Chapter 58 Lunar Power
The first sign wasn't the bell.
It was the smell.
A metallic, ancient odor, like blood mixed with wet stone, spread through the castle seconds before the ground trembled. My stomach churned the instant the mark beneath my skin burned violently, as if something were being forcibly ripped from within me.
Then the bell rang.
Not once. Three times. Long, urgent, desperate.
The walls vibrated, dust fell from the ceiling, and screams echoed through the corridors. Guards ran in opposite directions, doors were flung open, and the sky—once clear—began to tear into thin fissures, like glass under pressure.
I reached the wall at the exact moment it gave way.
The stone didn't collapse. It was pushed outward, as if something on the other side had decided that that boundary no longer existed. The impact threw wolves to the ground, bodies rolling, bones cracking. One of them didn't get up.
From the hole emerged the creature.
Too tall. Too thin. Its body seemed made of disconnected fragments, as if space couldn't hold it together. Where there should have been eyes, there was liquid light. Where it stepped, the ground darkened, cracking like dead earth.
When an alpha tried to attack it, its claws pierced the thing's body—and became embedded. The creature moved, and the wolf's arm simply vanished, as if it had never existed. Its scream cut through the air before being abruptly silenced.
It was there that Conrad advanced.
Aurelion surged forth with a deafening roar, colliding with the creature with brutal force. There was impact, there was fury, but there was no victory. The thing merely deformed, enveloping part of his body before forcefully throwing him.
"It's not physical!" someone shouted.
I felt it.
I felt space bend, time falter, the world lose coherence around me. It was the rift breathing through those things. They weren't there to conquer. They were there to choose.
When I raised my hand, the moonlight didn't come softly. It exploded. It tore through the air, drawing symbols I'd never learned, but that my body knew. The creature reacted—not with pain, but with recognition.
It moved away.
The others did the same, slowly dissolving, like shadows pulled back into an invisible abyss.
The field fell silent.
Wounded bodies. Blood on the ground. Looks filled with fear.
And inside me, a cold certainty took hold:
That hadn't been an attack.
It had been a warning.
And next time, they wouldn't back down.
The silence that followed was worse than the attack.
No screams, no commands. Only the uneven sound of the wounded breathing and the wind sweeping through the destroyed wall, carrying with it that same metallic smell that still burned my nostrils. The mark on my chest hadn't faded. It remained warm, alive, as if it were hearing something the rest of the world couldn't.
Conrad returned to human form with difficulty. There was blood on his shoulder and a dark line running up his neck, as if the rift itself had tried to mark him. I ran to him before any guard dared approach.
"I'm here," I said, cupping his face in trembling hands. "You're back."
He nodded, but his eyes weren't on me. They stared at the emptiness left by the creatures.
"She touched me," I said softly. "It wasn't physical. It was like... being reminded of something I never lived through."
Kael arrived soon after, his cloak torn, his expression hard. He crouched near the burned mark on the ground, where the creature had lingered the longest.
"They didn't test our defenses," he said. "They tested you."
I felt the weight of the words tighten around my chest. The wise men began to gather, some wounded, others too pale to speak. One of them fell to his knees as he observed the symbols still faintly glowing in the air, remnants of the magic I had cast.
"This isn't just lunar power," he murmured. "It's judgment."
The sky began to slowly close, the fissures fading like fresh scars. But I knew. Everyone knew. That opening now existed on both sides.
"They chose," I said, finally understanding. "And now they know exactly where to find me."
Conrad gripped my hand tightly, as if he could bind me to that world.
In the distance, within the now invisible rift, something moved again.
And this time, it wasn't observing. It was preparing.
I led Conrad into the room without allowing any objections. Each of his steps seemed to require more strength than it should, and that irritated me deeply—not with him, but with what had dared to touch him.
The door closed behind us. The smell of blood was still strong.
I pushed Conrad to sit on the edge of the bed and lit the candles with a short, more abrupt gesture than necessary. The light revealed the wound all too clearly: the surrounding skin was dark, as if burned from within, and silvery veins pulsed slowly beneath the flesh.
My throat tightened.
I approached and carefully ran my fingers over it, without touching. The mark reacted immediately, vibrating in response to my presence. It wasn't an ordinary wound. It was a trace.
"Does it hurt?" I asked, lower than I intended.
"Not as much as it should," Conrad replied. "It's as if something was... waiting."
I took a deep breath. I couldn't show fear. Not now.
I sought the healer's oils and mixed them with my own energy, letting the lunar mark manifest beneath my skin. When I touched the wound, the reaction was immediate. The room filled with an invisible pressure, the air becoming heavy, electric.
Conrad clenched his teeth, his hands tightening on the sheets.
"Stay with me," I murmured. "Don't let this pull you in."
My magic seeped into the wound like liquid light, enveloping whatever had been left there. I felt resistance. Something ancient. Intelligent. Trying to hide.
I pressed harder.
The mark on my chest burned, demanding passage. I didn't fight it. For the first time, I let it lead.
The silvery substance beneath Conrad's skin began to recede slowly, like shadows before dawn. The wound didn't disappear, but it lost its menacing glow.
When I finished, my hands trembled.
Conrad pulled me close, resting his forehead against mine.
"They were wrong," he said, his voice hoarse. "If they thought they could use me to get to you."
I closed my eyes, feeling the echo of the rift still distant, but alert.
"They've arrived," I replied. "And now they know I won't back down."