WHAT THEY FEAR

The silence after the Obsidian's destruction wasn't peace.

It was a warning.The kind that sits just beneath the skin, in your bones, telling you something worse is coming.Selene lowered the sword slowly. It still hummed in her grip, its edge no longer warm but cold. Ancient. Watchful.

The shrine behind her cracked again, splitting in half as if its purpose had been fulfilled. The silver basin shattered, and the glowing water drained into the roots below.

"I didn't know it could speak," she said quietly, turning to Neris.

"It only speaks to those it fears," Neris replied. "It's not truly dead, just broken. For now."

Darius stepped beside her, his knuckles still white around the hilt of his blade. "Then we finish it before it reforms."

Neris shook her head. "You can't. Not yet."

Selene looked at her sharply. "Why not?"

"Because you still haven't awakened the third seal. And until you do, you're only partially marked."

Darius looked between them. "Partially? She just split the damn forest open what do you mean partial?"

Neris pointed to Selene's chest.

The mark was there just under her collarbone no longer a single crescent, but two. Twinned moons glowing faintly beneath her skin. The third space was still dark.

"There are three seals in total," Neris said. "You've unlocked two. That's why the sword shifted. But it's not finished."

Selene felt it now a pulling deep inside her, as if the sword had rooted itself into her blood. A silent beckoning toward something she hadn't touched yet. Something older than even the Vale.

"What happens when the third is awakened?" she asked.

"You stop being what you are," Neris said simply. "And become what they fear."

Selene's throat tightened. "Who's they?"

"Everyone."

It wasn't meant cruelly, but it landed heavy all the same.

Behind them, Nimra let out a shaky breath. "So where's the third seal?"

Neris didn't answer right away. Her eyes lifted toward the distant tree line, to the mountains beyond.

"The place no one dares speak of anymore," she said at last. "Raventhorn."

Darius stiffened. "That territory's cursed. There's nothing left but ruins and rot."

"Exactly. The third seal is buried in its heart beneath what used to be a Moonblood stronghold before Victor's blood purge wiped it off the map."

Selene didn't hesitate. "Then we go."

Nimra grabbed her arm gently. "You need to rest—"

"I can rest after we kill the thing that keeps coming for me."

"It's not just the Obsidian," Neris said, voice low. "Victor knows what you are now. The moment that second seal activated, every witch in the eastern territories felt it. He'll come."

Darius stepped closer, voice tight. "Then let him. He wants a war, he'll get one."

Selene turned to face him, the sword still in her hand.

"There's something else," she said. "When I struck the Obsidian… I didn't just see my mother. I felt her. Like she was inside the blade."Neris gave a faint nod. "She was the last bearer before you."

Selene blinked. "The sword belonged to her?"

"To her line. The original Moonbloods weren't warriors they were guardians. That sword was never meant for violence. It was meant to protect what was sacred. When they were hunted, it was buried with her body to keep it hidden."

Selene's fingers tightened around the hilt.

So much had been stolen. Buried. Twisted into something unrecognizable.

Now she held the weapon meant to protect her people, and she didn't even know what they had died for.

"How do we reach Raventhorn?" Darius asked.

"There's an old tunnel," Neris said. "Hidden beneath the ruins near Crescent Hollow. But it won't be easy." "I don't care."Selene's voice was flat. Final. Darius looked at her, and for the first time since the bond formed, something softened in his expression not just protective instinct or the weight of guilt, but something quieter.Pride.

"You're not the same girl I was ordered to kill," he said.

She gave a small, cold smile. "No. I'm not."

Nimra nodded toward the tree line. "Then let's not waste time."

They moved quickly, packing what little they had. Neris took the lead, guiding them through paths that didn't exist on any map. Selene kept the sword close, wrapped in cloth but pulsing softly beneath her fingers like it was breathing with her.

They traveled until nightfall, then deeper into the early hours of dawn. No one slept. No one spoke much. There was only the sense that every hour bought them time they didn't really have.

Victor's reach was long.

By sunrise, the trees thinned, revealing the broken stone remnants of Crescent Hollow. Once a bustling village, now nothing but wind-blown rubble. The ground was scorched in places, and the trees surrounding the ruins leaned away unnaturally, as if refusing to grow too close.

Darius spotted the edge of a crumbled statue half of a wolf's head, shattered at the snout.

"We're here," Neris said.

They moved into the ruins carefully, and Neris led them toward what used to be a well. Overgrown vines wrapped the stones, and the air here buzzed with faint static.

"It's under here," she said.

Darius helped pull the old wood cover free, revealing a stone shaft filled not with water, but a rusted iron grate. He heaved it up, revealing a spiral of mossy stone stairs that led down into the dark.

Selene didn't wait,She stepped into the hole without hesitation, sword strapped to her back, eyes sharp.Darius followed.Then Nimra.

Neris came last, whispering something in an old tongue before stepping into the earth.

As they descended, the temperature dropped sharply. The walls were tight, breathing with old magic. Carvings lined the stone wolves, moons, and a symbol Selene had seen before.The mark on her body.

She ran her hand along the carving.

"It was never a curse," she whispered.

Neris nodded. "No. It was a birthright."

And now, she would claim it.