Reign of the Forsaken Moon - Chapter 28: Chapter 28

The days following Lucien’s return passed like ripples across a still lake—subtle but unrelenting.
Though Windrest Keep bustled with repairs, council gatherings, and distant trade negotiations, the air inside the stone walls had changed. A breath caught in the throat of the kingdom, a tension that stretched across every corridor. Even the moon, full and bright above, cast shadows sharper than before.
The whisper of prophecy and ruin hung in the silence.
The Pulse of Secrets
Seraphina hadn’t slept in two nights. Her dreams were no longer dreams but fragments—shattered mirrors of her past and flickers of a future soaked in blood and ash.
Lucien’s presence stirred something deep inside her—not merely longing or anger, but a dangerous curiosity.
She sat alone in the war chamber, obsidian shard pulsing softly on the long table beside her. The runes carved into its surface gleamed with an oily shimmer, as though reacting to her energy—or his.
Mira entered, holding a weathered tome cradled like a newborn. Its cover was blackened, cracked, and sealed with ancient wax.
“I found this buried under the third level of the eastern archives,” Mira said. “The Virethorn sigil matches the one burned into Lucien’s aura.”
Seraphina gently broke the seal and opened to the first page.
> "Of the Virethorn Line, Forgotten and Forsaken:
Bound to shadow, their blood is oath and vessel.
The Unnamed waits in their marrow.”
A chill slid down her spine.
“The Unnamed,” she whispered.
Mira nodded gravely. “Not a god. Not a demon. Something… older.”
Beneath the Ivy Veil
Seraphina found Lucien that evening in the moon garden, beneath the same crimson ivy she once braided into her daughter Liora’s hair.
He stood silent, watching the moonlight bleed through the twisted leaves. His aura radiated calm, but the kind that came before a storm.
“You carry a curse,” she said as she approached.
Lucien didn’t turn. “I carry a legacy.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would you have listened?”
She crossed her arms. “I’m listening now.”
He looked over his shoulder, eyes silver and haunting. “When I died… I fell through more than just death. The Virethorn soul is marked. Not even the Veil would take me. It… redirected me. To the Gate.”
“The Obsidian Gate?”
He nodded. “It’s real, Sera. Not myth. Not legend. It speaks. And when it does, it speaks your name.”
Seraphina felt the shard in her pocket grow hot.
A Dangerous Truth
Lucien stepped toward her, slowly. “When you died… your bloodline fractured the seal. The Gate saw you as the Luna reborn. It marked you.”
Seraphina narrowed her eyes. “You came to warn me. Or control me?”
Lucien’s lips twitched into something between a smirk and a grimace. “Both. I was drawn to you because the Unnamed wants you. But I came because I—”
He stopped. Jaw tight. Voice low.
“—because I needed to see if the woman I loved could survive a second death.”
Seraphina’s breath caught.
“You think I’ll die again?” she whispered.
“If you open the Gate, yes. If you don’t, it may kill everything else.”
He reached into his coat and pulled another shard—larger, jagged, the runes glowing blood-red.
“This was torn from the lock of the Gate. The moment you were reborn… it cracked.”
Seraphina took it. It was warm. Alive.
“You’re bound to it,” she murmured.
“I am,” Lucien said. “But not by choice. I died trying to stop it.”
The Unseen Threat
Unbeknownst to them, from the high tower above, Darian watched through the enchanted scrying glass Kael had embedded into the wall.
He saw Lucien’s eyes. Saw the moment Seraphina’s hand brushed his.
And he saw something else—something Lucien did not know was visible: the faint, cursed runes curling up Lucien’s arm like black vines, pulsing with the same energy found near Windrest’s failing wards.
Darian stepped back from the mirror, fists clenched. “He’s the key,” he whispered. “And he doesn’t even know what he’s opening.”
Of Love and Fire
Later that night, Seraphina stood at her balcony, both shards in hand.
The red one buzzed like a wasp in her palm. The black one was silent, but heavy.
Behind her, the wind stirred. She sensed Darian’s presence even before he spoke.
“You trust him?”
“I don’t know what I trust anymore,” she answered softly.
Darian’s jaw tightened. “Then let me be the one thing you can.”
She turned. “This isn’t about Lucien. Or you. It’s about the Gate. The kingdom.”
Darian stepped forward, voice hoarse. “But it is about me. About us. Because if he takes you down with him, I’ll never forgive myself.”
She reached up, fingers brushing his chest. “Then stay beside me. Not in shadow. Not behind me. But with me.”
He closed his eyes, forehead touching hers. “Always.”