The next morning came too quietly.
The cottage was still. Eoghan was already up, moving through the kitchen in silence, keeping a protective eye on Shanane without crowding her. She hadn't slept. Not really. The nightmare from the night before still clung to her skin like oil, thick and inescapable.
She sat curled on the couch, staring blankly at her phone screen. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard, messages unsent, searches unanswered. Every few minutes she refreshed her social media feed.
The silence from her friends' accounts felt louder than any scream. And then, just before nine, her phone vibrated in her hands.
It was a number she didn't recognize, but something in her gut twisted the moment she heard the voice. It was Aurora's mother. She annonced Shanane what she feared the most.
There was an accident last night.
She explained it carefully, though her voice trembled. Aurora and the others had been driving late, returning from Ren's house. No one knew what happened exactly, but the car veered off the road. They crashed in a wooded area just outside the city. One of the girls, Elira, had died at the scene. The other two, Aurora and Dalen, were in the hospital, unconscious. Both were in comas.
Shanane could barely breathe. The phone slid from her hand to the floor with a dull thud.
Eoghan had already crossed the room by the time her shoulders started to shake.
He knelt beside her and wrapped his arms around her without a word.
They sat like that for a long time, her trembling, him holding her as morning light crept across the walls, cold and indifferent.
Atheramond had spoken. And once again, he had kept his word.
She sat still for a long time after the call ended, wrapped in silence that pulsed with guilt, terror, and something worse. Finality. She had seen it happen in her dreams, and still, she'd been too late.
Ren and Elira were gone. Aurora and Dalen were on the edge of death. And Eoghan was next. She could feel it like an iron nail in her chest.
She looked at him watching her with concern etched into every line of his face. His presence brought warmth, but it also struck fear deeper into her. She couldn't lose him. Not him.
She rose slowly, wiping the last of the tears from her cheeks.
__Shanane: "I need to walk. Just for a little while."
Eoghan stepped closer, his brow furrowed.
__Eoghan: "Do you want me to come with you?"
She shook her head, quickly.
__Shanane: "No. I need a moment. Just with myself."
He searched her eyes, hesitant, but nodded.
__Eoghan: "All right. But don't go far."
She offered him a fragile smile, one that cracked the second she turned her back.
As soon as she was out of sight of the cottage, she ran. Her breath came in frantic bursts, her legs burning with the urgency she could no longer contain. She tore through the trees, down the winding paths toward the one place she had sworn she wouldn't return to.
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∆ ☆ ATHERAMOND ☆ ∆
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The cottage still stood, quiet, undisturbed, like nothing had ever happened. But the open secret passage inside it told the truth.
She didn't hesitate. She descended.
The air was thick and humid, as if the walls themselves breathed. Her footsteps echoed off the stone like accusations.
She reached the chamber and fell to her knees.
__Shanane: "Atheramond!"
Her voice cracked as it echoed back at her.
__Shanane: "I know you hear me. You always hear me!"
She clawed at the floor, her palms scraping against the cold stone.
__Shanane: "Take it back. Please. Take it back. Don't let them die. Don't let them suffer."
The chamber remained still. Empty. Watching.
__Shanane: "You can have me. I'll come willingly, just stop this. Let Aurora live. Let Dalen wake up. Let Eoghan live."
She dropped her head against the ground, shoulders shaking violently.
__Shanane: "I'll serve. I'll kneel. I'll do whatever you want. Just please… don't take them."
But nothing answered. The silence was louder than any voice.
She remained collapsed on the cold stone floor long after her tears ran dry. The torchlight flickered overhead, casting elongated shadows that warped and trembled across the walls. Every sob had shaken her until her lungs burned and her spirit felt shredded. Desperation had become her only companion, clinging to her heart like a second skin.
Time passed without sound. In that emptiness, the dread in her chest pulsed like a dying ember. She wanted rage. She wanted release. Instead, there was only unbearable helplessness.
When at last she raised her head, her vision blurred, stained by grief and unspeakable loss, the chamber held only shadows, until one shape moved.
He emerged, slow and deliberate, from the darkness. His form shifted, softening into something achingly familiar. In an instant, the visage of her grandmother stood before her, kind eyes turned cold, loving smile twisted into cruelty.
She froze, voice caught in her throat as dread curdled into her blood.
Atheramond: "You've wept long enough, child."
His voice was gentle, deceptive, a lullaby that twisted like poison.
__Atheramond: "Every tear you shed, every anguished plea, it was all for nothing. Until you give me what I require, everything you love will burn beyond the point of return."
Her chest constricted. She pressed one hand against the stone floor, as if bracing for a tidal wave of despair.
