Chapter six
856 Words
We moved deeper into the ruins, past shattered columns and moonlit arches, until Kael stopped in front of a thick stone wall. It was covered in strange markings—some I recognized from the Seer’s chamber, others older, pulsing faintly under my skin like a forgotten melody.
“This wasn’t here before,” Kael said, voice low.
I stepped closer. “It’s reacting to me.”
“How do you know?”
“I feel it.”
I reached out—and before Kael could stop me—pressed my bloody palm against the stone.
A sharp gust of wind surged through the ruins. The wall groaned, splitting open down the center. Dust and magic filled the air as the doorway revealed a narrow corridor lit by soft, bluish flames that danced in midair.
Kael moved in front of me. “Stay behind me.”
I followed, heart pounding.
The corridor led to a small chamber, circular and domed. In its center stood a basin of obsidian water, black and still. Carvings of wolves covered the walls—some with wings, others with glowing eyes or twin heads. At the base of the basin were words in an ancient tongue neither of us could read, but I knew what they said.
“Blood remembers. Fire awakens.”
Kael frowned. “This is a ritual chamber.”
I stepped toward the water, drawn like a magnet.
“You don’t know what it will do,” Kael warned.
“I have to know who I am.”
Before he could stop me, I dipped my fingers into the water.
Pain slammed through me like lightning.
I screamed—but not aloud.
Not in this world.
Because in the next heartbeat—I wasn’t standing in the chamber anymore.
I was somewhere else.
A battlefield. Smoke. Blood. Howls. Wolves tearing through soldiers in silver armor. And in the center of it all—her.
She looked like me. Same eyes. Same face. But not weak. Not lost.
She wore armor of obsidian, flames dancing at her heels. Her wolf—a creature twice the size of Kael’s—ripped through enemies with burning fangs. And then, she turned.
Stared at me.
“Wake up,” she said.
I fell backward into darkness.
I gasped awake, collapsing on the stone floor. Kael was beside me in an instant, grabbing my shoulders.
“What happened?!”
“I saw her,” I breathed. “Me—but not. A memory. Or a warning. She said… wake up.”
Kael tensed. “Your wolf.”
I nodded. “She’s not gone. Just locked away.”
Suddenly, a loud snap echoed through the ruins.
Kael stood instantly, snarling. “We’re not alone.”
I turned just in time to see a Shadowborn assassin leap from the shadows.
Kael blocked the blade—but not fast enough.
The silver dagger sliced across his side.
He growled in pain, staggering back.
“Kael!”
He dropped to one knee, clutching his ribs. His eyes flashed—then dulled. The blade was coated in something—poison.
The assassin turned to me.
“You’re the last Riven,” he hissed. “You don’t deserve to exist.”
I backed toward the obsidian basin. My pulse roared in my ears. Kael was down. I was alone.
No. Not alone.
Something inside me snapped.
A voice. A pulse. A fire I didn’t know I had.
“Wake. Up.”
Heat erupted beneath my skin.
My veins lit with gold.
The assassin charged—but I didn’t move.
Because I didn’t need to.
The air around me exploded with energy as a massive wolf stepped out from the basin’s shadows.
Not Kael.
Me.
My wolf.
She wasn’t fully formed yet—just a golden, flickering echo of fire and fang—but it was enough.
She leapt forward, slamming the assassin into the wall with bone-breaking force. He collapsed, unconscious.
Then the wolf vanished.
I collapsed beside Kael, panting.
He looked up at me, half-conscious, blood dripping from his side.
“You…” he whispered. “You shifted.”
“Not fully,” I murmured. “But enough.”
His eyes burned into mine. “You’re not broken.”
“No,” I said. “I’m dangerous.”
Kael’s lips twitched into something close to a smile before he passed out cold in my arms.
I pressed his wound, trying to slow the bleeding. The poison was spreading fast. If I didn’t act quickly—
I scanned the chamber.
There. A root hanging near the wall—dark blue, with tiny silver thorns.
I remembered the Seer’s voice from my vision:
“Nightbane root. When the blade is cursed, the cure lies in the earth.”
I snapped the root free, crushed it in my palm, and pressed it to his wound.
Kael groaned, his body tensing—then stilled.
His breathing slowed.
Steady.
I slumped against the wall, shaking.
We were alive.
But now we knew the truth:
The Riven bloodline wasn’t dead.
And its power wasn’t lost.
It was mine.
And the world wasn’t ready for it.
- Writer
