Blood moon

Blood moon


Morning came grey and cold.

No birdsong. No laughter. Just the heavy stillness of a packhouse that had seen too much.

I woke to the smell of smoke and damp earth. My throat ached from crying, though I didn’t remember falling asleep. The last thing I remembered was the light—the twins, the cracking moon, Kelvin’s arms around me as everything went white.

Now the world felt drained.

I sat up slowly, one hand instinctively going to my stomach. The warmth that had filled me last night was faint now, fragile as a whisper. Panic surged through my chest.

“Please,” I murmured. “Please be okay.”

I waited.

One heartbeat.

Two.

Then—nothing.

My breath hitched. “No… no, no, no.” I pressed harder, desperate for movement, for proof that they were still with me. The silence inside me was unbearable.

That’s when Kelvin came in. His shirt was streaked with blood—some his, some not—and his eyes told me everything before he even spoke.

“Molly,” he whispered, crossing the room in three strides. “Don’t panic. The healers are coming.”

“What’s happening?” My voice broke. “I can’t feel one of them—Kelvin, I can’t—”

He caught my hands, pressing them flat against my stomach. “Focus. Breathe. They’re not gone, just… weak. The surge last night drained them.”

Tears blurred my vision. “Then we need to fix it.”

“We will.” His voice was steady, but I saw the tremor in his jaw. “Kevin’s gathering the elders. They think the shard has something to do with it.”

The shard.

My head snapped up. “Where is it?”

Kelvin’s eyes flicked toward the table by the window—and froze.

It was empty.

⸻

The corridor outside was chaos. Wolves shouted orders, healers rushed between rooms, the air thick with tension. The once-bright walls of Mount Pleasant were scuffed and cracked, streaked with soot from the fires that had broken out during the night.

Kevin was waiting near the council chamber, his expression hard, the veins in his neck standing out like cords. “It’s gone,” he said before Kelvin could even ask. “The shard’s missing. Someone took it before dawn.”

Kelvin swore under his breath. “Who was on watch?”

“Rafe,” Kevin said. “He swears no one came through, but I don’t buy it. The doors were sealed from the inside.”

“Then whoever took it was already here,” Kelvin growled.

I had followed them, though every step felt like wading through fog. “Why would anyone take that thing?”

Kevin turned to me, and the anger in his face softened instantly. “You shouldn’t be up—”

“Don’t,” I said sharply. “I’m not sitting in that room while my child fades.”

Kelvin moved toward me, but I shook my head. “Tell me the truth. What does the shard do?”

Mara, the eldest of the council, appeared from the shadows. Her long white hair was unbound, her expression grim. “The shard is a fragment of the Hollow Veil—the barrier that once separated our world from the moon’s reflection. When it cracked, part of that power spilled here. Whoever controls it can open the veil again.”

My stomach clenched. “So the attack last night—”

“—was just the beginning,” she finished softly.

⸻

The packhouse descended into a tense silence as the day wore on. Guards patrolled every hall. The smell of burnt cedar and blood lingered in the air.

Kelvin hadn’t left my side. He’d stationed himself near the bed, sharpening his blade like the repetitive motion could quiet the fear beneath his calm.

“Kevin’s out tracking near the southern ridge,” he said after a while. “He found prints—wolf and human both. Whoever took the shard isn’t far.”

I tried to focus on his words, but my body felt wrong—off-balance, hollow. My heartbeat thudded against my ribs, uneven.

And then, faintly, I felt it.

A flutter.

The twin who’d gone silent stirred again, faint but alive. I pressed my palm there, tears spilling freely. “You’re still here,” I whispered.

Kelvin looked up sharply. “You felt them?”

I nodded. “One’s weak, but still fighting.”

He reached for my hand, his thumb brushing over my knuckles. “Then so do we.”

Before I could answer, the door opened. Kevin stood there, mud-streaked and grim, his eyes storm-dark.

“We found something.”

He tossed something onto the table—a strip of dark cloth, soaked through with a silvery sheen.

“Who does it belong to?” Kelvin asked.

Kevin’s jaw clenched. “Rafe.”

