New Moon Rising

Chapter 39: New Moon Rising

Lyra's POV
The grimoire burst into blue flames in my hands. I yelped and dropped it on the floor, but the fire didn't burn my skin. The old book fell open, its pages flipping wildly as if caught in a storm.
"No, no, no!" I rushed to grab it before it could burn up completely. My sister's last words couldn't be lost now, not when we needed them most.
But instead of turning to ash, the book rested on a page I'd never seen before. Hidden words appeared in the flames, glowing with magic that hadn't been released until tonight—the night of the new moon.
"Oh, sister," I whispered, "what else did you hide from me?"
The secret page showed itself as the blue flames died down. I grabbed the grimoire and ran to my desk, heart racing. After Orion had gone to the Moonhaven Colony and the fight at the black lake, I'd been searching desperately for answers in my sister's old spell book.
Now, as I read the secret words, my hands began to shake.
"Seven," I gasped. "Not two."
My sister, the witch queen, hadn't just made twins. She had made seven hybrid children.
I read faster, my finger tracing the words as they appeared and disappeared on the page:
The twins are but the first key. The seven must unite when the darkness comes. One of dog and witch. One of vampire and witch. One of all three bloods. And four more, scattered to the four directions, each carrying a piece of the final spell. Find them before the Void does.
A crash from downstairs made me jump. I wasn't alone in the house anymore.
"Lyra?" called a voice. "Are you here?"
It was Elara. I quickly closed the grimoire, the secret page vanishing once more.
"Upstairs!" I called back, trying to keep my voice steady. How could I tell her what I'd just learned? That she and Orion weren't the only hybrids made by my sister?
Elara emerged in the doorway, her face streaked with dirt. She had been helping rebuild parts of Ravenshadow City after the fight with the Void.
"Any news from Orion?" she asked, hope in her eyes.
"Nothing yet," I said. "But he's safe at the Colony. They'll help him learn to control his skills."
Elara nodded, then spotted the grimoire on my desk. "Did you find anything?"
I paused. After everything she'd been through, discovering her real identity, fighting the Void, almost losing her brother—did she need more burdens?
"Lyra?" Elara stepped closer. "What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"In a way, I have." I opened the grimoire again and tried to show her the secret page, but it remained blank. "It was just here—a secret message from your mother."
"What did it say?" Elara sat down across from me, eyes focused.
"The new moon revealed it," I explained. "Your mother—my sister—she made more than just you and Orion. There are five others. Seven mixed children in total."
Elara's eyes widened. "Seven? But why? And where are they?"
"I don't know where they are. But I know why." I leaned forward. "The promise wasn't just about closing a door to the Void. It was about opening a different one—a door to something bigger."
"But we defeated the Void," Elara said, confusion on her face. "Thorne is free of its impact. The city is healing."
"We pushed it back," I corrected. "But the Void is old. It can't be killed so easily."
My phone buzzed with a text from Sebastian. I read it and felt my blood turn cold.
"We need to go," I said, grabbing my coat. "Now."
"What's happened?" Elara was already on her feet.
"There's something wrong at the city center. The monument."
We raced downtown in my car, the streets still being repaired after the fight. When we reached Central Square, a crowd had already formed around the tall stone monument that stood at the heart of Ravenshadow City.
Sebastian and Thorne were there, keeping people back. They nodded grimly as we approached.
"It started an hour ago," Sebastian said, his vampire eyes glowing slightly in the dim light.
The stone monument, which had stood unchanged for ages, was now marked with a glowing symbol—a spiral with seven points, each one a different color.
"It appeared when the new moon rose," Thorne explained, his golden wolf eyes reflecting the strange light. "No one knows what it means."
But I did. With shaking hands, I pulled out the grimoire again. In the presence of the monument, the hidden page returned.
"It's a countdown," I said. "Seven new stars. Seven children. Seven keys to a door we don't understand."
"Can you read what it says?" Sebastian asked, pointing to strange symbols now etched into the monument's base.
I stepped closer, feeling magic pulse beneath my fingers as I touched the stone. The symbols rearranged themselves, making words only a witch could read.
"The first key wakes. The Void grows hungry. Find the seven before the final moon rises," I translated.
"The first key," Elara repeated. "That's either me or Orion."
I shook my head. "No. You and Orion are the twin keys—the center of the spell. This is talking about one of the other five."
"So there's someone else out there," Thorne said, "someone like Elara and Orion, who's just... woken up?"
"Yes," I said. "And they'll be confused, scared, and very powerful."
"And the Void will be hunting them," Sebastian added grimly.
The monument suddenly pulsed, sending out a wave of magic that knocked people off their feet. Only those with supernatural blood stayed standing.
"What was that?" Elara gasped.
"A beacon," I realized with horror. "It's calling to them—to all seven of you."
"But that means—" Elara's face paled.
"It's also calling to the Void," Thorne finished.
The grimoire in my hands flipped to a new page, showing a map. Seven points of light glowed across it—two here in Ravenshadow City, one in the mountains where the Moonhaven Colony was, and four others spread across the world.
"We need to find them," I said quickly. "All of them. Before the Void does."
As we stood there, the statue pulsed again, and the first of the seven spiral points went dark.
"What does that mean?" Sebastian asked.
With dread filling my heart, I touched the statue again. New words appeared.
"The first key has been taken," I read. "Six left. The countdown begins."
Elara grabbed my arm. "Taken by who? The Void?"
Before I could answer, my phone rang. It was a number I didn't recognize.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Aunt Lyra?" came a voice that made my heart stop. "It's Orion. Something's happened at the Colony. Everyone's gone. There was a shadow... it took them all."
"Orion, where are you?" I asked hurriedly.
"Hiding," he whispered. "But I'm not alone. There's someone else here—a girl. She says she's been thinking about us. About Elara and me. She says she's our sister."
The line went dead.
The statue pulsed one final time, and a message appeared, visible to everyone this ti
me. Words that burned themselves into the stone:
SIX MOONS REMAIN.