Chapter 2 – Blood on Silk Sheets
1256 Words
Chapter 2 – Blood on Silk Sheets
The warmth of the soup in her mouth was deceiving. It was the first kind thing offered to her since she’d stepped through the veil, but the silence in the room weighed heavier than the bruises she carried. Seren sat stiffly on a wooden bench, wrapped in Kaelen’s oversized black coat, watching the firelight flicker against the walls of the great longhouse.
Kaelen Duskbane, the alpha, leaned against a thick wooden pillar, arms crossed over his broad chest. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her—not once. Not out of concern. It was the cold, measured gaze of a predator deciding whether its prey was a threat or merely pitiful.
Seren hated that stare.
It reminded her of Gavin.
But Kaelen wasn’t Gavin. He wasn’t trying to own her. At least… not yet.
“You crossed the veil,” Lyra Thornclaw repeated, pacing like a restless shadow beside the fire. “You shouldn’t have been able to.”
“I didn’t even know it existed,” Seren muttered, voice hoarse. “I just ran.”
Lyra scoffed. “Nobody just runs into the Hollowlands. Humans can’t even see the veil, let alone pass through it.”
“I saw it,” Seren said, remembering the shimmer in the air, the pulse in her skin as she’d stepped through. “It felt alive.”
“Magic always is,” Kaelen murmured. “But your kind shouldn’t be able to feel it.”
“I’m not your kind,” Seren replied, setting her bowl down. “And I never asked to be here.”
Silence thickened.
Kaelen stepped forward slowly, the fire casting a golden line across his scarred chest. He reached down and took her wrist again, brushing his thumb against the mark that had revealed itself moments before.
The crescent moon and drop of blood shimmered faintly, like moonlight etched into her skin.
“It’s not possible,” Lyra whispered. “That bloodline was wiped out. We watched it burn.”
Kaelen ignored her. “Where did you get this mark?”
“I don’t know,” Seren snapped. “It just… appeared.”
“It’s not a tattoo?”
“I didn’t exactly have access to a spa, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Kaelen’s jaw tensed. “You speak too boldly for someone who stumbled into a realm of monsters.”
“I’ve lived with one,” she muttered, looking away.
Something flickered in Kaelen’s expression—but it vanished as quickly as it came.
“She stays in the blackstone chamber until we know what she is,” he said finally, standing straight. “If that mark is real… she may be dangerous.”
“And if she’s lying?” Lyra asked.
Kaelen’s golden gaze lingered on Seren a moment longer.
“Then she won’t live long enough to regret it.”
---
The blackstone chamber was colder than the forest.
Seren sat alone on a stone bench wrapped in a rough woolen blanket, her hands still slightly shaking. She’d been given water, some dried fruit, and bandages for her ribs—but no answers.
There was no cell door. No chains. Just runes etched into the walls that shimmered with silver light. She’d tried stepping toward the doorway once. Her body instantly seized with pain so sharp it dropped her to the floor.
Wards.
Magic. Real magic.
She’d entered a fairy tale—and it was not a kind one.
Seren stared down at her wrist. The mark still glowed faintly, pulsing like a quiet warning. It didn’t hurt. But it didn’t feel like hers either.
A knock startled her. Lyra entered silently, carrying a small satchel and a bundle of folded linen.
“You’ll need these,” she said, tossing them onto the stone table.
“Thanks,” Seren said carefully.
Lyra didn’t respond. Instead, she began to arrange vials and small tools on the table—strips of cloth, crushed herbs, a black stone blade.
Seren stiffened. “What is that for?”
“Blood testing.”
“For what?” she asked.
Lyra gave her a look. “You’re in a den full of wolves, girl. If your blood’s cursed, we’ll need to know before you start bleeding during a full moon and turn into something worse.”
Seren bit her tongue.
Lyra gestured toward her arm. “Hold still.”
The blade was warm—unexpectedly so. When it cut her skin, it didn’t hurt. Not really. Not compared to what she was used to. Blood welled to the surface, a dark crimson that shimmered faintly under the torchlight.
Lyra held a small crystal above the wound. It blinked once. Then again. Then stopped.
She frowned.
“Well?” Seren asked, watching her.
“No venom. No rot. But...” Lyra hesitated. “Your blood’s not… normal.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
Lyra gave her a withering look.
“Something’s dormant in you,” she said. “Something old. It’s not vampire. And it’s not werewolf either. It’s… something in-between.”
Seren blinked. “That’s not possible.”
Lyra shrugged. “Neither was crossing the veil. But here we are.”
She cleaned and wrapped Seren’s arm quickly.
Then, to Seren’s surprise, Lyra sat on the stone floor across from her, resting her arms over her knees.
“What’s it like?” she asked.
“What?”
“Being human.”
Seren stared at her. “Lonely.”
Lyra’s expression softened for the first time. “I wouldn’t know. I was born with claws. Never had a choice.”
“Neither did I,” Seren said quietly.
They sat in silence a moment.
Then Lyra said, “Kaelen won’t trust you. Not easily.”
“He shouldn’t.”
Lyra blinked. “You’re honest.”
“I’m tired,” Seren said. “Of lying. Of pretending.”
Another pause.
“I had a fiancé,” she added. “Back home. He… he bought me. From my parents.”
Lyra’s jaw clenched. “They sold you?”
Seren nodded.
“He hurt me. Not just once.”
Something dark flickered in Lyra’s eyes. Her hands curled into fists.
“You left him?”
“I ran.”
“That takes strength,” Lyra said softly. “Don’t let Kaelen treat you like prey.”
“I won’t.”
Another moment passed. Then Lyra stood.
“He’ll test you. Again and again. That’s what alphas do.”
“I’ll survive.”
“You better,” she said, a faint smile on her lips now. “You might be the prophecy he’s been trying to outrun.”
And then she was gone.
---
That night, Seren couldn’t sleep.
The silence was too loud. The cold too strange. The scent of burning sage and wet earth clung to everything. She curled beneath the rough blanket, fingers brushing the mark on her wrist.
What was she?
And why did this world feel less foreign than the one she came from?
As she drifted into shallow sleep, dreams clawed their way into her mind.
A forest burning.
A moon split in half.
Eyes — not Gavin’s. Not Kaelen’s. Eyes the color of frostbitten blood.
A voice whispered through the darkness:
“Your blood remembers. Even if you do not.”
Seren bolted upright, breath ragged, heart pounding.
She wasn’t alone.
There was something in this realm that had waited for her.
And now that she had crossed…
it would not let her go.
- Writer
