The moon did not rise that night. It leaked into the sky. A deep, pulsing red spread through the clouds, thick and unnatural, as if something above had been torn open and left to drip. The valley went silent. No wind. No insects. No distant animals. Just the weight of something waiting. Mara had been told never to look at the sky when it turned red. So she didn’t. She kept her eyes down as she walked. But the light still found her. It painted the ground in wet crimson, clingi

The first thing Elara noticed was the silence. Not the natural kind that settles over forests at night, but something thicker. A silence that felt placed there. Deliberate. Watching. The invitation had arrived three nights prior, sealed in deep red wax, pressed with a sigil she didn’t recognize but somehow understood. Inside, a single line: You have been chosen. Midnight. Wear velvet. She should have burned it. Instead, she wore black velvet like she was told. The estate stoo