The Lost Princess of Valeriya

Chapter 4: The Magic Within

Elara’s POV

Lately, I’ve been waking up with my heart pounding and my sheets clinging to me like I’ve run miles in my sleep. This morning was no different. Light poured through the shutters, brushing over the wooden floor and my tangled sheets, but it didn’t feel warm—it felt charged. Like the air before a storm.

I sat on the windowsill, legs tucked close to my chest, clutching the moonstone pendant that’s hung around my neck since before I can remember. Mira told me it was a gift, one that keeps me safe. But for days now, it’s been pulsing with heat. Not burning, exactly. Just… alive.

And then there are the dreams.

Silver towers that glow under twin moons. A faceless woman sobbing my name. Fire licking at my fingers as if it belongs there. Every time I wake, I feel like I’ve lost something I was meant to hold onto.

“Elara!”

I turned just as the garden gate slammed. There she was—Arin—my whirlwind of a best friend, all curls and urgency, bolting toward me like something was chasing her.

“Elara, we need to talk.” She didn’t even knock.

I barely had time to open the door before she barreled in. “You’ve felt it, haven’t you? The heat, the strange energy, the dreams—”

“Arin,” I interrupted, heart racing. “You’re scaring me.”

She stopped. Her eyes, dark and fierce, locked onto mine.

“You’re changing. I can feel it. And you know it too, don’t you?”

I nodded slowly. “I think something’s… waking up inside me.”

She exhaled like she’d been holding her breath for days. “Then it’s starting.”

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Arin’s POV

I’ve known Elara my whole life. I’ve known she was different even before I understood what I was. Her presence has always felt like standing near a fire—comforting but impossible to forget. But now… that fire is no longer hidden. It’s cracking through the surface.

This morning I woke up gasping, her name caught in my throat. I’d seen her in my dream—bathed in light, her arms stretched toward the sky, flames blooming around her feet like flowers. I’m half-witch, half-werewolf. My senses don’t lie.

Magic is unraveling around her. No, within her.

She’s not just different. She’s dangerous, powerful, and possibly the answer to a question I didn’t know I was asking.

“We have to take off that necklace,” I said. “It’s holding everything back.”

Elara recoiled like I’d slapped her. “Mira said it protects me.”

“Maybe once. But not anymore. I can feel the way it binds you. It’s like a dam barely holding back a flood.”

She looked down at the stone, her fingers brushing the smooth surface. I could see the flicker of fear in her eyes. Not just fear of the magic—but fear of what it might mean.

“You were never meant to live small,” I told her gently.

She looked up, and in that moment, I saw it—the spark, the truth, and the beginning of something bigger than either of us.

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Elara’s POV

That night, we waited until Mira and Thorn left to gather herbs in the glen. I paced the floor of my room, every nerve alive. My hands shook, but my chest felt strangely calm. I think part of me had been waiting for this—for years.

Arin stood in front of me, her palms glowing faintly with witch-light.

“Last chance to back out,” she said, trying to sound casual. But I saw how tight her jaw was.

“I don’t want to be afraid of myself anymore,” I said.

She nodded. “Okay. Hold still.”

I closed my eyes. I heard her breath steady, then felt her fingers brush the pendant. A hum rose in the air, then a sharp c***k—like lightning splitting stone. Heat surged through my chest and I gasped, my back arching as light exploded behind my eyelids.

“Elara!” Arin’s voice was distant, underwater.

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

And I was.

The warmth didn’t fade. It blossomed. All the heat I’d felt for days was no longer a weight—it was mine. A part of me. For the first time in my life, I felt whole.

The necklace fell to the floor with a dull clink. The moment it did, the room shifted. I felt the earth beneath my feet like it was speaking to me. I could hear the wind whisper through the cracks in the shutters. My skin hummed.

I opened my eyes. Everything glowed faintly, like I was seeing the world in a new color.

“I think,” I said, breathless, “I’m magic.”

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Arin’s POV

She stood in the center of the room, glowing like the moon. The air around her shimmered, stirred by invisible threads of power. Her hair moved slightly, as if caught in a breeze only she could feel.

“Elara,” I breathed, awestruck. “You’re not just magic. You are magic.”

And somehow, I knew in my bones—this was only the beginning.