The Moon's Forgotten Heir

ght cr

sharp, slicing through the silence like blades. Snow fell heavy, cover

ne

ooden walls of the monastery, devouring everything in its course. Smoke mixed with the falling snow like a

't under

understan

Her chest ached. Her skin felt wrong-too tight like something insi

idn't sto

from the flames. Metal boots cr

monastery garden, falling hard and scraping her palms on ice. She pressed herself against

From the footfalls, three-no, four. She gritted

here? she tho

g wrong. She had never

everything

ed with

stir inside her. Like a whisper. Like something ancient had woken up. Her skin burned, her fingers shook, and her bones-her b

d grabbed her shoulders and whispered, "The blood is real." Then

diers arriv

he wa

Rayne froze. A soldier with a bl

e growled. "The witch mus

it her lip. I'

omething whisper

ee her. Rayne waited until his foots

she could vanish into the woods. No one would find her there. She had hidden ther

d hit her now,

ne was

her feet. Her hands were shaking now. Not from

hed her skin again

hrough her veins. Her spine arched. S

ing wrong

heartbeat was too fast. She could hear everything-every twig snap

a scream-but what ca

growl. De

..

nd. Her body shook. Something was tearing out from her skin-something not mea

en it

there,

behind her roared. Her body stil

t... di

Stronger.

hed herself up a

e no lon

ed wrong. She touched her face. Her jaw felt wider. He

t a

d answer, the s

someone

eyes glowing

d away, instinct screaming at her to run but s

r shift again

t? A

time to ask. One

ed under the swing of his sword, and slashed. Blood sprayed

red at

I didn't

han she ever had, landed behind him, and ran. S

r body still pulsing with strange power. Arrows flew past her.

saw it-th

d: "If the moon ever calls you, run. Fo

teps, lifted the stone lid of the ol

allowed by

the ground with force. She lay stil

y didn'

know the tun

safe.

was al

ody... shrank. The claws faded. The strange sharpnes

he tunnel, cold, s

ped down h

t a

life she'd ever had was gone. The monastery, t

se of

of what

name she had never said before,

of the M

e like a memo

e above, the