__Shanane: "What do you want?"her voice trembled
__Atheramond: "I want your devotion. Your soul, willingly surrendered. Sworn with tongue, knelt with heart. Only then will I spare them."
The torchlight flickered across eyes that held depths of cruelty and ancient hunger.
The demon lord leaned closer, each word like a cruel caress.
__Atheramond: "And not just whispered in the shadows. You will prove your loyalty. Under the red moon, in three weeks, you will summon me as all proper descendants of witches should. You will call me in ritual and offering yourself willingly. Then, and only then, will your precious stand a chance."
Shanane swallowed hard, panic flaring in her veins.
She closed her eyes, pain crashing over her like a storm. She forced her voice out through clenched teeth.
__Shanane: "I… I'll do it."
The words trembled, but they were there.
The demon lord smiled, slow and victorious.
__Atheramond: "Good. You have chosen wisely. Under the crimson sky you will stand as my witch. And I will keep my word… until the moment your faith falters."
His face melted away into the shadows, leaving her alone again, crushed, trembling, and bound by the weight of her vow.
She remained kneeling on the cold floor, heart pounding with a thousand horrors and one promise: she would do it. For them. For him. For the fragile hope that still flickered beneath the terror in her bones.
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∆ ☆ ATHERAMOND ☆ ∆
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The echo of footsteps thundered through the secret passage.
"Shanane!"
Eoghan's voice rang down the stone corridor, sharp with panic, sharper with fear.
__Eoghan: "Shanane, where are you?!"
His boots slammed against the stone floor as he ran, his breath ragged from sprinting, from imagining a hundred terrible outcomes. The moment she had been gone too long, his chest had filled with dread.
When she didn't return within an hour, he had searched every path, every trail and when he saw the door of the old cottage slightly ajar, something inside him turned to ice.
He found her kneeling in the ritual chamber, her hair tangled, her hands limp against her thighs, her eyes hollow.
He froze at the threshold.
__Eoghan: "What are you doing down here?"
She didn't move. Her voice was quiet but resolute, heavy with the weight of what she had just done.
__Shanane: "I took care of it."
The huntsman stepped closer, his green eyes flicking around the chamber, his pulse pounding in his ears.
__Eoghan: "Took care of what?"
She stood slowly, still trembling, and met his eyes.
__Shanane: "He won't hurt you. Or Aurora. Or the others. I made sure of it."
His heart dropped.
__Eoghan: "What did you do?"
When she hesitated, when her lips parted but no sound came, something broke loose in his chest.
__Eoghan: "Shanane, what did you do?!"
She drew in a shaky breath, her voice almost too soft to hear.
__Shanane: "I made a pact. I gave him my soul."
Eoghan's world stopped. His fist clenched without thought. And before he could process what he was doing, his hand lashed out, slapping across her cheek.
The sound echoed.
Shanane staggered, her head snapping to the side. Her breath caught in her throat, not from pain, but from the heartbreak in his eyes.
He stared at her, stunned by what he had done, but it was the thought of her sacrificing herself that truly undid him.
__Eoghan: "Do you even understand what that means?! You just handed yourself over to a creature that destroys everything it touches!"
Tears streamed down Shanane's face. She looked up at him, devastated.
__Shanane: "I'm sorry…"
She took a trembling step toward him.
__Shanane: "I couldn't let anything happen to you. Or Aurora. Or anyone else. I made the choice. I'll pay the price. But you'll be safe."
Her voice cracked.
__Shanane: "You're the only good thing I have left. I would give my life for you, Eoghan. Without hesitation. If the price of your life is my soul, then it's a price I'll pay."
She sobbed as he stood frozen, watching her crumble in front of him. The weight of her love. Her desperation. Her impossible choice.
He moved forward then, his hands cupping her face gently, his voice trembling.
__Eoghan: "I shouldn't have hit you. God!Shanane, I'm so sorry..."
She pressed her forehead into his chest, her body wracked with silent cries.
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight, as though he could hold her soul in place with just the strength of his embrace.
__Eoghan: "You don't belong to him. I won't let you."
She shook her head against him.
__Shanane: "There's nothing we can do."
__Eoghan: "No. I don't accept that."
He pulled back, holding her face in both hands, his eyes burning with determination.
__Eoghan: "We have time. You said three weeks. We'll find a way. I don't care how powerful he is. I don't care what it costs me. You are not giving yourself to that monster."
He kissed her forehead, his voice quiet but unshakable.
__Eoghan: "I'll find a way before the red moon rises. I swear it. I will protect you. Even if I have to walk through hell to do it."
And she believed him. Even through the fear. Even through the curse. She believed him.