ScarlettThe room flickers before I step over the threshold.It’s subtle at first. Just a soft shimmer, like the light is rippling through water. But then the floor changes beneath my feet. The air thickens. The walls go too quiet.I know this feeling. A Weaving. They’re calling me again.I’m really getting sick of being pulled into alternate dimensions, or whatever the hell this is.“Fine,” I whisper, even though no one’s listening. “Let’s see what fire you want from me this time.”I cross the veil. And the world changes.The room dissolves into smoke. Into thread. Into memory.I’m standing in a courtyard made of black stone and ash, under a sky that glows red like it’s been bleeding for centuries.The air tastes of burnt honey and something bitter. Like grief that never healed.She’s already waiting. The woman.She’s tall and regal. Power drips from her skin like sweat. Her hair is copper shot through with gold, and her eyes burn like embers that have never gone cold.I know her. No
ArloHilda’s pacing like she wants something to kill.Her boots thud against the inn’s worn wooden floors in an uneven rhythm.One only I can hear, because I’ve lived with the sound of her anger since we were barely more than kids.It's in the sharp turn of her body, the twitch of her fingers near her blades, the snarl curled behind her teeth.She hasn’t said anything yet. She doesn’t have to.The air tells me enough. Something has shifted.I lean against the wall, arms crossed, watching her make another lap. “You keep that up, you’re going to wear a path through the floor.”She stops and turns slowly.“If one more person tells me to be patient, I’m going to bite their goddamn head off.”I nod once. “Fair.”Her eyes narrow. “You’re not going to tell me I’m overreacting?”“No.”“You’re not going to tell me Scarlett’s strong enough to handle this without us?”“No.”A pause. “You’re not going to try to calm me down with sex?”I push off the wall and close the distance between us in two s
VictoriaThe air bends when I breathe now. I used to think that was poetic. Power humming under my skin, magic thick enough to taste.But lately it feels less like a hum and more like a warning. Like the world is watching me. Holding its breath. Waiting for me to do something I can’t take back.I’m not afraid of that. Not exactly.But I’m not blind, either.The mirror in my bedroom shows me what the others won’t say aloud. My reflection is too bright around the edges. Gold seeps into the whites of my eyes, and sometimes my voice echoes even when I’m standing alone.And the power. It’s always there now.A vibration in my bones. Ice licking the back of my spine. It never sleeps, never dims. It waits.Like someone lit a fire in my chest and then left the room with the embers still smoldering.I reach out and touch the mirror. It fogs beneath my fingers, but the glass doesn’t crack. Not today.The last one did.I’ve stopped counting how many I’ve broken just by standing too close.It’s no
ScarlettIt starts with silence. Not quiet. Not stillness. Silence.The kind that presses on your eardrums like water. The kind that says, you’re not alone, but whatever’s here doesn’t want you to hear it coming.I’m in the library. Signe’s, technically, though she lets Cerelia and I come and go as we please.There’s a stack of books open in front of me. Histories of magical bloodlines, half-deciphered Weaving diagrams, and Erik’s notes from his last tethering trance.I was reading. I’m not anymore.Because the room feels wrong now.Too quiet. Too still.There’s no outside wind. No crackling from the hearth. No sound from the floorboards where Erik always paces when he thinks I don’t notice.I straighten. “Hello?”My voice doesn’t echo. It doesn’t carry. It doesn’t even seem to exist.The pages in front of me turn to ash. And then the world bends.Not violently. Nothing too obvious. Just... wrong. Like I blinked, and the library rearranged itself.The books are gone. The shelves stret
ChrisHe’s laughing when I pin him.That kind of half-choked, breathless sound he only makes when he forgets we’re supposed to be careful.We’re in the room behind the inn. Meant for training, or meditation. But right now it’s filled with the sharp scent of sweat, wolf heat, and the impossible thrum of want beating through both of us.I shouldn’t be doing this. We shouldn’t. Especially not here.But I have him flat on his back, panting, his wrists caught in my hands, and I’m straddling his hips like it’s the most natural thing in the world.And gods help me, it feels like it is.“Chris,” he murmurs, voice hoarse. “You’re not being fair.”“You kissed me first.”“You tackled me after.”“I regret nothing.”He smiles, and it breaks something open in my chest.I dip down and kiss him hard, tongue sliding over his like we’ve got nothing left to lose. He groans against my mouth, biting my lower lip as he presses his hips up into mine.The friction makes me gasp.“Fuck,” he breathes.I loosen
Ashkeeper - OmniThe Loom is humming again. Not in song. Not in rhythm. It shudders.The Ashkeeper kneels in the Vault of Threads, hands spread wide above the weave, palms hovering over strands that stretch endlessly in every direction.A thousand stories. A thousand fates. None of them still.The fire-born girl pulses like a spark in the tapestry. Blazing through the future, slicing across possible paths like a comet.Scarlett.She doesn’t say the name aloud. Names are powerful things, especially here.But she knows the girl well now. Watches her. Listens to her echo in the strands.She should have burned out by now.That’s what the patterns said. That’s what the past promised.A creature born of dusk and starfire was never meant to survive her own choosing.But she has.And worse, she keeps choosing both.The Court of Fire should have devoured her. The Weavers should have unraveled her The Circle should have silenced her.None have succeeded.The Ashkeeper’s breath is slow. Measured