Birthright

Chapter 6 - The great Hall - Ephy POV

“Crack!”

The sound of the whip echoed off the stone walls, sharp and merciless. Muffled sobs rippled through the crowd, whispers weaving between the trembling slaves gathered in the great hall of Talvarna Castle. Another public lashing, another lesson in obedience. The scent of iron and fear hung thick in the air, heavy enough to choke on. Shadows flickered against the ancient tapestries as the whip cracked again, each strike a reminder of who ruled and who bled.

I am Ephy Elshine, soon to be eighteen, the secret daughter of the old fae leader, Eldridge. He found my mother, one of his destined mates, seven months before the Great War. My mother, a wolf, was never meant to be his. He hid her away from the world and me along with her.

Because of them, I am neither one thing nor the other. A hybrid.

Fae magic flows through my veins, yet a wolf spirit howls within my soul. I don’t bear the beauty of the fae, no pointed ears, no silver hair. My hair is a deep chocolate brown like my mother’s, but my eyes, my eyes are sapphire, flecked with gold, a secret I wish I could hide.

I stand now in the great hall of Talvarna, a place once said to shine with song and light. But I was not born into peace, I was born into its ruins. Into chains. Into a world where blood and ash built the walls I now serve within.

The crack of the whip tears through the air again, a sound I know too well. I watch as creatures of every kind are beaten, punished for speaking, for hoping, for daring to remember who they were before the war.

Even after all these years, the people of Talvarna have not bent the knee.

They whisper still of a saviour, a child of two worlds who will rise when the moon bleeds again.

I’ve never believed those stories.

But sometimes.. when the night is quiet, and the moonlight feels like it’s watching me, I wonder if it’s waiting for me to believe.

“Ephy! I’ve been looking for you, I just saw Dalston heading toward your house,” said my best friend, Raven, her voice low but urgent.

Raven is a year older than me. We’ve been inseparable since the day we met seven years ago. She’s of pure wolf heritage strong, proud, and breathtaking in her own quiet way. Her skin is a deep, radiant brown that glows even in the dim torchlight, her hair long and black as midnight, her eyes so dark they’re almost pools of shadow.

“Oh, shit.” My stomach twists. “He’s probably checking that everything’s ready for my birthday,” I say, the words tasting like ash.

Fear coils low in my chest. On the day I turn eighteen, I’m to be married off to Dalston, a contract sealed when I was only twelve. My mother, Marie, made the arrangement believing it would keep me safe, that binding me to a high-ranking monster of this realm would shield us both.

But there’s no safety here. Not in Talvarna. Not in this gilded prison where promises are just another kind of chain.

Raven could sense my fear, the doom that lingered over me like a storm that never passed. She moved quickly, pulling me into a tight hug. Her heartbeat was steady against mine, a reminder that I wasn’t completely alone in this cursed place.

She leaned close, her lips brushing my ear as she whispered, just loud enough for me to hear,

“We should run away. I’ve heard of a secret sanctuary taking in rebels, up in the enchanted forest mountains of Kanjuna. I think the time is coming, Ephy.. the time for something greater. We should go.”

What she was saying lit a spark of hope that burned through my veins, wild and dangerous. For a moment, I could almost see it a world beyond these walls, beyond the chains and the blood-soaked floors of Talvarna.

But then my mother’s face flashed in my mind. How could I leave her? She’d already given up everything to keep me alive. I couldn’t abandon her to this hell.

And yet… what if Raven was right?

What if there really was a sanctuary out there a place without Slavery, death, sadistic vampires, and demon torturers?