Lyra POV:
"Hold him steady."
I press my hands against Kael's chest, forcing the relic's energy through him. The silver light flickers, unstable but present. Frost still crawls under his skin, but slower now.
Kael exhales sharply. His eyes open halfway.
"That… feels worse," he mutters.
"Good," I say. "That means you're still alive."
A faint breath of a laugh escapes him. Seraphine stands behind me, watching closely. Orion circles the room, already drawing runes in the air.
"This is not a solution," Orion says. "This is delay."
"I know," I reply.
"Then use the delay wisely."
"I am."
I remove my hands slowly. The glow around Kael dims, but it doesn't vanish. He pushes himself up, slower than before.
"You shouldn't be standing," I tell him.
"You shouldn't be doing half the things you do," he replies.
I almost smile. Almost.
We move to the outer wall again. The city is quieter, but not safe. Soldiers rebuild lines, reinforce gates, and check the wards I placed earlier.
I hold the relic in one hand, my staff in the other.
"Now we test it properly," I say.
Seraphine folds her arms. "Carefully."
"I don't do careful anymore."
"You should start."
Orion steps forward. "Focus. If the relic can redirect lunar energy, we can stabilize the entire ward network."
"Or break it completely," Kael adds.
"That is also possible," Orion says without hesitation.
I sigh. "You're both very encouraging."
I step into the center of the main ward circle. The runes light up as I channel power into them. The relic responds immediately, amplifying everything.
"Too much," Orion warns.
"I've got it."
The energy spreads outward, connecting to every ward point across the city. I feel it all at once the lines, the pressure, the strain. And something else. Resistance.
"...It's fighting me," I say.
"Of course it is," Orion replies. "Push through it."
"I'm not forcing it this time."
I adjust the flow, guiding instead of pushing. The relic hums, smoothing the energy, redirecting excess strain into safer paths. For a moment. It works.
The wards stabilize. The flickering stops.
Kael steps closer. "It's holding."
"Yes," I say quietly.
Then something snaps.
A sharp crack echoes through the air. The ward beneath my feet fractures.
"No "
The light turns violent. Energy surges in the wrong direction. The entire network destabilizes.
"Lyra!" Seraphine shouts.
I try to pull back Too late. The ward explodes. Shards of ice and magic tear outward into the streets.
Screams follow instantly. I stagger back, barely holding my footing.
"What just happened?!" Kael demands.
"I "
I look at the runes. They're wrong. Twisted. Changed.
"I didn't do that," I say.
Orion is already kneeling, examining the broken ward.
"You didn't," he confirms.
He looks up, eyes sharp.
"It was altered."
We rush into the streets. Soldiers are down.
Some clutch wounds where shards pierced through armor. Others try to stand, blood staining the ground beneath them.
"Medic!" someone shouts.
I run to the nearest injured soldier, pressing my hand over the wound. Healing magic flows, weaker than I want it to be.
Kael moves through the chaos, lifting debris, helping others up.
"This wasn't random," he says.
"No," Orion replies. "It was precise."
Seraphine steps beside me. "You're saying someone did this?"
Orion stands.
"Yes."
I rise slowly.
"Where?" I ask.
Orion closes his eyes, sensing the magic.
"Northwest quadrant," he says. "Near the outer wards."
Kael doesn't wait. "Then we go."
I nod.
"Together," I say.
We move fast through the streets. The damage grows worse the closer we get.
More broken wards. More scattered energy.
"This is controlled," I say. "They're targeting key points."
"To weaken the entire system," Orion adds.
"Or to break it completely," Seraphine says.
Kael tightens his grip on his sword. "Either way, we stop them."
We reach the source. Figures stand within a shattered ward circle. Five of them. Cloaked.
Their hands glow with the same cold energy as the Blood Moon.
"Wizards," Orion says quietly.
"Not ours," I add.
One of them turns. Their face is partially visible eyes glowing faintly with lunar corruption.
"You're too late," they say.
Kael steps forward. "You picked the wrong city."
The figure smiles faintly.
"No," they reply. "We picked the right one."
The ground erupts. Ice constructs rise instantly larger than the wolves, smaller than the giants, but faster.
"Lyra!"
"I see them!"
I raise the relic, channeling energy through it. The first construct charges. I redirect its momentum, slamming it into another. Both shatter.
Kael moves beside me, cutting through the next two with brutal precision. But I see it again. The hesitation. The weakness.
"Stay close," I say.
"I'm not going anywhere," he replies.
One of the rogue wizards lifts their hand. The constructs grow stronger instantly.
"They're enhancing them!" Orion shouts.
"I can break the link," I say.
"Then do it!"
I focus on the source the wizard channeling the energy. The relic hums, guiding my aim. I release a concentrated beam. It hits the wizard directly.
They stagger, the connection breaking. The constructs weaken immediately. Kael takes advantage, cutting them down one by one.
Seraphine steps forward, her voice cold.
"You're using Blood Moon magic," she says.
The remaining wizards laugh softly.
"Of course we are," one replies. "Why resist it when you can control it?"
"You're destroying the city," I say.
"No," another answers. "We're preparing it."
"For what?" Kael demands.
They don't answer. Instead They attack. Magic collides in the center of the broken ward. I redirect their spells with the relic, sending their own power back at them.
Orion binds two of them with glowing chains. Seraphine moves with precise strikes, using hidden blades to disrupt their casting.
Kael pushes forward, cutting through the last constructs, closing the distance. One wizard raises a barrier. Kael breaks through it anyway.
His sword stops just short of their throat.
"End it," he says.
The wizard smiles.
"You don't understand," they whisper.
"The curse is not your enemy."
Then they vanish. All of them. Gone.
Silence falls again. Broken only by the crackling remains of the ward.
Kael lowers his sword slowly.
"Cowards," he mutters.
"No," Orion says. "Calculated."
Seraphine turns to me.
"They knew we would come."
I nod.
"And they wanted us to."
I look down at the broken ward. Then at the relic in my hand. Then at Kael. His breathing is heavier again. The glow faint, but still there.
"They're using the same energy," I say.
"Yes," Orion replies.
"But differently," I add.
Seraphine's eyes narrow. "Control instead of resistance."
"Or something worse," Orion says.
Kael steps closer to me.
"This just got more complicated," he says.
"It always does," I reply.
He studies my face for a moment.
"Can you still fix the wards?"
I look at the fractured runes. At the altered patterns. At the way the magic twists unnaturally.
"Yes," I say slowly.
"But not the way I was doing it before."
A distant pulse echoes across the city. Stronger than anything before.
The Blood Moon reacts. And this time. The wards don't just flicker. They bend. Like something is pulling them from the inside.
I tighten my grip on the relic.
"They're not just attacking us," I say.
"They're changing the rules."
Orion nods grimly.
"And we don't know how far they've gone."
Kael exhales slowly beside me.
"Then we find out," he says.
I nod. Because now. It's not just the curse we're fighting. It's someone who wants to control it. And they're already one step ahead.