judgement day
523 Words
The great hall of Elders reeked of incense, iron, and fear.
Mira stood at the center, her boots leaving muddy prints on the polished obsidian floor. Around her, the twelve high-ranking Elders sat like statues cloaked, masked, and cold. A council that had once treated her like a curse now looked at her with something new.
Dread.
“I was summoned,” she said, voice echoing against the high ceilings. “Speak.”
Elder Varos, the head of the council, leaned forward. “You disappeared from the academy grounds without clearance. You crossed into Hollow territory. You trespassed on forbidden ruins. You made contact with the entity known as Selene Thornveil.”
“My mother,” Mira corrected sharply. “You forgot to mention that.”
“She’s a threat to every werewolf alive.”
“So am I,” Mira said, smiling darkly.
The room stirred.
Kade stood just behind her, silent and stone-faced. He was supposed to remain neutral. Instead, he stood at her side, making his allegiance loud and clear.
A different Elder growled, “Do you realize what you’ve done, child?”
Mira’s eyes flashed silver.
“I am not your child.”
She stepped forward.
“I’m the result of your abuse. Your secrets. Your fear. You called me cursed but I survived you. I survived my father. My sister. The years of punishment you wrapped in ceremony and doctrine.”
“You are unstable,” another Elder snapped. “You are dangerous.”
She grinned. “Say it again. Slowly.”
Kade smirked behind her.
Varos rose, slamming his staff against the floor. “You are hereby suspended from all academy duties. Your bond to Alpha Kaelus”
“She’s not bonded to me,” Kade said. “She chose me.”
“And I’ll choose him again,” Mira said, stepping back to grab his hand. “In every life.”
The Elders erupted.
Mira raised her hands not in surrender, but invocation. Symbols burned in the air, spiraling around her arms. Her power once sealed now bloomed.
And it was terrifying.
“You branded me to contain me,” she said. “But the seal is broken. My magic remembers. My bloodline remembers.”
“You dare threaten us?” Varos roared.
“No,” Mira said softly.
“I’m promising you.”
The room darkened. The stone beneath her cracked.
Suddenly Elder Varos choked.
A crimson stream of blood ran from his nose, then his mouth. He gasped, his body shaking.
Mira hadn’t touched him.
No one had.
She just watched.
And it was enough.
Kade stepped beside her, wrapping a protective arm around her waist. “Let’s go,” he murmured.
“We’re not done,” Mira said, eyes still locked on Varos.
“I think we are,” Kade replied. “For now.”
She turned, the cursed mark on her arm glowing brighter than ever before.
The doors blew open on their own.
And Mira Thornveil walked out of the Elders’ Hall a free woman and a future queen
Outside, the sky wept red.
The blood moon had begun to rise.
- Writer
