Lunar Shadows

The Hidden City

Elena found it quite hard to remember the morning after her first transformation. She woke up with sore and aching body and realized that she was in the cabin that Rafe had set up deep within the forest. The sunlight came pouring through the trees, casting shadows lengthened and curved, not quite yet in the early hours of the day. Rafe had given her time to rest but had not said anything about their training being over. If anything, it was just beginning.

She could feel and hear things churning inside her since the wolf was still thumping under the skin. Thrilling and frightening, it formed some kind of humming energy that she couldn't quite control. She'd passed her first transformation with flying colors, she now had an unsurmountable journey to endure before her.

Rafe had told her that control didn't come overnight. One had to earn the skill through time and practice. However, as the hours wore on, underneath the musty covers Elena couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more going on here-a bigger scheme than just the werewolf inside her.

She quickly took careful breaths from the shallow mirror above the sink, and gazed at her reflection that showed frazzled brown hair. Now, her eyes were sharper, and the color of the irises was hazed by an intensity she had never seen before. It was like that deep mark the wolf made beneath the body into the very soul.

Outside Rafe awaited her, silhouetted against the rising sun. His fully dressed silhouette was damp with morning dew, but he carried that familiar air of quiet confidence about him, although there was something in his posture that looked strained, like he was preparing for something.

"How'd you feel?" he said, his eyes peering closely into hers.

"I feel different. But I think I'm really getting the hang of this," Elena said, voice steady while the inside of her churned.

Rafe nodded. "Good. But there's something more we have to discuss." He paused for a moment before saying, "Time to take you to the Hidden City."

Elena frowned and turned around. "Hidden City? What's that?"

Rafe's face clouded. "It is a place that is outside the normal world, a sanctuary for creatures like us. Wolves, vampires, witches... It's where the supernatural community goes when they hide or regroup. It is also the same where the Conclave meets."

"The Conclave?" Elena repeated, trying to collect the pieces of the puzzle.

Rafe looked around as though checking for eavesdroppers. "They are the governing body of the supernatural world; everything, even laws and territories, is under their control in the balance between our world and the human one. And lately, things have been a little unstable. That's why we need to go. Something is happening. Something I could not ignore and think has to do with your bloodline."

Elena's heart stopped short. "My bloodline? What do you mean?"

Rafe offered her a long, unreadable gaze. "You're not just any werewolf, Elena. Your lineage runs deeper than you can see. There is a reason you haven't shifted until now. And the Conclave is very interested in you."

Those words weighed heavily in the air, but before Elena could raise further questions, Rafe signaled her to follow him. They walked into the dark forest, with all of Elena's thoughts jumping around within her head with everything she had just learned. Hidden City? The Conclave? And what did her bloodline have to do with it?

The world changed.

One second, they were in the thick of a buoyant, breathing forest world, and the next, Elena stood in the center of a city that was at once bustling and surreal, where the streets were paved with polished stone and towering buildings made of glass and steel loomed overhead. Strange glowing symbols were etched into the scene walls and pulsed like a heartbeat with a faint, otherworldly light. The air was filled with incense and magic; it could not smell more different than that of earthy forest air.

Across such streets, creatures moved-another kind too, from pale white vampires who could almost be seen as moonlight, flowing-robed witches, and werewolves like herself, except theirs were sharper with glowing eyes, as if lit from within. There was power here-an energy that hummed in every stone, in every building, and in every person.

Elena stood in awe as her senses drowned in overwhelming volumes of the Hidden City. It seemed a dream; yet the heat in her veins, the weight of the power in the surroundings, spoke otherwise.

"This is the Hidden City," Rafe said, his voice low and serious. "It is a place of refuge, but also a place of politics and power. And it is where we will learn what the Conclave wants with you."

They moved through the packed streets, Elena's eyes incessantly darting from one face in the crowd to another, with most of the passers-by barely looking at her. Some only stole glances toward her, eyes boring in an intensity that sends shivers through her. Yet somehow, she knows that they possess the power-these beings are not like humans whom she had known all her life.

Rafe led her to a giant edifice at the center of the city, and walls of it were lined with intricate carvings telling the tales of battle of long ago. He pushed the large door, and entered a hall whose occupants were a conglomeration of people. Some of them appeared to be just normal humans while others could be recognized as of supernatural being-the shifters, the vampires, even a few some beings Elena couldn't identify.

At the end of the hall, an empty, big, and ostentatious throne awaited, but tension hung in the atmosphere. It was obvious that there was about to be a meeting of the Conclave.

"This is where it begins," Rafe said in a voice that turned hard. "And this is where you'll find how much, really, you are a part of all this."

Elena took a deep breath, stepping forward, and felt her heart racing in her chest. There was no going back now. Every question she had dreamed of-the truth of her bloodline and dangers ahead-would be uncovered right here.

But there remained a question flickering in the back of her mind: What would the Conclave want her for?

And most importantly-what would she do to protect this world she was just finding?