The night did not arrive gently.
It broke.
Clouds tore across the sky like shredded flesh, swallowing the moon in a sickening veil of crimson and ash. The ruins around us groaned as if the land itself recognized what was coming and wished to flee. Wind screamed through collapsed pillars and shattered stone, carrying with it the stench of blood, old magic, and something far worse.
I stood at the center of it all, blades drawn, heart pounding violently against my ribs.
And Luna
She was on her knees.
Her fingers dug into the dirt as if the ground were the only thing keeping her upright. The mark on her chest burned like a living wound, crimson lines crawling across her skin, pulsing with a rhythm that did not belong to her heart.
Every pulse echoed inside me.
The curse beneath my skin responded instantly, writhing like a caged beast sensing its master. Pain bloomed in my veins, sharp and familiar. I clenched my jaw, forcing it down.
"Luna," I whispered, stepping toward her.
She flinched.
"Don't," she said weakly. "Please… don't come closer."
That single word hurt more than any wound I had ever suffered.
The air thickened suddenly, pressing against my lungs. Shadows around us stretched unnaturally, crawling up broken walls and across the ground like hungry hands. The ruins were no longer empty.r
We were being watched.
I scanned the darkness, every instinct screaming.
"He's here," I said quietly.
Luna swallowed hard. "I know."
Her voice trembled, but her eyes gods, her eyes burned with stubborn defiance even as pain ravaged her body. She tried to stand and failed, collapsing back onto her hands with a sharp cry as the mark flared violently.
I moved without thinking, dropping to one knee beside her.
"I've got you," I said, slipping an arm around her shoulders.
The moment I touched her, the mark exploded with heat.
Agony ripped through both of us.
I gasped, my vision blurring as the curse surged wildly, reacting to her pain. Luna screamed, clutching at her chest as crimson light spilled through her fingers.
I pulled away instantly.
"I'm sorry," I rasped. "I didn't"
She shook her head. "It's not you. It's… him."
The ground trembled.
Not violently.
Deliberately.
Footsteps echoed through the ruins slow, heavy, unhurried. Each step felt like a countdown.
Then the shadows split apart.
He stepped forward as if emerging from the darkness itself.
Mark.
The man looked exactly as he did in my nightmares.
Tall and unnaturally thin, clad in blackened armor etched with ancient runes that pulsed faintly with shadow. A long cloak flowed behind him like living smoke. His face was hidden behind a cracked bone-white mask, hollow eye sockets glowing with a dull, malevolent red.
The man who murdered my mother.
The man who condemned me to twenty years of isolation.
The man who marked Luna as his prize.
"Well," Mark said calmly, his voice echoing as though spoken by the ruins themselves. "What a touching reunion."
Rage flooded me so violently I nearly blacked out.
I rose slowly, positioning myself between him and Luna, blades lifted.
"You don't get to stand anywhere near her," I growled.
Mark tilted his head slightly, studying me like an insect pinned to a board.
"You survived," he said. "I admit, I didn't expect that."
"Disappointed?" I asked.
He laughed softly. "Amused."
His gaze slid past me, locking onto Luna.
"And fascinated."
Luna stiffened behind me.
"The mark suits her," Mark continued. "It awakens beautifully. Even faster than I hoped."
"You're not touching her," I said, my grip tightening around my blades.
"Oh, I already have."
The mark flared again.
Luna cried out, collapsing forward. I barely caught her before she hit the ground, her body trembling violently.
Something inside me snapped.
I moved.
The world blurred as I lunged forward, blades slicing through the air in a deadly cross aimed straight for Mark's throat.
He vanished.
Pain exploded across my side as a force slammed into me, hurling my body through a half-collapsed wall. Stone shattered, dust choking my lungs as I hit the ground hard enough to crack the earth beneath me.
My vision swam.
Blood filled my mouth.
Still alive.
Barely.
Mark appeared above me, standing effortlessly amid the destruction.
"You've grown stronger," he said thoughtfully. "But strength without control is meaningless."
He raised his hand.
A pressure like crushing iron closed around my chest, pinning me to the ground. My blades slipped from my fingers, clattering uselessly beside me.
