Chapter Six

The world blurred into sound and motion.

Snarls split the air. Claws tore through bark. Bodies slammed into stone. Evelynn crouched behind the crumbling pillar, heart hammering, every sense on fire. She should’ve been terrified and she was but underneath it, something else stirred.

A pull.

A pulse.

Like the wild recognized her.

She peeked through the vines, catching flashes of fur and fang as Aiden clashed with the other creature.

Aiden fought like someone who had something to protect.

She realized it was her.

The other wolf if that’s what it was lunged with a roar, catching Aiden in the side. He hit the ground with a thud that cracked through her chest.

“Aiden!” she cried, instinct overriding fear.

She stood, foolishly, blindly, and the creature’s glowing eyes snapped toward her. Blood dripped from its muzzle. It was wrong all wrong. Misshapen. Twisted. Its fur hung in clumps, skin split open like it couldn’t hold what lived inside.

It turned fully toward her.

And charged.

Evelynn didn’t run.

She couldn’t.

Because something was happening.

Her hands were burning not from heat, but from the inside out. A golden light licked along her fingers like flame. Her vision sharpened. Her breath slowed. The world seemed to hush around her.

She raised her hands and the fire responded.

A burst of light exploded outward, blinding and wild.

The creature screamed.

Not in pain.

In fear.

It skidded to a halt, whined, then vanished into the forest like smoke chased by wind.

Evelynn collapsed to her knees, breathing hard.

Aiden was already shifting back, fur giving way to skin, claws to fingers. He stumbled toward her, blood on his side, eyes wide.

“You” he gasped. “How did you do that?”

“I… I don’t know,” she whispered. “It just… it happened.”

He knelt beside her, reaching to check the raw light still fading from her hands. “You shouldn’t be able to do that. Not this soon.”

“What was that thing?”

“Not a wolf,” he said darkly. “A corrupted one. They’re made, not born. Someone or something is twisting them.”

“Why?”

“Because you exist now.”

She looked up at him, shaken. “What do you mean?”

“You’re not just a bitten. You didn’t just turn. You awoke something. Something older. Stronger. That fire inside you it’s not normal. It’s… ancient.”

She stared at her hands. “Then what am I?”

He hesitated. “I don’t know. But I think someone or something does. And that means they’ll come looking.”

“For me?”

He nodded.

“And what happens when they find me?”

Aiden’s voice was low, steady. “Then they’ll try to take you. Or kill you. Or use you. But I won’t let them.”

She searched his face. “Why?”

Aiden blinked, caught off guard. Then his gaze softened. “Because I’ve spent my whole life hiding. Running. Afraid of what I am. But you… you’re not afraid. Even when you should be.”

He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “And I won’t lose the only person who ever looked at me like I was more than a monster.”

The air between them shimmered with something fragile. Real.

She touched his hand. “You’re not a monster, Aiden.”

“Neither are you.”

Silence settled around them, thick and warm. Somewhere in the trees, a night bird called out not a warning, not a threat. Just life, moving forward.

Just like them.

Finally, Evelynn stood. Her knees shook, but she stood anyway.

“Then let’s stop running,” she said. “Let’s find out what I am.”

Aiden looked at her, something like pride glinting in his tired eyes.

“Alright, fire girl,” he murmured. “Let’s begin.”

They turned away from the ruins, two figures moving deeper into the woods, where the path was uncertain, the danger was real…

…but the fire had already chosen.

And it would not be ignored.

But even as they walked, Evelynn felt the fire inside her shift.

It wasn’t just power.

It was memory.

Whispers in the trees. Symbols she didn’t recognize but somehow understood. Shapes in the dark that didn’t scare her, not anymore.

“Aiden,” she said softly, “has anyone ever… awakened like this before?”

“Not that I’ve heard,” he said, glancing at her. “But I’ve heard stories. Legends, mostly. About those who didn’t just survive the bite—but changed everything because of it.”

“They became something else?”

“They became something more.”

She exhaled, her breath curling in the cool night air. “Then maybe I’m not cursed.”

Aiden stopped walking. “What?”

She turned to him, eyes wide with truth. “Maybe I’m not broken. Maybe this… this fire — it’s a beginning.”

For a moment, Aiden said nothing. Then he gave a quiet, crooked smile. “You’re starting to sound like someone who believes in fate.”

She smiled back, tired but sure. “Maybe I do.”

They kept walking, side by side now, the forest parting just enough to let them through.

She felt found.

The fire inside her pulsed again, steady and strong.

And somewhere, far beyond the trees, something felt it too

and opened its eyes.

The air shifted.

Not just with wind but with presence.

beyond the trees,something ancient stirred .It stretched limbs that hadn’t moved in years, tasting the edges of a power long forgotten. The fire had awakened it her. The girl. The one they’d failed to find, the one who should have died.

She was still alive.

Still burning.

And if she was what they feared… she’d have to be extinguished.

Evelynn didn’t know why her steps slowed, but they did. She reached out instinctively, brushing her fingers against the rough bark of a tree as if listening to it. There was a whisper in the wind, low and broken not in a language she recognized, but it trembled through her bones like memory.

Aiden noticed. “What is it?”

She tilted her head. “Do you hear that?”

He paused, eyes narrowing, then shook his head. “No. What do you hear?”

“Something calling,” she whispered. “It’s not a voice, not really… it’s like the forest is speaking to me.”

“That’s not normal.”

“Neither am I.”

He took a step closer. “Evelynn, we need to be careful. There are rules to this world. Lines even I don’t cross.”

“What if I was meant to cross them?”

Aiden’s jaw tightened. “Then we do it together.”

The forest grew quiet again. Whatever had stirred, it was watching now. Waiting.

And Evelynn she could feel its gaze.

Not cruel. Not kind.

Just ancient.

She took a breath. Her side still ached from where the bite had happened, the mark hidden beneath her sweater now more than just a wound. It pulsed faintly, almost glowing beneath her skin when the moonlight touched it.

Aiden saw it too, the faint shimmer, the way her body responded to the night.

“You’re changing faster than I expected,” he said quietly.

She nodded. “I can feel it. Like something inside me is… unfolding.”

“Are you scared?”

“Yes,” she said. “But not of the fire.”

He looked at her, truly looked at her not like a girl who needed saving, but like someone who might save others.

“You’re stronger than you think,” he said.

“I have to be,” she whispered. “Because I think something’s coming. And it’s not going to stop until I find out what I really am.”

They stood together in the moonlight, shadows flickering between the trees, wind stirring the leaves like warning. But there was no fear in her gaze now.

Only fire.

And the fire?

It didn’t just burn.

It led the way.