It began with whispers.
Guards found symbols scorched into the castle gates—twisted, ancient runes, still glowing faintly with dark heat.
The priestess paled when she saw them.
"That mark hasn't been seen in a hundred years."
"Who does it belong to?" Vivi asked.
The priestess closed the scroll she was holding. Locked eyes with her.
"A name your father erased from every book in this kingdom."
"Viper."
🕯 Meanwhile… deep in the forest
Crows scattered.
The air turned still.
A hooded figure stood at the edge of a clearing, face hidden beneath a bone mask, cloak trailing through blackened grass.
His voice, when he spoke, was like oil in water—smooth, poisonous.
"The wolf is waking."
"And the girl… she shines."
From the shadows, three figures emerged. Their eyes glowed violet. Their bodies twisted, half-human, half something else.
"Ready the hunt," Viper said.
"Let them feel the cost of memory."
🏰 Back at the palace
Vivi tried to sleep, but the mark haunted her. She could still feel it burning behind her eyes.
She clutched the book—the one she'd found, The Cursed Bond—and flipped to the page she'd skipped.
> "The one called Viper cursed the first wolf with memory loss—so it would never remember what it once loved."
Her breath caught.
He did this to Haken."
Thunder cracked outside.
Just then, the torches in her hall flickered and died.
Something was here.
A guard's scream tore through the silence.
Vivi ran to her door—
But outside, she saw it: a symbol carved in fresh blood onto the wall.
A serpent biting its own tail.
"He's here."
🌒 Elsewhere, on the rooftops…
Haken ran.
His chest burned. His instincts screamed.
She's in danger.
He leapt across tiles, wind slicing past his face.
And in the fog, he saw them the shadow hunters Viper sent slithering up the palace walls like smoke with teeth.
"Not tonight."
He shifted mid-air.
And the wolf exploded into the moonlight.