Uninvited
983 Words
Ishra's Pov
It started with the cold.
Not the usual cold of stone or shadow—this was sharper. Hungrier. Like the air itself had turned against him.
Rael went still.
No words. No warnings. Just silence so heavy it roared in my ears.
His hand left my waist. His eyes sharpened—no longer transfixed on me, but tracking something else. Something I couldn’t see.
“Someone’s here,” he said, so quiet I barely heard him.
My fingers curled instinctively. “What? Who—”
“Uninvited.”
The chamber trembled beneath us. A hairline crack appeared on one of the glowing walls, and something old and cold poured through it. I could feel it in my lungs.
He turned his head slightly. “They broke the seal.”
“They?” I backed away, only to realize there was nowhere to go. “You said this was your lair. Protected.”
“It is,” he said. “And I said they weren’t supposed to come.”
He looked... furious.
The air thickened. The pulse of the walls changed. Something broke overhead—magic, not stone. It cracked like shattering glass, and then came the laughter.
Low. Mocking. Not human.
“They think I’m distracted,” Rael muttered.
And then they came.
Two silhouettes, cloaked in red smoke, slid into the room like shadows peeled from nightmares. Tall. Elegant. Horribly beautiful. Their eyes gleamed—not red like his—but molten gold. Ancient, arrogant.
The one in front laughed. “You always make a mess when you wake up, Rael.”
Rael bared his teeth. “Valkyn.”
Even I recognized the weight in the name.
Valkyn stepped forward, gaze flicking to me with an interest that made my skin crawl. “And this must be the vessel.” He smiled wider. “I smell prophecy.”
“Look again,” Rael snapped. “She’s taken.”
Valkyn chuckled. “You don’t sound so sure.”
In a blink, fire flared.
Red. Alive. Screaming through the chamber like it wanted to devour me.
Rael caught it with his bare hand.
The fire hissed, cracked his palm—but he twisted it mid-air and threw it back. The wall behind Valkyn exploded in red light.
Stone shattered. I screamed.
Then they moved.
Rael and Valkyn crashed into each other with impossible speed. Sparks burst. Stone split. The air screamed as power tore through the chamber—wind that wasn’t wind, magic that smelled like metal and ash.
They weren’t fighting. They were destroying.
I dropped to my knees and crawled to a corner, shaking.
They disappeared. Reappeared. Blurs of claws and fangs and fury.
Valkyn landed on one of the carved pillars. “She’s shaking,” he said, grinning down at me. “You really didn’t tell her anything, Rael?”
“She doesn’t need to know you exist.”
“She needs to know what she is,” Valkyn said. “Because soon, everyone will.”
Rael lunged—but Valkyn vanished and reappeared beside me in a breath. I screamed and swung a fist blindly—useless.
He caught it mid-air. “Feisty.”
Rael tackled him sideways with a roar that made my bones shake. They rolled, slammed into a wall, and the runes on Rael’s skin glowed brighter—hotter—wild.
And then—
A voice entered my mind.
Not his.
Not mine.
Not spoken at all.
“Little vessel... they all want a piece of you. But you weren’t born to belong. You were born to awaken. You were made for something greater than flesh.”
I gasped. Clutched my head. “Get out—get out—”
Rael froze. Valkyn grinned.
“She hears them now,” Valkyn said, amused. “Voices left behind. Old, broken gods trying to get back in through her.”
Rael’s eyes darkened. “Shut your mouth.”
“She’s unraveling. Can’t you feel it?”
And I could. Something inside me shifted. The blood on my hand—the same from the altar—rose again. Not spilled. Floating. Glowing. The runes carved into the walls flickered. Reacting.
To me.
“What’s happening to me?” I cried.
Valkyn grinned. “She’s waking.”
“She’s not waking to you,” Rael snarled.
He appeared beside me, his arms wrapping around my shaking body before I could collapse.
“She’s not yours, Valkyn.”
“She’s not yours either,” Valkyn hissed.
Rael lowered his lips to my ear and whispered words I didn’t understand. Not human words. The language burned into my skin. My blood froze and then steadied.
The voices vanished.
Valkyn’s smile dropped.
“You marked her?”
Rael didn’t answer. He just stared.
“You’ll regret that,” Valkyn warned. “She was supposed to open the path. Not be claimed. You’re interfering with fate.”
“I am fate,” Rael said coldly. “Leave before I decide to spill more than fire.”
Valkyn stepped back, smoke curling at his feet. His eyes met mine. “You’ll remember me,” he said gently. “When the mark starts to burn. When you start to see things that aren’t there. You’ll want answers. And he’ll only give you obsession.”
Rael didn’t flinch. Didn’t breathe.
Valkyn vanished.
Gone in smoke and silence.
The chamber calmed.
But I didn’t.
I was still shaking. Still in Rael’s arms. Still confused. “You said… I’m not human.”
“You’re not.”
“You said the Prophet isn’t my father.”
“He isn’t.”
“Then what—what am I?” My voice cracked.
Rael looked at me. Not like prey. Not like prophecy.
Just… like a man with truth he didn’t want to give.
“You were made,” he said slowly, “to kill him.”
- Writer
