbbed. My breath rasped.
But I didn't stop.
Every hour, I rose.
Every gust of pain, I pushed through.
And when I reached the summit, nearly unconscious, I found a single burning torch stuck into a stone altar.
I lit a twig from it. Just one.
Then carried it down through darkness, through bitter wind, through every voice in my head that told me I was still weak.
I made it.
Eira waited at the base. For once, her expression cracked—just a little.
"You lived," she said.
"I rose," I replied.
6
The second trial Trial of the Mind was far harder.
Lysandra gave me a vial.
"Drink. And dream."
I did.
And found myself in Garrick's court again.
But this time, the people bowed to me.
I sat on the black throne.
Kellan was in chains. Eira knelt in blood. Kael's eyes were vacant.
And I laughed. Just like Garrick had.
"Power without purpose is just cruelty," my wolf said beside me.
I turned, horrified at the monster I'd become.
"I'm not him," I cried.
"Then prove it," she answered.
I tore the illusion down with a scream.
When I woke, Lysandra was smiling faintly.
"You passed."
"What would have happened if I hadn't?"
"You would have believed the lie."
7
The final trial of the Heart was not announced.
It came when I least expected it.
Kael had gone missing.
A hunting party returned with blood-streaked clothes. A witch reported shadows in the western woods too fast for wolves, too strange for humans.
"I'll go," I said.
"You are not ready," Ruvan warned.
"He matters to me," I replied.
And I left before they could stop me.
8
I found Kael deep in the woods, half-conscious, bleeding from a gash in his side. He'd been ambushed by mercenaries paid hands of Garrick, no doubt.
I fought them.
No blade. No training.
Just rage. Just memory. Just instinct.
I bled. I bruised. I burned.
But I did not fall.
And when I crouched beside Kael, shielding him with my own body, something clicked.
A howl ripped from my chest.
And behind my eyes my wolf roared to life.
9
I didn't shift.
Not yet.
But when I returned to the Hollow carrying Kael in my arms, and Lysandra looked into my eyes, she nodded once.
"Your bond is strong," she said. "Your trials are complete."
I exhaled.
For the first time in my life, I felt it.
Not Luna. Not victim.
Wolf.