THE BLOOD MOON’S SHADOW

THE BLOOD MOON’S SHADOW

AYLA'S POV
I wake up gasping like I’ve been drowning in my sleep. My shirt’s clinging to me, soaked in sweat, and the sheets are tangled around my legs like I’ve been fighting something in my dreams.

My hands won’t stop shaking and my chest feels tight, like I’ve been punched right in the middle. I sit up slowly, press the heel of my palm against my forehead. It’s burning hot.

Thane’s voice comes through the half-open door before I can get a grip on myself. “Ayla?”

I don’t answer right away. I can’t. My throat’s dry. I swallow hard, and the taste in my mouth is bitter, like copper.

He knocks once, lightly, then steps in, already frowning. His hair’s messy, he probably didn’t sleep much either. “You okay?”

I nod, but it’s a lie and we both know it. My body feels like it’s been wrung out, like someone grabbed my insides and twisted them until they tore. I swing my legs off the bed slowly. My limbs feel heavy, like they don’t belong to me.

Thane doesn’t push. He just walks over and sits on the edge of the bed beside me. “Was it the same nightmare again?”

I nod again, slower this time. “Worse,” I manage to say. “It’s… I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s not just a dream. I feel it. Something’s moving beneath the ground. Huge. And it’s awake.”

He rubs a hand over his face and sighs. “You said before it was sleeping. Now it’s awake?”

I nod. “Not fully. But it’s… aware now. Watching. It’s like it knows I can feel it.”

There’s a long pause between us. Then Thane says, “Leona’s already downstairs. She’s been reading through the scrolls again since five a.m.”

I groan. “Let me guess, she didn’t sleep either.”

“Nope,” he says. “Neither did Garrick. He’s pacing. Said he has a bad feeling.”

I push myself up, even though every muscle in my body protests. “I need to talk to her.”

Thane looks at me, really looks. His eyes search my face for a moment before he says quietly, “You look pale. Like… off.”

“Thanks,” I mutter.

He doesn’t smile. “I’m serious, Ayla. Something’s not right.”

I hate how right he is because I do feel off. Like something’s eating at me from the inside, bit by bit. I grab the edge of the dresser to steady myself and take a deep breath.

“Let's go.”

We head downstairs in silence.

The study smells like old paper and burnt coffee as Leona’s sitting cross-legged on the floor with scrolls spread out all around her, like she’s building a nest out of history. Her eyes are bloodshot, and she barely glances up when we walk in.

“I’ve been going through them again,” she says, already talking before we even sit down. “Cross-referencing symbols. There’s something we missed. Something important.”

Garrick is leaning against the fireplace, arms crossed, staring at the floor like it offended him. He looks up when I walk in, and his eyes narrow.

“You look like crap,” he says bluntly.

“Thanks for the warm welcome,” I mutter, flopping onto the couch. My whole body sags into the cushions like I’ve been carrying a ton of bricks.

Garrick doesn’t let it go. “How long have you been feeling like this?”

I hesitate. “Since the night Nadira died. It started as just being tired. But then the dreams started. They weren’t this bad at first.”

Leona looks up sharply at that. “Ayla, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I thought it would pass. I mean, we have been fighting non-stop. It made sense to be exhausted.”

Garrick straightens up, his voice sharp now. “It’s not just exhaustion. It’s feeding on you.”

My heart skips. “What?”

“That thing,” he says. “Whatever’s waking up under the ground? It was feeding on Nadira. That’s where she got her power from. And now, with her gone…”

“It’s using me?!” My voice cracks.

Leona nods slowly. “It makes sense. You are the other half of the balance. It doesn’t care who it feeds on. It just wants power. It wants out.”

Thane speaks up, his voice low and tense. “I can't believe that after all we went through, killing Nadira… didn’t stop it.”

“No,” Leona says, rubbing her temple. “It just changed the equation. The balance is broken either way. That’s what the prophecy meant. Light and dark have to exist, not destroy each other.”

Garrick adds, “It didn’t matter who died. It just needed one of you gone or drained to start breaking out.”

Silence falls. Heavy. Too heavy.

I wrap my arms around myself. “So what now? I die next?”

Thane stiffens beside me. “Don’t say that.”

“I’m not being dramatic,” I snap. “If it’s already feeding off me, how long until there’s nothing left?”

“We’re not letting that happen,” Thane says, his tone firm now. Angry even.

Leona pulls a scroll closer to her and spreads it out carefully. “There’s a part here that talks about a tether. Something that binds the force beneath the earth. A seal.”

Garrick squints at it. “You think it’s still intact?”

“I don’t know. But it says something interesting here, ‘the seal draws strength from the soul of the balance.’”

“What does that even mean?” I ask.

Leona looks at me. “I think it means you, Ayla. Or maybe it was Nadira. Maybe it needed both of you alive to keep the thing sealed. With her gone…”

I shake my head. “So now I have to keep it locked in by myself?”

Garrick walks toward me slowly. “You’re weakening. That means the seal is too.”

Thane stands. “So what, we’re just supposed to watch her get drained?”

“No,” Leona says quickly. “There has to be another way. There is another way. These scrolls mention a place. It’s not far from here. Something about a ritual site built on top of one of the original anchor points.”

“Ritual site,” I repeat, not loving the sound of that.

“It’s not what it sounds like,” she says quickly. “It’s not about sacrifice. It’s about restoration. The scroll says the site was built to restore balance if the original holders fell out of sync.”

“So if we go there,” Thane says, “we might be able to stop this thing from fully waking up.”

“Maybe even rebind it,” Leona adds.

Garrick still doesn’t look convinced. “Or we walk right into its trap.”

Thane shrugs. “What choice do we have?”

I look at him. He’s tense. His jaw is tight. His hands are clenched at his sides. I know he’s scared. But he won’t say it. He never does.

“I’m going either way,” I say quietly. “I can’t stay here and wait to be drained to death.”

Thane finally meets my eyes. “Then I’m coming with you.”

There’s a pause. One of those long, lingering ones where something unspoken stretches out between us like a wire pulled too tight. And then it snaps back.

Garrick grunts. “You’re both idiots. So I guess I’m coming too.”

Leona sighs, muttering something under her breath about wolves and their damn hero complexes.

But I see it in her eyes, she’s scared too. We all are. The thing und
er the earth isn’t just some vague myth anymore. It’s awake. It’s watching. And it’s hungry.

And I’m the one it’s feeding on.