Moonbound: A Dark Mate's Curse

~Karla's Pov~

Magic doesn't always roar when it rises. Sometimes it creeps in quietly, curling beneath your skin like a fever, whispering promises you don't understand until it's too late.

It had been three days since the Tribunal sent their first assassin. Three days since I'd nearly burned down the forest. I haven't slept since, not really. I dreamed in flame and shadow. In ash and silver. And every time I closed my eyes, I heard the same voice, hers. Sariah. The Void Witch. The one sealed inside me. The one who wasn't staying quiet anymore.

Nyssa had insisted I return to training, as if we could treat the storm growing in me like any other spell, any other craft. I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe I could still learn this power, shape it and name it. But something inside me had shifted since the attack. I didn't feel like a girl with power anymore. I felt like a ticking weapon.

Kade insisted on being nearby during training. He didn't say it, but I knew he didn't trust Nyssa alone with me, not because he doubted her, but because he feared what I might become if pushed too far. I hated that part of me was grateful for it.

We trained in the northern clearing, far beyond the ruins, where the trees gave way to stone and the wind carried no scent. Nyssa carved sigils in a wide circle around me with powdered obsidian and dried wolfsbane. "Focus on the flame," she said. "Not the darkness within it. Feel its edges. Its limits."

What if it didn't have any?

I nodded anyway, lowering myself into the center of the circle. I exhaled slowly, drawing the magic up, not from the air, not from the sky, but from within. It stirred in my gut and slithered through my spine. Not hot. Not cold. Just… heavy. Like drowning in memory.

My hands began to glow. Not fire this time—something colder. Pale violet light danced over my fingers, threads of energy rising like smoke. My heartbeat slowed. I could feel it. Control. Just a little longer.

"Good," Nyssa said quietly. "Now shape it."

But it didn't want to be shaped.

The moment I tried to force the energy into a pattern, something snapped.

A violent pulse tore through my chest. The sigils around me flared white, then black. I cried out as pain shot down my arms, across my ribs, searing my lungs like I'd swallowed molten steel. I collapsed to my knees, gasping. The ground buckled beneath me.

"Elara!" Kade's voice cut through the static in my ears.

"I—I can't," I clutched at my chest. Something was inside me, clawing its way out. My skin lit up with glowing runes, not mine, not taught, inherited. They raced across my collarbone, down my stomach and around my wrists. My vision blurred.

Nyssa stepped back, horror blooming across her face. "She's not channeling magic—she is the conduit. Sariah's trying to take over."

"I see her!" I choked. "She's in the mirror, she's in me!"

I slammed my palms to the earth, trying to ground myself. But the pain only deepened. My mind fractured—memories that weren't mine crashing into each other like shards of glass. A burning field. A silver dagger. A crown made of teeth. And always, that same woman's voice, whispering in a language older than stone.

"You were meant to burn," she said. "Let me finish what they started."

And for a moment, I almost did.

I let go.

The power exploded outward.

The circle shattered. A burst of violet energy cracked through the clearing, shattering trees, tearing bark from roots and tossing Nyssa back with a scream.

And then, he was there.

Kade.

He tackled me to the ground just as another surge began to build. His body wrapped around mine, shielding me with more than flesh. His wolf, his essence, pressed into me, grounding, anchoring. I felt his pulse, his breath and his fear.

"Fight her," he whispered against my ear. "Come back to me, Elara."

"I don't know how," I sobbed. "She's stronger; she's been waiting so long."

"Then let me in."

His hand found the side of my face, and his forehead pressed to mine. I saw gold behind my eyes. Heat. Wildness. But not fire—life. His soul brushed against mine, not in dominance, not in claim—but in plea.

And I answered.

I focused on him.

On the scent of cedar and rain.

The warmth of his touch.

The pain behind his eyes when I screamed his name.

I clung to that, and slowly so painfully slowly, the magic inside me quieted. The light faded. The runes dimmed. The earth stilled.

My body collapsed into his. Shaking. Barely breathing.

He held me tighter.

"You're here," he whispered. "You're still here."

I couldn't speak. Could barely think. I just let myself exist in the space between what I'd almost become and what I still was.

Nyssa approached cautiously, her hands trembling. "The seal is weakening faster than I feared. Sariah's presence is no longer dormant. You're not just her descendant, Elara. You're her vessel. The magic you woke—it's from her line, not ours."

"What does that mean?" Kade growled.

"It means," Nyssa said grimly, "that if she takes full control, no coven, no pack, no Tribunal will be able to stop her. Not without killing Elara in the process."

Silence.

The kind that tastes like endings.

Kade helped me sit up, his arms still around me, his warmth a tether I wasn't ready to let go of.

"I'm not ready to die," I said softly.

He looked at me. "Then don't. We'll find a way to bind her. To lock her out without losing you."

Nyssa shook her head. "The only ones who knew how to do that died generations ago."

"Then we find what they left behind," Kade said.

"You'll be hunted," she warned.

"I already am," he said. "And I'm not running."

The conviction in his voice should've comforted me.

Instead, it terrified me.

Because the deeper he got, the closer he came to becoming another name on the list of people who died trying to save me.

And I didn't think I could survive losing anyone else.

Not him.