Chapter 52 | Moonlight Oath | Leah
The moon is full tonight.
I'm standing at the Owlspire observatory with Kael's coat draped over my shoulders, my hand resting on the railing. Down below, the academy is asleep. Up above, the stars are spinning in their never-ending dance. The moon hangs there like a silver coin, painting everything in pale, fiery light.
Kael stands next to me, his silver-black hair loose and flowing in the night breeze. He hasn't said anything since we came up here. Neither have I. Some moments don't need words.
"The child," he finally says, his voice quiet and close. "It will be born under a blood moon."
"How do you know?"
"I counted." He turns to look at me, his ice-blue eyes catching the moonlight. "The healer confirmed it today. The due date is on the autumn blood moon."
I place my hand on my belly, feeling the slight roundness that's become more obvious these past few weeks. The child is growing. Changing me. Filling me with a kind of love I never knew existed.
"Is that important?" I ask. "The blood moon?"
"Very." He moves closer, putting his hand over mine on my belly. "In Noct tradition, children born under the blood moon are blessed. Marked by fate. Meant for greatness."
"Or tragedy."
"Or both." His mouth twitches slightly. "Greatness and tragedy often come together."
I look at him—this ancient Prince carrying three thousand years of both. His greatness is obvious. His tragedies—Ophelia, the wars, the centuries alone—are carved into his soul.
"I don't want our child to be tragic," I say.
"Neither do I." He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. "That's why we fight. Why we're building this new world. So our child—our children—can grow up without the weight we carried."
"Children?" I raise an eyebrow. "Already planning more?"
"Planning a future." His smile is warm, open, young. "A family. Something I've never had. Something I never thought I deserved."
The wind picks up, carrying the smell of bloodroses from the Glasshouse below. I shiver, and Kael pulls me closer, wrapping his arms around me from behind, resting his chin on top of my head.
"Leah," he says, his voice rumbling through his chest into my back. "I want to make a promise. Here. Under the moon."
"What kind of promise?"
"A Noct promise. The oldest kind." He turns me to face him, hands on my shoulders, his look intense. "I swear to protect you. To treasure you. To stand with you in this life and any that come after. I swear to love our child with everything I have. To give them the childhood I never had. To be the father they deserve."
"Kael—"
"And I swear," he goes on, his voice dropping to a whisper, "to love you. Not because of the Bloodbond. Not because of bloodlines or politics or fate. But because you're Leah. The woman who healed me. Who challenged me. Who chose me when everyone said you shouldn't."
Tears run down my face. I don't try to stop them. These are good tears. Tears of happiness, of love, of overwhelming thankfulness.
"I swear too," I say, my voice thick with feeling. "To love you. To stand with you. To build this world with you. And to give our child the family neither of us had."
He kisses me. Under the moonlight, on the Owlspire observatory, with the whole world spread out below us. The kiss tastes like salt and promises and forever.
When we pull apart, he holds up his hand. A thin cut appears on his palm—he made it himself, a drop of blood forming. I understand. I make the same cut on my own hand. We clasp hands, blood mixing, the ancient Noct seal.
"Moonlight promise," he says. "Unbreakable. Forever."
"Unbreakable," I repeat. "Forever."
The moon watches. The stars keep record. And two people, one ancient and one young, stand on a tower and promise each other forever.