The Voice Below
1354 Words
My name should not have sounded beautiful coming from a monster.
But it did.
“Lyra.”
The voice rolled through the cavern like thunder buried beneath stone.
Ancient.
Deep.
Male.
Not quite human.
Not beast.
Something older.
Something that had existed long before wolves, kings, or bloodlines.
Kael’s arm tightened around my waist so hard I felt the tremor in his muscles.
Protective.
Terrifying.
Possessive.
“Do not answer it,” he said.
His voice was low and sharp.
A command.
The colossal eye beneath the ledge blinked once.
Blue fire pulsed in its pupil.
Watching me.
Waiting.
The crescent scar at my collarbone burned so fiercely I cried out.
My knees nearly buckled.
Kael caught me instantly.
His other hand lifted his sword of black fire, blade pointed toward the abyss below.
Maera’s ghost stood still beside shattered stone pillars, moon-white eyes reflecting ancient grief.
“The Gate knows her,” she whispered.
Kael snarled.
“The Gate should not be alive.”
“It is not.”
That answer chilled me more than anything.
Then what was speaking?
The eye below narrowed.
Again, that voice.
“Come closer.”
I hated how part of me wanted to obey.
A pull twisted through my chest.
Not like the bond with Kael.
That bond was heat.
Tension.
Magnetic ache.
This was older.
Colder.
Like blood remembering something my mind had forgotten.
I stepped forward before realizing it.
Kael yanked me back hard.
His chest slammed against my back.
“You do not move toward it.”
His breath brushed my ear.
Hot.
Dangerously intimate.
His grip on my waist tightened.
“I will chain you to me if I must.”
Despite terror, heat curled low in my stomach.
Ridiculous.
The man threatened restraint in the middle of an underground nightmare and somehow it sounded more protective than cruel.
“I wasn’t trying to.”
“Yes, you were.”
His tone was deadly calm.
“Something is calling to your blood.”
The scar blazed again.
My teeth clenched.
Pain shot through my collarbone and down my ribs like molten silver.
Then
A memory hit.
Not mine.
A woman running through fire.
Silver robes soaked in blood.
A child crying.
A hand pressing moonlit fingers against an infant’s chest.
A whispered vow.
Seal her.
Seal it.
Seal her before it wakes
I gasped.
Kael turned sharply.
“What did you see?”
I pressed trembling fingers against my temple.
“My mother.”
Maera drifted closer.
No footsteps.
Only floating silver robes.
“Memory Echoes.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The bloodline of Vaelor carried more than royal power.” Her gaze dropped to my mark. “It carried memory.”
Wonderful.
So now my blood also stored ancient trauma.
Kael’s jaw flexed.
“What was sealed?”
Maera hesitated.
And I hated that.
Because spirits that had lived centuries should not hesitate.
Her pale lips parted.
Then
The cavern exploded with a roar.
Shades poured upward from below.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Their bone-black bodies crawled across pillars and walls, blue eyes glowing like cursed stars.
This time they did not hesitate.
They attacked.
Kael shoved me behind him.
“Stay close.”
“I am not fragile.”
“No,” he growled, black fire flaring around his sword. “You are the center of this.”
That shut me up.
Mostly.
The first Shade lunged.
Kael split it in half.
The second leapt from above.
I dropped low and slashed upward with a jagged black shard still clutched from the cave floor.
Its jaw cracked sideways.
Not dead.
Still moving.
I was deeply starting to hate these things.
A third Shade pinned me.
Its weight crushed my chest.
Rot and smoke poured from its split mouth.
Teeth inches from my throat.
I shoved hard.
Too strong.
Too heavy.
Panic hit.
Then anger.
Then Moonfire answered.
Silver light burst from my palms.
This time it didn’t explode wildly.
It flowed.
Controlled.
A spear of white fire pierced through the creature.
Ash scattered across my face.
I stared.
Breathing hard.
I had done that.
Kael turned, killing another Shade.
His silver eyes flashed with fierce pride.
“You’re learning.”
