Elanis
886 Words
The name echoed through Blackstone long after the voice stopped speaking.
Elanis.
The silver flames pouring through the fractured ceiling pulsed violently, casting eerie light across the ruined chamber while every vampire stared at Lena in stunned silence.
Or perhaps not Lena anymore.
The mark beneath her skin burned hotter. She dropped to one knee with a sharp gasp, fingers clutching the fabric near her collarbone as silver-black light spread farther across her shoulder like living thorns beneath flesh.
Pain twisted through her body. Fragments crashed through her mind too quickly to understand. Silver cathedrals. Black water beneath moonlight. Hands stained with blood. Amias whispering her name against her skin.
Elanis.
Not Lena.
Elanis.
“Look at me.”
Amias’s voice cut sharply through the chaos.
Cold hands caught her shoulders before she could collapse completely. Lena looked up instinctively, breath uneven, and found his silver eyes fixed entirely on her.
He looked devastated. The expression shook her more than the visions.
“Amias…” she whispered.
The familiarity of his name on her tongue startled both of them.
She had not spoken it like someone newly introduced. She had spoken it like memory. Something fractured visibly in his composure.
Another tremor ripped through the city before either could speak again. The chamber ceiling cracked wider with a deafening roar. Stone crashed onto the marble floor while silver fire spilled downward in twisting streams of light.
The Hollowed creatures dropped fully to their knees now. One pressed its forehead against the floor.
“The Veilborn Queen,” it whispered reverently.
Fear swept through the council vampires instantly.
The older one with black eyes stepped backward. “No…”
Yvette’s expression had gone dangerously unreadable. Amias rose slowly to his feet in front of Lena, placing himself between her and everyone else in the chamber. He was protective again, but now there was tension beneath it.
“She shouldn’t have awakened this early,” one council member whispered shakily.
“Awakened?” Lena repeated.
Nobody answered. Again. Her frustration finally snapped into anger.
“What does that mean?” she demanded, struggling back to her feet. “Who is Elanis?”
The silence that followed felt unbearable.
Then the older council vampire said quietly:
“You were.”
The room went still.
Lena stared at him blankly. “What?”
“You were Elanis.”
“No.”
The denial came instantly. But deep inside, something ancient stirred uneasily at hearing the name spoken aloud. The vampire’s black eyes remained fixed on her.
“Four centuries ago, the Veilborn ruled the balance between life, death, and memory. They existed before the vampire bloodlines rose to power.”
“The Veilborn were supposed to be extinct,” Yvette said.
“They are extinct,” the older vampire snapped.
His gaze darkened toward Lena.
“She died.”
A strange ache spread through Lena’s chest. Died. The word felt wrong somehow.
Another Hollowed creature crawled slowly into the chamber through the ruined doorway. Unlike the others, this one did not attack. It simply stared at Lena with tears streaming down its ruined face.
“We waited,” it whispered.
The sound of it nearly broke her heart.
Amias moved instantly, blocking the creature’s path.
“Do not come closer.”
The Hollowed flinched violently.
But it kept staring at Lena.
“She promised she would return.”
The silver fire overhead surged brighter. Then every candle in the chamber reignited at once. A pressure rolled through Blackstone powerful enough to bend the air itself.
And suddenly, there was a heartbeat. Everyone heard it. It was massive, ancient, and slow. The city beneath the city was waking up.
Yvette’s face paled slightly. “The cathedral gates are opening.”
Fear rippled visibly through the council members.
One vampire turned sharply toward Amias. “If the Hollow King rises completely—”
“He won’t,” Amias said.
But for the first time, uncertainty slipped beneath his voice.
Lena looked toward him shakily. “What is the Hollow King?”
This time, nobody avoided the question.
Amias’s expression darkened.
“He was the first immortal.”
Silence followed.
“The first vampire?” Lena asked quietly.
Amias shook his head once. “Something older.”
Another memory tore through her mind before he could continue. Silver fire flooding cathedral walls. A man chained beneath black stone. Beautiful and terrible eyes lifting toward her. And a voice whispering:
“You asked me to remember you.”
Lena gasped sharply.
The vision vanished instantly.
Amias caught her before she fell.
His hands tightened around her arms, cold against burning skin.
“What did you see?”
She looked up at him, shaken.
“There was a man,” she whispered. “Chained beneath the cathedral.”
Every vampire in the room froze.
Even the Hollowed creatures became completely still.
Yvette spoke first.
“What did he look like?”
Lena swallowed hard.
“Beautiful,” she admitted softly. “But…” Her voice faltered. “Wrong somehow.”
The older council vampire cursed under his breath.
Amias’s expression darkened with something dangerously close to dread.
Then Lena whispered the part that frightened her most.
“He knew me.”
A horrible, heavy silence followed.
And far beneath Blackstone, something enormous opened its eyes.
- Writer
