Chapter 15: The Shadow in the Woods
1002 Words
The moon was swollen and red, looming like a bleeding eye over the treetops. Avery stared at it from her bedroom window, her breath fogging the glass. Something felt wrong.
Deep in her bones, there was a pulling sensation—like something ancient and buried had awakened.
She turned sharply as a low growl echoed through the trees.
There it is again.
She grabbed her cloak and crept out of the room, her bare feet silent against the cold stone hallway. Just as she reached the main stairs, Ben appeared from the shadows.
“You heard it too,” he said. He was already dressed in black, his boots laced tight, a knife strapped to his hip.
Avery nodded. “It didn’t sound like any wolf I’ve ever heard.”
“That’s because it wasn’t.”
They moved together silently, leaving the estate through the eastern side, slipping into the woods beyond. The air smelled strange—sharp, metallic, unnatural. Even the birds had gone quiet.
Ben stayed close, his movements fluid, senses sharp.
“You’ve been acting like a soldier since the ceremony,” Avery whispered. “Did you always have this in you?”
Ben didn’t look at her. “My father raised me for war. Then Leonidas raised me for survival.”
“What about love?”
His steps faltered for a second. “Didn’t have time for that.”
She reached out and touched his arm. “And now?”
He looked at her, his expression caught somewhere between defiance and softness. “Now I’m trying not to lose the one thing I actually care about.”
A distant howl cut through the moment—guttural, distorted, as if the sound had been dragged from something unnatural.
“That wasn’t a wolf,” Avery whispered.
Ben’s eyes gleamed. “No. That was something pretending to be.”
They followed the sound deeper into the trees until they came upon a clearing lit by blood-red moonlight. Deep gouges slashed across trees. The earth had been torn open as if by massive claws.
Ben crouched and ran his fingers along the marks. “This isn’t fresh... but it’s recent.”
“Look,” Avery pointed to a patch of disturbed leaves. A trail of blood—dark, thick—led deeper into the woods.
They followed it, tense and alert. The deeper they went, the colder it became. Avery’s breath started to cloud. Frost formed on the tips of nearby branches.
“Ben... it’s summer.”
“I know.”
Suddenly, the trees shuddered, and something lunged from the shadows.
Ben shifted mid-leap, bones cracking, fur erupting from his skin as he collided with the creature in a blur of silver and black.
Avery froze.
The thing wasn’t a wolf. It had a wolf’s shape, but it was wrong—its body moved like smoke and oil, shifting too fast, eyes glowing with green fire. Its growls weren’t sounds but vibrations that echoed in her mind.
Ben slammed into it, fangs sinking into its shoulder. The creature shrieked and tossed him aside with supernatural strength.
“Ben!” Avery screamed.
He hit the ground with a grunt, already trying to rise, but the creature was on him again.
And then she heard it—a voice, inside her.
Call it. Call the light.
Avery gasped, clutching her chest. The mark on her sternum—the one that had appeared after the Luna Ceremony—began to glow, faint at first, then brighter with each beat of her heart.
Call it.
She raised her hand instinctively. Light burst from her chest, not golden or soft, but silver and sharp, like moonlight forged into a blade. The shadow-creature recoiled, screaming in pain. Its form writhed and split into tendrils, like smoke burning from the inside.
Ben, bloodied but breathing, managed to shift back. He stared at Avery, wide-eyed.
“What... what did you just do?”
“I don’t know.” She collapsed to her knees, panting. “It just... happened.”
He moved to her side quickly, inspecting her for wounds. “Are you hurt?”
“No. Just... drained.”
Ben’s jaw clenched. “That thing wasn’t just a rogue. It was something else. Something old.”
A gust of wind swept through the clearing, and with it, the smell of burnt ozone and ash.
“We need to tell Leonidas,” Ben said. “Now.”
Avery nodded, still staring at the scorched patch where the creature had vanished. “Ben... that voice. It wasn’t mine.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked up at him, eyes haunted. “It came from inside me, but it wasn’t me. It knew something. It told me to call the light.”
Ben looked shaken but steady. “Then whatever that voice is, it wants you alive. That’s more than I can say for whatever we just faced.”
As they began the walk back, Avery kept glancing at the moon.
“Do you think this was just the beginning?”
Ben didn’t answer for a long time. When he did, his voice was low.
“No. I think it was a warning.”
They were halfway back when Avery slowed. “Ben?”
“Yeah?”
“If I ever lose control... if I ever become something like that—”
He cut her off, fierce and unwavering. “You won’t.”
“But if I do—”
“You won’t,” he repeated, stepping closer, his voice rough. “Because I’ll be right there to bring you back. Every time.”
She searched his face, and in the flickering moonlight, she saw the truth in his words.
Still, a whisper in her mind warned: Not everything can be saved.
But for now, Avery let herself believe him. Because the alternative was too terrifying.
They didn’t speak for the rest of the walk. Only the wind followed them, and the distant, ghostly echo of that not-wolf howl.
- Writer
