All Chapters of Ashes of Six: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The stone door yawned open with a groan that shook dust from the vaulted ceiling, the glow of Elias’s Concord Sigil stretching beneath our feet like a living tether. The others hesitated, watching me as though I’d been the one who spoke the command word, when all I’d done was breathe. The arch whispered of unity, and maybe for once I needed to stop pretending I didn’t know what that meant. I turned to them, palms damp, throat tight. My dragon pressed against my ribs like it wanted out, but this wasn’t a moment for fire. This was for me. “If we’re going to survive this, there have to be rules,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. Caelum’s eyes narrowed, wolf still restless, golden edges burning in the dark. “Rules?” His tone made it sound like a curse. “Yes.” I forced myself to meet each of their gazes, even when Lucien’s crimson-stained smirk made my pulse hitch and Elias’s quiet intensity left me stripped bare. “No fighting each other. I don’t care what the Gauntlet throws at us

The tunnels stank of smoke and iron. My shadows clung thick as tar to the stones, lapping at the edges of the blast like they could swallow it whole. They couldn’t. The Gauntlet was shifting again, hungry and spiteful, and I was tired of feeding it. I found Elias first, crumpled against a half-collapsed arch. His lips were white, his hand still twitching with phantom runes. He looked like one good gust would finish him. “On your feet, Everley,” I said, voice flat as I crouched beside him. He lifted his head, green eyes sharp even in ruin. “I’m not finished.” “No,” I said, pulling him upright by the shoulder. He swayed, and my arm locked around him. His skin burned fever-hot under his robes. “But you will be if you don’t stop bleeding your own strength into every rune this place throws at us.” He gritted his teeth, muttering about counter-sigils, but the sound blurred at the edges. His pulse was ragged. I could hear it stuttering in his veins, too slow, too fragile. He wasn’t going

The arena trembled, and this time it wasn’t an illusion. Stone splintered under our feet, light seeped from Nora’s skin, and the Concord Sigil blazed at her collarbone brighter than any rune I’d ever carved. I’d heard of dragonfire before. Weaponized. Cursed. Bound. But this… this was different. Older. Worse. Ignis vitae. The words hit me like a hammer to the skull. I’d shoved them in the farthest reaches of my mind, from that long night in the archives when my fingers had bled from flipping brittle pages, searching in desperation for scraps of forbidden lore. Fire of Life, the margins had labeled it. Banned. Half-erased. Associated with those who could cheat death, burn through curses, and destabilize the very fabric of magic simply by existing. Dragons, yes, but more than that. Echoes of bloodlines long thought smothered, powers that slept until awakened under unbearable stress. A fireborn echo. I struggled to catch my breath as I stared at her, flame wreathing every line

I could still taste blood in the air when I turned and when I saw it. Lucien’s mouth on hers. For half a heartbeat, the battlefield vanished. The roar of the crowd, the stink of scorched mercenaries, the fractured stone of the arena, gone. All I saw was Nora, lips parted under his, her fire sparking against his shadows like it belonged there. My wolf snapped its jaws inside me so hard I thought my ribs would break. Rage ripped through my chest, primal and raw, demanding I shift, demanding I kill. The Hunter’s Moon bond coiled tighter, gold burning hot in my veins. Mate. Mine. Ours. Stolen. I almost let it happen. Almost let the fury flood my claws, drive me at him until his shadow-slick throat was open in my hands. But then her scent hit me, smoke and storm, not fear, not refusal. She wasn’t fighting him. She had kissed him back. The wolf snarled, thrashing harder. My hands shook, claws ripping half out before I forced them back. Breath tore ragged from my lungs. Every instinct sc

Lucien’s shadows were seared into my skin long after they released me. His promise burned deep into my soul. But the bond itself thrummed off-balance, like something was off in the way it fitted together. Something was wrong with him. I could feel it. The Sigil at my collarbone buzzed with the certainty the Concord bond was built for unity, but now prickled like it was trying to warn me. I clamped my fists, trying to force my fire down, but it burned through anyway. The glow bled through my palms, creeping up my arms, and the Sigil flared in response. Heat ripped through me, too much, too fast, before the battlefield blinked away. Stone melted into light. I was in a chamber that shouldn’t have been real, that shouldn’t have been there, but pressed against my skin like a second skin. The air shimmered gold, the walls carved with flowing Aurelian runes. At the center of the room was a woman, her hair the color of molten copper, her eyes the same fierce gold as the flame roaring in m