The night air hung heavy over the Hollow, thick with magic and dread. The moon had risen, but it wasn't the serene white disk Ember had grown up watching. Tonight, it bled crimson across the sky, veiled in black mist that swirled like smoke around its edges. A cursed moon rare, dreaded, and steeped in dark prophecy.
Ember stood barefoot on the moss-covered cliff just beyond the Hollow's wards, eyes fixed on the ominous glow. Her breath came out in sharp puffs, each one clouding the air as if the world were holding its breath alongside her.
"Don't look directly at it too long," Maerin warned, stepping beside her. "A cursed moon doesn't just light the sky, it looks back."
Ember tore her gaze away, rubbing her arms as her skin prickled.
"What does it mean?" she asked.
Maerin's tone darkened. "It means fate is twisting."
The cursed moon hadn't risen in over a century, not since the Night of the Severed Bonds when dozens of mated pairs were torn apart by madness and betrayal, their wolves driven to kill the very ones they once loved. It marked a time when the mate bond failed, shattered by the corruption of blood and magic.
And now, it has returned.
Ember could feel it the way her fire wouldn't settle, the way the ground beneath her seemed to hum with unease. And something inside her was shifting. Changing.
When she looked at her hands, she saw flickers of silver now lacing the usual orange of her flame. It wasn't just her magic evolving. It was being… altered.
"You're being marked," Maerin said quietly, her gaze falling to Ember's glowing palms. "The cursed moon has chosen you."
"Choose me? For what?" Ember demanded, heart racing.
"To either break the chain of cursed bonds… or become the reason they shatter again."
Later that night, Ember sat alone in her room, staring at the scars on her wrist. They had once pulsed with warmth Kael's mark, the flamebound symbol of their bond, forged through fire and love. But tonight, it burned cold.
Ronan knocked once before entering. His usually calm demeanor was laced with worry.
"I saw it," he said, pulling up a chair. "The cursed moon."
Ember nodded, unable to speak.
He sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Do you feel it too? That pull? Like your magic is being… rewired?"
"Yes," she said. "And it's not just my fire. It's the bond. The part of me tied to my parents it's unraveling."
Ronan stiffened. "You think it's breaking?"
"No. Not breaking. Being… overwritten."
As soon as she said it, she felt it in her bones, truth humming beneath her skin. The cursed moon wasn't just tainting the sky. It was rewriting the very laws of the mate bond. And Ember, born of two bonded Alphas, was its perfect target.
"Maerin says I'm being marked," she whispered. "That this is a test of fate. But it doesn't feel like a test. It feels like a curse."
Ronan stood abruptly and paced. "Then we break it."
Ember looked up. "You can't break a curse you don't understand."
"Then we find someone who does."
The next morning, Ember, Ronan, and Maerin ventured beyond the Hollow and into the Forgotten Glade, a place avoided even by wolves. It was said that time slept there, and that the stones whispered the secrets of the old world. Only one being remained there: Selene's Mirror.
A spirit-witch of the old bloodlines. A seer, cursed to see only what the moon revealed and nothing more.
The Glade was veiled in thick mist, and the moment Ember stepped onto the ancient soil, her fire dimmed. It was as if the land itself demanded stillness. Silence.
Then came a voice. Echoing. Hollow.
"You come marked… with both flame and shadow."
Selene's Mirror appeared from behind a silver-barked tree, her form semi-transparent, skin etched with glowing runes. Her eyes were white, no irises, and yet they saw everything.
"You seek to break what was written beneath the moon," she said.
"I seek to understand what's happening to me," Ember said. "The cursed moon, why is it changing me?"
The spirit tilted her head. "Because you were born of prophecy. A union the old world feared."
Ember's stomach twisted.
"The child of two Flamebonded Alphas bears more than legacy," Selene continued. "She bears the seed of a new bond. A third path. One the cursed moon seeks to bend or destroy."
Ronan stepped forward. "What does that mean? Is she in danger?"
"She is the danger," the witch replied, gaze never shifting. "Should she fall in love under the cursed moon, the mate bond will not bind it will consume."
Ember's breath caught.
"Consume… how?"
"Like a fire starved too long. It will devour both mates, body and soul."
The journey back to the Hollow was silent. Ember was locked in her thoughts, her mind spinning.
What kind of future was that? To fear falling in love, knowing it could burn everything down?
She thought of how her parents had fought so hard for their bond. How love had been their weapon and their salvation.
Was she now destined to destroy the very thing they had protected?
That night, she stood once again on the watchtower, the cursed moon high above her.
She whispered into the wind:
"If my heart is a flame… why does love feel like a matchstick waiting to burn me alive?"
A shadow moved behind her. Ronan.
"Even if the moon tries to curse you," he said quietly, "you still choose who you burn for."
She didn't reply, but the fire in her chest flickered in response.
She was no longer just the heir of the Flamebound Moon.
She was the match and the wildfire.
---
As the cursed moon's pull grows stronger, can Ember resist the awakening of a new bond… or will her destiny consume her before she understands who she truly is meant to become?