Chapter 1.
858 Words
The forest was alive with the sounds of night. Leaves rustled in the wind, branches creaked under the weight of unseen creatures, and somewhere in the distance, an owl called out into the darkness. Evelynn Nightshade moved through the undergrowth without a sound, her bow drawn, eyes scanning the landscape with practiced precision.
Beside her, Axel and Jasmine crept forward, their forms blending into the shadows of the trees. They were twins, sharing the same striking sharp features—raven-black hair and piercing blue eyes. Axel was lean but muscular, built for speed and precision, while Jasmine mirrored his sharpness but carried a quiet grace in her movements. Her body lethal and almost feline.They had been her closest allies for years, bound by the same purpose: to bring down the tyrant King Harold who had turned their once flourishing empire into a blood soaked battlefield.
Evelynn was different from the twins .Short—barely five feet tall—but stocky and strong, her body built from years of survival, hands calloused from years of drawing back a bowstring until her fingers bled and defined muscles in her arms from wielding a sword against men and beasts twice her size. Her natural unruly red hair was usually pulled back into a loose braid, but it always seemed to escape, wild like the fire in her veins. And then there were her eyes—golden green ,the strange color she had inherited from her mother, a woman she sometimes barely remembered but whose blood still whispered through her veins. A bloodline of witches. A lineage of power.
She had never considered herself a witch. She couldn’t cast spells or command the elements. Her mother died long before she could teach her anything about their ancestors.But there had always been something in her—something that seemed just out of her reach.
It was the only thing left she had of her parents besides the horrible memories of the night she lost them.
Even now, all these years later, the screams still haunted her. Her parents’ dying cries echoed in her mind every night, a nightmare she could never escape. She had been only five when her watched the village burn,but time had done nothing to dull the pain of it all. It was the reason she fought. The reason she could never stop fighting against this war that had claimed so much more then just her home and family.
They had been tracking rogue activity for hours now, following faint trails of boot prints and broken branches.
Axel, ever the pessimistic realist, kept his sword low but ready. “You sure about this intel, Evelynn? If the rogues are moving, they’re doing a damn good job of covering their tracks.”
“They’re out here,” Evelynn muttered, her sharp eyes flicking to the barely visible footprints pressed into the damp earth. “Look closer—heavy boots, light feet moving fast. They’re planning something.”
Jasmine carefully knelt beside her, brushing her fingers against the faintest of tracks. “There seem to be at least a dozen of them, maybe more. If they’re heading for Wellwick, they’ll strike before the dawn.”
A familiar surge of anger burned in Evelynn’s chest. Another village, another m******e waiting to happen. King Harold’s grip on the land was tightening, and every act of rebellion was met with more bloodshed. If she and her rebels are you wearing a watch didn’t stop this group now, Wellwick would be nothing but ash by sunrise.
“We take them out now then . Before they get a chance to reach the village,” Evelynn decided, standing. “Jasmine, circle west. Axel, with me. We—”
The words caught in her throat. A sharp, piercing sensation ran through her body, an aching pull deep in her bones. It wasn’t painful —it was something older, something primal. Her breath hitched, caught in her throat.
She felt it then.
A presence.
An ancient call.
It hummed through her blood like a second heartbeat, like something powerful stirring just beneath her skin. It was near. It had always been near. She knew that now.
A low, rumbling growl echoed through the trees, shaking the ground beneath them.
The three of them froze.
“Please tell me that was your stomach,” Axel whispered.
Jasmine’s hand tightened around the hilt of her dagger. “That’s definitely not a wolf.”
Evelynn barely heard them. The pull in her chest grew stronger, a tether she hadn’t known existed snapping into place, yanking her toward something immense.
The villages in surrounding areas had spoken of a monster. A creature lurking in the forests, unseen but felt. Most thought it was just a story. But Evelynn knew better.
Because it was calling for her.
The forest had gone unnervingly silent. No birds. No insects. Just the wind through the leaves and the slow, rhythmic breathing of something enormous.
Then, from the darkness ahead, two huge golden green eyes opened—dragon eyes that mirrored the color of her own.
Gazing into the eyes of the beast her world erupted into fire.
- Writer
