The cold air of the Blackmoon night seeped through the stones of the Hold, but Elara no longer felt it. She stood frozen before the mirror, her breath fogging the surface. Kaelen's face—his voice—lingered in the room like smoke after a fire.
"Before you loved him, you loved me."
The words weren't just an echo—they were an invocation, a memory unearthed from the deepest vaults of her soul. And worse, something inside her had recognized them.
Not as threat.
But as truth.
She gripped the edge of the basin beside her, knuckles white. "Why do I remember you?"
A knock shattered the silence.
"Elara?" Aiden's voice. Warm. Steady. Alive.
She tore herself away from the mirror. "Come in."
The door creaked open and Aiden stepped in, a hint of concern clouding his strong features. "You didn't answer your bond call."
"I was—" She hesitated. "I saw him."
His jaw tensed. "Kaelen?"
"In the mirror. Not just his reflection—he spoke. He... reminded me of something I didn't know I'd forgotten."
Aiden came closer, eyes narrowing. "The soul-marked are vulnerable to psychic touch when their bond is unstable. He's reaching through the remnants of whatever connection you once had."
Elara's heart thudded. "You're saying we were once bonded?"
He didn't speak immediately.
"Before I was chosen as the Oracle... before I came here… I was someone else, wasn't I?"
Aiden nodded slowly. "You were Elara... but you weren't only her."
He walked to the window and stared out into the blood-streaked night.
"You were born during the Eclipse Cycle. Marked by prophecy. Your soul was split in two, bound to two fates. One path brought you here—to me, to Blackmoon. The other... belonged to Kaelen."
Hours later, Elara sat in the Heartspire, the sacred chamber where the Moon Priests conducted their ancient rites. High Priestess Rylin stood before her, white hair braided in the traditional pattern of the Oracle's Keeper.
"You must know the truth," Rylin said, placing a hand over Elara's heart. "Not all Oaths are forged in this life."
Elara frowned. "You mean I knew Kaelen before?"
Rylin nodded. "In a life long past. When the world was younger, and the war of light and shadow had only just begun."
With a wave of her hand, Rylin summoned a vision into the pool at their feet.
Elara saw a battlefield drenched in silver and crimson. Two armies clashing under twin moons. At the center stood a younger version of herself—cloaked in moonlight—facing a warrior with Kaelen's face. Only his eyes were different. They weren't filled with rage then.
They were filled with love.
And despair.
"I failed you," the vision-Kaelen whispered.
"You chose the dark," vision-Elara said, tears falling. "You broke the Oath."
"I broke it... to save you."
The vision shattered.
Elara fell to her knees, gasping.
"What was that?"
Rylin's voice was solemn. "Your past."
In the shadowed wilds beyond Blackmoon, Kaelen stared into a ceremonial fire, the flames dancing with images of Elara's current vision. He could see her, feel the pain coursing through her veins as she remembered fragments of their bond.
Selene stood behind him, her fingers brushing his temple, feeding the fire with starlight blood.
"She remembers you now," she said. "The pain will make her vulnerable. The cracks are forming."
Kaelen's eyes flared.
"Good."
"But she is not yet yours," Selene warned. "She must choose willingly. The Oath cannot be stolen. Only claimed."
"She will choose me," Kaelen said. "She has to."
Selene turned to him, her voice like silk dipped in venom. "And if she doesn't?"
Kaelen's fists clenched. "Then I'll burn every pack to the ground... and rebuild her from the ashes."
Back in the Hold, Aiden had gathered his most trusted warriors—Kellen, Suri, and Jorick—within the war room.
"The Betrayer's proximity means we have days, maybe less," Aiden said, pointing at a map of the Northern borderlands. "He'll come through the Obsidian Vale. That's where the bloodlines fray the weakest."
"We could seal the Vale," Jorick suggested.
"No," Suri countered. "That would trap Elara's energy inside. He'll just use the link to bleed her dry."
Aiden nodded grimly. "Then we meet him there. We strike first. No more waiting."
Kellen glanced up. "And Elara?"
"She stays behind," Aiden said firmly. "This is not her fight."
But the door to the chamber slammed open.
"It is my fight," Elara said, stepping inside with her silver eyes ablaze.
"You're the Oracle," Aiden snapped. "Your life is sacred."
"I'm not just the Oracle," she growled. "I'm the key to this war. He's coming for me. Keeping me out of the battle doesn't protect me—it strengthens him."
A tense silence followed.
Then Aiden gave a slow nod.
"Then we go together."
The march toward the Vale was swift and brutal.
Snow blanketed the terrain as Blackmoon warriors cloaked in enchanted armor moved like shadows across the ridgeline. Elara rode with Aiden at the front, her senses sharpened, her power flaring with each mile.
The closer they got, the more memories bled through.
Flashes of laughter with Kaelen under a starlit canopy.
Whispers exchanged beneath sacred oaths.
A kiss that burned like a promise.
And then... betrayal.
Not his.
Hers.
"I left him," she whispered.
Aiden looked at her. "What?"
"I abandoned him. When the elders offered me ascension to the Oracle, I accepted... and I chose the light."
Aiden said nothing, but his silence echoed loudly.
"And he," Elara added, "chose to fall."
They reached the Obsidian Vale at dusk.
A rift split the earth where ley lines clashed—pulsing with unstable power. The air stank of ozone and shadow. The sky wept black snow.
Kaelen waited at the center, robed in black, runes glowing along his arms. Around him, shadow-wolves—creatures of his own making—snarled and paced.
He looked up as Elara approached.
"Finally," he said, voice like thunder. "You've come home."
She stepped forward. "This is not my home."
His smile cracked like ice. "It was. Before you forgot."
"I didn't forget. I was reborn."
"You were rewritten," Kaelen snapped, advancing. "Your heart was erased. But your soul remembers me. It remembers us."
Aiden stepped between them, claws out. "You'll get no further."
Kaelen glanced at him, amused. "Always the protector."
Then, to Elara, "And yet... even he cannot protect you from yourself."