The mountain still trembled beneath their feet as Elara and Kael emerged from the temple's inner chamber, the Moonblade strapped across her back, glowing faintly with silvery light. The bond between them pulsed like a heartbeat—stronger now, more vivid—as if the blade had tethered them together even more tightly.
But something else had changed, too.
"Elara," Kael said softly, watching her from the corner of his eye as they descended the winding path, "your eyes… they've stayed silver."
She touched her cheek, then the mark on her collarbone. "I feel different. Like something inside me unlocked."
"You're not just a Moonmate anymore," he said. "You're becoming the Moonborn."
A sharp wind howled through the mountains, carrying voices—not human, not wolf. Ancient. Restless. Elara stopped mid-step. She heard them too.
Whispers. Names. Faces she didn't know but somehow remembered.
Suddenly, the sky above the ridge shimmered. A beam of moonlight split the clouds, shining directly onto a nearby plateau. There, a circle of runes glowed, and within it, ghostly figures began to form.
Kael drew his blade instinctively. "Spirits?"
"No," Elara whispered. "My ancestors."
The ghostly figures were robed, their forms flickering like candlelight. A woman stepped forward—tall, with silver braids and fierce eyes so much like Elara's that Kael instinctively took a step closer to her.
"Elara of the Moonblood," the spirit intoned. "You carry our legacy. The blade you now bear was once wielded by the first of our line."
Elara swallowed. "Why now? Why reveal yourselves?"
"Because you have awakened us," the woman said. "And because your enemy has awakened himself. Vael has begun the Rite of Eclipse. He means to sever the Moonmate bond from the world… forever."
Kael's fists clenched.
"What do we do?" Elara asked.
"You must unite the lost bloodlines," the spirit said. "Only together can you face what is coming. Seek the Packs of the East and the Keepers of Nightshade. Find the Bloodborn."
"And if they refuse?" Kael asked.
"Then remind them who you are," the spirit replied, fading. "You are not just the Moonmate… You are the Alpha of Light."
And with that, the ancestors vanished—leaving Elara breathless and trembling with the truth now heavy in her chest.
She looked to Kael.
"I'm not the girl who ran from the woods that night."
"No," he said, eyes blazing.
"You're the one they'll never outrun again."