The Hollow was silent that night, unnaturally so. Not a whisper of wind, not a rustle of leaves. It was as if the very air held its breath, waiting.
Ember stood before the ancient mirror in her mother's old chamber, a relic passed down through Luna bloodlines. The glass was foggy, framed in obsidian wood carved with wolves and moons. But it wasn't her reflection she was watching. It was the shimmer subtle, silver, and pulsing like a heartbeat.
For days now, she had felt it. A subtle tug beneath her skin. A call not her own. Something ancient. Something forbidden.
"Still staring into that thing?" Ronan's voice broke through her thoughts. He leaned casually against the doorframe, but his golden eyes were sharp.
"I think it's reacting to me," Ember said, not turning away. "To the cursed moon. To… whatever I'm becoming."
Ronan stepped closer. "You're not becoming anything. You already are."
She finally looked at him, seeing the intensity behind his usual calm. She wondered if he sensed it too, the bond that hadn't been named, hadn't been claimed, yet loomed between them like a shadow with breath.
He was the stranger with the echo in his soul. The one who flinched when she was near, yet never strayed far. And now, under the cursed moon, that tension had become a thread that hummed between them.
A bond forming where no bond should.
"There's something I need to tell you," Ember said, stepping away from the mirror. "Selene's Mirror… she warned me."
Ronan's brow furrowed. "About what?"
"She said if I fall in love under the cursed moon, the bond won't be normal. It won't just bind, it'll consume. Body and soul. That kind of bond is forbidden for a reason."
Ronan held her gaze, unmoving. "And do you feel it, Ember? That pull? Toward me?"
She didn't answer. She didn't have to.
Because her magic was no longer just flame. It burned with silver now, his color. And when he was close, the fire inside her didn't just flicker it howled.
That evening, Ember sat beside the Moonstone Pool with Maerin, watching the water shimmer beneath the tainted light of the cursed moon. The old healer dipped her fingers into the pool and whispered a charm to settle the spirits.
"You look like your mother when she was torn," Maerin said softly.
"Torn?"
"Between fear and fate," she said. "Between love and survival. Your mother didn't want a bond, either. And yet, it saved her. And you."
Ember sighed. "What if mine destroys me instead?"
Maerin looked at her, eyes deep with memory. "The bond is never the danger. It's what we bring into it. Secrets. Guilt. Doubt."
"Ronan…" Ember began, but faltered. "He's not just someone I'm drawn to. It's stronger than that. Like something old is waking between us."
Maerin nodded slowly. "Then it may be the Forbidden Bond."
Ember froze. "That's real?"
"Rare," Maerin said. "And dangerous. A bond that forms outside the goddess's design without the moon's permission. It only happens during a cursed cycle. When fate tries to right what time tries to erase."
Ember's voice was barely a whisper. "Right what?"
"A bloodline," Maerin said. "A power lost. A soul returned."
The words chilled Ember. Because she didn't feel like she was just becoming someone new. She felt like she was becoming someone ancient.
Later, Ember found Ronan in the old training circle. He was shirtless, sweat gleaming on his skin as he drove his fists into the padded tree trunk again and again. His knuckles were raw, but he didn't stop. Not until he felt her.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, not turning around.
"Neither should you," she replied. "But we're both here. So let's stop pretending."
He turned slowly, chest heaving. "You think I don't feel it? That I haven't tried to fight it?"
"Then stop fighting," she said.
For a moment, the wind itself seemed to vanish. Then Ronan was in front of her, inches away. His eyes searched hers.
"This is a bond born under a cursed moon," he said. "It's not fate. It's chaos."
"Maybe chaos is what we need," she whispered.
And then he kissed her.
It wasn't soft or tentative. It was wild and urgent like both of them had been starving for years without knowing it. Ember's magic surged, fire licking her arms, but this time it didn't burn. It wrapped around them both, glowing silver and gold.
For the first time, their energies fused.
The Forbidden Bond had formed.
But not all magic comes without cost.
The moment their lips parted, the earth shook beneath them. Ember stumbled back, and a searing pain cut across her palm. She looked down. A mark had burned itself into her curved, glowing, ancient.
Ronan's chest bore the same symbol.
They both gasped.
"What the hell just happened?" Ronan asked, his voice hoarse.
"We've been marked," Ember said. "This isn't a normal bond."
And then the wind screamed.
Not howled, screamed as if the forest itself had felt the shift. Dark clouds rolled across the moon, and from the treeline emerged a dozen wolves, their eyes glowing violet. Not the Pack. Not rogues.
Something else.
Something drawn by the Forbidden Bond.
They stood there, watching Ember and Ronan, unmoving, unblinking.
Ember's voice trembled. "They felt it form…"
Ronan stepped in front of her, teeth bared, his wolf rising to the surface.
The largest of the creatures stepped forward and shifted. His human form was tall, elegant, and wrong bones too sharp, eyes too hollow.
"You shouldn't have awakened it," he said, voice like cracking ice.
"What are you?" Ronan demanded.
The man smiled coldly. "We are the Forsaken. The last remnants of what the cursed moon once broke. And now… you've called us home."
---
With the Forbidden Bond now awakened and a forgotten enemy drawn to its power, can Ember and Ronan withstand the storm they've unleashed or has their love doomed them all?