Episode 8
1434 Words
I stared at the man on the ridge.
Dark hair. Storm-gray eyes.
Kael’s eyes.
The resemblance was sharp—too sharp to be anything but blood.
Kael stepped forward, voice low but fierce. “Jace?”
The name echoed like a curse.
Jace Thorn had died five years ago in the Southern War. Everyone knew that. There was a funeral. A headstone. Kael had broken when he buried his younger brother.
But the man standing above us wasn’t a ghost.
He was real.
Alive.
And wearing Blackveil colors.
⸻
Jace tilted his head, gaze cool. “Hello, brother.”
Kael didn’t speak.
Couldn’t.
My heart pounded. “How are you alive?”
Jace ignored me. His eyes locked only on Kael.
“I expected you to look different. Older. Maybe wiser.”
Kael stepped forward again. “We buried you.”
“You buried an empty coffin,” Jace said flatly.
Ryker leaned against me, still weak. “This isn’t real.”
“Oh, it’s very real,” Jace replied, his voice calm, even cold. “I was left behind. Injured. Forgotten. But Blackveil found me. Healed me. Gave me purpose.”
Kael’s fists clenched. “They twisted you.”
“No,” Jace said. “They told me the truth.”
He raised his hand slowly—and behind him, more figures emerged from the trees.
Ten. Maybe more.
Silent. Watching.
Kael stepped in front of me instinctively.
“Let us pass,” he growled.
Jace smiled faintly. “You don’t give orders here anymore, big brother.”
His gaze slid to me.
“Elara Vale,” he said, like tasting the name. “The broken Luna who lived.”
I stiffened. “You don’t know me.”
“Oh, I do,” Jace said. “I’ve been watching you since the day you returned.”
Kael’s breath caught. “You’ve been spying on her?”
“Protecting her, at first,” Jace said. “Then studying. You interest them.”
I stepped forward, voice sharp. “Them?”
Jace’s expression didn’t change. “The ones who remember what it means to destroy bloodlines.”
Kael growled. “Get out of our way.”
“Gladly,” Jace said, stepping aside. “But this isn’t over.”
He held up a black pendant carved with the same cracked moon symbol.
“Elara,” he said, voice low. “They don’t want Kael. They don’t even want Nightfang. They want you.”
Then he vanished into the shadows.
And the others went with him.
⸻
We moved fast after that.
Back to the tower. Barricaded the doors. Reset every trap.
Ryker didn’t speak. He just stared out the window, a haunted look in his eyes.
Kael paced, shoulders tight. I could feel the storm building in him.
“He’s not gone,” Kael finally said. “I saw it in his eyes. He’s planning something.”
I nodded. “He’s been close. Watching. That moonstone you found—he left it.”
Ryker turned slowly. “What if he’s the one inside your circle?”
I shook my head. “He’s not. He’s outside it. Always watching, never stepping in.”
“Until now,” Kael muttered.
⸻
That night, the wind screamed through the trees.
Kael sat by the fire, his head in his hands.
“I thought he died,” he said quietly. “I thought it was my fault.”
I sat across from him. “You weren’t the one who left him.”
“No,” he said. “But I didn’t go back.”
I wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault. But I wasn’t sure I believed that.
Kael looked up at me. “He said they want you. Why?”
I hesitated.
Then I told him.
About the Moonborn bloodline.
About what I carried.
About why they would want to erase me.
Kael didn’t flinch. “You should’ve told me.”
“I don’t owe you everything,” I said quietly.
He nodded, slowly. “I know.”
There was a long silence between us.
Then he whispered, “But I would’ve fought for you.”
⸻
I left him there, in the quiet.
My heart was pulled in too many directions.
Ryker.
Kael.
Jace.
My past.
The war coming.
I didn’t know which wound to tend to first.
⸻
I found Ryker upstairs, wrapping his side.
“You shouldn’t be moving,” I said.
He didn’t look at me. “I’m not dead.”
“I know.”
He tightened the bandage, grimacing.
“You love him,” he said suddenly.
The words cut deeper than I expected.
“I don’t know what I feel,” I said honestly.
Ryker met my eyes. “But it’s not me.”
I looked down. “It’s never been simple.”
He gave a bitter smile. “It is now.”
I wanted to stop him.
But I didn’t.
Because I didn’t know how.
⸻
In the morning, I gathered the scouts.
We needed information. Plans. Numbers.
I was done reacting.
It was time to take control.
Kael stood beside me as I gave orders.
He didn’t question my leadership.
He followed it.
And that mattered more than any apology.
⸻
Three days passed.
No sign of Jace.
No attacks.
Only silence.
Too much silence.
Then, on the fourth night—
We heard the scream.
A low, piercing sound that tore through the trees like fire.
Kael and I ran toward it.
Found the scout half-buried in leaves, blood pouring from his side.
He grabbed my wrist, eyes wild.
“They’re here.”
“Where?” I asked.
He gasped, “Not them—him.”
“Who?”
The scout’s hand trembled as he reached into his coat.
He pulled out something small and dropped it into my palm.
Another moonstone.
This one was shattered.
He died before he could say another word.
⸻
Back at the tower, I stared at the broken stone.
A message.
A threat.
A signature.
Kael leaned over it. “It’s him. Jace.”
“Or someone working for him,” I said.
“No,” Kael said. “This is personal.”
Ryker stood in the doorway. “Then let’s make it personal back.”
He stepped forward, sliding a blade across the table.
“I found this in the woods. Near the old temple ruins.”
I picked it up.
The handle had a symbol etched into it.
A different one.
Not the cracked moon.
But the mark of the old kings.
Ryker’s eyes met mine. “Your family’s symbol.”
My mouth went dry.
“They’re not just hunting you,” he said. “They’re sending a challenge.”
Kael looked at me. “You know what that means.”
I nodded.
“It means they’re not hiding anymore.”
⸻
We sent scouts south.
Prepared weapons.
Lit signal fires on the ridges.
And then, just before midnight—
A letter arrived.
Delivered by a child no older than ten.
A girl with pale eyes and dirt-streaked cheeks.
She held it out to me without a word.
I took it, hands steady.
The paper was rough. Stained.
I opened it slowly.
Just one line.
Written in blood.
Come alone, or he dies.
No name.
No location.
Just a scent on the paper.
Ryker’s.
⸻
Kael stepped forward. “It’s a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then you’re not going.”
I looked up at him. “He risked everything for me. I’m not letting him die alone.”
Kael shook his head. “Let me go.”
“No,” I said. “This is mine.”
He grabbed my arm. “You don’t even know where to start.”
I stared at him. “Yes, I do.”
Because the scent wasn’t just Ryker’s.
It was mixed with something else.
Something old.
Something I hadn’t smelled in years.
⸻
The ruins of the Moonborn Temple.
The place I was supposed to be crowned.
The place Kael rejected me.
The place I buried who I used to be.
That’s where they wanted me.
Alone.
⸻
I arrived at dawn.
The sky was cracked with gray and gold.
The ruins stood like bones on the hillside.
Wind whispered through the broken pillars.
I stepped inside.
And there he was.
Ryker.
Chained to the altar.
Blood dried on his shirt.
Eyes open—but distant.
I rushed forward—
And then stopped.
Because behind him…
Stood Jace.
And beside Jace…
Was Sariah.
Alive.
And wearing my old Luna crown.
- Writer
