Blood and bone
490 Words
Chapter 13 – Blood and Bone
The forest was different when the sun rose.
Not safer. Just exposed.
The shadows peeled back to reveal bones tangled in roots. Scratch marks on tree trunks, too deep and deliberate to be random. Symbols etched into stone in an ancient language Mira had only ever seen in her mother’s spellbook.
And the bloodied silk Kade carried?
It now had claw marks burned into it.
Not from a wolf.
From a witch.
“She’s alive,” Mira said as they walked deeper. “Barely.”
“You can feel her?” Kade asked.
“No. I can smell her fear.”
Kade growled softly. “Do we save her?”
Mira’s voice was sharp. “She tried to ruin me. She’s the reason I was punished, isolated, branded.”
He looked at her, silent.
And then, softly, “You were already ruined before she got to you, Mira.”
She stopped.
Turned.
“And you’re still the most powerful, beautiful, dangerous creature I’ve ever met.”
Her throat tightened.
He added, “Let’s go get your revenge.”
⸻
They found her near a stone altar, stripped of dignity and soaked in blood. Her long curls were matted, her eyes wide and wild. Tessa Thornveil — the golden child, the adored, the fake.
Mira’s steps were slow, deliberate. Kade stood back, arms crossed, unreadable.
Tessa’s lips cracked as she tried to speak. “Sister…”
Mira crouched beside her, tilting her head. “Funny. You used to choke on that word.”
“I didn’t know… what they wanted from me—”
“Lies again?” Mira snapped. “Your favorite game.”
Tessa flinched.
“The council used you,” Mira continued. “You brought them my blood. You gave them pieces of me when I was too young to understand what betrayal felt like.”
“I was scared…”
“You were greedy.”
She reached forward and touched the burn on Tessa’s arm — a symbol she recognized now.
A blood contract. Witch-forged.
“You sold me.”
Tessa burst into tears. “I wanted to be like her! Your mother — everyone said she had power, and I— I never had anything! I just wanted to matter.”
Mira’s eyes burned.
“You matter now.”
She stood.
And turned away.
Tessa screamed, “You’re just like her! You don’t feel! You’re not even human!”
“No,” Mira said softly. “I’m something worse.”
Kade stepped forward, gaze cold. “She dies?”
Mira didn’t answer.
She just raised her hand.
The ground rumbled.
But before the spell could fall — the trees screamed.
The air thickened.
A portal tore open near the altar, and from it stepped a woman cloaked in shadow, her face familiar — too familiar.
Mira gasped. “That’s not possible…”
The woman smiled cruelly.
“Hello, daughter.”
- Writer
