All Chapters of Marked From Birth: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The "Tide" was not made of salt and foam. It was a slurry of liquid shadows and melted glaciers, a black deluge that roared with the voices of everything it had consumed on its way from the Frozen Wastes. It didn't just flood the land; it erased it, leaving behind nothing but a smooth, dark glass.Standing on the ramparts of the Silver Citadel, Audrey watched the horizon vanish. The emerald forests she had worked so hard to grow were being swallowed by a wall of water five hundred feet high."The lower valleys are already gone," Elara reported, her face splattered with the freezing rain that preceded the wave. "The nomadic packs—the ones who didn't make it to the mountain—they’re being swept into the Void.""We can't hold the gates," Lucas said. He stood beside Audrey, his right arm still shimmering with a dull silver sheen, though his skin was pale and his breath came in shallow hitches. He was a King rebuilt, but he was fragile. "The stone will crack. The mountain is strong, but the

The Tide-Caller did not die with a whimper. As Audrey’s silver harpoon pierced his grey vortex heart, he dissolved into a freezing rain that smelled of ancient salt and forgotten sorrows. But as his physical form collapsed, he turned his swirling grey eyes toward Caelum one last time."The... Storm..." the Tide-Caller wheezed, his voice the sound of a dying whirlpool. "He does not come... to take the boy. He comes... to be him."With a final, shattering crack, the Tide-Caller vanished, leaving the ramparts of the Silver Citadel slick with black slush and the wreckage of brass machinery.Audrey stood over the spot where he had fallen, her chest heaving. Her hands were raw, the silver-scarred palms throbbing with a dull, human ache. Behind her, the Clockwork Exiles were already busy venting the steam from their overheating cannons, the green emerald fire receding back into the roots of the World-Oak."We won," Vane muttered, wiping a streak of oil and soot from her forehead. "But I don'

The Council Chamber of the Silver Citadel had changed. The heavy obsidian table was still there, but it was now covered in blueprints, brass compasses, and piles of emerald-green leaves. Audrey sat at the head of the table. She felt a strange lightness in her chest—the "void" that used to roar in her blood was quiet, leaving her feeling vulnerable and very, very human. Across from her, the "Old Guard" sat like stone statues. "I will not have a man with a steam-pipe for an arm telling my scouts where to hunt," growled Hagar, the Alpha of the Iron Ridge. He slammed his fist on the table. "This is wolf land. Always has been." "And it was 'wolf land' that was about to be drowned in black water until my 'steam-pipes' showed up," Commander Vane countered, her mechanical arm hissing as she crossed it over her chest. "We aren't here as guests, Alpha. We are here as partners. Your mountains are full of silver, and my city needs it to keep the heaters running." Audrey looked at Lucas. He sat

The "Unwritten" soldiers didn't attack with blades; they attacked with shame. As they circled the trio, the ink on their paper-thin skin began to glow, projecting words onto the cavern walls.'Unwanted.''Sacrifice.''Placeholder.'Audrey felt the words pressing against her chest like physical weights. The "Unwritten" were feeding on her memories of the Moon Shadow manor—the cold nights, the hunger, the feeling of being a ghost in a house of wolves."Don't listen to them, Audrey!" Lucas shouted. He swung his silver-weighted cloak, trying to scatter the paper-beings, but his physical strength passed right through them. They were ideas, and you cannot kill an idea with a fist.One of the creatures, its face a copy of the Moon Shadow Servant Ledger, drifted toward her. It spoke in the voice of the old Alpha who had sold her. "You were bought for three bags of grain and a promise of peace. That is your value. It is written in the ink that never dries."Audrey stumbled, her knees hitting t

The sun did not rise over the Silver Citadel; it simply ignited behind a veil of sapphire haze. Audrey stood on the edge of the royal balcony, her fingers gripping the stone railing so hard the grit bit into her skin. The world below had been transformed into a masterpiece of cold, unmoving perfection.The "Silence" of the previous siblings had been empty, but this was heavy. The air felt thick, tasting of ozone and sugar. Every breath Audrey took felt like she was inhaling liquid glass. Down in the courtyards, the scene was a nightmare dressed in beauty. The Silver Pack warriors—men she had seen survive the Drought and the Tide—were standing in small circles. They weren't talking. They weren't moving.One of them, a young scout named Kael, was halfway through a stride. His foot was suspended an inch above the ground, frozen in time by a web of blue, crystalline veins that anchored him to the earth. His eyes were wide, glowing with a soft, bioluminescent blue, staring at a horizon onl