CHAPTER 4
1563 Words
KAEL THORNE
I draw my sword and glance around, hearing the laughter and whispers of the shadows.
“Stay behind me,” I say, but I know it won’t matter.
They’re coming. Running. Leaping. Screaming.
I charge forward.
The blade cuts through the air.
It slices rotting flesh, living smoke, solid darkness. One. Two. Three. They fall. They dissolve. But they come back. They always come back. Faster. Hungrier.
“Kael!” she yells behind me. “There’s too many!”
“RUN!” I roar, cutting down two more.
One tries to bite me. I crush its face with my fist and spin the blade straight into the chest of the next.
She runs.
But it’s already too late.
The shadows surround her. Laughing. Playing.
“AURORA!” I shout, turning to her.
“The chains! Kael! Get this s**t off me!”
“No!” I yell. “I don’t trust you!”
“I CAN HELP!” she screams, breathless, eyes glowing. “MY POWERS. I CAN END THIS!”
Shit.
I know she can.
She’s the daughter of the Queen of Shadows.
I swing my sword to the side, slicing through two creatures in my way, and rush to her.
My heart races. But it’s not fear. It’s instinct. Something inside me says I’m making a mistake, but… I have no choice.
I reach her. With one motion, I unbind the chains from her wrists. They hit the ground with a dull thud.
She closes her eyes, and I watch what she’ll do.
Seconds later, the shadows freeze in the air. I blink and slowly turn.
A circle. They’re forming a circle around us.
I look at her.
“Aurora…?”
She doesn’t answer. She keeps her eyes closed, then raises her hands.
And then it happens — an explosion.
Shadows burst from her palms like living smoke.
Then fire. Dark, burning, thick fire. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s not ordinary fire. It’s ancient. Wild.
She opens her eyes.
I step back.
Her pupils are black and gold — like fire and void at once.
My stomach twists.
“She... really is a tribrid,” I murmur. I don’t know if I’m speaking to myself or to the shadows.
The entire forest trembles. Trees shrink back, as if trying to escape. The shadows that laughed... now scream. Some flee. Others try to resist.
But she stands in the center of it all. Fire and shadow dance around her. Raw power.
I raise my sword. s***h the ones still approaching. But I don’t take my eyes off her.
“AURORA!” I shout. “GET CONTROL!”
She doesn’t hear me.
She’s lost to it.
More fire. More darkness. She rises into the air, as if she doesn’t need the ground anymore.
“KAEL!” she screams. Her voice doesn’t sound human. It sounds like it came from the abyss itself.
I run to her. Drop my sword. Grab her shoulders.
“Look at me!”
Her eyes meet mine. Black. Burning. But there’s still something there. Still Aurora.
“You can do this. I’m here. With you.”
She breathes. Trembles. But she hears me. I feel it.
The shadows pull back. The fire starts to fade.
And then she collapses.
I catch her in my arms before she hits the ground. She’s trembling. Cold and sweating. Hands on her head, gasping, in pain.
“Kael…” she whispers. “What’s happening to me?”
I look at her arms.
Scales. Golden. Dragon scales.
And then I see the fangs.
Werewolf.
She screams. Loud. The transformation has begun.
“CALM DOWN!” I say, holding tight. “Breathe! Look at me! Focus on me!”
I hold her face in my hands. She shakes, but looks at me. Inhales. Holds it.
The fire dies.
The power pulls back.
“It’s already happening,” I say. My voice is low. I barely recognize the sound of it. “The transformation has started.”
She stares at me. Eyes wet. Lost.
“We don’t have time,” I say, pulling out the new chains.
She doesn’t even react.
I bind her wrists again. She looks at me, betrayed.
“I’m sorry. I can’t take the risk.”
I lift her in my arms. Run. The forest behind us is still burning. But not from the shadows. From her.
My chest tightens.
She’s too powerful.
But she’s just a lost girl.
A living weapon.
And I was sent to kill her.
AURORA DARETH
The pain still pulses in my veins like liquid fire as we start running again.
"Put me down, I can run."
My feet barely touch the ground, and my heart beats so fast it feels like it's trying to escape my chest. Kael says nothing. He just runs, steady, as if he already knows where to go.
