Chapter Nine: Fire And Confession
1184 Words
The lumbering cabin was falling apart as Liora, Kael, and Rhydian departed and the forest was like breathing on their faces. The smoke that still rose on the roof appeared like a finger in the air provoking to anyone around to erase the events.
It was well stocked in a piece of cloth and safely kept inside Kael coat the dagger thumped against his chest as a heartbeat. They didn’t speak, not yet. Not after everything Torin had said. Not seeking the truths that had been exposed like open, bleeding wounds.
Liora maintained her gaze ahead, even as each step grew more burdensome than the one before.
Her skin was clammy, her heart tight, and the bond between her and Kael… frayed. Such as a string pulled taut and stretched near to the breaking point.
A distance away they could see a glittering radiance peeping through the trees.
Kael halted, raising his gaze. “Smoke.”
Liora’s stomach turned. “More rogues?”
Rhydian stepped forward, sniffed the air, then tensed. “No. That’s not a rogue fire. That’s camp oil.”
Kael narrowed his eyes. “We’re close to the outer ring. It could be someone from the pack.”
Rhydian looked at him, jaw tight. “Or someone who wants us to think that.”
Nevertheless, they advanced carefully towards the illumination. Each tree cast a shadow, each sound posed a danger. The truth hit them like a lightning only when they rounded a bend and came into the clearing.
Fire devoured the cottage Kael grew up in, situated at the boundary of the ancient Draven land.
It burned fiercely, the ceiling collapsed, smoke twisting into the sky in wild spirals. The garden behind it, where Kael's mother had previously cultivated night-blooming roses, lay turned to ash.
Kael halted abruptly in his path.
"No..." he murmured, his voice breaking.
Rhydian surged forward to keep him back. “Kael, wait—”
Yet Kael liberated himself and sprinted into the open space, his boots sliding on the scorched ground as he knelt before the fire. Liora followed closely, her breath stuck in her throat. She had never seen him like this, so still, so broken, so understandable.
Kael stared at the flames, their reflection dancing in his amber gaze. “She was buried here.”
Liora placed a hand on his shoulder. “Who?”
He didn’t blink. “My mother. They moved her body after the raids. This land… it’s sacred.”
Rhydian stepped beside them. “Selene did this.”
Kael stood slowly, trembling with rage. “She’s drawing a line. She wants us to strike first.”
“And if we do,” Rhydian said, “the council rules in her favor. Declares us unfit.”
Kael’s eyes darkened. “Then maybe unfit is what we need to be.”
“No,” Liora said sharply. “Not yet.”
They both turned to her.
“She wants chaos,” she said. “If we react now, we fall into her trap.”
Kael looked at her with hollow eyes. “Then what do you suggest?”
She stepped forward, standing between the brothers and the fire, the bond between her and Kael flickering again, delicate but present.
“You tell me the rest. Every secret. Every piece of this curse. Right here. Right now.”
Kael hesitated.
Rhydian spoke first. “Liora—”
“No,” she cut him off. “I’m not being passed around between truths and half-truths anymore. I want the full story.”
Kael lowered his head. Then, finally, he spoke, “My mother died protecting the last Luna,” he said. “She wasn’t supposed to. She wasn’t even in the fight. But she sensed something. A threat. She intercepted a wolf meant to kill Luna, and took the strike instead.”
Liora swallowed. “That’s why you’re obsessed with protecting me.”
“It’s more than that,” he said. “After she died, the curse changed. It was always meant to bind the Alpha line, but after her sacrifice, something snapped. The elders believed her death was divine punishment. That the Alpha line had betrayed the natural order.”
“The order being what?” she asked.
“No humans,” Rhydian said, voice low. “No exceptions.”
Kael nodded. “They began reinforcing laws. Made the bloodline sacred. Any mate not chosen by wolf instinct… was forbidden. And when your name came up in the council—”
“You knew they wanted me as a political offering,” she whispered.
“Yes,” Kael said. “But I refused. I told them I wouldn’t bond to someone I didn’t choose.”
Liora’s hands trembled. “But you chose me anyway.”
“I felt it,” he said. “In the cavern. That pull. I didn’t recognize your face, not until later. But I knew. And once I did, I was terrified. If I told you everything, you’d think it was all a setup. That the bond wasn’t real. But it was. It is.”
Liora looked away. The fire crackled louder behind her. Her heart was a storm.
"You should have mentioned it from the beginning," she said, just above a whisper.
"I understand," he replied. “And I apologize.”
Quiet enveloped the area once more, interrupted solely by the crackling of flames and the faint cries of wolves far away from the glade.
Liora stepped closer to Kael. “Do you still believe the bond can survive this?”
Kael met her eyes. “I don’t know. But I want it to.”
Her breath caught. “Then prove it.”
Kael blinked. “How?”
“Stop protecting me from the truth. Let me choose. And if you ever lie again—”
“I won’t,” he said quickly. “I swear.”
She looked to Rhydian. “What happens now?”
He stared at the fire. “Now we finish what Selene started.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You mean the challenge.”
He nodded. “Tonight, the circle gathers. If Kael doesn’t show, Torin wins. And with the council already split, Selene won’t just gain a foothold, she’ll take the throne.”
Kael turned to Liora. “Then we mark you. Tonight. We will prove the bond to the council.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“If I don’t,” he remarked, “they’ll separate us regardless.”
Liora paused for a moment before agreeing.
But before anyone could speak again, Rhydian’s eyes went sharp.
“Get down.”
A fiery arrow whizzed past the trees, lodging into the earth just inches away from Kael’s feet.
More came one after the other, illuminating the clearing.
From the darkness, rogue wolves emerged half-shifted, snarling, ready.
At the center, a woman in black armor, eyes gleaming crimson.
Selene.
Her voice rang through the smoke. “Let’s find out just how faithful your small human truly is.”
Suddenly, the flames erupted once more, engulfing the clearing in flames.
- Writer
