BLOOD MOON PROPHECY

CHAPTER 2: THE KING'S COMMAND

The west tower smelled of old iron and damp stone, of secrets that had soaked so deep into the walls they would never wash out. The moment Dorian kicked the heavy door shut behind us, the screaming from the courtyard vanished as if it had never existed. No windows, no hearth, no servants. Only two torches burning low, their light throwing restless shadows across the floor, and a row of iron chains bolted into the stone that were too clean to be abandoned. Someone had been polishing them, waiting.

Dorian lowered me to the floor and the instant his arms released me, my legs gave out. I caught myself against the cold stone, pain shooting through my knees, but it was nothing compared to what was moving inside my chest. When my blood touched the Bleeding Stone, something had slipped beneath my skin. It moved with every heartbeat now, pushing deeper until my breathing turned shallow and my heart answered a call from far beneath the palace. A call only Ash could hear.

Then Ash surged. For twenty-one years she had been a locked door at the edge of my mind. I could feel her there but never reach her, and tonight the lock broke. She paced through my thoughts, claws scraping, restless and terrified, then the floor beneath us trembled and she stopped. Her head lifted as if listening to something I could not hear, and what I felt from her wasn't fear anymore. It was recognition. She knew it.

Dorian crouched a few feet away, still in black, still crowned, but he didn't look untouchable like he had in the courtyard when he nodded at the priest. His hands were clenched against his knees until his knuckles went white, and for a second his fingers trembled before he hid them in a fist. When his gaze dropped to the mark beneath my torn dress, I caught it. Guilt, raw and quick.

I remembered his voice across the courtyard. "Do it." The anger came back hot and sharp. "Don't move," he said, his voice low and strained. "What do you think I'm going to do?" I snapped. "Run back so your priests can finish cutting my throat?" His jaw tightened. He didn't defend himself. "If you move without understanding what is happening inside you, you could destroy more than yourself. You could take half the kingdom with you." "You mean Blackthorn." "I mean everything."

The certainty in his voice silenced me. He rose and braced both hands on the table in the center of the chamber where a silver cup sat beside scrolls that looked decades old. He lowered his head as if forcing his thoughts to make sense, and when he turned back the cold mask of the king was back, but I could still see the crack underneath. "The Bleeding Stone was never meant to be awakened," he said. "Then why sacrifice me to it?" "Because the Blood Moon Prophecy is a lie."

I stared at him. "The prophecy says marked children must die to preserve the peace." "I know what it says. My father taught me that before I could hold a sword." "The priests killed hundreds because of it." "I know." His eyes dropped to my collarbone where the wound still glowed faintly. "Tonight your blood didn't complete the sacrifice. It broke the seal." A seal meant a prison. For twenty-one years I believed I was born wrong, that my parents died because I was cursed, that I lived only because a maid hid me in a laundry cart. Now he was telling me something worse. I wasn't born carrying a curse. I was born carrying the key.

"So all those children," my voice broke. "You killed them because you thought their blood was dangerous." "Yes." "Your father ordered the purge." "Yes." "And you continued it." He looked me straight in the eye. "Yes." No excuse, no defense, just yes. That honesty hurt more than a lie would have. Somewhere beyond the walls a horn sounded, then another. Ash went alert, hackles raised inside my mind.

Dorian's head snapped toward the door. "They felt it." "Who?" "The Vampire Kingdom, the Witch Coven, the Human Council." He moved to the window slit though there was nothing to see. "They know the seal has broken, and now every ruler in this world will want you dead, imprisoned, or controlled before you become a weapon." "The First Beast." His gaze snapped to mine. "You know that name?" "I heard it when the stone broke." "What did you hear exactly?" I hesitated, because saying it aloud would make it real. "A voice. It called me by my name." Dorian went completely still. "Then it knows you."

The floor trembled again. Dust fell from the ceiling and the torches rattled, and Ash snarled so loudly I pressed my hands to my ears. Dorian crossed to me in an instant. "What is happening?" "I don't know." From far below something answered, a low vibration too deep to be a growl, too powerful to be anything ordinary. It rolled through the tower stones and into my bones, and Dorian didn't deny it. He knew what it was.

"What happens if they take me?" I whispered. "They won't." "You don't know that." "I know they will try to bleed you first. To see what your blood can do. What the Beast wants with you." That was when I understood why he had locked me in here. It wasn't a prison. It was the only room with chains polished for something that should have never woken up.

He picked up the silver cup and offered it to me. Our fingers brushed and heat exploded through my veins, not warm but fire. Ash surged, Dorian's breath stopped, and the cup slipped. I caught it, but neither of us moved. For one heartbeat something invisible pulled tight between us, a thread between our wolves that should not exist. That had never existed between an Alpha King and a marked Omega. Dorian slowly withdrew his hand. "That shouldn't be possible."

We had barely reached the door when footsteps sounded in the corridor, heavy and too quiet for guards. Dorian stepped in front of me instantly. The west tower doors exploded inward. Four vampires entered in dark armor, skin unnaturally pale, eyes glowing red, and behind them walked Vampire Prince Cassian. His clothes were immaculate and amusement sat in his expression that didn't belong in a room full of tension. His eyes moved from Dorian to me, then settled on the mark glowing beneath my torn dress, and his smile disappeared.

"Twenty-one years," he murmured. "We searched for the last marked child for twenty-one years." Dorian's voice went to ice. "You have no authority to enter my tower." Cassian laughed softly. "The moment the Bleeding Stone broke, your authority became the least important thing in this room." He stepped closer and Dorian shifted, blocking his view of me. "Leave." "You still don't understand," Cassian said, eyes on me. "The treaty was never created to protect the kingdoms from the marked children."

My heart pounded. "Then what was it for?" He looked directly at me. "To keep the kingdoms from fighting over you." Silence filled the chamber. Cassian's voice dropped. "Your father knew you survived, Lyra. Your mother wasn't simply an Omega who gave birth beneath the Blood Moon. She was the last person who knew what the First Beast truly is." The room tilted. I turned to Dorian and for the first time shock crossed his face. He didn't know this.

Cassian smiled. "And if you want to know why your mother died protecting you, ask the king what his father did the night you were born." Dorian stepped forward, deadly. "Get out." Cassian's eyes locked on mine. "The Beast didn't wake because your blood touched the stone, Lyra. It woke because it recognized you." Ash went silent inside me. Then something enormous opened its eyes beneath the earth, and this time deep in my mind where only I could hear it, it said one word. Mine.