Blood and Moonlight

Chapter 4

Dressing for Fate

Seraphina

Varethmoor -- Crimson Spire Chambers -- Hours before the Masquerade

The corset tightened with each pull of the lacing cords, but Seraphina didn't flinch. She stood still before the mirror, draped in shadows and satin. The gown--black as midnight with veins of red silk running like blood through the fabric--fit her like a second skin and the bodice sparkled with tiny moonstones, catching candlelight like stars in a dying sky.

Maris fastened the last silver clasp behind her neck, her hands trembling slightly. "Are you sure about this mask?" she asked. Seraphina's eyes met her reflection. The mask she'd chosen was shaped like a wolf's face--elegant and sharp, forged of silver and obsidian. It wasn't traditional and it wasn't safe. "I'm not attending to blend in," Seraphina replied.

She didn't tell Maris that she'd dreamt the mask weeks ago--before she even knew the masquerade was coming. Or that in the dream, she wasn't wearing it to hide. She was wearing it to hunt.

Kael

The Lower City -- Dorian's Workshop

Kael stood awkwardly as Dorian brushed the ash off his shoulders for the third time. "You clean up better than I thought," Dorian muttered. "Still look like you might punch a duke in the face, though." "I won't be near any dukes," Kael said. "I'll drop the weapons off. One drink. Then I'm out." "Sure," Dorian smirked. "And I'm the Moon King reborn."

Kael rolled his eyes but said nothing. The truth was, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about the palace. The scent of the air. The strange familiarity in the architecture. And most of all... The girl. He hadn't even seen her clearly. Just a silhouette, standing on a balcony high above--like a memory that didn't belong to him.

He shook the thought away. "Do I really have to wear this mask?" Dorian held it out: dark leather with silver detailing--simple, but striking. A half-mask, shaped like a wolf's jaw. "You want to fit in?" Dorian asked. "Or stand out?" Kael took the mask. "I don't want to be remembered."

Seraphina

She dismissed her court well before sundown, locking the doors to her chambers as she sat alone beneath the ancestral tapestry. A blood moon would rise tonight. The same omen that marked her mother's death. And now it came again--on the night where she might meet someone worth breaking the rules for. She should be afraid. But she only felt...ready.

Kael

He stood outside the gates again, heart pounding harder than it ever had in a fight. This was a mistake. He didn't belong here. But something inside whispered otherwise. The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the world changed.

Two masks.

Two fates.

One night.

The blood moon was rising. And their story was about to begin.