Chapter 14
Pain was the first thing she felt.
Not the kind that faded.
The kind that remade you.
Elira gasped awake, her body slick with sweat, breath catching in the cold air. The stone walls blurred. Her hand trembled as she raised it toward the pale morning light seeping through the cracks in the roof.
And there it was.
The new rune.
Etched not in gold, not in divine silver but in white flame, flickering just beneath her skin. It didn’t glow.
It burned.
Not divine. Not gifted. But forged.
Chosen not by fate but by fury.
Unstable Power
Kael was beside her in an instant, helping her sit upright, brushing damp strands of hair from her brow.
“Elira… are you?”
She gasped again.
A pulse of magic exploded from her chest like a shockwave. The floor beneath them cracked, fissures
