Caelan's POV
"You're lying."
The words rip from my throat before I can stop them. The woman who claims to be Elena just smiles sadly, like she expected this reaction.
"I wish I was lying, brother."
"Don't call me that." I pull Seraphina behind me, my hand still protectively over her stomach. Over our child. "My sister died fifteen years ago. I held her body. I felt her die in my arms."
"You felt me stop breathing," Elena corrects. "That's not the same as dying."
Lyra's sword is out instantly. "Explain. Now. Or I put steel through your heart to test if you're really alive."
Elena doesn't flinch. "The curse didn't kill me, Caelan. It trapped me. Between life and death. Part of me died that day—the part you held. But my soul survived, pulled into the curse itself." She steps closer, and I see now that she's not quite solid. The moonlight shines through her, making her translucent. "I've been living inside your curse for fifteen years. Watching. Waiting. Trying to find a way to warn you."
"Warn me about what?" My voice shakes. This can't be real. Elena is dead. I killed her. This has to be a trick.
It feels real, Seraphina's mental voice says through our bond. The Oracle's Heart would sense if she was lying. And it's not reacting like she's a threat.
"About the bloodline curse," Elena says. "Aldric wasn't entirely wrong. A child can affect the curse. But not break it. Transfer it." Her silver eyes—my eyes—meet mine. "Every firstborn Thorne has carried the curse, dormant, for generations. When you turned thirteen, yours activated because Aldric triggered it with dark magic. But the curse itself was already there, waiting."
"What does that have to do with Seraphina dying?" I demand.
Elena's face fills with pain. "The curse needs a host. Right now, it's dormant in your bloodline because you don't have an heir. But the moment your child is born, the curse will try to jump from you to them. And to make that jump, it has to pass through the person who carried the child." She looks at Seraphina. "It will rip through you like fire. Your Luna magic will fight it, trying to protect the baby. But that fight will tear you apart from the inside. You'll have maybe an hour after the birth. Then you'll die."
"No." The word is barely a whisper. I turn to Seraphina, whose face has gone pale. "No, we'll find another way. We'll—"
"There is no other way," Elena says softly. "I've had fifteen years trapped in the curse to learn its secrets. This is how it works. This is how it's always worked. Every Luna Priestess who tried to break a Thorne curse died in childbirth. That's why your family stopped bonding with priestesses centuries ago."
Seraphina's hand goes to her stomach. Through our bond, I feel her terror. Her despair. But underneath it, something else. Determination.
"How do you know all this?" she asks Elena. "If you've been trapped in the curse, how did you learn about bloodline curses and priestesses?"
Elena smiles, impressed. "Smart question. The curse is connected to all Thorne blood. When Aldric triggered mine fifteen years ago, he opened a doorway. I've been watching through that doorway ever since. Watching him. Learning his plans. And waiting for the right moment to escape and warn you."
"Why now?" Lyra asks suspiciously. "Why not warn us earlier? Before the bonding? Before—" she looks at Seraphina's stomach, "—before this?"
"Because I couldn't escape until the curse was broken," Elena says. "Caelan's curse held me prisoner. When Seraphina broke it, she freed me too. But I'm not fully alive. I'm..." She looks at her transparent hands. "I'm a ghost. A spirit. Tethered to the curse that trapped me."
"Then how are you here?" I ask. "How are you solid enough for us to see?"
"Because the curse isn't gone, brother. It's just changed. Transformed by Luna magic into something new. And that new power still has traces of the old curse. Traces I can use to manifest." She meets my eyes. "I'm here because you need to know the truth. Seraphina will die when the baby is born. Unless..."
Hope flares in my chest. "Unless what?"
"Unless you break the curse completely. Not just your curse. The entire bloodline curse. Every trace of it, wiped from Thorne blood forever."
"How?" Seraphina steps around me, one hand still on her stomach. "Aldric said a child would break it. You say that's a lie. So what's the truth?"
Elena's expression turns grim. "The truth is worse than either of you can imagine. The bloodline curse wasn't placed by a witch. It was placed by the first Thorne king, five hundred years ago. He made a deal with something ancient. Something dark. In exchange for power and an unbreakable royal line, he cursed his own descendants. Made them weapons."
"What kind of deal?" Lyra asks.
"A blood debt." Elena's voice drops. "Every generation, the Thorne family owes the darkness one life. One sacrifice. Usually, the curse takes that life at thirteen—the age of ascension. But if a Thorne bonds with a Luna Priestess and has a child, the debt doubles. The darkness takes both the priestess and the child."
My blood runs cold. "You're saying this whole thing—the curse, the bloodline, everything—it's all designed to kill Luna Wolves?"
