I raked a hand through my hair, attempting to corral my thoughts onto some sort of a line. “Then we need a plan.”Maxwell grinned, but there was nothing funny about it. “Good. Because I already have one.”I crossed my arms, eyes narrowing at Maxwell. “Of course you do. Let’s hear it.”Maxwell let out a breath and looked at my mother, then closer. His voice fell to a near whisper, as if the walls had ears. “The Council expects you to obey their laws, to deliver her back into their watchful gaze. That’s where they have all the power. “We don’t allow them that opportunity.”I frowned. “And how do we avoid that exactly?”“We do it on our terms.”I gave a small laugh, without humor. “You make it seem so easy.”“It is.” Maxwell leaned closer, his eyes keen. “They want control of this, Lena. That’s their leverage. So we take it from them.”My mother’s expression was inscrutable, and her silence held as she processed what Maxwell had said. Then, finally, she spoke. “What you’re suggesting is
The night air was thick with tension as I stepped into the courtyard. Maxwell stood waiting, his expression set in grim determination. Behind him, a handful of trusted allies—faces I had fought beside, bled with—stood in the shadows, waiting for my word.I exhaled slowly, steadying myself. “Tell me everything.”Maxwell nodded. “We’re going to the vault beneath the Blackwood estate. That’s where they kept her body, sealed away so no one could reach her. The Council thinks they’re the only ones who know how to break the enchantments surrounding it, but they’re wrong.”I narrowed my eyes. “How?”Maxwell smirked, but there was no humor in it. “Because I stole the key.”I blinked. “You what?”He pulled a small, ancient-looking talisman from his coat pocket. The sigils carved into it pulsed faintly, reacting to the magic in the air.“Wasn’t easy,” he admitted. “But let’s just say the Council isn’t as careful as they think they are.”I ran a hand through my hair. “You’re insane.”“Probably.”
From the darkness, Elias emerged. His silver hair gleamed in the faint light, and his eyes—cold, calculating—bore into me with quiet authority. He was not alone. Figures moved behind him, stepping into the dim glow. Council enforcers. Armed and waiting.Maxwell cursed under his breath. Mara's grip tightened around the dagger at her waist. The others stiffened, but none moved. We were outnumbered, but that was never the problem. The problem was Elias."You knew we were coming," I said, keeping my voice even.Elias tilted his head slightly, his lips curling into something that might have been amusement. "Of course. Did you think the Council would leave the Blackwood vault unguarded? Did you think you could walk in and take what you wanted without consequence?"My jaw tightened. "She's my sister.""She is dead," Elias said flatly. "What you seek to do is an abomination."Rage burned in my chest. "An abomination? You speak of abominations when the Council has twisted the laws of nature fo
The ground shuddered beneath us as stone and dust rained down from the collapsing vault. The torches that had been lining the chamber flickered and died, plunging everything into near-total darkness. The only light came from the residual magic crackling in the air, casting eerie flashes of crimson and violet against the crumbling walls.Elara was awake. But something was wrong.Her black eyes—voidless, endless—held no warmth, no familiarity. Yet she had spoken my name. That had to mean something.Elias was already moving, his form barely a blur in the dim light. He raised his hand, his fingers curling as raw energy crackled between them. He was preparing another spell. A binding. Maybe worse."No!" I threw myself between him and my sister. "You don’t get to touch her."Elias’s jaw tightened. "You don’t understand what you’ve done."I felt Elara shift behind me, felt the coldness radiating from her body. The air itself seemed to recoil from her presence."I brought her back," I said, m
Elias was still coughing, one hand pressed to his throat as the enforcers steadied him. His eyes burned with something between fury and grim resignation. But he didn’t attack again. Not yet.Elara stood motionless, watching me. The silence in the chamber was suffocating. Her words still rang in my head. I let him live for you.It wasn’t a mercy. It was a message.I swallowed hard, stepping closer. "Elara… tell me the truth. What happened to you?"She tilted her head slightly, as if considering the question. "You already know," she murmured. "You felt it when I woke."I shook my head. "That doesn’t mean I understand it."Elias wiped blood from his mouth. "She’s a vessel now. Whatever you dragged back, it needed a body. And you gave it one."Elara’s lips curled into something that was almost a smirk. "Is that what you think?" She stepped toward Elias, slow and deliberate. "You act like you know the rules of life and death. But tell me, scholar—if I were truly gone, how could I remember
The chamber was silent, but the air was thick with tension. My heart pounded as I stared at Elara’s outstretched hand.Behind me, Elias was still breathing hard, his magic coiled and ready. Maxwell and Mara stood tense, waiting for my move. And Elara—she simply watched me, her dark eyes filled with something both familiar and terrifying.“Lena.” Elias’s voice was sharp. “Don’t.”Elara didn’t flinch. “Why do you hesitate?” she asked softly. “You know what we are, sister. You felt it when I woke. You felt the bond between us. It’s stronger than anything you’ve ever known. So why are you afraid?”I swallowed. “Because I don’t know if it’s you anymore.”Her expression flickered, something almost like hurt passing over her face before she masked it with a small, knowing smile. “I am me. I am more me than I have ever been.” She lowered her hand slightly. “And you could be, too.”Maxwell stepped forward. “She’s manipulating you,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “She knows what you want
