Chapter 16
1405 Words
The black wolf’s transformation is seamless, terrifying in its precision. One moment, there is a beast. The next, a man.
He stands tall, the moonlight casting sharp shadows across his features. His skin is rough, scarred, his muscles coiled with a power I can feel in the air between us. His eyes—burning with an unnatural fire—lock onto mine with something between amusement and challenge.
A slow, knowing smile curves his lips.
“You’ve finally accepted it,” he says, voice rough like gravel and thick with something ancient.
My heart slams against my ribs.
He knows me.
Not just from this battle. From before. From something deeper, something buried in the bloodline I never knew I carried.
I steady my breath. “Who are you?”
His gaze flickers with something almost pleased. “The one who started all of this.”
Selene tenses beside me. Damien, still catching his breath from the fight, lets out a quiet curse. I don’t dare take my eyes off the man, but I feel their unease like a second pulse in my chest.
Everything leads back to him.
The curse. The war. The rogues.
The reason I’m standing here, burning with a power I don’t understand.
I should be afraid. Every instinct is screaming at me to run. But something deeper—something ancient—holds me still.
“You,” I whisper. “You’re the reason the curse exists.”
His smile doesn’t fade. “Ah,” he breathes. “You are a fast learner.”
A shudder crawls up my spine, but I don’t let it show.
“Then that means I have to kill you,” I say, my voice steady.
His laughter is low, dark, curling around me like smoke. “Oh, little warrior,” he says. “Do you even know what you’ve become?”
My fingers curl into fists, the energy beneath my skin humming, alive. I don’t answer.
He takes a slow step forward, and despite myself, I brace for a fight. “You think this is black and white,” he continues, voice smooth, hypnotic. “That I’m the villain and you’re the hero. But tell me, Ariana—” He tilts his head, amusement flickering in his ember eyes. “Do you know what the curse truly is?”
I swallow hard. “It’s you.”
He chuckles. “Wrong.”
I don’t let my confusion show, but he sees it anyway.
“The curse isn’t a thing, little warrior,” he says. “It isn’t just some ancient spell cast to punish a bloodline.” He takes another step, and I force myself not to move. “It’s a choice.”
A choice.
The words echo in my mind.
Selene stiffens. “Don’t listen to him.”
He doesn’t acknowledge her. His focus is on me. “You felt it, didn’t you?” he continues. “The moment you accepted your power. The moment you let it in.”
My breath catches.
Because he’s right.
The moment I stopped fighting, the moment I stopped resisting what was inside me—the ruins had accepted me.
The power had welcomed me.
His smile widens, as if he can hear my thoughts. “You didn’t break the curse,” he murmurs. “You became it.”
“No,” I whisper. “That’s not—”
“True?” His eyes darken, like embers cooling to ash. “Then tell me, little warrior, why do you feel stronger than you ever have before?”
I open my mouth, but no words come.
Because I do feel stronger.
Even now, as exhaustion pulls at my limbs, the energy beneath my skin thrums with a power I don’t fully understand.
Selene steps forward. “You’re twisting the truth,” she snaps. “She was born to end this, not continue it.”
The man’s gaze flickers to her, and for the first time, his amusement fades. “And you,” he murmurs. “The golden one. The last of the old blood.”
Selene’s jaw clenches.
“You think you can guide her? Control what she becomes?” His voice darkens, low and dangerous. “You don’t understand the power she holds.”
I force myself to breathe, to focus. My thoughts are a whirlwind, my body still humming with whatever magic had awakened inside me.
“I don’t need anyone to tell me who I am,” I say, voice stronger than I expect.
His attention snaps back to me. A slow smirk spreads across his face. “Don’t you?”
And then he moves.
Faster than my eyes can track.
I barely have time to throw up my arms before he’s on me, a force of darkness and fire. My magic reacts on instinct, a blast of energy surging outward. He’s thrown back—but only for a second.
He lands on his feet, grinning like this is all a game.
“Good,” he purrs. “You’re waking up.”
A chill races through me.
Selene hurls a dagger of light at him, but he catches it midair, crushing it to dust in his palm. “Pathetic,” he mutters.
Damien moves, shifting into his wolf form in a blink. He lunges, fangs bared. But the man barely reacts. With a flick of his wrist, Damien is sent flying, crashing into the ruins with a sickening crack.
“Damien!” I cry out, heart hammering.
A groan echoes from where he landed, but he doesn’t move. My pulse pounds in my ears.
The man turns back to me, watching, waiting.
“Let’s see what you really are,” he murmurs.
Something inside me snaps.
The fear, the confusion, the exhaustion—it all burns away in a surge of raw, untamed power.
I don’t think. I move.
One second I’m standing still. The next, I’m on him, faster than I’ve ever moved before. My magic explodes outward, colliding with his, sending shockwaves through the ruins.
He grins. “Yes.”
I strike. A blast of pure energy slams into his chest, sending him skidding back. The ground cracks beneath my feet as I step forward, the power inside me growing, consuming.
His eyes gleam with something like pride.
I don’t care.
I call the magic, letting it rise, letting it take.
The ruins around us glow, the ancient symbols responding to the energy I’m wielding. The air is thick with something alive, something raw and waiting.
The man watches me with something almost reverent. “Do it.”
And for a moment—just a moment—I want to.
The power wants to.
It would be so easy. One more strike. One more surge of energy.
I could end this.
But… something in me hesitates.
His words echo back.
"You didn’t break the curse… you became it."
No.
No, that’s not who I am.
I don’t let magic control me. I control it.
I grit my teeth, forcing the power back, reigning it in.
The man’s expression shifts. Not disappointment. Not anger.
Approval.
“Good,” he murmurs.
Before I can respond, his form flickers—and then he’s gone.
The ruins fall silent.
I stagger, suddenly lightheaded, the magic inside me settling into something quieter, something mine.
Selene rushes to me, gripping my arms. “Are you—”
“I’m fine,” I breathe.
Damien groans, pushing himself up from the rubble. Relief floods through me.
Selene’s gaze flickers to where the man had stood. “That was him,” she says softly. “The First.”
I swallow hard.
The First. The one who started it all. The one who carried the original curse.
And he let me live.
Not because I was weak.
But because I chose.
Selene studies me. “You understand now, don’t you?”
I nod slowly. “The curse… it was never about breaking it.”
She exhales. “No.”
“It was about choosing what to become.”
Silence stretches between us.
Then Damien, still groaning, mutters, “Great. Next time, can we choose something that doesn’t involve getting thrown through a wall?”
A weak laugh escapes me. Relief. Exhaustion. Everything at once.
But one thing is clear.
This isn’t over.
Not yet.
Because now… I know what I am.
And I know what’s coming next.
War.
The real fight hasn’t even begun.
- Writer
