Chapter 1 Before the Storm

Aura’s PoV

The old women said the gods stopped loving the world the night the moon bled silver.

I had heard the story so many times that i could recite it in my sleep. Still, i listened. Because in Miridia, stories mattered more than truth.

“The Moon Goddess loved too deeply,” old Maevah said from beside the fire, her wrinkled hands wrapped around a clay cup. “And love makes even gods foolish. The children gathered closer.

Outside, snow drifted quietly through the narrow streets of the village. My village lay at the northernmost part of Miridia, beyond the wooden homes and lantern-lit paths stood the great black mountains that separated the mortal lands from the vampire kingdom of Sol Diminium.

No one crossed those mountains willingly.at least not after dark.

“The Sun God betrayed her,” Maevah continued. “Took a mortal queen to his bed and fathered a son. Lunara cursed the child in her grief, and from his blood came the first vampires. The Strigoi”

One of the younger boys swallowed nervously. Maevah told this story perfectly everytime

“They still drink blood?”

Maevah snorted. “What else would cursed creatures drink? Why do you think we pay the blood tithe.. so they won’t come and snatch you up at night”

Soft laughter moved through the room.

I sat near the back, grinding herbs against stone with absent hands. Lavender. Dried moonleaf. Crushed sage root. The scent should have been calming.

Instead, my stomach twisted. Because the candles around me kept flickering.

Again.

I frowned at them.

One by one, the flames weakened.

Then died. The room fell silent.

Maevah slowly turned toward me. I could see the worried look on her face with the moonlight streaking into the room

I sighed softly. “Sorry.”

A few children muttered under their breath.not cruelly though something much worse.

Fearfully.

I relit the candles quickly, keeping my eyes lowered, It always happened around me ever since I could remember despite being born to a witch and in a coven.Spells failed or worsened around me,Charms cracked sometimes .Magic flared or disappeared completely. Even as a child, the witches in my village  avoided letting me touch sacred objects.

Once, when i was ten, a spirit board had split in half the moment I touched it.The elders never explained why, they only said that I  needed to be more careful. Nobody understood exactly why magic misbehaved around me. Some believed me to be cursed

Old Maevah was the most compassionate of them. She allowed me to study under her, teaching me the simplest ways to use my magic without having to completely destroy or enamor it. Well i wasn’t really a star student but she was patient with me like she knew something others didn’t and that’s what I loved about her.

Maevah cleared her throat and continued the story.

“But Lunara regretted the curse. The vampires became monsters beneath her night skies. So she created the Lycans from moonlight and silver. The night the moon bled silver.”

“The wolves,” someone whispered.

Maevah nodded slowly.

“She gave them her hatred for the vampires… and the love she still carried in her heart For the Sun God.”

I looked up at that.

Love?

Funny how something beautiful could create monsters.

“The Lycans hunt in the forests of the far far MoonWilds” Maevah said. “The vampires rule Sol Diminium beyond the mountains. And we mortals survive here in Miridia praying neither side remembers us in their war .”

That earned nervous laughters.

“What about the witches that live here in Miridia like you Elder Maevah” a little girl asked nervously 

“Well that would be a story for another night. It’s getting really late and curfew would start soon. You should all go home to your mamas “ Old Maevah said as she got up and stretched which earned her some laughs from the kids. They all got up and started wearing their coats. They all began to leave in no time

“You should head home too Aura, it’s getting really late. The night is not safe anymore”

But i noticed the way she glanced  subtly toward the dark windows afterward.

Because disappearances had become common lately.

Livestock drained of blood. Travelers never returning. Even a few witches had vanished. Something was changing. Everyone felt it.

The fire suddenly crackled violently. I jumped and  Maevah laughed loudly

“I just hope the supernatural would leave us out of their war. Melissa said she encountered a lycan in  the city. Can you believe that” Maevah helped me gather the grimoires I’ll be studying while  I put the crushed herbs in containers,

“Must be a rogue, A lycan this far north, Didn’t the Alpha decide to keep to his side as long as no vampires interfered with his affairs” I asked grabbing my coat and putting it on

“Yes but this is a war that’s thousands of years older than us both, you don’t always know. Say hello to Sara for me” she handed me my satchel 

A cold wind swept through the cottage though the windows were shut.i noticed the way Maevah’s face paled.

I  wrapped my coat tightly around myself before stepping outside into the cold.

Snow crunched beneath my  boots as I headed home, I looked towards the mountain terrain, far beyond those peaks stood Sol Diminium the obsidian capital of the vampires.

People said its towers blocked the sunrise itself.

I had never seen it, only the glow sometimes bleeding across the mountains at night like dying embers.

I walked quickly through the empty streets toward the small cottage i shared with my guardian, Sara.

The village felt hollow tonight,too quiet, no drunken laughter, no barking dogs even the wind sounded nervous and the chill was blood curdling like something was watching from the dark

I tightened my grip on my satchel .i hated this feeling.

Halfway home, i noticed movement near the old well.

A man stood there. Tall and still, Dressed entirely in black. I slowed my walking not from fear but instinct

The stranger lifted his head slowly and moonlight touched his face. He looked beautiful not in a comforting way but In the way sharp things were beautiful. He had piercing gray eyes that appeared silver from the moonlight, his skin really pale probably from the cold as he had no coat on. His silver hair falling across his forehead and there was something ancient in the way he looked at me, it was almost like the way Maevah or Sara did, like he already knew me.

My pulse quickened.

“Village curfew started a couple minutes ago,” i said carefully.

The man smiled faintly.

“You should not be outside either.”

His voice was soft, elegant and wrong

I took a step back then another and another

The air around him felt cold enough to freeze breath.

Every survival instinct inside me screamed at once at the realization of what he was.

Vampire.

He studied me quietly, as though he was searching for something 

“You’re staring,” I said.

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“And yet,” he stepped forward , “you haven’t run.”