By the time Melody woke, the rain had stopped.
For a heartbeat, she didn't know where she was. The air smelled of wax and old stone, not wet asphalt. Above her, a vaulted ceiling curved like the ribs of a sleeping beast, candlelight flickering through half-buried stained glass.
A cathedral. But not one anyone still prayed in.
Lucien was gone. His black coat hung by the iron door, still dripping onto the floor.
She sat up, her bandaged arm throbbing. The crescent mark on her neck pulsed slower, deeper as if following another heartbeat entirely.
The old camera lay beside her. When she lifted it, the lens shimmered with a light not born of candles. She looked through and the world shifted.
Cracked stone bled with moonlit sigils. Words burned in the air. In the corner, a shadow moved wolf-shaped, watching her.
Melody lowered the camera. The vision vanished.
"Don't stare too long."
She jumped. Lucien stood in the doorway with a tray smelling of herbs and iron. His silver eyes had darkened, black swallowing the light.
"What was that?" she asked.
"The echo," he said. "This place remembers every ritual. The lens shows what the walls refuse to forget."
He set the tray down dried meat, a chipped cup steaming faintly blue.
"I'm not hungry."
"You are," he said without looking at her. "You just don't know what for yet."
Something in his tone chilled her.
He sat across from her, hands clasped. "This church was built above a fracture in the veil. The goddess sealed it after the first moon war. The seal's weakening again."
Melody frowned. "And you think that's connected to me?"
"I don't think," he said softly. "I know."
She touched her arm. "Because of this mark?"
"Because of who you were."
"You keep saying that like I've lived before."
"You have. Every cycle, the goddess remakes the world to test what we've learned."
"And what does she want?"
"From me atonement. From you remembrance."
Thunder rumbled faintly above.
Melody traced her bandage. "You said we were cursed. How?"
He hesitated. "Do you want the truth or the version that hurts less?"
"The truth."
Candlelight split his face in half gold and darkness.
"You were the goddess's first daughter," he said. "And I was the wolf sent to guard you. But I loved what I was meant to protect. When I defied her, she tore heaven apart and chained us both to the earth."
Her heart stuttered. "That's impossible."
"Then explain the mark," he said quietly. "Explain why I remember every time I killed you trying to break it."
The cathedral seemed to hold its breath.
"You're lying," she whispered. "That's just a myth."
"Everything true becomes a myth eventually."
She backed away. The camera slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor. "You expect me to believe I'm some celestial reincarnation? That you've been killing me for centuries?"
"Not by choice."
"Then by what?"
He rose, the motion too graceful to be human. Candlelight caught his skin and for an instant, fur and shadow rippled beneath.
"Every time the seal breaks," he said, "the Hollow Moon rises. The goddess demands a sacrifice to restore it. You die, the world resets. I live to remember."
Melody's pulse pounded. "And this time?"
"This time, you survived the mark." His voice dropped, reverent and afraid. "Which means the cycle is unraveling."
She pressed shaking hands to her temples. "No. I can't"
"Melody."
Her name in his voice stopped her. It carried centuries.
He stepped closer, careful as if she might shatter. "The memories will come. They always do. The mark will wake them."
"And when it does?"
"You'll remember what you are. What we were."
The candles flared violently. The floor trembled. From high above, a bell began to toll a bell that hadn't rung in centuries.
Lucien froze. "They've found the entrance."
"The rogues?"
"No." His eyes went black. "Something worse. The Hollow's heralds."
He grabbed his coat. "Stay behind me."
But before he reached the door, the light went out snuffed in an instant. Darkness swallowed the cathedral. Only her mark's faint glow and the silver fire in his eyes remained.
Whispers crawled along the walls, too soft to understand. The air turned so cold she saw her breath.
"What's happening?" she whispered.
"The Hollow feeds on fear," Lucien said. "Don't let it taste yours."
"I'm trying!"
A shadow peeled from the far wall, tall, fluid, human-shaped but wrong. It smiled with too many teeth.
Lucien's claws ignited with silver flame. "Back to the void, wraith!"
The thing laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "The goddess's pet still protects her mistake."
Lucien lunged. Silver fire met shadow. The cathedral exploded with light.
Melody threw herself behind a column as stone cracked and dust rained down. Through the chaos she saw flashes of Lucien's silhouette, claws blazing, tearing through darkness. The wraith split into ribbons of smoke that wrapped around him like chains.
He roared a sound that shattered the glass.
Melody snatched the camera, hands trembling. Through the lens, every whisper had a face, every shadow a shape.
And behind Lucien something vast stirred.
A colossal figure of pale light bound in chains of night.
Her breath caught. It was her.
Not her human self, but something divine radiant, weeping golden tears. The mark on her neck flared, flooding the cathedral with lunar fire.
The wraith screamed and burned to ash.
Silence fell, humming with power.
Lucien dropped to one knee, chest heaving. "You shouldn't have done that."
"I didn't mean to," she whispered. "It just… happened."
He looked up, eyes wide almost afraid. "Then it's true. The goddess's soul still lives inside you."
Melody lowered the camera. "What does that mean?"
"It means," Lucien said softly, "the Hollow won't stop until it consumes you… or until I do."
She froze. "You'd kill me?"
"If it saves you from becoming her again," he said, rising, "yes."
Outside, thunder rolled closer. Stained glass flickered with veins of shadow, as if something immense pressed against the other side of reality.
Melody took a step back. "Then I guess we're running again."
Lucien's lips curved in a grim smile. "No. This time, we hunt first."
He turned toward the crypt stairs descending beneath the altar. His voice echoed through the dark.
"Welcome to the war, Melody. It's been waiting centuries for you."
Together, they vanished into the shadows below.