Chapter fourteen
697 Words
The ride to the rogue lands was long, quiet, and filled with tension that neither Kael nor I dared break.
The rogue territories were unclaimed by the Council, ruled instead by brutal packs that answered to no one—until now.
We were trying to win them.
Or survive them.
Damon led the small group, while Kael stayed close to me. Always watching. Always tense.
“I don’t trust this,” I whispered as we crossed into no-man’s-land, the sky growing darker, the air colder.
“They don’t know what you are yet,” Kael replied. “Let’s keep it that way—for now.”
But keeping secrets from rogues was like bleeding into shark-infested waters.
They smelled everything.
By the time we reached the rogue camp, we were surrounded by wolves. Scarred. Feral. Eyes like ice and teeth bared in challenge.
The Alpha of the rogues stepped forward. A woman—tall, savage, covered in war paint. Her name was Lira.
“You brought the cursed girl,” she said, looking directly at me. “And you brought her to my land.”
Kael stood tall. “I came for alliance. Not permission.”
Lira laughed, the sound cruel. “That’s not how this works, Prince of Wolves.”
Kael’s jaw tightened. “Then how does it work?”
“You give me something I want,” Lira purred, circling him, then stopping in front of me. “Or I feed your heart to my wolves.”
Her gaze lingered on me.
“She smells like ruin,” she whispered. “Like prophecy. Like… her.”
“My mother?” I asked.
Lira froze.
Then nodded once. “Yes. Amara.”
That name hit like a blade to the chest.
“You knew her?”
“I fought beside her. Bled with her. Watched her die to protect you.”
The camp fell into stunned silence.
“What happened to her?” I asked, voice cracking.
“She was betrayed,” Lira said. “By someone who stood beside her. Someone she trusted.”
Kael’s eyes darkened. “Who?”
Lira looked straight at him.
“His name was Theron.”
Back at Kael’s territory, Theron paced inside the war room, eyes locked on the raven perched on the window. It cawed once and vanished into smoke.
A signal.
A promise.
He smiled bitterly and whispered, “You’re not the only one who can awaken bloodlines, Kael.”
And then, he opened a hidden box beneath the floorboards—inside it, a blade black as night, pulsing with dark energy.
Meanwhile, in the rogue camp, Lira led me to a fire pit at the center of their circle. She held out a dagger carved from obsidian.
“Blood reveals blood,” she said. “Do you wish to know the truth?”
I nodded.
She sliced my palm and let the blood drip into the flames.
The fire hissed—and then rose high, showing me visions.
My mother, Amara, running through the forest, a baby in her arms—me.
Theron, standing before the Elders, whispering into their ears.
My father, chained, broken, but still fighting.
The last words Amara ever spoke echoed like thunder:
“My daughter will rise. And when she does, the Council will fall.”
The vision ended.
I staggered back.
Kael caught me, his face white with fury.
“We go back,” he said. “Now.”
“But the alliance—”
“They’ll follow,” Lira interrupted. “You don’t need to beg for loyalty. You were born to rule, not plead.”
She bowed her head to me.
“To the Queen’s daughter.”
We left that night, riding fast. The bond between Kael and me pulsed stronger with every mile, our magic feeding off each other.
But the moment we reached the border of Kael’s territory—
We saw smoke.
Flames.
Blood.
His guards dead.
And Theron standing at the gates, the black blade in hand.
He turned to us with a smile that chilled my soul.
“You took something from me, Kael,” he said. “Now I’m taking it back.”
- Writer
