TheTrialBeneathTheMoon
757 Words
I should’ve said no.
I should’ve kept my head down,stayed invisible,done what I came here to do — survive.
But survival in Alpha Academy doesn’t mean hiding.It means becoming the kind of monster no one dares to chase.
So I signed up.
---
The night of the trial arrived fast. Too fast.
The rules were simple:
Survive the labyrinth.
Retrieve the token.
Return before moonrise.
Teams of four,no mercy,no resets,no instructors once inside.
I was placed with Xander, Cassian, and a girl named Talia Drayke— a whip-smart strategist with a venomous glare and a dagger collection that rivaled most warlords.
She didn’t trust me.
I didn’t blame her.
Cassian just smirked when he saw the list.
“Looks like you’re stuck with us, Pup.”
Xander didn’t speak at all. He just nodded once, like this was inevitable.
Like he knew I’d be here from the start.
---
We stood at the threshold of the trial gates — an arched stone maw carved into the cliffside, runes glowing with cold blue light. Snow flurried around us. The rest of the academy watched from the rise above, murmuring bets and bloodthirsty hopes.
Headmaster Riven stood at the edge, his eyes finding mine.
He gave no signal.
Just a whisper of power in the air.
The gates creaked open.
The trial had begun.
---
Inside the labyrinth, it was colder than outside.There was no wind or light. Just ancient stone slick with frost and the scent of fear lingering in the dark.
Talia took the lead, twin daggers drawn. Cassian prowled beside her, relaxed but alert. I kept to the rear. Xander walked at my side, silent, like a shadow with too many thoughts.
“What exactly are we looking for?” I whispered.
Talia didn’t glance back. “A relic. Some old piece of pack history. Each trial is different.”
“And the threats?”
“All real,” Xander said quietly.
I nodded. “Perfect.”
---
The first hour was easy. Too easy.
We navigated trap corridors, avoided spiked pits, and disarmed rune mines buried under false tiles.
But easy never lasts.
Around the second curve of the inner ring, the temperature dropped again — unnaturally fast. Our breaths crystallized in the air. And then… a growl echoed through the tunnel.
Low. Wet.Wrong.
Cassian turned, sniffed the air. “That’s not a wolf.”
A shadow slithered across the wall — boneless, eyeless, humming with old magic.
“A wraith?” I asked, my voice tightening.
“No,” Talia said. “Worse.”
The thing lunged.
---
We fought like one creature — Cassian and Talia striking fast and brutal, Xander shielding us, and me sliding beneath the thing with twin blades drawn from my boot. It didn’t bleed when cut — it screamed.
A psychic scream.
My vision blurred. My chest ached. The wolffire stirred again, just under my skin.
Not now,not here.
I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. The pain grounded me.
Cassian landed the final blow, slicing through its core with a blade etched in silvermoon steel.
The creature dissolved into ash and cold light.
Xander glanced at me.
“You hesitated again.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re cracking,” he said.
I didn’t answer.
Because I was.
---
We reached the heart of the labyrinth just before the first moonrise bell. The relic sat on a stone altar — a blade with a split hilt and an emerald embedded in its core.
Xander reached for it and the ground beneath us cracked.
So hard.
Talia screamed as the floor collapsed beneath her. Cassian grabbed her arm just in time.
I wasn’t so lucky.
Stone gave way under my boots and I fell — hard, through darkness, until my back slammed against something cold and metal.
My vision blurred.
I was in a chamber.
Alone.
No light. No voices.
Just—
Chains.
And a whisper that didn’t belong to anyone in this world:
“Welcome back, Moonborn.”
I froze.
That voice.
No.
No.
It couldn’t be.
From the darkness stepped a figure — not a recruit nor a ghost.
But a man in royal black with a silver insignia on his chest and a scar that split his mouth into a permanent sneer.
General Kael Magnus.
The brother of Alpha Magnus.
The man my father feared.
The one who sealed my fate in that blood contract ten years ago.
He stepped forward.
“Did you really think we wouldn’t find you,Ariel?”
- Writer
