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Before the Queen: 8
Last Updated:
2025-05-10 23:09:03
Latest chapter
Bloodied Ashes Rooted in Flame: 7
Lira (POV)The river had never run so slow. It crawled over black stones, thin and heavy, carrying flecks of ash that refused to sink. When I knelt, the water lapped at my wrists, cold enough to bite. The ferns along the bank were still dusted from the old fire. Even the air smelled faintly of iron, as if the land still remembered being burned.I cupped my hands and drank. The taste was dull, metallic. It filled the mouth without quenching. Around me, the forest was hushed, the silence of creatures that had learned not to trust the night. The Bone Moon hung swollen above the trees, reflected in the dark surface of the water. It looked close enough to touch, yet unreachable, like everything that had come before this night.A ripple broke the reflection. Across the bend, a figure moved through the shallows. Barefoot. Silent.Lily.She was thinner now, hair loose around her face, the hem of her dress damp with river mud. Her eyes found mine and did not look away. For a moment, neither o
Bloodied Ashes Rooted in Flame: 6
Kael (POV)The fire had sunk to its smallest shape, nothing left but a faint glow beneath ash. I leaned forward, nudging one of the coals back into place with a stick, more for something to do with my hands than for warmth.Across from me, Lira had slipped into sleep again. Her face was still drawn tight, a shadow of the snarl she’d carried out of the dream. Even in rest, she looked ready to fight. Her hand stayed curled over her stomach, as if she were guarding more than herself. For a moment, it looked the same as another night long ago, another body I hadn’t been able to keep safe.My gaze dropped to my wrist. The scar there caught in the flicker, pale and thin but unrelenting. Old as it was, it hadn’t faded. Some marks didn’t.My fingers dragged over it, rough against skin that had never softened again. It didn’t feel like me anymore. It felt like her, still marked there, refusing to fade.The fire cracked once, sharp enough to echo. For a moment, I thought I heard her laugh again
Bloodied Ashes Rooted in Flame: 5
Kael (POV)The river ran colder than it looked. White water slipped fast over black stone, biting at my ankles when I stepped close enough to drink.She was already there.Lira waded knee-deep, her shirt clinging in patches where the water had soaked through. She didn’t speak. Didn’t notice me at first. Her palms moved over her stomach, slow, deliberate. At first, I thought it was only the chill, the way people brace against cold. But then her hands stayed. Pressed.And something in her face changed.Her jaw tightened; not in pain, but in knowing. Her body had answered her.I froze on the bank. The air hit the back of my throat like stone dust. My fingers wrapped around the hilt of my blade
Bloodied Ashes Rooted in Flame: 4
Lira (POV)The trees changed when we crossed deeper.Their trunks thickened, bark dark and furrowed, rising higher than the reach of light. Branches leaned inward until the sky narrowed to a gray slit. Moss climbed in sheets, swallowing stone and root alike. The air felt damp and close, not heavy with threat, but with something that remembered before we did.Each step sank quieter into the earth. Roots coiled across the path like ribs. The silence was not empty; it was listening.Kael walked half a pace behind me. His presence filled the space the way it always did; steady, bone-sure, unbending. But here even that seemed small. The Wilds pressed around us, old and unhurried, as if they had been waiting for centuries for someone to walk through again.A stone jutted from the slope ahead, taller than my hip, its surface swallowed in lichen. At first, it looked like any boulder broken loose from the ridge. Then I saw the marks. Faint, almost worn smooth, but carved too cleanly to be mist
Bloodied Ashes Rooted in Flame: 3
Kael (POV)She didn’t pull away when I touched her wrist. But she didn’t lean in either. Her stillness held something I recognized. Not hesitance exactly. Not fear. Just the careful kind of waiting people do when they’re trying not to break what barely holds. The silence between us stretched, not tense, but fragile in the way of something newly formed. I let go first. Not because I wanted the distance, but because she needed to know she could have it. That she could choose. It wasn’t the tether, or duty, or the weight of shared survival that brought us here. It was just us. That had to be enough. She didn’t move, not right away. Her hands rested in her lap, one still faintly curved toward her middle. Her eyes tracked mine like she was still deciding if this was something that could last, or just another moment waiting to be taken. But she didn’t look away. “I never wanted the bond,” I said. My voice came quieter than I expected, more steady than soft. It didn’t shake. It didn’t ple
Bloodied Ashes Rooted in Flame: 2
Kael (POV)She walked past me, quiet and measured, her hand hovering low over her stomach like it had started meaning something without her permission. She didn’t look at me when she passed, and I didn’t follow her with my eyes. I followed her presence instead. That quiet weight she carried now, steadier than when we’d escaped the Pit. No spiral glint. No unnatural heat. Just the shift of something real inside her. And it wasn't mine. Not yet. But I still felt it.I stayed seated on the root, elbows on my knees, watching the coals blink against the moss like slow breath. The ruin we’d taken shelter in was half-swallowed by the earth; moss-laced stones crumbling into themselves, ceiling low enough that even I ducked to enter. It wasn’t a place meant to hold fire, but the warmth had stayed longer than I expected. Long enough to make the silence feel like comfort, not absence.Across the fire, she knelt to sort through her pack. Her movements were slow, but not weary. Careful. She wasn’t
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