"Not just kill them. Consume them." Elena looks at Seraphina with pity. "Your child will have incredible power. Luna magic mixed with curse magic. That power is exactly what the darkness wants. It's been waiting five hundred years for a Thorne to bond with a priestess. Waiting for a child like yours to be born. So it can devour that power and become unstoppable."
Seraphina's legs give out. I catch her, holding her up.
"This is too much," she whispers. "I just found out I'm pregnant. And now you're saying an ancient darkness is waiting to eat my baby?"
"And you," Elena adds. "It wants you both."
"Then we don't have the baby," I say immediately. "We find a way to—"
"No." Seraphina's voice is firm. She looks up at me with fierce eyes. "I'm not killing our child because of some ancient curse. We fight. We find a way to break it."
"How?" I demand. "Elena just said it's impossible!"
"I said it's almost impossible," Elena corrects. "There is one way. But it requires something that doesn't exist anymore."
"What?" Seraphina and I ask together.
Elena takes a deep breath. "The Heart of Darkness. The opposite of the Oracle's Heart. It's the source of all curse magic. Five hundred years ago, the first Thorne king bound it in chains and hid it away. If you can find it, unbind it, and destroy it, the bloodline curse breaks forever. Seraphina lives. The baby lives. Everyone lives."
"Where is it?" I ask.
"That's the problem." Elena's face is grave. "The location was lost centuries ago. Hidden by magic so powerful, even the Thorne kings forgot where they put it. The only clue is a prophecy:
'Where the first king killed his love, Where blood and tears fell from above, Where darkness first took root in stone, There sleeps the Heart, forever alone.'"
We all stare at her.
"That's it?" Lyra asks. "That's the clue? A vague riddle?"
"That's all that survived." Elena looks apologetic. "The first king killed his wife—a Luna Priestess—to complete the blood debt. Somewhere in that killing ground, he buried the Heart of Darkness. Find that place, and you find the Heart."
"We have nine months," Seraphina says, her hand protective over her stomach. "Nine months to solve a five-hundred-year-old mystery. Find a lost artifact. And destroy it before the baby comes."
"Actually," Elena says quietly, "you have less than that."
"What do you mean?"
"The darkness knows you're pregnant. The moment the Oracle's Heart bonded with you and Caelan, it created a magical signature. Every dark creature in this world felt it. They're coming." She looks toward the forest. "All of them. An army of shadows and monsters, all wanting to take your child's power for themselves. Or to serve it to the darkness."
As if summoned by her words, howls echo through the forest. Not wolf howls. Something worse. Something that sounds like screams mixed with animal snarls.
"They're already here," Lyra breathes, gripping her sword tighter.
The howls get closer. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.
"We need to run," I say, pulling Seraphina toward the path back to the palace.
"The palace isn't safe," Elena says. "Aldric had allies. Traitors still inside who will try to kill you both. You need to disappear. Hide until you find the Heart of Darkness."
"Where do we go?" Seraphina asks desperately.
"The one place Aldric never thought to look." Elena points south. "Your mother's homeland. The Luna Temple ruins, where the last priestesses lived before the purge. There are protections there. Wards that can hide you from dark magic. At least for a while."
"How far?" I ask.
"Two weeks on foot. Less if you can find horses."
Two weeks. While pregnant. While being hunted by an army of monsters. While racing to solve an ancient mystery before our child is born and dooms us all.
"We'll make it," Seraphina says, her voice steady despite the fear I feel through our bond. "We have to."
The howls are right behind us now. I can see yellow eyes in the darkness between the trees.
"Run," Elena says. "I'll hold them off as long as I can."
"You're coming with us," I say. "You're my sister—"
"I'm a ghost, Caelan." She smiles sadly. "I can't leave the curse's range. And even if I could, I'd just slow you down." She turns to face the approaching monsters. "Go. Save your family. That's all I ever wanted—for you to have the family I never got to see grow up."
"Elena—"
"GO!"
Light explodes from her hands—curse magic she somehow kept even as a spirit. The monsters scream and fall back.
Lyra grabs my arm. "She's buying us time! We have to move!"
I want to argue. Want to stay and fight beside my sister. But Seraphina is pregnant. Vulnerable. I have to protect her.
"I'll come back for you," I tell Elena. "I promise."
"I know you will," she says without turning around. "Now run, little brother. Run fast."
We run.
Through the forest, toward the road south. Lyra leads, her warrior instincts finding the fastest path. Seraphina runs beside me, her hand in mine, our bond humming with shared determination and terror.
Behind us, Elena's light show ends. The howls resume, closer than before.
They're following.
