AKASHA I held him tighter than I ever had before. His arms trembled around me like a fever dream, his head buried into my shoulder. There was no crown on his brow. No fire in his eyes. Just a boy I had once known. A brother I had once adored. And yet… even as he wept into my tunic, even as his claws retracted and his breathing slowed— I felt it. That thread of madness was still tangled deep in his heart. “I can fix this,” he whispered. “We can start over, Akasha. You and I. Forget them. Forget her. Hailey. We never needed her anyway. We were all we needed.” My breath hitched. “Akael…” His fingers gripped my arm with just enough pressure to remind me: the monster was sleeping. Not gone. Never gone. “We’ll burn down the unwanted thrones,” he continued, eyes glassy with hope, delusion threading his voice. “You’ll rule beside me. You’ll see. We’ll make them kneel.” “Akael”, I said again. My voice broke. “We can’t.” His face stiffened, pulling back. “Why not?” “Because you’re no
AKASHA The air was thick with ash and extreme unease. It clung to my hair, settled on my tongue, stained the folds of my tunic. The scent of charred wood and scorched earth burned in my lungs. The silence as I walked deeper into the forest was unnatural—no birds, no rustle of leaves, no distant howls. Just the echo of something broken. My brother. My twin. I hadn’t seen him since the last war room argument. Since dad screamed that I'd betrayed him and locked me into a dungeon until I was rescued by mother leaving corpses behind like breadcrumbs. And now, I walked into his lair alone. I followed the blackened path he carved through the wilderness. Burnt trees stood like graves, their branches reaching skyward in horror. Every step I took was a choice—a silent prayer because Akael is now a monster, a product of father's continous manipulation and somehow he has no sense of right or wrong. His obsession with me started innocently before blooming into madness yet father encouraged
AKAELThe smell of blood was soothing music to my ear.It lingered on my skin, in my breath, even in my thoughts. The howl of the dying wolves was wind to me now, a murmur beneath the thrum of my heartbeat.They tried to flee. gods, how they ran.But I moved faster.My claws had long since transformed, wet with the blood no longer my own. My fangs pounded with fury I could no longer categorise. I'd gone past reason. Past sorrow. Past purpose.I'd lost everything worth living for, and Akasha had chosen the side of traitors and abandoned me alone, without even a look over her shoulder.So I burnt all and everyone with impunity.Villages were razed. Dens were toppled. Forests twisted in agony. I strolled through the devastation like an old god—cruel, hollow, unkind.They cried for mercy."Akael, please!""My children—please, we surrender!"I presented them with silence.Their screams were my wind.I ravaged the Alphas, toppled the high and entombed the shattered. I splattered the trees w
AUDACUS The walls of my chamber closed in around me. I had shattered another goblet on the flagstones, and still my pain in my chest was unshaken. The scent of spiced wine lingered in the air, clinging to the velvet drapes like unforgiving spectres. Aretha. Lilith. Lost. Not lost—ripped from me. Like flesh from bone. Hailey is taking out my sources of power, my allies, she didn’t stop at just taking my daughter...our daughter because no matter the underhanded method I used and she tried averting, the outcome remains that we both are the birth parents of the twins. "You should rest, my lord," said the quaking servant in the doorway. "Leave," I growled, and the woman fled like a terrified bird. The fire spat savagely in the hearth, leaping with a wild abandon that was reflected deep within my own heart. My hands trembled as I glanced down at the shards of the goblet. Red wine flowed across the floor like an open wound. I pressed my palms against the edge of the table and leaned
ALEXIA It's been chaos all through the whole time; it is high time the coven is purged of all discrepancies. The night was too quiet and calm in spite of the continuous confrontations and issues we've been dealing with over the past few years, which was exactly why I was suspicious. The moon hung low, almost watching me as I moved through the thick underbrush of the Northern Glade of the witches territory. Every branch I pushed aside, every whisper of wind felt like it carried something unspoken. I knew this land. I knew how it breathed. And tonight, it was holding its breath. My boots were silent on the soft moss as I made my way to the hollowed tree at the centre of the glade—a place reserved only for coven-sanctioned ceremonies. Sacred. Hidden. Bound in blood, death and secrecy. And tonight, it was glowing. Faintly, but very obviously alive with life and light. My heart dropped into my stomach. No one was supposed to be here. No meetings had been called. Not by me—the coven head;
AARONThe vision hit me with the force of a sucker punch to the gut. It is the very first time I am experiencing this, though I had watched my father having episodes such as this.I was sipping lukewarm tea on the castle's balcony, trying to determine if Lyna had forgiven me for swapping the last lemon tart in her garden, and then... suddenly gasping for air, heart pounding, hands spastically contracting as if I'd touched lightning.Then, abruptly, time stopped, every single thing froze, and I saw all things in slow motion mode.I was in the war room. But it wasn't the normal chatter of plans or the crack of generals. No, everything was still.Too still.Hailey stood there, bare feet, white, black cloak like spilt ink radiating out from around her. She opened her mouth, perhaps to speak....And fell like a puppet whose strings were severed.Her body slammed into the slick stone, and no one reached her in time.Not even I.The vision ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and I jumped out