🌑 Chapter Twenty-Three: Choosing the Flame
The cavern was quieter now, but the silence wasn’t peace. It was heavy, pressing, filled with the weight of unspoken things.
Elara sat against the wall, knees drawn up, hands trembling despite her attempts to hide it. The echoes of her starfire still lived inside her chest, hot and restless, like a beast she’d only half-caged.
The brothers stood in a loose circle, but they weren’t looking at her anymore. They were looking at each other.
Kael broke the silence first, pacing, fire crackling faintly along his fingertips. His jaw clenched hard enough to c***k stone.
“We can’t ignore this. She nearly burned us along with the hound. If she doesn’t learn control, she’ll kill herself—and maybe us too.”
“Then we teach her,” Theron said firmly. He lea