I look at my arms. The scales are still there. Golden, gleaming... monstrous. My hands tremble.
It’s happening.
The transformation.
And I’m terrified.
I want to run. As far away as I can. But I know it’s useless. I won’t be able to run from him. Not from him… not from myself.
Kael suddenly stops. My unsteady steps almost make me crash into him.
"Why did you stop?" I ask, breathless, trying to catch my breath.
He doesn’t answer. He just raises his hand and draws something in the air with his fingers, as if he’s tracing nothing.
"Have you gone insane?" I mutter, frowning.
But then… the air folds. Ripples. A rift opens in front of us. A bluish glow outlines the edges of the void that appears — a crack in reality. A portal.
"You’re going in," he says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world.
I take a step back. "I’m not throwing my body into a magic hole in the middle of the forest!"
"We don’t have time!" He grabs my wrist.
"Kael…"
He pulls me.
Everything vanishes.
Gravity disappears. My stomach turns. The world spins.
And then…
My feet touch the ground again.
But it’s not the same ground.
We’re in a forest. Dark. Dense. Trees so tall they hide the sky. The light is greenish and dim, as if the sun here is too shy to fully appear.
Things fly above us. Small glowing shapes, like fireflies… but with wings.
I squint, confused.
"Are those… fairies?"
They laugh. Tiny creatures with glowing eyes, shimmering wings, and movements too fast for me to follow.
"This can’t be real…" I whisper.
Kael takes a deep breath. "You’re no longer on the Human Earth."
My legs go weak. Everything in me screams to run, but something tells me it would be useless.
Kael turns around, alert, his eyes scanning the forest. He places a hand on his sword's hilt.
"Something’s wrong," he murmurs.
And then…
Whistles slice through the air.
Arrows.
I scream, shrinking by instinct. Kael draws his sword in one swift motion, spinning and slicing an arrow in half before it hits us.
More arrows. A rain of them.
Men on horseback emerge from the trees. Dark, glimmering armor. All of them with fiery red hair and sharp eyes. They surround us within seconds, pointing their swords.
One of them dismounts. He approaches with the posture of someone who has already won. Cold. Elegant. But dangerous.
"I am General Eldros of the Kingdom of Celestial Fire," he announces. "I have direct orders to take the tribrid into custody."
Kael steps forward, body tense. "She’s not going anywhere with you."
The general’s eyes narrow. "You know who gave me those orders, warrior."
"And you know who gave me mine." Kael’s voice is firm, low, like the sound of a blade being drawn.
The air between them is thick with threat.
"Step aside," Eldros warns. "I don’t want to spill blood."
"Not my problem. I’m not afraid."
The general raises his hand.
Kael turns to me, eyes hard, urgent. "Run."
My heart freezes.
"What?"
"Run, Aurora!"
Before I can think, I’m turning, running behind a thick tree, hiding. My knees tremble. I’m breathless. The chains still on my wrists jingle as I try to stay silent.
The sound of battle begins. Clashing swords. Muffled cries. Hooves pounding against the ground. And Kael… Kael roaring like a true warrior, cutting down enemies.
I feel every vibration in the earth as if it’s my own fear growing.
They want to take me. Use me.
Who are these men?
Why now?
A scream pulls me out of my thoughts. "AURORA, GET DOWN!"
I turn my head.
Too late.
An arrow flies through the air.
And pierces me.
The impact is brutal.
My eyes widen. A strange sound escapes my mouth — half gasp, half sob. The pain explodes in waves, like fire spreading inside me.
I fall to my knees.
Kael runs to me, shouting my name. My eyes blink, blurry, trying to focus on his face. But everything is already fading.
"Stay with me!" he yells. "Hold on, Aurora!"
My hands reach for the arrow lodged in my abdomen. Blood. So much blood.
"I… can’t…" I whisper.
"Look at me!" He holds me in his arms, pressing the wound. "You’re stronger than this. You’re a tribrid. You’re not dying here!"
I want to believe him.
But the heat turns to ice.
My eyes close.
And everything goes dark.
- Writer
