Chapter 6 – Ashes and Oaths
1287 Words
Arielle’s POV
The ember between us roared.
It wasn’t just a kiss,it was a collision. Fire to fire. A storm cracking open between my ribs.
Dario’s hand trembled slightly as it cupped my jaw, but his lips were sure, desperate. Like he’d been holding back for too long and now there was no going back. The ember mark beneath our skin flared, syncing in rhythm, pulsing like a second heartbeat.
Then it shifted.
Not just heat. Not just passion.
Power.
I jerked back, breathless. “Did you feel that?”
He nodded, eyes dark and unreadable. “It’s syncing. The bond is responding.”
“To what?”
“You,” he said simply. “Us.”
I stepped away, needing space. Air. Reason. “You said it wasn’t supposed to do that. That you rejected me—”
“I did,” he admitted, chest rising and falling. “Because I thought it would break everything. I didn’t know... I didn’t know it would burn brighter instead.”
I stared at him, heart racing. “So what does this mean?”
“It means the prophecy has already begun. And you’re not just the center of it—you’re the spark.”
I didn’t sleep that night. Again.
Instead, I sat by the window, staring out into the dark.
Somewhere beyond the walls of the compound, more of them were waking. The bound. The ones connected to the ember. The ones who’d waited centuries to be called again.
And I was the one doing the calling whether I meant to or not.
The kiss with Dario had lit something up inside me. Not just romantically. Magically. And if that kiss could trigger another wave of power, what else could?
What else would?
At dawn, I was already dressed and pacing when Vera entered.
“You didn’t sleep.”
“No,” I muttered. “There’s too much at stake.”
She leaned against the doorframe. “You’re handling this better than most would.”
“I’m not most.”
“No,” she said softly. “You’re not. And that’s why they’ll come for you.”
I paused. “Who?”
“Not just the bound,” she replied. “Not just the ones drawn to the prophecy. The enemies of it. The ones who know what it means if you rise.”
By midday, Dario had summoned everyone to the war room.
Vera. Maddox. Three lieutenants I didn’t recognize. And me.
He stood at the head of the long obsidian table, arms folded, looking more mafia boss than Alpha. But his eyes flicked to me the moment I walked in, as if checking to see if I still glowed.
I did.
It wasn’t visible, not like before. But inside? The ember hummed like a restless storm.
“We’ve had three breaches in the last twenty-four hours,” Maddox began. “All at perimeter points reinforced with blood spells.”
“Someone’s testing us,” Vera said.
Dario’s voice was low. “No. Not someone. Something.”
He turned toward me. “Tell them what you saw in the Vault.”
I hesitated, then spoke. “The ember core fractured. And I saw them. The bound aren’t just waking up—they’re being called. Not all of them will be allies.”
A silence fell.
Then one of the lieutenants scoffed. “And we’re trusting her visions now?”
Vera’s eyes sharpened. “Careful.”
“No,” I said, stepping forward. “Let him speak. He’s right to be skeptical. But whether you trust me or not, the signs are already here. The cracks. The whispers. The shift in the wards.”
I lifted my sleeve and showed the mark.
It shimmered like wildfire beneath my skin.
“You don’t have to believe me,” I finished. “But the prophecy does.”
After the meeting, Dario caught up with me in the hall.
“You didn’t have to defend yourself,” he said.
“Yes, I did. Because if I don’t, no one will.”
He hesitated. “You think I won’t?”
“I don’t know what to think with you.”
His jaw tightened. “I know I hurt you. But I’m not your enemy, Arielle.”
“Then stop treating me like your responsibility and start treating me like your equal.”
He didn’t answer right away. But something in his gaze shifted—less control, more vulnerability.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
Later that night, I found Corwin waiting for me in the courtyard again.
This time, he wasn’t alone.
Five more had come.
Each of them bore the ember mark in some form—scars, tattoos, brands. One of them, a woman named Thalia, said she’d dreamed of me before ever seeing my face.
“The Flameborn is meant to lead us,” she said, bowing. “We are yours.”
I wasn’t ready.
But I couldn’t deny the way the ember in me responded to theirs—recognizing them. Binding us.
I took a shaky breath. “Then we train. We prepare. Because something is coming.”
They all nodded.
And just like that, I had a small army.
But peace never lasted long.
Two nights later, the east wall burned.
Not with flames, but with a magic older than anything I’d felt before. Screams echoed through the compound as the sky turned black.
I ran outside with Dario, weapons in hand.
What we saw froze my blood.
A creature stood on the hill just beyond the gates.
Not a man. Not a wolf.
Something in between.
Tall. Shadowed. Its eyes glowed the same ember hue as mine.
But wrong.
Corrupted.
“Is that—” I began.
“One of the corrupted bound,” Dario said, grim. “Twisted by the wrong side of the ember.”
I stepped forward.
It growled, low and guttural.
And then it spoke.
“You do not belong.”
My mark flared, reacting violently.
I braced. “Neither do you.”
It lunged.
Dario shifted mid-sprint, tearing through the grass in full Alpha form—black fur, silver eyes.
I let the ember rise in me, swirling hot through my blood, and threw out my hand.
The magic caught the creature mid-air.
It screamed.
The sound wasn’t human.
I held it suspended for seconds just long enough for Dario to rip it apart.
When it fell to the ground, the ember drained from its body in a slow, smoky hiss.
But the damage had already been done.
A message.
A warning.
A war.
Later, while the compound burned and Vera patched up the wounded, I stood in front of the Vault again.
Dario joined me, his shirt torn and bloodied.
“We’re out of time,” I said quietly.
He nodded. “They’re coming faster now.”
“I need to train. Not just with you. With all of them. The ones who bear the mark.”
“You’re right.”
He stepped closer.
“You’re not the same girl I bought at that auction.”
“I was never just a girl,” I said.
He smiled slightly. “No. You weren’t.”
I turned to face him. “Do you regret it?”
“The auction?”
“No. Me.”
He didn’t blink. “Never.”
That night, I stood beneath the stars again.
But I wasn’t alone anymore.
Seven bound stood behind me, their ember marks glowing in sync.
Dario was at my side.
And deep in the shadows, I knew—more were coming.
Some to follow.
Some to kill.
But I wouldn’t run anymore.
Because fire doesn’t fear the dark.
It becomes it.
- Writer
