CHAPTER9
1272 Words
Chapter Nine: Rise of the Forgotten
Chaos descended like a storm unleashed.
The moment Kiera appeared beyond the Ironfang line, standing regally amid wolves and fire, Aria knew this wasn’t a battle by chance. It was a betrayal long in the making.
The rogues had joined the Ironfang army. The Northern wall was already splintering under the onslaught of fire arrows and brute strength. The Council's guards scrambled to reinforce the gate, but it was clear they were outnumbered. Outmatched.
And utterly unprepared.
Aria stood frozen atop the bottle, staring at her sister.
Kiera looked untouched. Pristine. A goddess in war. Her long red cloak billowed behind her as if summoned by the flames.
Aria’s stomach twisted.
Darius stepped to her side, her voice low but sharp. “That’s not just a military alliance. Kiera’s directing them.”
Kael’s hands clenched into fists. “She orchestrated everything, used my bond, used the Council, and now this.”
“She's using me,” Aria whispered, her voice riddled with horror. This isn’t about a crown. It’s about eliminating me.”
And then the first wall broke.
Stone cracked, and flames licked through the gap as wolves in crude, rusted armour poured in. The clash of metal and teeth rang out. Screams followed human, wolf, beta, and Alpha. It didn’t matter. The battlefield was blood-stained in seconds.
“Get her to the inner court!” a Council soldier shouted.
“No,” Aria barked. “I’m not running.”
“Aria” Kael turned to her, eyes wide.
“I’m not hiding again!” she shouted over the noise. “You don’t get to choose for me anymore.”
She leapt from the walltop, landing hard on the inner stone path, drawing her blade a silver-edged crescent, once her mother’s, long hidden in Council storage.
It fit her hand like it had been waiting for her.
Darius dropped beside her, his own sword flashing in the light. “Then fight beside me.”
The Battle
The fight was brutal. Rogues tore through weaker guards, scent-crazed and bloodthirsty. Ironfang soldiers pushed toward the Council gates, intent on breaching the Council.
Aria fought tooth and nail. She wasn’t trained. Alpha Dominic, Alpha Kael moved with killing efficiency, Darius with honed precision, but her instincts were wild and fast, guided by desperation and something deeper.
Power.
Something simmered in her veins, hot, urgent, and ancient.
A rogue lunged at her. She dodged, slashing across his chest. Another grabbed her arm, snarling until she screamed.
Not a cry of fear.
A command.
It burst from her throat, laced with something old and pure.
“SUBMIT!”
The rogue staggered.
Dropped to his knees.
Eyes wide, wild until another took his head from his shoulders.
Kael turned mid-s***h, eyes locking on her. “What was that?”
Darius’s voice was ragged. “That wasn’t just a command. That was a blood command.”
Aria’s heart pounded.
She didn’t understand it but the rogues did.
And they feared it.
Beyond the Fireline
Kiera watched from a raised platform of stone behind the attacking lines. Two Ironfang Alphas stood beside her, but neither looked entirely comfortable anymore.
She saw it, too. Aria was changing.
One of the Alphas growled. “She’s activating her bloodline.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” the other hissed. You said she was untrained. Passive.”
Kiera’s jaw tightened. “She is.”
“Then why are our rogues falling at her voice?”
Selene turned sharply. “Because she’s reacting, not leading. Don’t be fooled. She’s not Luna yet.”
But the truth was, her palms were sweating.
Aria wasn’t just surviving.
She was awakened.
Council Hall – Crumbling Ground
The Council Hall shook as another wall cracked. Darius shoved a flaming beam away from a wounded Beta and pulled Aria back as rubble rained down.
“We have to force them into retreat,” he said, panting. “If we don’t end this *now*, they’ll reach the Elder chambers.”
Kael turned toward the wall where Selene stood watching.
“Then we take out the one controlling them.”
Aria followed his gaze. Their eyes didn't meet Kiera’s.
It was like looking into a mirror cracked at the soul.
“I’ll go,” Aria said.
Kael and Darius both turned sharply. “No.”
“She wants me,” Aria said. “She’s hiding behind them all because she thinks I’ll stay silent.”
“You’re not a weapon, Aria,” Kael growled. “You're”
“I’m the reason this war is happening. So let me end it.”
Without another word, she broke into a sprint, cutting across the outer courtyard, dodging fallen spears and broken bodies. Her cloak caught fire for a heartbeat. She tore it off. Her blade was stained red. Her eyes burned gold.
Rogues lunged.
She didn't slow.
She screamed again.
“YIELD!”
They faltered. Enough for Darius to follow and carve a path beside her.
The Confrontation
At the foot of the broken arch, Kiera stood waiting.
No longer passive.
No longer smiling.
She stepped down from the stone with measured grace, her red cloak dragging ash behind her.
“You just couldn’t stay buried, could you?” she said.
“I buried you once,” Aria growled. “Maybe it’s time we finish that.”
“You always thought you were better. "Just because of the mark, the birthright." Kiera's lips curled. “But they all left you. Even Father.”
“And you took what wasn’t yours,” Aria snapped.
“I earned it,” Kiera snarled. “While you were crying in the forest, I was learning how to manipulate the Council. How to hold Kael’s gaze. How to lead warriors. You think power comes from blood? No. It comes from control.”
Kiera lifted her hand.
From behind her, three rogues emerged bigger than the rest. Feral-eyed. Marked with carved scars across their faces.
“Bloodbinders,” Darius muttered. “They’re bound to her will.”
Kael appeared behind them, bleeding but upright. “She’s using dark rituals.”
Aria stepped forward.
“So be it.”
She dropped her blade.
Kiera blinked. “What are you—?”
“I don’t need a weapon to end this,” Aria said, voice steady.
Then she raised her hand, and from deep inside, she called the thing inside her veins.
Her mother’s legacy.
The Vale line.
The Voice of the Dominion.
“Enough,” she said.
It was barely a whisper.
But the Bloodbinders froze.
Their bodies should then crumple.
Kiera reeled back, her face draining of colour.
“You can’t…”
“I can,” Aria said. “And I will.”
Kiera’s fury snapped.
Alpha's strength was aimed at Aria’s throat.
But Kael caught her mid-leap, slamming her to the ground.
“Stay down.”
“She’ll ruin you too.”
Kael didn’t look at her.
He looked at Aria.
And what he saw was not the Omega he cast out years ago.
It was a queen forged in fire.
After the war was over.
The rogues scattered.
The Ironfangs withdrew.
The Council guards surged in.
And Aria… collapsed to her knees.
She couldn’t hear anything.
Couldn’t feel anything.
But she was still breathing.
And when she opened her eyes, the Elder Omega knelt before her.
“The Council recognises your power.”
Aria shook her head. “I didn’t do this for the title.”
“Then why did you?”
Aria’s gaze drifted to Kiera, now bound and being dragged into the Hall.
“To survive.”
- Writer
