Chapter 1
A blood moon hung in the sky—an eclipse that occurred once every hundred years.
My wife, Elin Castell, insisted on entering the sealed chamber beneath the manor. She said it held "the key left to her by her ancestors."
I could not stop her. The Coven's laws forbade the use of enchantment upon one's bonded partner.
The moment she pushed open the iron door, ancient whispers seeped from the walls.
My blood began to burn—not hunger, but something far more unnameable, awakened deep within my lineage.
She turned back to me, her eyes reflecting the crimson glow, and asked softly, "Darling... why didn't you tell me your blood comes from the Abyss?"
*****
The iron door slowly closed behind us, a dull, rusty groan echoing through the chamber.
The light of the lunar eclipse seeped through the crack in the door, casting a slender blood-red streak across the floor.
Eryk Castine stood in the shadows, his fingertips trembling—not out of fear, but because some ancient resonance was awakening in the depths of his blood.
He glanced down at his hand; the edges of his nails shimmered with a dim, eerie glow, like the scales of some abyssal fish.
Elin Castell's fingertips brushed over the weathered runes carved into the stone wall. The lines writhed like living tendrils, shifting ever so slightly with her touch.
She whispered ancient syllables, her voice raspy and strange—not a language she'd ever spoken before. I stood three steps behind her, a chill running down my spine as if I'd been drenched in ice water.
The glow on my nails had already crept up to my knuckles.
"Can you understand it?" I heard my own voice tremble.
She didn't turn around. Instead, she pressed her palm against the wall, the lines of her hand aligning perfectly with the runes, and a faint blue light shimmered forth.
The whole chamber began to hum, like the slow, deep breathing of some slumbering beast.
"These are my true names," I said.
She finally turned to face me, her gaze steady—not a hint of surprise, only a kind of reverent certainty. "Before my mother died, she told me the truth was buried beneath this manor.
"She said my father wasn't human, but a pureblood imprisoned by the Coven."
She paused, her eyes locking onto mine. "And you, Eryk, you're one of them."
My throat tightened, the burning in my veins intensifying. The blood moon's light slipped through the crack in the door, painting her profile in a dark crimson glow.
"I was born into the Castine family, but I always thought it was an old legend. Until last month—" I clenched my fists. "Three days before the eclipse, I dreamed of this chamber. I saw you, standing beneath the blood moon, opening that door."
"So you brought me here on purpose?" Elin's voice wasn't accusing. If anything, there was a strange thrill in it.
She stepped closer, her boots crunching softly in the dust. "No. It was your blood calling to me. You smell like sulfur and rust from the bottom of the abyss.
"A hundred years ago, my ancestors sealed something here with a Blood Moon Pact. Now the eclipse has returned, and the seal is coming undone."
Elin walked over to the stone altar at the center of the chamber. A coiled serpent was etched into the surface, its eyes inlaid with obsidian. Broken chains and hardened wax were scattered around the base.
She crouched down, drawing a silver-handled dagger from her belt. The blade caught the dim light, reflecting a bloody gleam.
"The key is right here," she said, pressing the tip of the dagger to her palm.
"No!" I tried to lunge for the dagger, but invisible chains seemed to bind my body. The runes on the wall erupted in a blinding flash, slamming me brutally against the stone pillar behind me.
Pain exploded in my ribs, sharp as if they'd cracked. I collapsed to the ground, forced to watch as blood dripped from her palm—each drop soaking into the obsidian eyes of the serpent.
The altar began to tremble, and the floor split with spiderweb cracks. The serpent's obsidian eyes flared with an eerie green fire, and the broken chains writhed like living things, shrieking with the scrape of metal on stone.
Elin's pupils had become vertical slits—no longer human, but something between a serpent and a wildcat. "A hundred years ago, your ancestors used my brother's blood to seal the Gate of the Abyss."
Elin stood up, her voice echoing with layers—like several voices speaking at once. "They thought killing him would end the ritual, but they never realized he chose to lock his power inside this stone. Now, the blood moon has set his will free."
I forced myself upright, the eerie glow on my nails now reaching my elbows, and thin, vein-like patterns pulsing beneath my skin.
"Elin, who are you really?" I asked.
She turned, her expression twisted with agony and fury. Two streaks of blood ran down her cheeks, like tears. "I am the vessel your wife left behind, the key to the seal, and the vengeance of the one who was imprisoned."
She lifted her hand, black claws growing from her fingertips. "But the abyssal blood in you makes me hesitate. You're not just cursed, Eryk. You're the only one who can break the curse."