The Lost Beta 22 - The Bonefire Requiem

The battlefield lay smoldering in the first light. Wolves licked their wounds; survivors wept over the fallen. Survivors wept for the deceased, while wolves tended to their injuries. Emily knelt beside him, with Alexander's head on her lap and his chest rising in uneven patterns. They had merely delayed the conflict, making the hard-fought triumph over the Enclave seem insignificant. She put her arms around him while making barely believable promises in her whispers. This fight had cost more than blood. It had demanded everything she loved.

Mira approached, voice low and stern. “The Bonefire Beast is relentless. When it bows to your command, the battle will begin.”

Emily’s heart sank. If the Beast obeyed her, she would wield world-shaping power. If it defied her… they'd all die.

Alexander’s eyes opened, meeting hers with unwavering loyalty. “We face this,” he said. “Together.”

She nodded though terror truly rooted in her chest because he anchored her to the world she fought to save.

---

Later that morning, Emily and Mira ventured toward the forest’s edge where the Beast had first emerged. The trees were skeletal, their leaves dead. In the clearing, the Beast crouched bone armor flickering in unnatural light.

Emily stepped forward, heart pounding. She remembered the tome’s phrase: Bind flame and bone, or be consumed. The Beast snarled.

She reached out, voice steady. “I’m not here to control you. I’m here to heal you.” Mirroring command and compassion, her magic glowed a soothing blue aura.

The Beast’s form shivered. Bone plates cracked and reknit, dark embers extinguished. Its massive head bowed, eyes molten gold now calm.

Mira gasped. “It sees you as queen.”

Alexander stepped into view, voice strong. “Then we fight. But not with blood alone.”

Emily’s hand found Alexander’s. “We fight for a future.”

---

Back at Moonshadow, the camp celebrated, but Emily left the revelry early with Alexander. They walked through the ruined training grounds, memories of war and love interwoven in every scar.

They paused beneath the old willow by the river. Neither spoke. The night was heavy.

Alexander broke the silence with a kiss deep, tender, and forged by every trial they’d survived. Emily's veins began to heat up as she rubbed against him. “Even when you frighten me,” he whispered, pulling back.

She felt the need to shield him as she looked into his eyes.

 “I love you too more than power, prophecy, or peace.”

In that moment, they were more than queen and mate. They were two souls bound by fate and choice.

---

Dawn brought harsh council meetings. Athena, Emily’s trusted confidante, accused Mira of bringing unknown allies (the Fireborn) into pack affairs without transparency.

Emily watched as old wounds unfurled grudges, fear of prophecy’s power, distrust of the “outsider.”

When Athena called for ridding the pack of foreign influence, Emily felt a rage pool in her chest not at Athena, but at how easily unity shattered.

Alexander stood, voice firm. “We must heal these faults or we lose everything we fought to create.”

Emily rose, voice calm but commanding. “I choose compassion over vengeance. If mirroring love is our greatest strength, then I will mirror it even when it hurts.”

The room remained silent, the tension unresolved but respect had been earned.

---

That night, Emily discovered Mira gone along with a dozen Fireborn scouts. Panic blurred her vision.

Alexander found her on the wall walkway, horror etched on her face. “They didn’t just leave. They were stolen.”

Emily’s heart raced, visions flickered: Mira unconscious, bound, magic leeching from her.

They raced into the forest with Xavier and Kael. Traces of magic lay like breadcrumbs: burned leaves, bone shards, and sigils only the Beast could have left.

“Someone’s calling the Beast,” Kael said, voice tremulous. “Using Maya’s blood.”

Emily swallowed back fear but fury rose: no one kidnapped her sister in arms without paying the full price.

---

The trail led them to the Bonefire temple beyond the ridge, a circular ruin bathed in moonlight. The Fireborn scouts were unconscious in the middle, and the Beast was crouching over a cage that held Mira.

Witches, zealots, and disguised individuals gathered around an obsidian altar, chanting, beyond them.

Emily's heart pounded: a perverted, old prophecy gone awry, they sought to tie the Beast to serve the zealot's own queen. Alexander locked eyes with her. She nodded that we would crash their ritual.

They advanced, weapons drawn, hearts pounding as the chanting deepened, and Mira stirred…

---

They attacked with precision: Alexander’s blade clashed with zealots, Emily’s moonfire blast scattered them to the shadows.

The Beast rose, snarling bound by chains of flame and bone. Each breaker yielded to Emily’s magic: shards snapping, chains dissolving.

But the last zealot lunged with a dagger, aimed at Emily’s heart. Alexander intercepted and collapsed beneath the blow.

Emily screamed, magic surging. She hurled the zealot into the altar, crushing him but the altar erupted, sending bone and shadow into the skies.

Mira and her Fireborn recovered as the Beast roared free and then, shockingly, it bowed before Emily.

Opening the cage, Emily embraced Mira lovers reunited in the heart of darkness.

---

Exhausted under the dawn sky, Emily held Mira and Alexander close. The temple had fallen quiet, the altar shattered.

Mira whispered, “They wanted to bind the Beast to their queen in exile. It would have erased your power.”

Emily’s power flared a quiet reminder she was not yet broken.

Alexander brushed ash from her cheek. “You saved us all today.”

Emily looked at her reunited allies, family and chosen, and whispered, “But tomorrow… we fight the Alpha Council.”

Behind her, the broken altar hummed… a single bone shard glowed with dark promise.

---

Emily didn’t notice it but over the ridge, forming in the shadows, armies marched under a new banner: serpents entwined with crescentmoons. The Alpha Council had sent assassins… led by her long-lost brother, returned at last.