Page 45 of Moonlit Fate

Her gaze never left mine. “I’m terrified of making the wrong choice, of leading my pack to disaster,” she said.

“Water...” I hesitated, the word heavy with a lifetime of dread. “I’ve been terrified of water ever since I was a pup. It’s something I’ve never told anyone.”

“Then you should be terrified of me because I can manipulate water. I can control it.” A shuddering sob escaped her. “No one knows about it except Ilaric and Seren.” Her confession left her panting. “Sometimes I wish I could just walk away from all these shifter politics and conflicts, live a simple life, maybe in a place where nobody knows about shifters or prophecies.”

“From the instant I first saw you hanging upside down in that human snare…” The pull of fate stripped me bare. “Something drew me toward you, stronger than any force I’ve ever experienced. I’ve tried to fight it, but it’s impossible. The more I am in your presence, the more intense the attraction becomes.”

Aria touched my face, her fingers brushing my cheek gently. “That night in my bedroom, the first time you looked at me, truly looked at me, I wasseenin a way I never have been before. It scared me because it caused me to doubt everything I thought I knew about myself and those who claim to love me… much like the fact that the night of the party, it took you, someone I barely knew, being there to calm my panic.”

My fingers shook with each swipe against my skin as I tried to rid myself of the powder’s enchantment. Aria’s hands were a blur as she frantically brushed at my face, her touch igniting a different kind of magic within me. Finally, the last of the shimmering dust fell away, and we collapsed onto the worn wooden floor, panting heavily.

For a bit, we just sat there, looking at everything but each other. The words we’d exchanged were never meant for the light of day from either of us.

Then laughter bubbled from Aria, uncontrollable, contagious, and freeing. “Put that damn powder away,” Aria said between fits of laughter. “Definitely don’t touch anything else without figuring out what it is first.” She lay back and giggled as I tried to compose myself.

With the utmost care, I sealed the tube and placed it far from reach. Our laughter died down, leaving a warm silence as we began to search the shack, wary of more surprises.

I flipped through a dusty book, every page a new mystery, while Aria scoured the cluttered shelves. Her sharp intake of breath drew my attention. A book lay open on the table before her, and she was focused on the sketch on the page.

Her hand hovered above the page as if she was afraid to touch it. “This must be it...”

I moved closer, peering over her shoulder at the intricate design of the triskele. There was something about the pattern. Something familiar, but entirely unsettling.

“Are you sure?” I spoke softly, but the intensity in my words was undeniable. We both knew the implications, the connection between the triskele and the fate intertwining our lives.

“Positive,” she said. “Do you think this is what the seer meant when he said knowledge would be provided for us?”

“I do.” There was no other explanation for the shack appearing where one had never been before. And this triskele was more than just a symbol. It was a sign of things to come, a harbinger of a future we were still grappling to understand. No matter how much we tried to fight the tide, the waves kept battering us onto the same shore. Some forces were simply beyond our control.

I turned my attention to the leather-bound volume that had caught my eye. The pages were aged and fraying, the script carefully inked and deliberate. I studied the contours of symbols and diagrams.

“What did you find?” she asked.

I cleared my throat, focusing on the text before me. “It speaks of a ritual,” I said. “One that requires precision and elemental balance.” The book laid out the design, so complex it seemed alive, its lines and curves dancing with latent energy. “We need to draw this,” I gestured toward the diagram, “with materials that ring with nature’s lifeblood.”

Aria leaned in, her hand brushing mine as she studied the page. The touch zapped me, yet I remained focused on the writing. “Different sands, stones, petals, herbs... each chosen for their connection to the elements. Where do we even begin?”

“Somewhere sacred,” I said. “Somewhere with a confluence of energies. And before we can even start, we must purify ourselves. Cleanse our auras with sage and other herbs.”

“During the penumbral lunar eclipse,” she finished for me, the flickering candlelight giving her an ethereal glow. The very idea of aligning our actions with such a celestial event added a layer of urgency to our quest.

“It’s not just about drawing the pattern of the triskele,” I pointed out. “It’s about restoring harmony, mending the fractures in our world.” Fuck. Could we do this? “The veil between realms will be fortified through this ritual,” I added.

Aria nodded slowly, processing the magnitude of it all. “Nature’s lifeblood? My ability with water…” She cleared her throat. “It’s essential.”

I swallowed hard as reality set in. To surround the triskele with a barrier of flowing water meant confronting my own insecurities and fears. It meant trusting Aria implicitly.

“Your shadows, too,” she said softly, reaching out to trace one of the tattoos on my arm, a forest silhouette that seemed to absorb the dim light. “You’ll bring darkness to contrast the light, anchoring the energy here in the physical realm.”

“It will strengthen us,” I said. The idea of evolving alongside Aria, bound by forces greater than us, roused something primordial within me. “Then let’s make sure we understand every detail.”

We bent over the texts once more, our shared purpose uniting us in ways deeper than either of us could have anticipated.

The musty scent of rain grew stronger in my nostrils when I stepped out of the shack with Aria by my side. Our hands brushed, a current of unspoken desire and trepidation passing between us. The cocoon of revelations we had stumbled upon held us in its grasp, making it difficult to leave. However, our real lives were beckoning us back.

“Look at that sky,” Aria said. The clouds churned above, heavy and dark.

I studied the heavens. “Storm’s coming again.” It matched the storm that had been brewing in me since the day I met her—wild, unpredictable, and utterly intoxicating.

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