Chapter 10 Rae's Oath

Chapter 10 Rae's Oath
The atmosphere still smelled of blood. A smell that wasn’t ready to fade away with the wind but linger - heavy and cruel.

We made a camp near the ridge once the bodies had been burnt. The flames rose high enough to touch the clouds, painting the night in an orange grief. Every crack of wood sounded like a scream. Mira sat apart, murmuring over a charm stone with her eyes hollow. Joss and Elric stood as guard and watched in silence.

And Rae… he knelt beside me, wrapping the bandage around my arm, tight but gentle.

I couldn’t look at him.
The image of the possessed wolf’s eyes still haunted me. I could see the way they flickered between pleading and fury before the light went out.

He had whispered my name before dying. Not Aria, but something older and at that moment I wasn’t ready to hear.

“You should rest,” Rae said quietly, his hands was steady despite the fear in mine.

“I can’t.”

“You won’t,” he corrected. “That’s different.”

I forced a weak smile. “You’re beginning to get good at reading me.”

“I’ve had enough time to learn.” He responded.

A thick silence fell as the firelight danced across Rae’s face, carving the hard planes of his jaw. I could see the faint scar above his brow which seemed to be a reminder of a past he never spoke of.

That moment, I decided to ask Rae a question that had been on my mind.
“How did you know where to find me the first time we met in the forest? When Moonshade cast me out?”

He froze for a second then looked up and said, “Because I was there.”

The world tilted slightly. “What?”

“I was a soldier,” Rae said slowly with his voice breaking like dry stone. “ An outer guard for Moonshade’s borders. I saw the ceremony, the rejection… everything.”

I held my breathe for a second. The fire inside me rose wild. “You… you were part of them?”

He nodded once. No excuse, I mean no denial.
“I didn’t know the truth then and none of us did. We were told you had broken a sacred law and that you tried to use forbidden fire.”

“That’s what they called it?” I whispered. “Forbidden?”

His gaze met mine. “They said you turned against the pack. But when I saw you fall…” his voice cracked. “...when I saw what Kade did, I knew something was wrong. No wolf deserves that kind of cruelty.”

Anger burned hot under my ribs. “And so you just left?”

“I ran,” he admitted. “I was deserted and spent weeks crossing territories until Crescent found me. Alpha Theron offered me a choice of redemption or exile but I chose to serve.”

The silence after his words felt endless. The crack of the burning fire and the wind became all distant.

Part of me wanted to pour out my anger, to scream that his confession was too late to be accepted. But another part of me was tired of hating and just wanted to leave everything behind us.

I stared into the flames, voice low. “So that’s why you’ve always watched me. Not to protect me but to atone.”

He didn’t deny it. “At first, yes. But it changed.”

I turned toward him and asked, “Into what?”

“Into this.”

Rae took out a dagger from his side - the same silver-edged blade he used in battle and drew it slowly across his palm to cut himself. The blood gushed out in red, glimmering under the firelight.

“Rae...” I began, but he shook his head.

“I was born a soldier of Moonshade,” he said, voice thick with resolve. “But I’ll die under another name.”

Then, kneeling before me, he pressed his bleeding hand to the ground and drew a circle of flame. His magic flickered blue at first, then merged with mine — gold and crimson spirals twining like breath.

“My oath,” he said. “Your fire is my cause. My blade, my will, my loyalty is bound to you, Aria of Crescent. If the world burns for you, I burn beside it.”

I couldn’t breathe. The flames rose, twisting around us like living threads. With my instincts, I placed my hand over his, blood meeting blood.

The moment our palms touched each other, I felt heat surge through me.
The rune on my chest blazed like it was answering the vow. Sparks erupted between our hands not wild, but alive.

For a second, I saw things flash in my vision though not mine: Rae standing at Moonshade’s gates with blood on his sword; a younger version of him was watching the ceremony in horror; he walked silently through the forest as he carried guilt like armor.

The vision came and went almost immediately leaving the echo of warmth.

Rae sighed like someone in fear and released my hand. The blood on our palms had turned to gold dust, scattering into the night wind.

“That wasn’t just words,” I whispered.

“No,it wasn't,” he said. “It was binding.”

I stared at the faint scorch mark where our hands had touched. “Then you’re a fool! Magic like that ties life to life. If I die…”

“I know.” He looked straight at me, firmly. “That’s what makes it real.”

An awkward silence followed, not because there was nothing to say, but because it was full of things unspoken, everything neither of us dared to name.

Mira approached us a few moments later with a tired voice. “The wards are set. We’ll move at dawn.” She paused, eyeing the fading glow around our hands. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly.

But Rae only smiled faintly, the kind of smile that said everything had changed.

When Mira left, I looked at Rae and whispered, “You shouldn’t have done that.”

He rose to his feet with his gaze fixed on the burning horizon and said, “It’s too late to undo it.”

The fire cracked softly. I thought of the cult’s words, of the Hollow Flame’s warning, “You must decide what you will be.”

Now, with Rae bound by blood and fire, the decision no longer felt like mine alone.

I still couldn't get some sleep. When it was almost dawn, I tiptoed away from the camp and climbed the ridge above the cliffs. The moon hung low, pale as bone but below, the valley shimmered with mist.

The mark on my chest pulsed again, faint, rhythmic, almost like a heartbeat but not my own. I placed a hand over it, whispering, “What are you trying to show me?”

No answer came, but in the distance across the fog-filled plain, a glimmer sparked - a flicker of fire too bright, too still.

And then… I heard a soft voice which seemed close enough for anyone to touch.

“There has been a bonding by blood,” it whispered. “Now the chains may break.”

I froze. The air thickened with heat although there was no wind.

“Who are you?” I asked, but the voice only laughed low, ancient and familiar.

The voice sounded like mine but I knew it wasn't.

The light in the distance flared once, then vanished into Thin air, leaving the scent of ash behind.

Rae was holding a sword in his hands when he got to me. By this time, the glow on his palms had gone. But the mark beneath my skin still throbbed with a promise I didn’t understand.

He looked at me warily. “What did you see?”

I turned to him as dawn was beginning to touch the horizon.
“It was not a vision,” I said softly. “But a warning.”

His brow furrowed. “From who?”

I met his gaze, and the words tasted like smoke.
“From the fire itself.”