🌕 Chapter 10: Embers Between Us
614 Words
Kaira stood in the heart of the vault, surrounded by firelight and faded echoes. The surrounding murals glowed faintly now — almost pulsing with breath. The memory of her mother still clung to her like ash. Her chest ached with longing and fury.
She wasn’t just a girl with strange powers anymore.
She was born of fire. And someone had tried to steal it.
“The flame’s changed you,” Riven said, stepping beside her.
Kaira glanced at him. “How?”
“You stand straighter. And your voice… sounds like it remembers itself.”
She smirked, but the warmth behind it was real. “That’s poetic for a guy who growls more than he talks.”
“I only growl when I’m warning people,” he said, giving her a look.
“Or when I’m trying not to do something I’ll regret it.”
Her smile faltered.
“Like what?”
He stepped closer, the heat of his body mingling with the natural warmth around her.
“Like touching you. Like let this bond take over when I’m not sure whether you’ve chosen it freely.”
“Riven…” she whispered, her pulse wild. “What if I want it?”
He looked down at her — silver eyes flickering with a kind of war. “Then tell me it’s you, not the bond talking.”
“I don’t know the difference anymore.”
“Then we wait.”
But he didn’t step back. Instead, his fingers brushed a strand of ash-dusted hair from her face. Her fire danced along her skin — and this time, it didn’t burn him.
They stayed that way, suspended between decision and desire, until a noise shattered the moment.
A ripple in the flame wall.
A figure stood just beyond the outer circle — thin, cloaked in black, hands outstretched.
“Who—” Kaira began, stepping forward.
Riven snarled low. “That’s not a person. That’s a hollow wraith.”
The figure moved like a shadow through smoke. Its face shifted — now Theo’s. Now Liora’s. Now… Kaira’s.
“It’s mimicking,” Riven growled. “It’s feeding off your memory.”
Kaira’s jaw clenched. “Then I’ll give it something it won’t want to eat.”
She stepped into the ring of fire. Her palms lit like sun.
“I’m not a memory,” she said. “I’m a legacy.”
The flames responded to her anger — rising, roaring, forming a blazing arc of energy that slammed into the wraith with a sound like shattering glass.
It screamed — a sound that pierced bone — and vanished into ash.
Silence.
Riven blinked. “Well. Remind me not to make you mad.”
Kaira turned back to him, breathing hard.
“That… felt good.”
“That was good,” he said. “You controlled it. You’re learning.”
“Then let’s keep going.”
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🌌 Later That Night
They camped outside the vault under the open sky. No fire was needed — Kaira could keep them warm just by being near.
Riven lay across from her, arms behind his head, eyes on the stars.
“Do you think we’ll win this?” she asked. “Whatever’s coming?”
“I think,” he said,
“We were never meant to survive this world. But we’re rewriting it anyway.”
She looked over.
“That sounds like a promise.”
“More like a challenge,” he murmured, glancing at her. “Once I plan to meet.”
Their eyes locked — not with fire or fury, but quiet, building trust.
Kaira exhaled, allowing herself to feel safe.
And for once, the Hollow didn’t whisper.
- Writer