A ridiculous flicker of warmth hit me.
In the middle of monsters.
Wonderful timing.
Then a scream echoed above.
Human.
Blood Hunters.
Torches appeared high along shattered stone ridges.
Lucien stood above us.
Calm.
Elegant.
Monstrous.
His silver half-mask reflected blue firelight.
Behind him, armed hunters lined the broken ledges.
Crossbows loaded with silver bolts.
“Touching reunion,” Lucien called.
Kael’s expression became murder.
Lucien ignored him.
His gaze locked on me.
“The Gate has recognized her.”
Maera turned sharply.
“You fool.”
Lucien smiled faintly.
“On the contrary. I have waited twenty years.”
My blood iced.
Twenty.
The same age as me.
No coincidence.
Kael stepped forward.
Shielding me again.
Always between me and danger.
Lucien continued.
“Your mother stole what belonged beneath this mountain.”
I shouted upward.
“I am not a thing to steal!”
His cold gray eyes sharpened.
“No. You are worse.”
The colossal eye below blinked again.
The mountain trembled.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
A heartbeat.
Huge.
Alive.
Lucien lifted one hand.
“Break the ledges.”
Silver bolts rained downward.
Stone shattered.
Pillars cracked.
Kael cursed and grabbed me.
One ledge collapsed beneath my feet.
He hauled me against his chest.
His wounded side bled harder.
I saw it.
He was weakening.
And still he protected me first.
Always me first.
Something sharp twisted in my chest.
Fear.
Because if Kael fell
No.
I couldn’t think that.
A silver bolt flew.
Straight for him.
I reacted.
Moonfire erupted outward in a wide shield.
The bolt vaporized.
Then ten more shattered against light.
Silence.
Even Lucien froze.
Kael looked at me like he had never truly seen me before.
“You shielded.”
I was shaking.
“I didn’t mean to.”
But I had.
Power hummed stronger now.
No longer wild.
Listening.
The crescent mark blazed.
Then the voice below spoke again.
Closer.
Inside my bones.
Daughter.
I froze.
Daughter?
No.
No.
Kael felt me stiffen.
“What did it say?”
My voice broke.
“It called me daughter.”
Even Lucien’s calm cracked.
Maera’s face went pale with ancient horror.
“That is impossible.”
The ground split.
A massive crack tore across the cavern floor.
Blue fire surged upward like a river.
The colossal eye rose higher.
Then part of a face emerged.
Stone-black skin.
Ancient horns.
A jaw lined with glowing fractures of molten blue.
Not beast.
Not god.
Not wolf.
Something imprisoned.
Something vast.
Its voice shook every pillar.
I know my blood.
Kael stepped fully in front of me.
Sword raised.
Body rigid.
Protective.
Terrifying.
Possessive.
“You do not speak to her.”
The creature laughed.
The sound shattered half the remaining ledges.
Little wolf king…
It knew him.
That was worse.
Then its glowing gaze fixed on me.
Your mother did not seal me away.
She sealed you away from me.
My breath stopped.
What?
Memories exploded behind my eyes.
My mother crying.
A ritual circle.
Silver chains.
Blue fire.
A hand touching my infant forehead.
And a whisper
Forgive me, Lyra.
I choose the wolves.
Not the abyss.
I screamed.
Power burst from me.
Moonfire ripped across the cavern in a violent wave.
Shades disintegrated.
Hunters were thrown from ledges.
Stone pillars cracked.
Lucien staggered.
Kael grabbed me before I collapsed.
His arms around me.
Holding.
Steady.
Mine.
Or dangerously close to feeling that way.
My vision blurred.
The creature below lifted higher.
Almost free.
Then Kael looked up at Lucien.
Silver eyes blazing.
And said the words that made my blood run cold.
“If she is its blood…”
His voice turned deadly.
“…then only Lyra can either open the Black Gate…”
He looked at me.
Pain.
Fear.
Something almost like heartbreak.
“…or destroy it.”
Then the mountain split open beneath my feet.
And I fell alone.
- Writer
