Chapter 41 Chapter 2 - New Dawn! 🔥
At the very beginning of the story, I asked you a question:
For a girl who had lost everything, was accepting loss easy?
In this cursed town, one month passing taught me this:
Loss is never easy. Even if the pain isn't as sharp as it was on the first day, it leaves its mark inside a person.
We think our potential and our future are very limited. But life reminds us of our past. It shows us the depths of our hearts. That is why life is not made up only of what has been taken from us. We must keep our hearts open for what we have yet to gain.
I finally understood this.
Now, wearing a wedding dress nearly three hundred years old, walking toward marriage in the heart of the forest alongside a 200-year-old Alpha who is obsessed with me. We have only two witnesses by our side. No grand ceremony, no crowded reception… Only the whisper of the trees, the glow of the blood moon on Christmas Eve, and the ancient scent of the earth.
And I…
I am not afraid…
A little while later, all the preparations were complete. Elly, under the influence of the ancient power that had settled upon her face and with the protective seal now complete on her wrist, knelt before the Great Willow.
She was afraid of making mistakes since she had only just earned her protective seal, but there was no one else left to initiate this ritual. She wore a loose white dress. The seal on her wrist glowed with a brilliant blue light in the darkness of the night. She unrolled the parchment in her hand and murmured the words in a low voice:
"We, all the sacred bloodlines of the earth, bow to you by the midnight vow of Homay's light, and beg your forgiveness for this broken seal, O Protector of Nature."
With these words, the Great Willow blazed with a great light and carried the glow of the blood moon of Christmas Eve down to the earth like a lens.
Eva and Kael stood in the center of a great circle rune, holding each other's hands, gazing into each other's eyes. Joe stood just behind Elly. He had given his full attention to protecting her. With his new alpha abilities, he could hear even the chirp of a bird from miles away. He appeared far more powerful than before — as though he had aged several years in an instant; there was a maturity in his eyes, an illumination on his face. The inverted crescent moon seal on his chest had now fully emerged and was glowing.
There was now an alpha in the town, born of Homay's light.
The happiest person in the entire scene was clear, Kael…
With a wide smile on his handsome face, he held Eva's hands tightly. Looking into her eyes, he asked,
"Are you excited?"
Eva swallowed. She didn't know how she was supposed to feel.
"I know," she said. Then, lowering her voice, she leaned closer to him. "I know I shouldn't be funny right now but… this looks exactly like a jinn wedding, do you realize?" (In our culture, jinns are very common, a humorous joke in Turkish society.)
Kael struggled not to laugh, and began to laugh silently to himself.
"Don't laugh, I'm serious. We're in the middle of a forest. It's pitch dark everywhere. There's a blood moon above our heads. Standing beside us is a witch from a protective bloodline and a guardian alpha. And in a moment, inside a circle, with the light of the blood moon shining down on us, we're going to vow to each other in sickness and in health, till death do us part," she whispered.
Kael could no longer hold it in, and began to laugh, shaking his head.
Eva had switched into her funny witch mode. "Look, you're from a past century, I don't blame you. But in this century, people on Christmas Eve normally hang mistletoe, roast turkey, decorate trees, and have nice conversations. Okay, I am the old Eva, I remember my past, but my new consciousness living in this century finds what's going on here a little… absurd," she said.
Kael laughed and leaned in close, whispering in her ear:
"My beautiful Rose woman… I was in love with your past-century self, and I am in love with your present self. Whether it seems funny or enchanting… I am so happy that I am about to become your husband."
In Eva's eyes shone the light of a woman who is truly loved. Smiling, she squeezed his hands even tighter.
"And I am so happy to be becoming your wife," she said.
The midnight seal was finally being completed…
A little while later, Elly stepped toward the circle. Joe stood watching her, just behind her shoulder. Elly had spent the past half hour studying the ritual, rehearsing the steps again and again in her mind. Even so, she couldn't help thinking that it should have been her grandmother here, not her. But she was aware of her duty. She would do what needed to be done now, and then she would mourn her grandmother.
Slowly, she began to pour the saffron liquid she had taken from her grandmother's bag along the edge of the circle rune she had just drawn. The moment the liquid touched the line, it spread rapidly and encircled the entire ring like a yellow border.
Then she brought out three objects belonging to the ancient Rose witches. The first was a wooden carving of a sheaf of wheat, symbolizing abundance. The second was a spiral stone, representing fertility. The third was a small glass carving in the shape of an unopened bud, symbolizing purity. She placed all of them before her and gestured to Eva and Kael.
The two knelt in front of the symbols. A stone bowl was set before them. Elly took a thin, small knife from inside an old piece of leather. It looked rusty, but its sharpness was palpable. She placed the knife and the stone bowl before them.
Since Eva didn't know the details of the ritual, she watched with bewilderment. Kael, however, moved with the calmness of someone who had witnessed this many times before in past centuries. He slowly picked up the knife and made a small cut on his palm. He let the dripping blood flow into the stone bowl.
Eva couldn't take her eyes off him. Compared to the ambiance a moment ago, this now truly looked enchanting.
Kael extended the knife to her and smiled.
"Do I have to do it too?" Eva whispered.
Kael nodded with a smile.
Eva closed her eyes and, afraid of the pain, made a small cut on her palm. The moment blood began to flow, she held her hand over the bowl.
And what she saw in that moment was breathtaking.
Eva's blood did not mix with Kael's. Instead, it took Kael's blood as its center and wrapped around it like a spider's web. It encircled it in fine, vein-like threads.
Then Elly knew what she had to do, but wasn't sure she could do it. She turned her head toward Joe for a few seconds.
Joe smiled at her. "I know you can do it," he whispered.
Elly swallowed and turned her eyes back to the circle. In an instant she searched for that mystical power inside herself and found it, closed her eyes. Then, with the power rising within her, she suddenly lifted her head toward the sky, toward the blood moon.
It was truly breathtaking. A blue light rose from Elly's eyes, her hands, even from every fiber of her body. At that very moment, this power illuminated every point of the circle.
Joe was watching the clock. It was seconds to midnight. On Christmas Eve, the midnight seal was to take place at exactly 12 o'clock.
One breath later, the clock struck twelve.
A bolt of lightning from the blood moon descended from the sky and struck the stone bowl directly. The blood inside the bowl blazed with a divine light and merged. They were now one. Then the moon slowly lost its redness, and Elly's powers receded.
Eva looked around. She searched for a different sensation in her body, but there was no distinct change. She looked at her seal; it appeared normal.
Then she felt a strange tingling in her body, and her gaze turned to Kael.
Eva moved a little closer to him and whispered:
"This ritual only happens once a year… I don't want to be discouraging, but I don't really feel any change. We had one chance, and I think we did something wrong."
Kael was laughing softly, but Elly's eyes had widened all at once. She was staring at Eva in astonishment. Joe, on the other hand, was gazing at her with an expression of awe.
Elly murmured, catching her breath:
"Oh my God…"
Breathing had become difficult for her. Because Eva now truly looked enchanting.
Kael's gaze locked onto Eva, and in an instant, with a powerful howl, he shifted into his wolf form.
Eva stepped back a few paces and cried,
"Hey! What's happening? Why did you shift all of a sudden like that?"
But then she sensed something strange, the ground beneath her feet felt different. That coolness you feel when a bare foot touches wet soil was gone. It felt more like she had risen, as if her feet had barely lifted from the ground.
She looked down in bewilderment. What she saw left her in shock.
"Oh, damn…" she muttered.
Because what she saw was not two feet, but four large, pure white paws…