Blood Divided
869 Words
The flames burned low in the underbrush as screams faded into silence.
Ash drifted over the ruins of Eclipse Abbey like falling snow. Aria stood frozen, blade still crackling with faint magic, her chest rising and falling in shallow gasps.
Across the broken stones, Damaris hadn’t moved.
And neither had the girl beside him.
She was younger than Aria by a few years. Same eyes. Same silver-threaded hair. But her expression was blank—like a mirror with no reflection.
Aria’s voice was raw when she spoke. “Who is she?”
Damaris smiled with maddening calm. “Your sister.”
Lena stepped forward. “That’s impossible. There are no records of—”
“There wouldn’t be,” Damaris cut in. “She was hidden. Raised beyond the Reach. Taught what you were never allowed to learn.”
The girl finally lifted her gaze to Aria. Her eyes weren’t just violet—they shimmered like fractured amethyst, filled with secrets too old for her age.
“I’ve seen you,” the girl said softly. “In dreams soaked in fire.”
Aria’s grip on her sword tightened. “What’s her name?”
Damaris tilted his head. “She was born without one. That choice is yours.”
The second seal groaned beneath their feet.
A low hum began to build in the ruins, rising from the ancient circle where Aria had touched the stone. Blue light shimmered beneath the cracks. The air tasted of metal and smoke.
“She shouldn’t be here,” Lena said sharply. “Two Moonstones... that’s why it’s reacting. The seal senses them both.”
Kael stepped between Aria and Damaris. “Leave. Now. Or I’ll make sure you don’t walk away.”
Damaris’ eyes flashed black. “You’re already too late.”
He raised one hand—
And the seal exploded.
---
The world shattered in sound and light.
Magic surged from the stone circle like a geyser, hurling warriors off their feet. The ground split. Trees bent backward. Runes blazed across the walls of the ruined abbey.
Aria was flung to the ground. Pain bloomed in her ribs. Her blade skittered out of reach.
When her vision cleared—
She saw Kael on his knees.
Blood poured from a wound in his side. A jagged piece of rune-stone jutted from his abdomen. He was trying to stand. Failing.
“No—Kael!”
She crawled toward him, hands slick with dust and blood.
Behind her, Damaris approached, cloak swirling with shadow. “It’s poetic, isn’t it? The Alpha dying for the one thing he should have destroyed.”
Aria’s power flared wildly.
Blue flames roared around her, uncalled.
She screamed—not from fear, but fury—and the flames answered. They surged like a tidal wave, slamming into Damaris and forcing him back.
But the girl—her sister—stepped through the fire untouched.
The flames curved around her like wind around stone.
“Why doesn’t it hurt her?” Aria gasped.
Lena dragged Kael back as Aria rose to her feet, her aura pulsing like a second sun.
The girl spoke again, voice distant. “Because I was made for it.”
Damaris touched her shoulder, and a tear of shadow opened behind them.
He looked at Aria one last time.
“You’ve felt it too, haven’t you? That the fire isn’t just your power. It’s your tether. And when the final seal breaks… it will consume you.”
Aria said nothing.
She was too busy glowing.
The air around her cracked with pressure. Her braid whipped in a wind she hadn’t summoned. Her eyes shone silver-blue, burning with something vast, something unwritten.
But before she could move—
They were gone.
Damaris and the girl stepped into the shadow gate.
It vanished behind them with a sound like a closing scream.
---
Silence fell over the ruined temple.
The second seal still pulsed—but it hadn’t broken. Not fully.
Kael groaned as Lena pressed her hands over the bleeding wound. “He needs a healer. Now.”
Aria knelt beside him. “Stay awake. Don’t you dare go quiet on me.”
Kael’s lips twitched. “Bossy… even now.”
She smiled through the tears in her eyes. “You’ve got a hole in your side. Let me be dramatic.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“No, you haven’t.”
Kael looked up at her, gaze serious despite the blood on his mouth. “She’s not just your sister, Aria. She’s your shadow.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if you live... she doesn't.”
---
They returned to Emberwatch under moonlight.
Kael was carried into the healer’s wing.
Lena stayed behind to ward the abbey ruins.
Aria climbed the western tower alone, her mother’s pendant still warm against her chest. She stood beneath the stars, wind pulling at her cloak.
She could still feel the girl’s presence—like a second heartbeat. Distant. Watching.
A sister.
Not a twin.
Not a stranger.
A weapon like her.
She took a slow breath.
And whispered to the night:
> “If this ends with one of us gone…
It won’t be me.”
- Writer
