Aurelio
The trees swallowed him.
Moonlight barely touched the forest floor as Aurelio sprinted through the thick underbrush behind the monastery. His senses were sharper now—more animal than man. Every footfall behind him, every broken twig, every shift in the wind—he felt it.
Someone had been here.
Someone who knew how to mask their scent.
But not from him.
He crouched near the base of the marked tree, running his fingers over the sigil carved into the bark. Fresh blood filled the grooves—warm, metallic, and not just human.
Ritual.
Whoever had done this wasn't just scouting.
They were inviting.
Luring.
His chest burned. The ring on his finger pulsed faintly with the same rhythm as his heartbeat.
And for the first time since the fire inside him woke, he didn't feel afraid of it.
He embraced it.
A sound broke the silence—wings. Then, a voice like stone dragged across glass.
"She doesn't belong to you, Santoro. She never did."
Aurelio turned, eyes glowing faintly amber.
"Then come take her."
---
Luna
The flame on her candle flared.
Luna blinked.
She wasn't scared. Not really.
But her chest felt tight. Like something inside her wanted out.
She heard her mother's voice in the hallway, Isabella's quieter, sharper. She didn't understand the words, only the tension.
She looked down at the floor.
A single, spiraling sigil appeared beneath her hands.
She hadn't drawn it.
She'd thought it.
It shimmered.
Then, the air changed. A low rumble vibrated the stone beneath her, soft at first, then deeper—like the earth was warning her.
Her eyes flicked toward the chapel door.
A shadow stood there.
Not Aurelio.
Not anyone she recognized.
It took one step forward—and hit an invisible barrier.
The sigil beneath her glowed white-hot.
The shadow hissed and vanished into smoke.
Luna didn't move.
She smiled.
"I can protect them too."
---
Raven
She stormed down the hallway, Isabella close behind.
"What else haven't you told me?" Raven demanded.
Isabella grabbed her arm. "That's not fair."
"Neither is finding out that Aurelio's mother wrote a damn prophecy about my daughter!"
"She didn't want to scare you."
"She succeeded anyway."
They reached the chapel doors and froze.
The floor was glowing.
Luna sat in the middle, calm. Confident. Unshaken.
Raven rushed forward. "Baby—what did you do?"
Luna looked up. "He tried to come in. The bad one. I made him stop."
Isabella paled. "How did you—"
"She thought it," Raven whispered. "Just like the candle. She's not casting spells. She's creating them."
From nothing.
From instinct.
From inheritance.
---
Aurelio
The figure was gone when he returned. But the message was carved into his mind.
"They never wanted Luna dead," he told Raven later, once Luna was asleep again. "They want her power. Her blood. Her mind."
"And if they get it?" she asked.
His jaw tightened. "Then they'll open something they can't close."
He looked down at his hand. The ring glowed faintly.
"But now they'll have to go through me."