The wind carried a sound that wasn't quite a whisper. It crawled through the skeletal trees, brushing over old stones like a breath of memory. The moon was swollen a pale bruise in the sky and beneath its cold gaze, the Crypt of Chains waited half-buried in fog and the kind of silence only old places remember.
Melody Ardent stood at the edge of the clearing, the silverish browness in her eyes reflecting the moonlight. Her pulse was steady, defiant. Around her, the forest seemed to hold its breath.
Lucien moved first. His stride was quiet but certain the kind of confidence born from walking too long among shadows. "Don't stare too long," he murmured, nodding toward the crypt. "The place looks back."
Melody's lips curved, almost into a smile. "You mean it remembers."
Their eyes met for a heartbeat too long before Asha's soft voice cut through.
"It's not memory," she said, kneeling by the chained gate. "It's hunger."
Her fingers brushed the rusted metal, tracing sigils that pulsed faintly beneath the grime. Though delicate and calm, there was steel behind her words. "This place feeds on what's left behind grief, oaths, blood."she continued with a bit of sadness threading her voice.
Darian crouched beside her, amber eyes narrowing. "And yet we're opening it anyway. Someone remind me why this was a good idea?"
Kael leaned against a tree, arms crossed, dark hair falling across his face. "Because he asked us to," he said, jerking his chin at Lucien.
Lucien didn't flinch. "You can leave if you're afraid."he replied harshly.
Kael's laugh was hollow. "Not afraid. Just smart."
Tension rippled through the group, sharp and wordless.Asha stepped between them before it snapped. "Enough." Her voice was soft, but power threaded through it, the faint glow of the wolf beneath her skin. "Whatever's waiting in there, we face it together or not at all."
Silence fell uneasy but solid.
Lucien's gaze lingered on her. "Together," he echoed, his voice almost too quiet.
They descended one by one.
The air thickened with earth and age. Chains clung to the walls some real, some shifting like ghosts. Asha held the lantern; its flame trembled, glinting over carvings of wolves and moons bound by silver cords.
Darian brushed the runes. "These marks tell a story."he said while brushing.
Melody's voice was low. "What kind of story?" she asked curiosity filling her voice.
"One that ends badly."Darian replied.
Kael snorted. "You read too much into ghosts."
"Maybe ghosts are all we have left." For once, Darian's humor faltered, something raw flickering beneath his mask.
Melody noticed. She noticed everything the tremor in Asha's restraint, Kael's suspicion, Darian's weariness, and Lucien's silence. Always his silence.
The tunnel sloped down into a vast chamber. The ceiling vanished into dark. At the center stood a stone altar wrapped in chains, each link etched with shifting sigils.
Melody felt the pull her pulse syncing to the crypt's heartbeat. The closer she came, the stronger it grew: a low hum under the stone, like something alive was buried beneath their feet.
"Melody," Lucien said quietly.
"You feel it too?"she asked him.
He nodded. "It's not the crypt that's alive. It's what it's holding."
"The Moonbound," Asha whispered. "That's what the stories call it."
Kael frowned. "A myth. A relic of the first wolves."
Darian shook his head. "No myth bleeds through walls like this."
The lantern flickered once, twice and went out.
Darkness swallowed them.
A whisper slid through the air, followed by the rattle of chains. Something brushed Melody's arm, cold as frostbite. She sucked in a breath. "Lucien?"
"I'm here," his voice came from too close, his breath brushing her ear. "Don't move."
Her heartbeat stuttered, the space between them shrinking heat and chill tangled in the same breath.
Then came the growl. Low. Ancient. Not human.
Chains scraped violently, echoing through the crypt.
"It's awake," Asha gasped.
Lucien seized Melody's wrist. "We need to leave. Now." urgency filling his voice.
But Melody didn't move. Her wolf surged forward, senses burning. "No. It's calling me."she replied obviously not in full control of her senses anymore.
Lucien's voice was sharp with fear. "You don't understand what it is"
"I do." Her voice trembled. "It's the same curse that binds you."
Lucien froze. For the first time, pain cracked his composure. "How do you?"
Melody reached toward the altar. The chains shifted, glowing faintly. For a heartbeat, visions flared a woman draped in moonlight, wolves kneeling, a silver blade tearing the sky, going through the woman. Then darkness.
The ground trembled slightly.
Kael cursed. "She's waking it up!"
Darian drew his blade, though his hands shook. "We can't fight what we can't see!"
"Then we don't fight," Asha whispered. "We bind." She pressed her palm to the wall, chanting words older than language. The chains pulsed with light.
Lucien gripped Melody's shoulders, rougher than he meant. "You don't get to throw yourself at every curse that calls your name," he growled,anger and pain lacing his voice.Relieving every moment he had gotten and lost her.
She met his eyes, breath ragged. "Then stop me."she said slightly gaining control of her mind.
The air between them burned. He didn't move.
The light flared white wild, consuming.
When it faded, the altar stood bare. The chains were gone. Etched into the stone was a single glowing symbol: a wolf's eye, unblinking. Watching.
Silence pressed down.
Darian was first to speak. "Well," he muttered, sheathing his blade, "that went worse than expected."
Kael exhaled. "You think?"
Asha lowered her trembling hands. "It's not over. Whatever was trapped here… it knows us now."
Lucien turned to Melody, gaze hard. "It knows you."
Melody met his eyes, something heavy and certain settling inside her. "Then let it come."
Her voice was steady, but something within her had shifted something that would not be undone.
Outside, the moon bled red across the horizon.
And somewhere deep in the forest, a howl answered.