Rise of the Flameborn Luna

PROLOGUE

Eight Years Ago

“Wake up!”

A still small voice sounded in her mind.

She tried to pry her eyes open, but it felt like they were glued together.

“Wake up!” The voice came again, this time, urgent and a bit in a panic.

Raven stretched and that’s when she felt the heat.

It wrapped around her like a heavy blanket, pressing against her skin until sleep became impossible.

She frowned and rolled over, still half asleep.

The mattress beneath her was warmer than usual. Her room felt strange…stuffier somehow.

Then something sharp hit the back of her throat.

She coughed until she choked.

Her eyes flew open.

Smoke.

Thick, black smoke rolled across the ceiling, swallowing every corner of the little room, and her lungs burned with smoke.

Raven bolted upright.

“W...What’s happening?” She said in a shaky voice, wiping at her watering eyes, but the smoke only made them sting harder.

Every breath hurt.

The room crackled.

She looked toward the door.

An orange light flickered beneath the closed door, making it crackle.

Fire!!!

“No…”

Fear tightened around her tiny chest.

“Leon!” she cried, her voice breaking. “Sera!”

There was no answer.

She scrambled off the bed.

The instant her bare feet touched the wooden floor, a searing pain shot through her body.

“Ah!”

She screamed and jerked both feet back onto the mattress, tears spilling down her cheeks.

The floor was burning hot.

She curled against the headboard, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Daddy!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, the effort making her swallow more smoke.

“Please!” She cried, but all she heard was the roar of the flames.

The smoke thickened until she could barely see her own hands.

She buried her face beneath the blanket, hoping it would somehow keep the fire away.

It didn’t.

The room groaned, a wood splintered, and somewhere in the house, a deafening c***k echoed.

Raven looked up just as the ceiling gave way.

A massive beam, wrapped in flames, came crashing toward her.

She screamed at the top of her lungs.

The burning beam stopped less than a foot above her.

Everything became still.

The flames continued dancing.

Ash drifted through the air.

But the beam…it no longer moved.

It hung in the air.

Raven stared through blurry, tear-filled eyes, unable to understand what she was seeing.

Someone was standing between her and the falling ceiling.

A boy.

No… not a boy.

He looked older than Leon. Maybe eighteen.

One hand was raised above his head.

His palm rested against the blazing timber, holding it back from crushing her to death.

His long dark hair was tied behind him, though a few loose strands had fallen across his forehead. Soot dusted the shoulders of his black clothes.

Despite the situation they were in, his face was calm.

Raven couldn’t see all of him through the smoke, but she noticed his eyes.

They were the first thing she truly saw.

Piercing silver gray eyes

For the briefest moment, tiny rings of crimson flickered deep within them before disappearing again, so quickly she wondered if the smoke was making her imagine things.

The room groaned.

Another piece of the ceiling crackled.

He didn’t even look up.

His attention never left the frightened little girl huddled on the bed.

He looked directly at Raven.

“Stand,” he said in that unnervingly calm voice that resonated in her chest.

Raven’s fingers tightened around the blanket.

“W... Who are you?” she whispered.

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he held out his free hand toward her.

“Come.”

Something inside her eased even though she was still frightened, and the fire was still closing in.

But somehow…

She wasn’t as afraid anymore.

She stood up with trembling legs.

The moment she reached him, every bit of courage disappeared.

She threw both arms around his waist.

“Please…” she sobbed into his cloak. “Don’t leave me…”

For the briefest second, the boy froze.

Then he gave her a gentle smile, and shifted the burning beam aside.

The ceiling finally collapsed behind them with a violent crash that shook the entire room.

He lifted her effortlessly into his arms.

“Hold on,” he said.

She nodded and wrapped both arms around his neck.

The stranger stepped through the fire.

Raven gasped as the flames bent away from him.

It was as if the inferno itself refused to touch him.

He carried her downstairs.

The house had become an oven.

Furniture had burnt to ashes, and every room they passed was empty.

The realization struck even her frightened little heart.

They were gone.

Today was the pack’s migration.

They were the first set to leave the pack.

How did she fall asleep?

Why would her family leave her behind?

Outside, the night sky glowed orange as the house burned behind them.

The entire Blackthorn territory was deserted.

Everyone had left.

No one had noticed that Alpha Aldric Blackthorn’s youngest daughter had been left behind.

The stranger gently lowered Raven onto the ground.

