The Shadow Within
318 Words
🌕 Chapter 5 – The Shadow Within
The next morning, the forest felt different.
Still. Cold. Watching.
Amara stood alone outside the cabin, her fingers tracing the mark at the base of her neck—the one that glowed faintly ever since the fight. She didn’t know whether to be afraid of it… or of what it meant.
Inside, Kaden spoke with someone quietly. Too quietly.
She leaned closer to the cracked door.
“…we can’t keep her here forever,” a voice said—deep, unfamiliar, but edged with authority.
“I’m not hiding her,” Kaden replied. “I’m protecting her.”
“You think the Elders will see it that way?”
There was silence. Then Kaden’s voice, lower.
“They don’t have to know yet.”
Amara backed away, heart pounding. The Elders?
Why would he hide her from his own people?
She didn’t have time to process it—because the air changed again.
Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed through her skull. Images flashed behind her eyes. A fire. A silver mask. A boy crying in a darkened hallway.
And then—
A face.
Ryker.
Golden eyes. Smirk like a blade. The rogue from her dreams.
But not a stranger.
She gasped.
“I know him,” she whispered, staggering back.
The cabin door flew open. Kaden was beside her in seconds, his hand on her waist.
“What did you see?”
Amara clutched her head. “The rogue... he’s not just some random attacker. I knew him. As a child. I think he—”
Her breath caught.
“I think he saved me once.”
Kaden’s face darkened. “Ryker.”
“You know him?”
He hesitated. His jaw clenched. “He was my brother. Once.”
Amara stared at him, stunned.
“And now?”
Kaden’s eyes were ice. “Now, he’s the reason everything is falling apart"
- Writer
