The Ember Wakes
508 Words
Lina – First Person POV
I didn’t sleep.
I couldn’t.
Something burned inside me all night—not fire, not quite—but heat. Deep and restless. Like embers trapped beneath skin. Like I was vibrating from the inside out.
I tossed and turned, drenched in sweat. I’d throw off the covers, then pull them back minutes later, teeth chattering. My stomach twisted with nausea, my throat dry. And through it all, my mind refused to stop spinning.
Images kept flashing behind my eyes:
Laura’s smirk.
Dylan’s sneer.
The wind screaming past me as I fell.
And the eyes—green and steady—of the man who caught me.
I sat up just before dawn, the sky outside my window still cloaked in navy and silver.
I couldn’t lie here another minute.
I needed movement. I needed answers.
I needed a plan.
⸻
I stood in front of the mirror and barely recognized myself.
My skin was pale, but my eyes were sharper than they’d been in weeks—months, maybe. The bruises from the fall had already faded. But something deeper had shifted. Something internal.
Something final.
I wasn’t going to beg anymore.
I wasn’t going to wait for the shift.
I was going to act.
Because while Dylan and Laura were busy playing pretend in their little golden court, they’d forgotten one very important thing:
I’m not stupid.
I grew up in this clan, raised in council chambers and training arenas. I may not have shifted, but I listened. I studied. I learned how law works. How tradition can be used as both a weapon and a shield.
Dylan thinks he controls me because I haven’t shifted?
Fine.
But he’s wrong about one thing.
A Luna—even one who hasn’t taken to the skies—still has rights.
And I know exactly where to take my case.
The Dragon King.
Period.
⸻
But before I could stand in front of a king, I had to face the truth that had been clawing at me since the night of the fly:
I’m not strong enough. Not yet.
I could barely lift a sword anymore. I hadn’t trained in months. Maybe years. I’d let myself shrink to fit a world that never wanted me whole.
No more.
If I was going to rise, I needed to be strong enough to stand.
Physically. Mentally. Politically.
Dylan would never see me coming. Not until it was too late. I was working on special plans for Laura. Our whole life she’s tormented me, while putting on the act of doting and caring sister. There’s something sinister than lives in her and I’m done making excuses for her. Everyone will see. Soon.
I pulled my hair back into a tight braid, grabbed the worn workout gear I hadn’t touched in over a year, and slid on my boots.
If fire was going to live in me, I was going to earn it.
And if I wasn’t a dragon?
Then I would be something else.
Something older.
Something they couldn’t cage.
- Writer
