Moonlit Vows Of Vengeance

Its face—if you could call it that—was a hollow skull, and inside the sockets glimmered two faint blue flames.

A dead thing pretending to be alive.

The giant took a single step forward, and the ground shuddered beneath its weight. Trees in its path cracked like matchsticks. Birds fled the canopy in screaming flocks.

"What the hell is that?" I breathed.

Lucas didn’t take his eyes off it. "It’s one of the Forgotten."

I swallowed hard. "Forgotten?"

"Creatures the king told me he used and discarded during his old wars. Half-spell, half-flesh, kept alive only by blood and hatred. I thought they would have been all destroyed."

The Forgotten raised one grotesque hand—and in its grip hung the broken body of another beast, one of the ones we’d fought before. As if to prove its dominance, it snapped the creature’s body like twigs, dropping the remains with a sickening thud.

"Run?" I whispered.

Lucas gripped his sword tighter. "I don’t think it’ll let us run just like that."

Before I could protest, the Forgotten moved, shockingly fast for its size. It charged, the earth trembling under every thunderous step.

I barely dodged the first strike, the impact sending shards of rock slicing through the air. Lucas rolled to the side, already closing the distance toward its exposed legs. With a yell, he drove his sword deep into the sinew and bone at the creature’s knee. Black ichor oozed out, hissing as it struck the ground, the stench thick and metallic.

The Forgotten howled—a deep, reverberating scream of something ancient and furious.

It swung again, this time catching Lucas with a glancing blow that sent him flying backward into a jagged outcrop of stone. He hit hard, the crack of bone making my stomach twist, but he gritted his teeth and pushed himself up.

But the Forgotten wasn’t done. Its hollow eyes locked on me next.

A surge of old panic welled up. My wolf fought inside me—let me out—but the block was still there, the magic of this cursed place holding me hostage inside my own body.

I screamed in frustration. I was tired of feeling weak.

And then—

"Athena!" Lucas’s voice, sharp and commanding. "Try to see if you can shift now."

"I can’t!"

"Yes, you can." The forgotten lunged toward me. Its massive hand reached for my body like it was going to tear me in two.

I closed my eyes. Not fighting—feeling. Letting it come instead of forcing it. Breathing past the block, into the wild, ancient thing inside me that belonged to me—not to this realm. Not to the king. Mine.

And then—

A snap of power, sharp and violent. The world split open around me as I shifted.

But this time... it was different.

My wolf wasn’t just sleek and black—it shimmered, edged with streaks of silver that glimmered faintly with an otherworldly sheen. My senses exploded outward. Every crack of rock, every heartbeat of the Forgotten, even the rise and fall of Lucas’s breath behind me—I could feel it all.

I leapt.

The Forgotten was fast—but I was faster now.

I collided with its outstretched hand, tearing through rotted flesh and enchanted bone. My claws glowed faintly with that strange new light, and where I struck, the Forgotten’s body screamed, pieces of ancient magic unraveling under my touch.

It tried to shake me off, but I dug in, biting hard into the exposed joint of its shoulder. The creature shrieked again, staggering back, black blood spraying.

Lucas was up by then, running, limping slightly, but his sword high. He moved in tandem with me—like we’d been fighting together forever.

Strike. Dodge. Bite. Slash.

Together.

At last, the Forgotten gave one final, howling roar and collapsed forward, shattering boulders as its corpse hit the earth. Its glowing blue eyes flickered once... twice... then extinguished.

Silence, except for the sound of my ragged breathing and Lucas’s staggered steps toward me.

I shifted back, gasping, exhaustion making my knees buckle. Lucas caught me before I hit the ground, arms strong and warm despite the tremor in his hands.

I looked up at him. "I—I did it."

"You did more than that," he murmured, awe flickering in his gaze. "Your wolf..."

My mind was spinning. "What?"

He swallowed, brushing sweat-soaked hair from my forehead. "You’re—changing.

Whatever happened when you crossed that portal—it’s giving you something new. Something powerful. I can’t explain much but you have something the king really wants."

Ice flooded my stomach. "Is that why you told me to leave before?"

Lucas hesitated. "That’s part of it."

"You said you did this to save someone. Who?"

His jaw tightened. "I told you... someone who means everything to me."

Something cracked in my chest. I didn’t know why that hurt more than anything else we’d just faced.

I pulled back slightly. "So why lie? Why pretend not to know me?"

"To protect you," he said, voice low. "From them. From me. From everything that’s coming."

"I don’t care," I whispered. "I’m not leaving. I’m not running."

His hands framed my face now, eyes fierce and searching. "Athena—" freewebnoveℓ.com

"I’m staying. With you. Until the end."

We stood in the ruins of the battle, surrounded by fallen beasts and the stench of ancient magic, and all I could feel was the thunder of my heart and the unbearable weight of everything unsaid between us.

And somehow... that was more terrifying than the Forgotten.

"Then we face this together," he finally said, resting his forehead against mine. "Even if it kills us."

We finally reached the outer edge of the Eastern Mountains, their jagged peaks cutting sharply into the dull grey sky. The path narrowed, winding upwards into dense, dark clouds like a warning from the gods themselves.

Everything in me felt strained—my muscles, my mind, my heart—but still I kept walking. For what choice did I have?

Lucas walked ahead of me, silent, focused, as though fighting some battle inside himself that I wasn’t allowed to see.

And then we saw it.

A valley stretched before us like something out of a dream, green and lush, sunlight streaming in golden ribbons between the mountaintops. Flowers bloomed wild and impossibly bright, their colors too vivid to be real. A sweet scent filled the air, intoxicating, almost dizzying.

"This is it," Lucas murmured.

"What is that?," I whispered.