Chapter 22: The Blood Moon Festival
The air itself felt charged, thick with a strange electricity that pressed down on the valley. For days, the pack had spoken of little else, and Seren had noticed a restlessness threading through the wolves as if they could feel the moon’s pull before it even crested the horizon. Tonight was not like any other night. Tonight, the Blood Moon would rise.
Seren stood before a mirror in the small room Kaelen had insisted she use to prepare, tugging nervously at the crimson cloak laid across her shoulders. Its hood shadowed her face, but the fabric shimmered faintly as though woven from threads of firelight. Lyra had chosen it for her—"so the moon will see you," she had explained cryptically—and Seren could not shake the sense that the garment was more than
