Chapter Eight: Safe Houses Lie
1372 Words
The house was hidden deep within a forgotten stretch of pine-covered mountains, so far from civilization that my phone had officially given up on finding a signal three hours ago. Trees loomed like silent guardians, their trunks thick with age and shadow. The gravel road we followed wound between them in uneven loops, like it wasn’t sure it wanted to be found.
Kael drove a beat-up black Jeep that looked like it had survived a few wars. I didn’t ask where he got it. I didn’t want to know.
The silence between us was no longer heavy—it was companionable. The kind that settles when both people know the other is processing too much to fill the air with small talk.
Still, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“So… this safe house,” I said, glancing sideways at him. “Is it actually safe? Or does it come with its own curse and a ghost named Edgar?”
His lip twitched. “No ghosts. No curses. Just dust. And a few traps for unexpected guests.”
“Comforting.”
We drove another fifteen minutes in silence before the trees opened up and the house came into view.
It wasn’t what I expected.
It looked… normal. Charming, even. A two-story wooden cabin with ivy crawling up the porch columns, and a red door that gleamed against the timber. Moss blanketed parts of the roof. A wooden swing creaked gently in the wind.
Kael parked near the back and turned off the engine.
“Stay close,” he said.
“I wasn’t planning on wandering into the forest for berries, Kael.”
He gave me a pointed look.
“I’m just saying. I’ve seen horror movies.”
He didn’t smile this time. “In those movies, the girl who jokes about dying usually dies first.”
I frowned. “Okay, dark.”
He stepped out and circled to my side.
I followed him up the creaky porch steps. Before he opened the door, he touched the red wood with his palm and muttered something under his breath.
The door shimmered faintly, then clicked open.
I stared at him.
“Magic lock?”
He nodded. “Only opens for blood tied to the house’s sigil. Or someone I invite.”
“So you’re officially inviting me in, vampire-boy?”
He didn’t miss the teasing tone. His mouth curved slightly. “You’re already inside, flameborn.”
The interior was rustic but clean. Wooden beams crisscrossed the ceiling. A stone fireplace dominated one wall. Bookshelves lined the others, filled with dusty tomes, weapons, and old glass jars holding dried herbs or strange bones. A low couch, thick rugs, and candles gave the space a warm glow that contradicted how tense I felt.
“This place looks like it belongs to a monster hunter,” I murmured.
“It did. My grandfather.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “Was he… like you?”
Kael shook his head. “Worse.”
I dropped the conversation and sat on the couch, curling into the worn cushions. Kael disappeared into a side room and came back with a first-aid kit and two bottles of water.
“You should eat soon,” he said. “We won’t be staying long.”
I took the water and asked, “Why not?”
“Because the Council will send their Seekers next. And when they come, they won’t just ask politely for your cooperation.”
“They’ll try to kill me?”
He didn’t answer.
So I answered for him.
“Of course they will.”
I tilted my head back and stared at the ceiling.
“Kael, do you ever get tired?”
He looked at me. “Of what?”
“Of this. Running. Fighting. Watching people die over things they don’t even understand?”
He was quiet a long time before he said, “Yes.”
I studied him. “Then why do you keep doing it?”
He sat across from me, elbows resting on his knees, eyes shadowed and quiet.
“Because someone has to. And because I once thought it might mean something in the end.”
“And now?”
His voice was rough. “Now I don’t know.”
The fire crackled. I leaned closer to its warmth, though it couldn’t chase away the chill inside me.
A thought struck me.
“What happens if I lose control again? Like at the chapel?”
Kael straightened. “We’ll stop it before it happens.”
“Don’t lie to me,” I said. “We both know it’s getting stronger. That fire… it wanted to hurt someone.”
“No,” he said firmly. “It reacted. It protected you.”
“Kael—”
“I’ve seen dark magic, Jewel. I know what it looks like when someone wants to destroy everything. That’s not you.”
“How do you know?”
He looked at me then, really looked. As if he was memorizing every line of my face.
“Because you’re still asking if you’ll hurt people. Monsters don’t care. You do.”
The truth in his voice cracked something open inside me. But I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.
Not when my thoughts kept spinning with one question I didn’t want to say out loud:
What if I stop caring?
What if the prophecy wins?
Suddenly, Kael stood.
“I need to check the wards around the perimeter. Stay here.”
“Wait—you're leaving me alone after everything that’s happened?”
“I won’t be far. You’ll be safe.”
I crossed my arms. “Define safe.”
But he was already out the door.
I watched through the window as he moved through the trees, a blur of black coat and silver knives.
When he vanished from view, the house felt different.
Too quiet.
Too aware.
I walked slowly through the rooms, taking it in—old photographs, dusty books, cabinets full of oddities I didn’t want to inspect. One photo caught my eye. A boy with sharp eyes and a sullen expression, standing next to a man with the same face but colder.
Kael and his grandfather.
I ran my finger along the frame. He looked younger then. Almost… normal.
A soft thump echoed above me.
I froze.
Another sound. This time a creak. Floorboards.
From the upstairs.
I grabbed the nearest object—a thick book titled Compendium of Cursed Lineages—and crept toward the stairs. My pulse pounded. I hadn’t heard the door open. I would have heard the door.
So how was someone in the house?
I climbed each step silently.
At the top landing, I paused. The hallway stretched in both directions, dim and musty. I stepped onto the worn carpet and moved toward the room where the sound had come from.
The door was ajar.
Heart hammering, I pushed it open slowly.
Nothing.
An old bedroom, empty and dusty.
I exhaled in relief and turned—
A figure stood behind me.
My scream died in my throat.
She looked like me.
White hair. Violet eyes. But older. And glowing slightly.
I stumbled back.
“What—who—what are you?”
The figure tilted her head. She didn’t speak.
Then her lips moved—but the voice came from inside my head.
“The blood remembers. The curse awakens. You are not alone in your skin.”
I backed away.
“No. No. You’re not real.”
She stepped forward.
“You will burn kingdoms. You will kneel to no crown. You are the Flameborn. The world will bow or break.”
Suddenly, she vanished.
I stood alone in the dusty room, panting, shaking.
Footsteps thundered up the stairs.
Kael burst in, eyes glowing faintly. “Jewel!”
“I—I saw her,” I said. “The ghost—vision—me? I don’t know. She was me, Kael.”
He crossed the room and caught my arms. “Slow down. Are you hurt?”
“No.”
But I looked at him, and I knew he saw it in my face:
Something had changed.
I wasn’t just unlocking memories anymore.
I was unlocking her.
And she wanted out.
- Writer
