Chapter 20: Blood in the Fire
807 Words
The vial sat in Raine’s palm like a living thing.
She hadn’t opened it. Not yet.
The Seer’s words echoed in her mind like a spell that wouldn’t stop unraveling:
“You’ll have to choose—love or control.”
And the terrible thing was…
Raine didn’t know which she feared losing more.
⸻
They’d made camp near a frozen creek. The others kept their distance now—especially Silas, who still hadn’t forgiven her silence at the outpost, and Wren, whose eyes held a wariness Raine didn’t blame her for.
Even Luca was quieter.
Not because he didn’t care.
But because he did.
And Raine could feel the weight of it every time he looked at her like he was trying to memorize her face before it changed forever.
⸻
That night, as the wind howled through the trees and snow began to fall again, Raine finally uncorked the vial.
She sat by the creek alone, her fingers numb, her breath fogging the air.
The black liquid inside pulsed faintly.
It smelled like burnt sugar and blood.
Her reflection in the water stared back up at her—pale, sharp-eyed, hair tangled from wind and sleep. Not the girl she used to be. Not quite the woman she would become.
Choose.
She drank.
⸻
The world cracked.
Light flared behind her eyes, blinding and strange, and suddenly Raine was falling—not down, but inward. Through herself.
Through memory.
Through time.
⸻
She stood in the center of a ring of stone.
Snow drifted around her, but the wind didn’t bite. The sky above was red, and the moon—too large, too close—glowed like a god watching her suffer.
There were women chanting around her, faces painted in ash, eyes glowing.
And in the center of the circle, she stood.
The woman from her dreams.
The one whose voice whispered in her blood.
Silver hair down her back. Long claws tipped with ink. And in her arms—something small. Swaddled.
A child.
“The curse is not a curse,” the woman whispered. “It is protection. It is memory. It is power passed down through pain.”
She looked up.
Stared straight into Raine.
“You are the last. Make it count.”
⸻
Raine jolted awake.
Sweat coated her skin despite the cold. Her limbs trembled, her throat raw from gasping.
The vial was empty in her hand.
Luca was beside her in seconds, eyes wide, hands steady.
“Raine—what happened? You weren’t breathing. I thought—”
She clutched his shirt, grounding herself. His heartbeat was a thunder in her ear.
“I saw her,” she whispered. “My ancestor. She was… she was protecting someone. A baby. I think—” She stopped. The thought was too big. Too much.
“She said I was the last.”
Luca swallowed. “Then we need to make sure you survive this.”
“I’m not sure survival is enough anymore.”
⸻
They walked by moonlight later that night, just the two of them.
Neither of them could sleep, and the air between them buzzed with things unspoken.
Finally, Luca broke the silence.
“You deserve to know the truth. About my mother.”
Raine turned, surprised.
He didn’t look at her.
“She wasn’t killed in a rogue attack. That’s what my father told everyone. That’s what I told myself. But the night she died… there was magic in the air. Old magic. Ember Pack magic.”
Raine’s breath caught. “You think she was cursed?”
“I know she was.”
He ran a hand through his hair, voice rough. “She was going to leave. Take me with her. She said the pack wasn’t safe anymore. Said my father was changing. That something had been set in motion she couldn’t stop.”
He looked at Raine then, pain sharp in his eyes.
“And the night before she died, she took me into the woods. We met someone—cloaked in firelight. A woman with eyes like cinders. She gave my mother something. A charm, maybe. And told her to run.”
Raine’s throat tightened. “What happened?”
“She never made it past the border. They found her body the next morning. Burned from the inside out.”
⸻
Raine felt the chill sink into her bones.
“She was trying to save you.”
Luca nodded.
“And now you think… it’s happening again.”
His silence was answer enough.
⸻
Back at camp, Raine stood beside the creek again.
The moon was high, silver and cruel.
Her reflection shimmered in the water.
Only this time, it moved when she didn’t.
Her mirrored self smiled.
Eyes burning gold.
“It’s already begun, Raine. You can’t save them all.”
- Writer
