Chapter 3. The Silver Curse
1169 Words
✦Cold Bones and Flickering Firelight
Aria woke to the sound of cracking wood.
Her body was heavy, joints were stiff like stone. Pain under her skin. Every breath she took was painful, and her lips were dry, they we’re breaking.
She tried to lift her head. Her shoulder aches. Her back hurting bad. The last thing she remembered was falling under the weight of shame, bruises marks, and exile to the woods. Her vision had gone black as the cold messed with her bad.
But now, warmth.
A fire.
Rough and unsmooth blankets were tucked around her. The scent of smoke and dried herbs and leafs drifted in the air.
✦ The Hollow Between Realms
Aria shook again later that night, half-asleep, half-dreaming. But something felt… off. Just off.
The fire had dimmed, yet the moonlight above casting a strange silver glow through the open cracks in the ceiling. For a second, she thought she saw shadows moving along the walls but they weren’t her own shadow. They sparkled with horns, wings, and cloaks made of radiance. They moved in rhythm with her breath.
She blinked.
Gone.
In their place, the room held a strange weight. Like she was between two different worlds, the waking and the unseen.
She sat up slowly, her bones groaning, walking barefoot across the stone floor. Her hand reached for the bowl of water beside the fire and stared at her reflection in it.
But it wasn’t her.
The face in the water glitter.
Her hair longer.
Her eyes silver and bright.
And on her forehead… the faint glow of a curved shape moon.
She gasped and dropped the bowl, the water spilling over the stones.
From the other side of the hut, the old man moved but didn’t speak.
He saw it too.
But said nothing.
✦ You Bleed Silver
The fire burning between them as silence continued.
Then she noticed something strange.
Hanging over the fireplace was a single pile of moonflower glowing lightly in white, like a breath. Her eyes locked on it looking, something deep in her chest around.
He followed her gazing stare. “Ah. You recognize it.”
She blinked.
“That’s moonflower,” she whispered.
He smiled. “You’ve seen it before?”
She shook her head. “Only in stories. Priestesses used it…a very long time ago. It’s sacred.”
He leaned closer to her.
“You’ve got it in you, don’t you?”
She froze and looked very confused.
“What?”
“You bleed silver.”
Aria’s breath caught in her throat and chest.
“What did you say?”
“I’ve seen one before,” he said, his eyes weren’t readable. “A girl like you. Long ago. Her eyes glowed and shining like stars. Her wolf burned with fire. She was the last Moonblood Queen.”
Aria’s chest rose so fast and fell too quickly.
“That’s just a myth.”
He smiled quietly.
“So are talking wolves. And yet, here you are.”
✦ The Dream That Burned
That night, she couldn’t sleep.
She curled herself up near the fire on a bed of thick furs, but her thoughts wouldn’t rest throughout.
She kept hearing his words repeatedly. You bleed silver.
She didn’t and doesn’t know what that meant. Not really. But deep down, her wolf did. It arose every time she thought of it. It shook the inside of her chest as if trying to remind her of something long forgotten.
And when she finally slept, it wasn’t peaceful.
She dreamed of fire.
A throne of silver bones.
A crown circles above her head, made of moonlight and wolf fangs.
She was standing tall, cloaked in white flame. And beneath and under her… was Kael.
On his knees.
Bleeding from his chest, looking up at her with golden eyes filled with guilt, shock and surprise.
“You could’ve saved me,” he said.
She stepped all over his body without saying a word.
✦ The Elder’s Warning
She woke up at dawn, shaking.
The old man who still hadn’t told her his name or much about himself handed her a bowl of bitter broth and pointed toward the east.
“If you stay here too long, they’ll come looking for you.”
“Let them,” she said.
He gave a hard smile.
“You’re not ready for that. Not yet. But you will be sooner than you think.”
Aria looked at him, searching into his face. “Why are you helping me?”
“Because the last time I saw a girl with your bloodline, I failed her. I won’t fail again given another opportunity.”
She tightened her fists.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Train. Heal. And when the time comes, you’ll rise.”
He turned away, leaving her to her thoughts.
But in her chest and mind, something shifted.
Not just pain now.
Not just shame.
But power.
Like hot fire under skin -waiting for air.
✦ Awakening the Flame
Aria stepped out of the hut that morning, barefoot, into the frostbitten clearing behind the stone walls. The wind touched her skin differently now like it recognized her.
The air shined faintly as she moved around. Not with magic, not with the heat, but with something much older like a memory. The ground pushed lightly beneath her toes, and though it’s not sun rise yet, the sky above her seemed like silver.
She closed her eyes and breathed in.
Suddenly, her body doesn’t seem like hers anymore.
She felt her wolf pushed forward, but not to take control because this wasn’t a shift. It was a merging. For the first time, Aria wasn’t split between two selves. She was now whole. And in that wholeness, she felt fire rose beneath her skin. Not flames to burn, but flames to mark.
Something deeper arose in the soil under her. A whisper. No words but just a pull.
She knelt down, placing her palm flat against the earth. And the moment her skin touched the cold ground, a flicker of light shined through the snow. Brief, glowing ray of energy pushed outward like cracks in a shell, spreading around until they formed a loose circle around her feet.
Behind her, she heard Theron’s voice for the first time sounding so uncertain.
“That… wasn’t supposed to happen yet.”
She turned to look at him slowly.
“What was that?” she asked.
He didn’t answer right away. The old man’s face was pale, his jaw tight.
“That was the land remembering who you are,” he finally said.
Aria blinked. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” he said, stepping closer, “the Moonblood line is waking up now. Through you.”
She looked back at the earth. The light had already faded in, like it had never been there at all.
But deep inside her chest, it hadn’t faded. It had rooted.
Planted.
Waiting to bloom.
- Writer
