Page 116 of Moonlit Fate

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ARIA

Istepped quietly through the damp underbrush, wary of disturbing the scene before me. Seren stood in the middle of the small clearing, her tongue sticking out slightly—a telltale sign of her intense focus. Her hands moved through the air with elegant grace, as if conducting an orchestra. Instead of musicians, spirits circled her, their ghostly forms shimmering and wavering with each sweep of her arms.

“Amazing,” I whispered, even as a sharp pang of jealousy speared into me. I pushed it away. It wasn’t Seren’s fault that the magic came to her as easily as breathing.

The forest hummed with an energy that echoed the ghosts’ movements. A bolt of lightning zigzagged across the sky, illuminating the clearing for a split second before thunder rumbled in its wake.

Seren continued uninterrupted, the interplay of light and shadow highlighting her beauty. Though the words were unintelligible, the melodic chant held the spirits spellbound. What was she trying to do? Was she trying to return them to their realm?

“Please let this work,” I murmured. It was a plea to the ancestors, to the spirits, to anyone who’d listen. “We need them back where they belong. We need to fix this.”

A distant roll of thunder seemed to answer my prayer. Seren stood firm, her voice clear and steady as she recited incantations. One spirit, more solid than the rest, approached Seren, its ethereal hand reaching toward her outstretched palm. They connected, palm to palm, and a visible shudder ran through them both.

More people needed to see this, to see Seren embrace her magic. Many pack members had come forward, eager to understand the abilities they had hidden for so long. After the ritual, their abilities had grown stronger, and others had gained magic as well. I was leading the Silver Claw pack in a new direction where, unlike before, shifters would feel safe and accepted, unafraid to embrace these magical abilities. The deeply ingrained prejudices of some of the older pack members made it challenging for them to accept those who had such talents. They had an opinion on just about everything, from the way shifters should act to the people they were allowed to love. It frustrated me that not everyone agreed with the decisions I made because what we were building here...it wasright.

I stepped over a fallen branch and moved a little closer to Seren and the spirits as I considered the three men from my father’s council who’d made it their mission to question my every move. Three men, hardened by time and clinging to tradition like a lifeline. Their voices had once held weight, but now their views were outdated. They couldn’t see past their own noses, and yet their disapproval still rang in my ears. Their wish was for the pack to remain as unchanged as the ancient stones that marked our territory’s borders.

They had approached me soon after I became alpha. “Should’ve been Larkin,” they’d said. “Not you, Aria.”

“Supposed to keep the pack pure, not taint us with new blood and strange powers. That’s not our way.”

“Your father never would’ve allowed this.”

Those last words stung the most. My father’s legacy was a heavy mantle, one they believed I didn’t deserve to wear. Before he died, his actions had instilled hope in me that he was open to change. Still, I wondered whathe’dthink of my choices, of the path I was carving for our pack, a path that deviated away from his.

“You were never supposed to be alpha,” one had said. “By taking up with that rogue, you humiliated that boy Larkin. He would never have defected, but you shattered his loyalty. You should have been mated, and he would have assumed his rightful place as the leader of the Silver Claw, just as your father intended.”

“Old fools,” I whispered to myself. Larkin had double-crossed Silver Claw long before Atticus had arrived on the scene, but they preferred to blame it on me, to make me the villain in their narrative. They feared what they couldn’t understand, and because of that fear, they sought to smother the spark of progress before it could take flame.

Times changed, and we had to change with them, whether we wanted to or not. Moving forward meant leaving some things—and some people—behind. It wasn’t easy or painless, but necessary. Whether they liked it or not, I’d drag them into the future, kicking and screaming if I had to.

The ghostly figures faded, and Seren slumped ever so slightly. She was dusting off her hands when I stepped out from behind the tree.

“Wow, your control over the spirits is impressive,” I said. She’d only come into her power shortly before the ritual, yet the display of control I’d just witnessed was astounding. With all theresearch she’d been doing, how had she found the time to master them? “What was all that for?”

She smiled knowingly, as if she’d expected my arrival. “Good morning to you, too. I was trying an incantation I found in a book in the library.”

“I’m sorry, Seren,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

She shook her head, her golden hair cascading around her like a radiant halo. “You didn’t, I was finished.”

“Were you trying to return them? The ghosts, I mean?”

“No, this was about engaging with them on a deeper level,” she explained. “Since the ritual, everyone can see them, but unless the ghost is really strong, they have a hard time being heard. They’re attracted to me because Icanhear them. This incantation helped stabilize the link so I can control the connection rather than being bombarded.”

With everything that had happened since my father’s death and the ritual, I had given little consideration to Seren and her abilities. To be burdened by an incessant chorus of ghosts yearning for attention had to be taking its toll on her. I studied my friend and noticed the shadows that betrayed the exhaustion on her cheeks.

Seren turned and smiled at me. “They’re more restless than usual. The ritual I just performed helps me talk to them without their messages getting tangled.”

“Messages?” My stomach twisted. “What kind of messages?”

“Warnings.” She brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “They sense something’s wrong. More wrong than before.”

“Can you understand what exactly they’re warning us about?”

“Bits and pieces,” she admitted, looking back at the space where the spirits had been. “Something about the land. Themagic within it.” Her brow furrowed. “Whatever it is, it’s not good.”

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