Raven
The nightmares started again.
But this time, they weren't hers.
They were Luna's.
She'd woken screaming in the early hours—eyes wide, skin glowing faintly gold, sweat plastering her curls to her forehead. Raven had pulled her into her arms, rocking her, whispering lullabies.
"She was trapped," Luna sobbed. "In a place where the sky was red. They wanted me to open a door, but I said no. Then… they said they'd find Mama."
Raven held her tighter, whispering, "They won't touch me, baby. They won't touch any of us."
But she wasn't sure she believed her own words anymore.
When she laid Luna down again, she caught sight of a mark on the child's wrist—spiraling. Faint. Glowing.
Not fire this time.
But something older.
Raven backed away, heart racing.
"What are you?" she whispered to the dark.
---
Aurelio
He stood on the monastery roof at dawn, watching the tree line, blade sheathed across his back. The ring on his hand buzzed against his skin. He hadn't slept—not since the whisper from the forest.
"She was never yours…"
It wasn't a lie that scared him. It was the knowing. That they saw Luna as more than blood. More than power.
They saw her as a gate.
He turned when he felt a new presence approach.
Not Raven. Not Isabella.
A man cloaked in deep green stepped into view—hood down, graying at the temples, his eyes burning with a light Aurelio hadn't seen since childhood.
"Aurelian Santoro," the man greeted.
Aurelio's stance shifted. "Who the hell are you?"
"I knew your mother. I fought beside her when the first seal was broken. My name is Viero. And if you want to protect the girl... you're going to need me."
Aurelio's eyes narrowed. "Prove it."
The man lifted his hand—and fire formed between his fingers.
But it didn't burn.
It sang.
Like Luna's.
---
Isabella
Downstairs, Raven paced the war room, maps and files scattered across the old wooden table. She wasn't a soldier. She wasn't a mage. She wasn't a leader.
She was a mother.
But even she could see it now: Luna wasn't just a child.
She was a prophecy.
Aurelio wasn't just a father.
He was the key to unlocking a bloodline that had been hunted, buried, and feared.
And Raven?
She was the tether.
The human thread tying them to this world.
Until she pulled a file from her old agency records—and saw her own surname listed on a separate bloodline chart.
There, next to the Santoro name, in old Latin script:
> "The Shadow-born and the Flame-blooded shall unite—one bound to fire, the other to eclipse."
And beside her name?
"Descendant: Ordalia di Lux. Bloodline dormant. Eclipse seer."
Raven dropped the file, heart thundering.
She wasn't just the mother of the vessel.
She was a part of the prophecy.
---
Meanwhile – Luna
She sat on the cold chapel floor again.
Eyes closed.
And in the quiet, she whispered a name she'd never heard before.
"Ordalia…"
And from the flame beside her, a woman's face appeared in the smoke.
Smiling. Watching.
And behind her?
The door.
Waiting to open.