I couldn't breathe.
"Arin!" Luna screamed.
Her voice cut through the haze.
Mark turned toward her.
"And there she is."
"Don't touch him!" Luna cried, dragging herself forward despite the pain tearing through her body.
The mark blazed brighter, the crimson light bathing the ruins in blood-red glow.
Mark smiled.
"Yes," he whispered. "That power… it sings."
The pressure on my chest vanished as Mark stepped away from me, drawn toward Luna like a moth to flame.
"No," I croaked, forcing myself up. "You don't get her."
I staggered forward, every step agony.
Luna stood shakily now, her eyes glowing faintly red as the mark fed her something ancient and terrifying. She looked fragile and powerful all at once, like a blade forged from glass and fire.
Mark reached out.
She screamed.
Not in fear.
In rage.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
The mark erupted.
A shockwave of raw energy blasted outward, slamming into Mark with enough force to send him skidding across the stone. The ground cracked violently beneath him.
Silence fell.
I stared at Luna in stunned disbelief.
She stood there, trembling, breath ragged, eyes burning with defiance.
Mark laughed as he rose slowly to his feet.
"Magnificent," he breathed. "You see? She's awakening."
"You're not using her," I snarled, stepping forward to stand beside her. "Not ever."
Mark's gaze hardened.
"Then you'll die first."
He moved.
The clash was catastrophic.
Steel met shadow in an explosion of sparks and darkness. My blades screamed as they struck his gauntlets, each impact rattling my bones. He countered with brutal precision, his strikes calculated, merciless.
I blocked, dodged, struck back.
Pain became irrelevant.
Blood soaked my arms, my sides, my hands but I didn't know whose it was anymore.
Behind us, Luna cried out again as the mark surged violently, power ripping through her veins like wildfire. Each pulse fed Mark, strengthening him even as it destroyed her.
"You're draining her," I shouted, parrying a killing blow.
"Yes," Mark replied calmly. "That's what she exists for."
Something broke inside me.
The curse unleashed.
Black veins erupted across my arms, crawling up my neck as shadowfire ignited along my blades. My vision darkened, the world sharpening into deadly clarity.
Mark hesitated for the first time.
"Ah," he said. "There it is."
I attacked with everything I had.
The ruins trembled under the force of our clash. Each strike I landed shattered pieces of his armor, shadow bleeding from the cracks. He staggered back under the relentless assault.
"You should have killed me," I snarled. "When you had the chance."
Mark smiled behind his mask.
"So should you."
He slammed his palm into my chest.
Agony unlike anything I had ever known tore through me. I screamed as my body crashed to the ground, the curse recoiling violently inside me.
I couldn't move.
I couldn't breathe.
Luna screamed my name.
I forced my eyes open just in time to see Mark turning toward her.
"No"
Too slow.
He reached for her.
Luna moved first.
She threw herself between us, arms spread wide.
"STOP!"
The mark burned blindingly bright.
"I won't let you hurt him," she said, her voice shaking but unyielding. "I won't let you take anything else from us."
Mark froze.
"You would die for him?" he asked softly.
"Yes," Luna said without hesitation.
The word shattered something deep inside me.
I dragged myself forward, ignoring the pain tearing me apart.
"Don't," I whispered. "Please."
She turned to me then, tears streaming down her face.
"I love you," she said.
The world broke.
The mark detonated in a storm of light, blood, and shadow. The explosion ripped through the ruins, obliterating stone and sky alike.
I reached for Luna
Darkness swallowed everything.
I woke to silence.
Ash drifted down like snow.
My body screamed in pain as I forced myself upright, panic flooding my chest.
"Luna!"
She lay a short distance away, unconscious but breathing. The mark had faded into a faint scar.
Alive.
Relief crushed me to my knees.
Mark was gone.
But I knew deep in my bones this war had only begun.
I pulled Luna into my arms, pressing my forehead to hers.
"I won't lose you," I vowed. "Not to him. Not to fate. Not to the gods themselves."
The blades hummed softly beside me.
And somewhere in the shadows
The enemy waited.