We burst onto the main road just as a carriage approaches. Lyra waves it down desperately.
"Emergency!" she shouts. "Royal business!"
The driver sees my face—recognizes me as the prince—and stops immediately. "Your Highness! What's—"
"Drive south," I order, climbing in and pulling Seraphina after me. "As fast as these horses can go. Our lives depend on it."
Lyra jumps on beside the driver, her sword ready. The carriage lurches forward.
Through the back window, I see them. Hundreds of shadow creatures pouring onto the road behind us. Running faster than any horse. Gaining on us.
Seraphina grips my hand tighter. "They're going to catch us."
"No," I say, though I'm not sure I believe it. "We'll make it. We have to. For—" I touch her stomach. "For our baby."
She nods, tears streaming down her face.
The creatures are fifty feet behind us. Forty. Thirty.
One leaps at the carriage. Its claws scrape the wood.
Lyra slashes with her sword, cutting it down. But more take its place.
"Faster!" I shout to the driver.
"This is as fast as they go!"
Twenty feet. Ten.
The creatures are going to overwhelm us. Kill us. Take our child.
Then Seraphina does something impossible. She leans out the carriage window and presses her glowing hand to the road behind us.
Luna magic explodes from her palm. A wall of silver light rises from the ground, blocking the road. The creatures slam into it, screaming as it burns them.
"That won't hold them long!" she gasps, falling back into the carriage exhausted.
"It doesn't have to." I point ahead. "Look!"
A massive building looms in the distance. Ancient stone columns. Crumbling walls covered in silver runes. And surrounding it all, a barrier of pure moonlight.
The Luna Temple ruins.
We're almost there.
The carriage races toward it. Behind us, the silver wall cracks. The creatures pour through.
We're not going to make it. They're too close. Too fast.
"Seraphina!" A voice calls from the ruins. A woman's voice. "Daughter of Mirelle! Speak your name!"
"I'm Seraphina!" she shouts back. "Last of the Luna bloodline!"
"Then enter!" the voice commands. "Enter and be protected!"
The carriage crashes through the moonlight barrier just as the creatures reach us. They slam into the barrier behind us and recoil, screaming.
We made it.
We're safe.
For now.
The carriage stops in front of the temple ruins. We climb out on shaking legs.
And waiting for us at the temple entrance is a woman. Old, with silver hair and eyes that glow like stars. She wears white robes covered in moon symbols.
"Welcome, child," she says to Seraphina. "We've been waiting for you. For centuries, we've been waiting."
"Who are you?" Seraphina asks.
The woman smiles. "I'm the Oracle. The real one. The one your mother died protecting." Her eyes drop to Seraphina's stomach. "And I'm here to tell you that everything Elena said was true. You will die in childbirth. Unless..." She pauses dramatically. "Unless you're willing to do something that will change the world forever. Something that will either save everyone or destroy everything. The choice is yours."
"What choice?" I demand.
The Oracle looks between us. "You can keep the baby and die, taking the secret of the Heart of Darkness to your grave. Or..." Her smile turns mysterious. "You can give me the baby the moment it's born. Let me raise it. Train it. Turn it into the weapon the world needs to fight the coming darkness. And in exchange, I'll save your life."
Seraphina's hand goes protectively to her stomach. "Give you my baby?"
"For eighteen years. Until they're old enough to choose their own path." The Oracle's eyes gleam. "In return, you both live. The bloodline curse is delayed—not broken, but delayed. And you get a chance to find the Heart of Darkness while I keep your child safe from the monsters hunting them."
"No," Seraphina says immediately. "I'm not giving up my baby."
"Then you accept death?" The Oracle asks calmly.
"I accept that we'll find another way."
The Oracle's smile grows wider. "Good answer. Because there is another way. But to learn it, you must pass three trials. Three tests to prove you're worthy of the knowledge I hold. Fail even one, and you'll never learn how to break the curse. Your child will be born, you'll die, and the darkness wins."
"What trials?" I ask.
"The Trial of Blood. The Trial of Soul. The Trial of Choice." The Oracle steps aside, revealing a doorway into the temple. "Enter, if you dare. But know this: these trials will test everything you are. Everything you believe. And one of you may not survive them."
Seraphina and I look at each other. Through our bond, I feel her fear. Her determination. Her love for our unborn child.
Together? she thinks at me.
Together, I answer.
We take each other's hands and walk toward the temple entrance.
Behind us, the shadow creatures howl and claw at the barrier, desperate to get in.
Inside, the Oracle waits.
And somewhere in the darkness, the Heart of Darkness sleeps.
Waiting for us to find it.
Or for it to find us.