She reached for him immediately.

“Please don’t go.”

His expression softened.

“I cannot walk the road for you.”

Before she could ask what he meant, a ring of golden light appeared and circled their waist.

Symbols unlike any language Raven had ever seen spun around them.

The wind stopped.

Even the fire seemed to pause.

The stranger closed his eyes.

Then he began speaking in a strange language. A language Raven in all her ten years on earth had not heard before.

The light circled faster.

It wrapped around Raven’s body like ribbons of sunlight before sinking gently into her skin.

Warmth spread through her chest.

Making her feel safe and warm.

The stranger opened his eyes again.

“When the path disappears…”

He touched two fingers lightly against her forehead.

“…listen.”

Raven blinked.

“To who?”

A faint smile appeared on his face.

“To me.”

She looked around nervously.

“But…where are you going?”

“I will always be where you need me.”

He stepped backward.

The golden light surrounding him slowly faded.

“No!” Raven reached for him.

“I don’t want to be alone!”

“You are not alone, Little Flame.”

His voice sounded farther away now.

“Walk.”

“I don’t know where!”

“You do.”

“I don’t!” Raven pouted, tears streaming down her face.

“You will.”

The forest behind him suddenly seemed darker than before.

He lifted one hand.

“Go.”

Raven tried to resist.

She truly did.

But her feet moved on their own.

One step.

Then another.

She walked into the forest.

When she looked back…

He was gone.

Only the burning house remained.

***

The woods were darker than any place Raven had ever seen.

Branches clawed at her clothes.

Cold wind whispered through the trees.

She cried almost the entire time because she was afraid.

“Dad…” she whispered.

There was no answer.

Hours passed.

Or maybe only minutes.

She couldn’t tell anymore.

She stumbled over a root and fell hard.

Before she could start crying again…

A familiar voice echoed inside her heart.

Left.

She froze.

It was the voice of the stranger.

“Where are you?” She asked, looking around wildly, but no one answered.

Still trembling, she turned left.

A moment later, something large crashed through the bushes where she would have been standing.

A massive shadow cat landed exactly where she’d fallen.

Its glowing eyes searched the darkness.

Its nose twitched.

Then it wandered away.

Raven covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming.

The stranger had saved her again.

She continued walking.

Later, she reached a rushing river that looked impossible to cross.

She hesitated.

Then the voice came again “Downstream.”

She obeyed.

A few minutes later, she found a fallen tree stretching across the water.

Another time she nearly wandered toward the edge of a rocky cliff.

“Stop.”

She stopped so suddenly that loose stones tumbled into the darkness below.

Again and again…

The unseen voice guided her, keeping her alive even in the darkness.

Eventually the trees began to thin and gave way to the chirping of birds.

She had finally found her way out of the forest. Raven blinked against the sunlight.

Her legs finally gave out beneath her from exhaustion and thirst.

She almost collapsed before the voice returned one last time.

“One more door."

She looked ahead.

A familiar cottage stood near the edge of town.

She knew this house.

She had visited only once before with her father, the Alpha.

Raven dragged herself toward the front door.

Her tiny fist knocked weakly twice.

The door opened.

The woman standing there froze.

Her face drained of every trace of color.

For several long seconds…

Neither of them spoke.

Then the woman’s lips parted.

“Raven…”

She looked her up and down as though she’d seen a ghost.

“How…how did you get here?” the woman demanded, her voice rising sharply.

Raven managed a weak smile.

“Mother I…”

Before she could finish, the were footsteps from inside and Alpha Aldric Blackthorn appeared behind her.

“You should have been with us, but you disappeared with that little omega, Sophia.”

“Dad!”

She took a hopeful step toward him. Then she looked back toward the distant forest.

“I was in the house and there was a fire and…”

The woman’s fingers tightened around the edge of the door.

“I woke up and everyone was gone.”

“Enough!” The Alpha’s tired voice cut straight through hers.

“You got everyone worried. You need to stop your tantrums and go help in the kitchen.”

He turned away before she could finish.

Raven stood there, staring after the only parent she had left.

“Come inside, Raven,” her stepmother said softly.

“Then you can tell me…”

She leaned closer. “…exactly how you survived.”

Raven nodded and stepped inside, her eyes brimming with tears.

Outside, unseen by anyone within the town…

A pair of silver gray eyes watched from the edge of the forest.

Then they vanished.

As though they had never been there at all.