Chapter 19: The Unmade Choice

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• Elixir: Fated To The Three Alpha    Chapter 81: When Love Stands Before the Fire

  Elixir’s POVThe sound of the horn didn’t fade—it expandedIt rolled through the forest like thunder in slow motion, bending branches and silencing even the insects. My fire flared to life before I called for it, reacting instinctively. The sigil on my wrist pulsed in time with the deep, rhythmic echo.Lucian stood in front of me, blade drawn, his body a wall of tense readiness.Soren shifted his stance beside him, one hand lifted with runes already alive across his knuckles.Ewen narrowed his eyes, calmly calculating, already turning toward the direction the horn had come from.“They found us,” I said.“No,” Ewen replied. “They called us.”Soren looked at me. “They’re summoning you.”The sigil on my wrist flared in response.The Order had marked me—and now they’d come to collect.We didn’t runLucian wanted to. I could see it in the tight way he gripped his sword, the way his eyes kept scanning for exit routes, for ambushes.But we didn’t runWe stood at the center of the Cradle of B

• Elixir: Fated To The Three Alpha    Chapter 80: Fire Demands the Heart Before the Flesh

  Elixir’s POVI didn’t speak for a long timeThe burned body swung above the clearing like a pendulum of fate, its charred fingers pointing to nothing and everything at once. The scent of scorched blood clung to the air, thicker than smoke, heavier than silenceEwen finally cut the rope and lowered the corpse with a sharp blade of ice. His expression didn’t shift. Not when the Order’s symbol ignited across the man’s chest. Not even when the sigil twisted in real time—matching the mark still burned into my wrist“They’re not waiting for you to make a choice anymore,” Ewen said. “They’re making it for you.”I stared at the mark spiraling around my skin. It pulsed to the rhythm of my heart now. Not hers. Not theirs. Mine.Lucian kicked dirt over the corpse, eyes narrowed at the trees. “We move now. No more hesitation. We find their stronghold and we burn it to ash.”“No,” Soren said, his voice quiet but firm. “If she walks in with the goddess inside her, they’ll let her through every door

• Elixir: Fated To The Three Alpha    Chapter 79: Fire Knows the Shape of Surrender

  Elixir’s POVI didn’t know if it was her magic or mine anymoreThe flame twisted around my fingers, humming with memory—hers or mine, I couldn’t tell. It pulsed like it wanted in, like it belonged in me. And maybe it did. Maybe it always had.The First Flame’s voice coiled through my mind, soft and steady.“You ache for purpose. You ache for truth. This is both.”I looked into her hollow eyes—twin voids inside a skull suspended by light—and felt the weight of centuries pressing into my chest. Her soul was scattered, yes, but part of it pulsed inside me already. I hadn’t just been chosen by fate. I had inherited it.Her fingers twitched, bone scraping against golden thread as if straining to touch me. I stood only a few feet away, but it felt like the distance between stars.“Merge with me,” she said. “Reclaim what was broken.”“No,” I whispered.The flame flared brighter.Her laughter, light and sad, echoed around the vault. “You think this fire answers to your fear? It was born from

• Elixir: Fated To The Three Alpha    Chapter 78: Mirrors Lie with Familiar Eyes

  Elixir’s POVI had seen monsters.I had seen gods.But nothing prepared me for the sight of myself—many times over.They stepped from the shadows in silence.Each version of me had something different in their eyes.One wore a crown of bone.One carried a staff wreathed in smoke.One had no mouth—her silence screaming louder than any voice.They circled the temple’s entrance like sentinels of a truth I hadn’t asked to face.Lucian’s growl was low, protective, and rising. “What is this?”Soren moved to my right, his presence calm but alert. “Are they illusions?”Ewen reached for a blade he rarely used. “They’re something worse. They’re possibilities.”I stepped forward before any of them could act.The fire inside me responded—too fast, too eagerly.It pulsed in my palms, wrapping my fingers in divine heat, ready to defend or destroy.The version of me with the bone crown smiled softly, almost motherly.“You found the flame,” she said. “But you haven’t asked the question that matters m

• Elixir: Fated To The Three Alpha    Chapter 77: Shadows Burn in My Shape

  Elixir’s POVI didn’t breathe when she smiledAsh-Elixir tilted her head in that same way I’d caught myself doing before a lie left my mouth She walked with my gait paused like I did when I was trying to listen to more than soundShe wasn’t pretending to be meShe was meIf I’d brokenLucian growled low beside me but didn’t step forward Soren moved closer like he meant to shield me but I raised a hand“Don’t”They frozeBecause they could feel it tooShe wasn’t here to fightNot yetShe moved closer a shadow wrapped in flesh but somehow more solid than the wind I whispered to“You touched the flame” she said nodding to my hand where the golden fire danced along my skin like a serpent “But it hasn’t touched you yet Not really”I clenched my fists “What do you want”“To help you” she said simply “Before it consumes you the way it did me”“I’m not you”“Not yet”Her voice wasn’t cruelIt was worseIt was pityingBehind me I felt the bond fray and hum the three threads of connection pulle

• Elixir: Fated To The Three Alpha    Chapter 76: Flame Hides Where Fate Bleeds

  Elixir’s POVEvery instinct said to run but I stepped forwardThe creature didn’t attack It simply waited as if expecting a command a signal a word I hadn’t yet rememberedLucian’s voice roared behind me “Don’t engage it Elixir”But I had already movedSomething about the way it mirrored my breath the way its eyes glowed gold and black made me certain This wasn’t a beast It was a messageNot one meant for allOnly for meIts mouth moved again but this time the words didn’t reach the air They entered straight into my mind and twisted like smoke around my thoughtsYou are unfinishedFind the flameBurn or be forgottenAnd then it vanished into the riftGoneLeaving only silenceAnd fearI turned to the alphas shaken but not broken “I need to leave”Lucian blinked “What?”“Alone” I addedSoren stepped forward “That’s not happening”“I saw something,” I said “A place—no a temple made of stone and shadow buried beneath what they call the Ashen Teeth It’s hidden from both wolves and men Tha