The chamber pulsed with unstable energy. I could feel it in my bones, in the air thick with something ancient and unknowable. Elara’s gaze burned into me, waiting, expecting. Behind me, Elias was holding his breath, his body rigid with tension. Maxwell’s grip on his dagger was white-knuckled, and Mara… Mara was watching with eyes that had seen too much, as if she already knew what was coming.I swallowed hard. My thoughts were a storm, colliding, spinning, breaking apart.This was it. The moment when everything changed.Elara stretched out her hand again. “Lena.” Her voice was a whisper, barely audible over the hum of power around her. “Come with me. Choose me.”My fingers twitched at my sides.Elias’s voice cut through the air like a blade. “If you take her hand, it won’t be you anymore.”Elara’s eyes flickered with something—amusement, annoyance? “He always did think in absolutes, didn’t he?” She let out a breath, tilting her head slightly. “Lena, they don’t understand us. They neve
The fall seemed endless. My stomach lurched as the wind howled around me, the void swallowing every sound except the hammering of my own heartbeat. I twisted midair, reaching for anything—something—to stop the plunge, but there was nothing. Just darkness stretching infinitely below.Then, a force yanked me sideways, an unseen grip pulling me out of the descent. My body slammed into something solid, knocking the breath from my lungs. I gasped, rolling onto my hands and knees, my palms scraping against rough stone.A voice echoed through the void. “You should be dead.”I snapped my head up.Elara stood across from me, her violet aura flickering like a dying flame. Her expression was unreadable, but something in her stance—stiff shoulders, clenched fists—betrayed uncertainty.I pushed to my feet, ignoring the sting in my ribs. “What did you do?”She didn’t answer. Instead, she tilted her head, studying me like I was some puzzle she couldn’t quite solve. “You weren’t supposed to survive t
For the first time in my life, I felt powerless.The heartbeat beneath the earth had grown faster, stronger, until the ground vibrated constantly, as though the land itself were straining against invisible chains. Around us, the sanctuary’s wards pulsed weakly, flickering like candle flames caught in a hurricane. Every instinct in my body screamed that the Harbinger’s arrival wasn’t the end of the nightmare—it was the beginning.Maxwell stood beside me, staring into the darkness beyond the tents. His face was a perfect mask, but I knew him too well. I could see the tension in the set of his shoulders, the fear he would never voice unless forced.“We’re not ready for this,” Barin muttered, pacing back and forth. “We built defenses against armies, assassins, the Council’s damn enforcers—but this?” He shook his head violently. “We can’t fight myths, Lena.”“We’re not fighting myths,” I said, my voice hoarse but certain. “We’re fighting the consequences of lies too old to be forgotten.”I
For a long time, no one moved.Lior’s body lay unnaturally still, the black veins receding slowly as if whatever force had animated him had finally burned itself out. The silence pressed into my ears like a physical weight, and all I could hear was the wild hammering of my own heart.Maxwell knelt cautiously, checking Lior’s pulse even though we all knew there would be none. “He’s gone,” he said grimly, standing and wiping his hands on his trousers like he could scrub away what he had just witnessed.I stepped closer to Lior’s body, forcing my legs to obey even as every part of me screamed to turn away. My fingers itched to summon my magic, to scan deeper, but something in my gut warned me against it. Whatever had been buried in Lior, whatever had just been unleashed, it had been old. Purposeful. A ticking time bomb planted within him long before he ever set foot inside our sanctuary.Barin's voice broke the suffocating quiet. “First Door?” he said, his tone raw, full of confusion and
The Seal wasn’t just breaking.It was opening.I could feel it deep inside my chest, pulsing to a rhythm I hadn’t known was mine until now—a calling that wasn’t spoken in words, but written into my bones.Maxwell gripped my arm. “Lena. Talk to me. What’s happening?”I struggled to find my voice. “The Seal... It’s not just a lock. It’s a beacon. It’s been waiting for me. Not to keep it closed—” my throat tightened, “—but to complete it.”Barin burst into the tent, panting hard. “The eastern sentries just reported—cracks. In the ley lines. They’re... bleeding magic. Wild magic.”Bleeding.The word hit harder than it should have. As if something sacred was hemorrhaging, and I could feel every drop slipping away.Maxwell swore under his breath, pacing. “We don’t have time. You have to decide. Now.”But how could I decide?If I answered the call, if I embraced the destiny written into my blood, I risked becoming something else—something not entirely human. Not entirely mine. But if I refus