Silence.

My stomach dropped. “That’s impossible. Rafe would never—”

“He would if someone got to him first,” Kevin said. “The tracks led to the river, then vanished. But the scent trail stopped near the caves below the ridge.”

“The Hollow caves?” Kelvin’s voice was a growl. “No one goes there.”

“They do now,” Kevin said grimly. “And we’re going after them.”

I gripped the edge of the bed. “I’m coming with you.”

Both of them turned to me at once.

Kelvin shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

“You can’t stop me.”

Kevin stepped forward, eyes flashing. “You’re carrying the future of this pack, Molly. You’re not walking into a damn portal trap.”

“I’m carrying their power,” I snapped, the words spilling out before I could stop them. “If the shard reacts to me, I might be able to sense where it is. You need me.”

They stared at me for a long moment.

Then Kelvin sighed. “She’s right.”

Kevin’s glare shifted to him. “You can’t be serious.”

“She’s linked to the shard through the twins,” Kelvin said. “If it’s feeding on them, she’ll feel it before we do.”

Kevin cursed under his breath, then finally nodded. “Fine. But you don’t leave our sight.”

⸻

The forest beyond Mount Pleasant looked different in daylight. The once-green trees were blackened in places, the leaves dusted with ash. The scent of burnt ozone still lingered, sharp and wrong.

We followed the trail down toward the ridge. The air grew colder, heavier. My skin prickled with each step.

When the cave mouth appeared ahead—a dark, jagged wound in the side of the mountain—the twins stirred again, faint but urgent.

“Closer,” a voice whispered inside my mind. “It’s calling.”

I stumbled, gripping Kelvin’s arm. “It’s here.”

Kevin lifted his head, sniffing the air. “I smell blood.”

We entered slowly, weapons drawn. The walls shimmered faintly, veins of silver light running through the stone like frozen lightning. At the center of the cavern lay a pool of dark water, perfectly still.

And there—floating just above it—was the shard.

It pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat.

Kelvin took a step forward, but the air rippled, and a voice rose from the shadows.

“You shouldn’t have come.”

Rafe stepped out from behind a column of stone. His eyes glowed faintly silver, and black veins ran up his neck like cracks in marble.

Kevin’s growl rumbled low. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Rafe said, his voice distant, hollow. “It chose me.”

The shard flared brighter. The water around it began to boil.

“Rafe, listen to me,” I said quietly. “You’re not yourself.”

His gaze flicked to me. “I can hear them, Molly. The voices from the other side. They promise peace. Power. An end to all this fear.”

I took a cautious step closer. “Those voices lie. They’ll use you and destroy everything you love.”

Rafe hesitated—but then the shard pulsed again, and his face twisted with pain. “I can’t stop it!” he cried.

Kelvin lunged, but the air between us exploded with silver light, hurling him back. Kevin roared, shifting halfway before slamming into the invisible wall.

The shard rose higher. Cracks spidered across the ceiling.

And then the twins spoke—louder than ever.

“Mother, now!”

Without thinking, I reached out. My hand met the light—and pain seared through every nerve in my body.

I screamed. The shard shattered, dissolving into dust that spiraled upward like mist.

When the light faded, Rafe lay on the ground, unconscious. The black veins were gone.

Kelvin caught me as I collapsed. My body trembled, but inside me, I felt it—two strong heartbeats, steady and alive.

“They’re safe,” I whispered.

Kevin knelt beside us, panting. “What about the veil?”

I looked toward the pool. The reflection shimmered once—silver eyes staring back from the depths—then faded into still water.

“It’s closed,” I said softly. “For now.”

⸻

That night, the pack gathered under the moon. The air was still, peaceful, but a shadow lingered behind every calm face.

Rafe would recover, though the healers said he might never remember what had happened. The shard was gone, but its energy—its echo—remained somewhere inside me and the twins.

As I stood between Kevin and Kelvin, watching the moon rise whole and bright once more, I knew peace was only temporary.

Because when I looked up, I swore I saw it—a faint ring of darkness circling the moon’s edge.

A reminder that the Hollow never really dies.

It only waits.