Chapter 2. Marked for Death
690 Words
✦ Cold Rescue. Strange Eyes
When Aria woke up, her bones were iced.
She can't tell how long she’s been unconscious.
Could be hours or even days. Her skin froze, lips cracked.
Somewhere afar, a wolf howled.
And then she felt a warm hand touched her on the shoulder.
She flinched.
“Easy girl. I’m not here to hurt you”
The voice was old, soberly and elderly.
“You escaped death. You were barely breathing when I found you”
He had dragged and moved her to a small carved hut in the hillside, she couldn’t fight it, she couldn’t resist.
The calm glow of the fire was across the stone walls, casting shaking shadows. Bundles of dried leafs and herbs moved gently from the rafters, filling the air with a scent of smoke and pine, mixed with someth in ing else that was hard to recognize.
Moonflower.
The sacred herb only known to priestesses.
✦ Bones of Fire
She tried sitting up, but her entire body screamed in protest and pains. Her wrists was aching, her ribs bruised, and her throat felt raw like she’d swallowed smoke.
She touched her face, feeling dried blood under her both fingers. Her palms were so scratched and they burned.
She looked around the small hut stone walls, floor packed and scattered for warmth. It feels ancient. Like it had been there for centuries untouched.
A small kettle hissing on the fire. The warmth slowly wrapped around her limbs, but her chest still stayed cold.
She was alive.
But part of her wished she hadn’t survived any of this.
She turned toward the old man, but he said nothing. He was grinding some herbs into a bowl and humming something low and something that she couldn’t place. A lullaby? A warning?
Aria’s hands clenched tightly into fists.
“You should’ve left me,” she said.
The man didn’t stop grinding.
“Death would’ve been easier than what’s coming,” she said.
At that, he finally looked at her now.
“You know there are fates worse than death. But there are also futures worth living for.”
✦ The Fire Keeps Burning
That night, Aria couldn’t sleep at all.
Every time she closed her eyes, she was back on the ground in Black River, surrounded by sneers and boots and betrayal and hatred and torture.
She kept hearing the elder’s voice in her head throughout, echoing the same thing again and again:
“You escaped death.”
But had she really?
She touched her chest, right above her heart.
She could still feel everything about the rejection burning there like a scar deep inside her soul.
The fire in the hut hissed and shaking. Outside, wind howled through the high hills. Her wolf disturbed within her, weak, angry, coiled together like a spring. It wanted answers.
She glanced again at the bundles of the herbs above her. The moonflower glowed faintly now, as if it was pulsing with the moon itself.
Something ancient was watching her. Waiting.
Her bones felt like they were no longer her own at that moment.
✦ Shadows in the Flame
She turned to the fire and was staring hard at the flames.
They moved a bit strangely. Not like the regular fire, but as if they danced with purpose, it felt like they were alive.
Then the vision came.
It started slow: her palms hitting up. Pressure behind her eyes. Her body was going still.
Then, fire.
Flashing images, silver light pouring out from her skin. A hand reaching toward her. Chains breaking. A circle of wolves kneeling before her. Kael, he was shirtless and wounded, also standing in the shadows but was unable to look away.
The throne of bone.
The crown made of light.
The flames burning the ground around her but never touching her.
She gasped and pulled back, breaking the vision’s hold.
The elder looked at her over from the far corner but said nothing.
Maybe he’d seen it too. Maybe not.
But Aria knew something now.
Whatever was happening right inside of her wasn’t normal. It wasn’t just survival.
It was awakening.
- Writer