The silence after the stranger’s departure was deafening.Everyone remained frozen, as if moving might crack the fragile shell of reality he had left behind. The air inside the tent was thick with confusion, suspicion, and fear. Real fear. Not the kind that came from facing enemies you could see, but the kind that crawled inside you when you realized the ground you stood on might not be solid at all.Maxwell was the first to move. He grabbed my elbow, steady but firm. “Lena, what did he mean? What oath? What time are we losing?”I shook my head, though the truth gnawed at the back of my mind like a starving animal. I knew something. Something long buried. But my waking memory refused to yield it.“I don’t know,” I said, though my voice lacked conviction.Lior was already pulling on his jacket, moving toward the entrance. “We need to track him. He can't have gotten far.”“No,” I said sharply, stopping him mid-step. “He didn’t come to hide. He came to make sure we heard him. If we chase
The words that hung in the air settled heavily. I looked at Lior, and then at the others in the tent. They were all waiting, no longer with mere curiosity but with the weight of their expectations. What would I do now? Would I continue to walk this fragile line alone, or would I listen?I exhaled sharply, feeling a mix of frustration and understanding in equal measure. He was right in some ways, but the urgency of the hour didn’t leave room for hesitation or second-guessing. Yet, this wasn’t just about me anymore. This was about all of us. About the future we were building—together, or not at all.“I never intended to be the only one making decisions,” I said, my voice more controlled now. “The sanctity of this place was never meant to be mine alone.”Lior raised an eyebrow. “Then why are we here? Why are we sitting here while you lay the foundation with the very hands that will one day destroy it?”“Because I was trying to protect us all,” I responded, my eyes flicking to the others
The word LIAR still smoldered on the earth.Not from magic, but from intention. The burn was too crude, too human. There was no sigil or mystical flair to hide behind. No illusion. Just a raw accusation, left like a scar on sacred ground.Someone hadn’t just defaced the stone—they’d made a statement. And they’d made it here, at the heart of everything we were trying to build.I stood over it for a long time. Too long. I could feel the others watching me—Barin, Maxwell, Elara, even some of the apprentices who had come to help reinforce the foundation wards. They waited for a command, a reaction, anything to show them what I would do now.I didn’t give it to them.Not yet.Because inside me, there was a storm I couldn't afford to unleash—not until I knew where the crack had started.Maxwell stepped closer, voice low. “You think it’s someone inside?”I didn’t look at him. “If it were an outsider, the outer wards would have flared.”He swore under his breath. “Then we’ve been infiltrated.
“You called me reckless,” I continued. “You sent dreams and threats and doppelgängers to test my integrity. And I passed. Not by your standards—but by surviving, intact, through the kind of grief most of you would’ve buried. I faced my worst self and didn’t break.”A pause.“Can any of you say the same?”Silence.Then Elias spoke again, quieter. “And what do you propose, then? A Council of one?”“No,” I said. “A new covenant. Shared authority. A seat at the table for those you’ve excluded. A place where power isn’t feared—but shaped, taught, and trusted.”He didn’t move. “You’re asking us to rewrite centuries.”“I’m telling you,” I said, “they’re already rewriting themselves. You can participate—or you can be left behind.”The room held its breath.Then Elias smiled.It was small. But real.“You’ve grown,” he said. “Far more than we expected.”“I’m just getting started.”The chamber stayed silent for a moment after I spoke those words, but it wasn’t the silence of resistance—it was th
We didn’t wait for permission.By the next morning, the word was already spreading—not as a rumor, but as a declaration. The sanctuary would rise.No more retreating. No more hiding our power behind broken seals and inherited shame. We would build a space tethered to the ley lines, reinforced with intention, rooted in the truth of who we were becoming. And more than that, anyone with power, hunted or not, would be welcome. Not just Guardians. Not just wolves.Everyone.The response was immediate.Some sent their support—ancient names I barely recognized, offering blood, stone, and spell to help raise the walls. Others sent silence. The kind that carried the weight of a thousand threats.But it was the Council that answered first.I had barely finished marking the boundary runes when a crow landed on the stone in front of me. No scroll, no flare of magic. Just a voice—projected, cold and clear—from the bird’s beak."Lena Weber. The Council calls you to stand before the Elders within th
The circle dimmed. The night resumed its breath.Maxwell appeared at the edge of the trees, his eyes wild with concern. He didn’t speak. Just waited.“I’m okay,” I said, voice hoarse.He walked up to me slowly. “You don’t look okay.”“No,” I said, leaning into his chest. “But I know what I’m doing now.”He held me for a long moment. Then asked, “And what’s that?”I looked toward the stars, toward the seal humming faintly in my chest.“I’m going to stop surviving,” I said. “And start building.”Maxwell didn't speak right away. He studied me like he was seeing something different—something unfamiliar but necessary. The kind of change you don't celebrate with cheers, but with silence, because you know it’s real.“Building what?” he asked finally.I let the question hang in the air for a moment. “Something that doesn’t depend on fear. On reaction. On waiting for the next attack. Something rooted in intention. In choice. We keep surviving crisis after crisis, and we forget to imagine what