The Moon's Chosen

Chapter Three :The Summoning

The night air had grown colder, heavy with the kind of stillness that precedes a storm.

Aeloria stood by the shuttered window, staring into the forest’s darkness. Kaelen’s warning clung to her mind like frost.

She told herself it was just wolves. Wolves didn’t frighten her—she’d chased them away from her garden before with a lantern and a firm shout. But wolves didn’t make the air hum. Wolves didn’t make the shadows shift as if they were alive.

Behind her, Kaelen stirred. “Move away from the window.”

She turned. “It’s fine—”

The words died in her throat. From the treeline, shapes emerged—long-limbed and hunched, their bodies blacker than the night, edges rippling like smoke. Where their faces should have been, there were only gaping maws lined with teeth like shards of obsidian.

Three of them. No, four.

They didn’t walk—they flowed.

Aeloria’s heart slammed against her ribs. “What are those—”

“Shadow beasts,” Kaelen said grimly, pushing to his feet despite the stiffness in his movements. “Stay behind me.”

Her instinct screamed to run, but her legs locked in place as the nearest beast stepped into the moonlight. The silver glow revealed the shifting, oily sheen of its skin, the way it seemed to breathe with the darkness around it.

The beasts didn’t attack right away. They stood at the edge of the village square, their heads tilted unnaturally, as if scenting the air. And then—one by one—their gaze turned directly toward her.

Aeloria stumbled back. “They’re looking at me.”

“They can smell your magic,” Kaelen said, his voice tight. “And now that you’ve used it, they’ll never stop hunting you.”

One beast shrieked—a sound that was less like an animal’s cry and more like metal being torn apart. Then they charged.

Kaelen moved faster than she thought possible. He grabbed her by the arm, pulling her toward the doorway. “Go!”

She ran, the pounding of her heart matching the thunder of clawed feet on cobblestone. Villagers screamed, doors slammed, shutters banged closed as they sprinted past. But the beasts were faster. She could hear them gaining.

They cut across the lane toward the old well, hoping to lose them in the winding alleys. But one leapt, slamming into the ground in front of them. Its clawed arm swept out, catching Kaelen across the chest and throwing him back.

“Kaelen!”

He rolled to his feet with fluid grace, but something about him had changed. His silver eyes burned brighter—literally glowing now—and the air around him pulsed with energy. He raised his hand, and light erupted from his palm, blindingly bright, shaped like a crescent moon.

The blast struck the beast full in the chest, sending it skidding backward with an inhuman shriek. Smoke rose from where the light touched it, the darkness of its form unraveling.

Aeloria’s mouth went dry. “That—what was that?”

“Moon magic,” he said shortly, already moving again. “We don’t have time for questions.”

They darted down another lane, but the remaining beasts followed. One lunged, and Aeloria barely dodged, stumbling into Kaelen’s side. He caught her, pushing her ahead of him.

“Almost there,” he muttered, as if to himself.

“Almost where—”

A sudden light flared ahead—a column of pale silver, stretching from the cobblestones to the sky. It seemed to hum with a low, thrumming note that resonated in her bones.

The beasts faltered at its edge, hissing, their forms twitching like smoke caught in a wind.

Kaelen stepped into the light, pulling her with him. The moment her foot crossed into it, a strange warmth spread through her limbs, and her birthmark burned—not painfully, but insistently, as though it had been waiting for this moment.

The world shifted.

The village square melted away, replaced by an endless expanse of moonlit water. Above, the Blood Moon hung impossibly large, its reflection rippling across the waves. And in the center of it all stood a figure cloaked in white, their face hidden by a silver veil.

Aeloria’s breath caught. “Where—”

“You’ve been summoned,” the figure said, their voice echoing like a hundred whispers layered together. “Lunar Bondmate.”

The words reverberated in her mind, strange and yet somehow familiar, as though she’d heard them in a dream.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“It means,” the figure said, “that your fate is bound to his. Together, you may unite the Moon Kingdom and the Sun Empire. Or you may bring eternal darkness to both.”

Aeloria shook her head. “No—I’m just a healer. I don’t—”

“You carry the Moon’s mark,” the figure interrupted, their gaze flicking to her wrist. “And the Moon’s power. The choice will be yours, but the path will not be yours alone.”

Before she could speak again, the scene dissolved. The moonlit water vanished, the Blood Moon shrank back to its place in the sky, and she was standing in the village square again—inside the fading column of light.

The beasts were gone.

Kaelen’s eyes searched hers, his face unreadable. “You saw it too, didn’t you?”

She swallowed hard. “They called me… Lunar Bondmate.”

Something in his jaw tightened. “Then it’s true.”

“What’s true?”

“That you were never meant to stay in this village,” he said quietly. “And whether you like it or not, your life is tied to mine now.”

The words sent a shiver through her—not just from fear, but from something deeper, something she didn’t dare name.