Chapter Twelve – The BLOOD Awakens
328 Words
The Pleads didn’t wait.
They struck at dawn.
The mansion shook as dark energy tore through the outer wards. Screams echoed through the halls. The air tasted like iron and fire.
“Renny!”
Beryl burst into my room, already bleeding.
“They’re here,” he said. “And they know.”
I didn’t panic.
Instead, something inside me clicked.
“I can feel them,” I said, calm and certain. “Every one of them.”
Berio appeared behind us, eyes sharp. “Then it’s begun.”
“What has?” I asked.
“Your choosing,” he said.
We reached the central hall, where shadows twisted into forms—Plead warriors, eyes hollow, weapons humming with corruption.
One of them stepped forward. “Renetta Mason. By blood and law, you are summoned.”
I laughed.
The sound startled even me.
“I don’t belong to you,” I said.
The Plead raised its weapon. “You don’t decide that.”
I felt it then—the pull.
Silver light surged through my veins, hot and alive. The ground trembled beneath my feet.
Beryl grabbed my hand. “Renny, don’t—”
But it was too late.
I let go.
The power erupted, not wild, not destructive—controlled.
The Pleads screamed.
The maze outside bloomed with light, vines cracking stone, ancient magic answering my call. I stood at the center, unbroken.
The Plead leader stared at me in fear. “What are you?”
I met its gaze.
“I am the mistake you never erased.”
The blast threw them back, shadows dissolving into nothingness.
When it was over, silence filled the hall.
I swayed—and Beryl caught me.
“You did it,” he whispered, awe and fear tangled in his voice.
“No,” I said, looking at my glowing hands. “I started it.”
Because deep down, I knew the truth now.
This wasn’t the end.
It was the awakening.
- Writer
