CHAPTER 5. A Mark and a Warning
891 Words
The new mark shimmered faintly under the morning light.
Luna stood in front of the mirror, shirt pulled aside, fingertips tracing the edges of the second crescent. It matched the first exactly same glow, same shape only it curved in the opposite direction.
Together, they formed a circle. An eclipse. A full moon caught between two shadows.
She had no idea what it meant.
But someone did.
“Your marks have aligned,” Rhea said when she saw them. She wasn’t surprised. She rarely was these days.
Luna sat at the kitchen table, still in pajamas, her cereal untouched.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means you’ve passed the first threshold.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It is.”
Rhea folded a faded cloth across the table, revealing an old wooden box she had never shown Luna before. It smelled of cedar and smoke. She opened it to reveal a small silver blade, a worn leather pendant, and a stack of folded parchment.
“These belonged to your birth mother,” she said softly. “Before she died, she left them with me.”
Luna stared. “You knew my birth mother?”
“I was her closest friend. And when the packs turned on her, I helped her disappear.”
Luna’s heart raced. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“I wanted you safe. The fewer memories you had, the harder you’d be to find.”
Luna stood, voice sharp. “But I’m not safe, am I?”
“No,” Rhea admitted. “Now that the marks have appeared, it’s only a matter of time before the Council sends someone.”
“For what? To kill me?”
“To test your loyalty. To determine whether you’ll be a threat… or a weapon.”
Later that day, Luna found something shoved through the mail slot.
A folded sheet of old parchment. No address. No return stamp.
Just her name on the front, written in looping, inky script.
She opened it with trembling fingers.
“Beware the ones who smile with silver teeth.
Beware the mark that shines too bright.
The past is not buried. It waits for you beneath the pine.
Do not trust the wolf who wears the crown.”
There was no signature.
But the last line stuck in her throat.
Kael.
She didn’t see him at school.
Not in the halls. Not in the cafeteria. Not even near the forest where he always lingered after hours.
Taya said he’d been pulled out of class for “pack business.”
Which could mean anything.
Luna thought about the note all day. Silver teeth. The pine. The wolf who wears the crown.
Was it a warning about Kael?
She didn’t want to believe it. He had protected her. Told her truths no one else would. But a voice in her mind whispered that Kael wasn’t telling her everything.
That maybe he was hiding things, too.
That evening, Rhea handed Luna the pendant from the box.
“You need to wear this now,” she said. “It’s a warding charm. It will protect your thoughts at least from the weaker ones.”
“Weaker what?” Luna asked.
“Telepaths. Shadowcasters. Moon Council spies.”
“Of course.”
Rhea smiled faintly. “Welcome to the deep end, my love.”
When night fell, the wind changed again.
The forest grew restless. The owls were silent. The moon, though full, felt distant like it was watching from behind a veil.
Luna couldn’t sleep. She felt the pull again the hum beneath her skin, tugging her toward the woods.
But this time, she didn’t follow it.
She waited.
And sure enough, just past midnight… someone came.
A figure moved through the trees. Cloaked. Hooded.
Luna watched from her window as they stopped at the stone circle, crouched low, and pressed something into the soil. Then they stood and vanished again, silent as smoke.
She threw on her jacket and ran.
The object was small and metal.
A silver ring simple, engraved with unfamiliar symbols. Still warm, as if it had been forged seconds ago.
She picked it up.
And pain exploded behind her eyes.
A vision no, a memory slammed into her:
She stood on a mountaintop, howling into a red sky. Blood soaked her hands. Kael knelt before her, head bowed. Behind him, hundreds of wolves howled in unison, their eyes reflecting her light. A silver crown floated in the air between them, glowing. Waiting.
Luna stumbled back, gasping.
The ring slipped from her fingers.
And when she looked up, kale was standing across from her.
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he said.
Luna’s hands clenched. “That ring what was it?”
“It’s a memory trigger. One of the old ways. My father’s ring.”
“Why did it show that?”
Kael stepped forward. “Because it’s not just your memory. It’s a prophecy. One the Council has tried to erase.”
“You kneeling before me why?”
“Because you’re not just Moonborne,” Kael said quietly. “You’re the next Luna Sovereign.”
Luna stared at him. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” he said, “you’re destined to rule.”
- Writer
