VALEN

ch tap a reminder that I was moving through strangers, wolves in human clothing. The benches were filled with students in sh

s meant to chill the blood of hopeful Luna candidates. Each word landed heavy in my chest, like the bones of the past knocking against

desk flipped over by itself. The lights flickered, gasps, students exchanged nervous glances, the professor's voice rattled, trying to

he side where the scar lay under cloth and tried to breathe slowly. It wa

wly, making sure no one brushed past me. The rumor of the flicker would spread fast, not that I w

ture of Lycanridge loomed around me, arches, obsidian columns, runes etched into stone. Somewhere

far end of the hallway. His cloak was dark, edges frayed, footsteps light, he

elt an itch under my skin, a warning. I didn't move, I didn't breathe, the figure didn't step forward, d

kly, listening to my heart thump in the silence, the wolf in my chest growling low

lded small, wordless, blank but somehow heavy. I picked it up, fingers trembling, the paper was thin, r

g, every shadow shifted, every sound echoed like footsteps behind me. I pulled my hood lower and double-checked my

tant breath of safety, I sat on the edge of my bed, breathing slow. I unpinned the scrap and smooth

a warning, not a

who left it, or why but it meant one thing,

le glass. I wondered which stone in this academy hid the truth about my past. I wondered

utside sang, shadows shifting on

I would walk through hall

ker, I would remember the cloak, I wo

membered and when wolves

y's torches glowed dimly, walls echoing faint footsteps and whispers from students hurryi

page stuck to me like a breath I couldn't shake, Moonblood Purge. The name clung to my bones, I

, unremarkable except for the way the shadows swallowed it whole. One foot tapped the stone floor slowly, the face was

off schedule, pretend I took a wrong turn but the wolf pulse

skin. That paper in my bag, I fingered it, the red smear,

ey

ut. The hooded figure paused, the hall stretched,

only silenc

not human reason, urged attack, I clenched

nd saw him, a student I vaguely recognized from breakfast. Storm-

e placed a hand on my e

olded, a different tone than the one already buried

walked on, leaving me with t

it, only

U

rred, my chest hollowed, the corridors pressed

alert. The hooded figure was gone, the hall was empty, no o

e door leading outside. It opened with a groan, letting out a cool breez

the sky, the moon hung slim, half-hidden behind cl

d a plan, I needed to know

soft prints in the dewy grass as I moved away from the castle, ea

hum. Inside me the wolf

s hid the academy's shape from sight. T

rk. The scraps of paper in my pocket weighed heavy, two warnings. The f

h

d me, wind, silence, possibility, the fores

a trap. Built for heirs, yes, built for bloodlines, power, pr

r myself by coming here, by

. I closed my eyes and memorized every sound, the distant rustle o

saw only darkness, but ins

d girls don't shift." Th

st in a voice like broken steel and moon

d return, not as a ghost, not as prey, but as som

would