Chapter 18: A Bond Beyond the Mark
950 Words
The next morning, Avery was escorted from her room by a stone-faced attendant in gray robes. They didn’t speak, not even when she asked where they were going. The silence became oppressive as they wound through narrow corridors deeper into the castle’s belly, past lecture halls filled with murmuring students and up twisting staircases lined with oil paintings whose subjects whispered behind her back.
She was being led to her first test.
The door at the end of the corridor was solid iron with arcane runes carved into it. As it creaked open, she stepped into a domed chamber filled with magic so old it felt like walking into another time. A circular arena stretched before her. At its center stood three instructors cloaked in silver and black, their expressions unreadable.
Ben was already there, seated behind a barrier of glass beside a younger girl with chestnut curls. He pressed his hand against the glass when he saw her. Avery offered a small nod.
“Miss Summer,” one of the instructors began, a man with storm-grey eyes and a crescent scar along his cheek, “you are here to demonstrate your control. The outburst in Roselake was alarming. We cannot allow unpredictable power to endanger others.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” Avery said, heart hammering in her chest. “It just… happened.”
“And that’s precisely the problem,” said a second instructor, a stern-looking woman with tightly bound braids. “Let us begin.”
The test started simple: they asked her to summon light, to manipulate fire, to call upon the moon’s essence as any marked wolf could. She tried. Nothing happened. No sparks. No shift. No aura.
“Again,” they repeated.
Avery gritted her teeth, fingers curling. She felt something inside her—heat and pulse and pressure—but it refused to obey her call.
And then the third instructor, an older man with blind eyes, lifted his head.
“Bring her the stone.”
A pale crystal was wheeled in. The Luna Stone.
Avery stepped toward it warily. The last time she’d touched one, it showed her flames and fate. This time, as her fingers brushed the surface, her mind didn’t flood with visions—instead, the entire room dimmed. Wind roared around them though there were no windows, and the lights above flickered out.
The stone shattered.
She was thrown backward, landing hard against the wall. Panic erupted in the chamber.
“She broke it—!”
“Impossible—it’s not supposed to—”
“Get the Headmistress!”
Ben pounded against the glass as Avery struggled to breathe. But in the chaos, something shifted.
A mark.
Just for a second—glowing white and gold—flared on her chest like a starburst.
Then it vanished.
She gasped.
Ben had seen it. So had the blind instructor.
The others? They hadn’t.
Twenty minutes later, Avery sat in the infirmary. Her hands trembled as she drank from a cup of mint tea the healer had provided. Ben sat beside her, still stunned.
“You saw it, right?” she whispered.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. Avery… it wasn’t a normal mark. It looked like—like a convergence. Like everything inside you snapped into alignment for a second.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” she said, pulling her knees to her chest. “Why would it only show for a moment? And why is everyone so sure I’m broken?”
“You’re not broken,” he said firmly. “You’re hidden.”
She looked at him. “Hidden?”
He hesitated. “There’s this old legend. About markless ones. Ones who don’t wear the Moon Goddess’s brand because… they weren’t made by Her alone.”
A chill crawled down her spine. “Then by who?”
“No one knows. Just that they’re rare. Feared. And powerful.”
She went quiet. Outside the infirmary window, fog curled along the courtyard. The castle felt even more distant now.
“I had the dream again,” she said.
Ben turned sharply. “What dream?”
“The one with her. The other me. She spoke this time.”
“What did she say?”
Avery’s voice dropped. “She said I’m what comes after her.”
Ben went still.
“I think she’s me from another life. Or another path. I think she had the mark. And I… I’m the version that was never supposed to exist.”
Ben reached out and took her hand. “You’re not some accident, Avery. Maybe you weren’t marked because your fate isn’t written yet.”
They sat in silence until the Headmistress entered, trailed by the blind instructor.
Her voice was as cold as ever. “We will keep you under observation. But it appears there’s more to your condition than we understood.”
Ben stood protectively. “She’s not dangerous.”
“I didn’t say she was,” the Headmistress said, turning her sharp eyes to Avery. “But she is different. And different is dangerous until proven otherwise.”
She left with the snap of her cloak.
The blind instructor remained. He approached Avery, his milky eyes unsettlingly direct.
“I saw the light,” he whispered. “You are not markless. You are unseen. The Goddess may not claim you, child—but something older does.”
He left without another word.
Avery sat in stunned silence. Ben moved closer and whispered, “You're starting to scare even the ones who think they’ve seen everything.”
She leaned into his warmth.
“Good,” she said quietly. “Because I’m scared too.”
- Writer
