THE EMBERWITCH

CHAPTER FIVE

LIRA

'Protect! Protect! Protect!'

My ember burned beneath my skin, wrathful and wild, thrashing against my veins like a caged beast desperate to break free. It clawed at me from the inside, heat licking along my bones, dragging me in and out of my fear as I stared at the creature crawling along the ceiling above me.

Its sickening black hue blended so perfectly with the ceiling that I would have missed it entirely if it didn’t snarl.

The sound slowly became lower—almost a vibration in the air that made my stomach churn and twist violently.

My breath hitched.

It was wrong.

Everything about it was wrong.

Its slick, blackened body clung to the ceiling like a shadow given form, its six legs protruding from its torso in jagged, unnatural angles, each one ending in hooked claws that scraped faintly against stone. But that wasn’t the worst part.

It had human limbs.

Arms. Legs.

Twisted, elongated, bent in ways no human body should ever bend, sprawled out across the ceiling in grotesque angles.

And its head—

Gods.

Its head was turned completely around, facing me.

A wide, gaping mouth stretched across its face, filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth that glistened with saliva. It had no eyes. No nose. No ears.

Nothing but that mouth.

And yet—

I knew it could see me.

I felt it.

That suffocating awareness of being watched.

My heart slammed violently against my ribs.

I couldn’t use my ember.

Not here.

Not inside the palace.

Just not yet.

That would be a death sentence.

My mind scrambled for options, panic clawing its way up my throat.

I contemplated how I could escape unscathed. Do I pretend I didn't see it? Walk away slowly? I wasn’t so far from the laundry room but there was no telling that the creature wouldn’t follow me there.

My body refused to move.

The air felt thick, heavy, like something was pressing down on my chest, stealing the oxygen from my lungs. Even the faintest sound, the distant shuffle of the other servants, seemed too loud.

Gods… I was too afraid to breathe.

It didn’t look crazed, it didn’t attack me like the others. So what did it want?

I was trapped.

My ember surged again.

'I protect!'

Not now.

Not here.

My fingers trembled at my sides, heat gathering at my fingertips, begging to be released.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry.

The choice sat heavy in my chest.

Die here.

Or die later.

And then—

I ran. Like hell.

I didn’t think.

My feet pounded against the stone floors, slipping slightly as I rounded the corner, my shoulder clipping the wall hard enough to send a sharp jolt of pain down my arm but I barely felt it.

The creature shrieked behind me.

It was the loudest, piercing, most inhuman thing I'd ever heard.

It ripped through the corridor, echoing off the walls and burrowing straight into my skull.

Don’t look back. Don’t look back.

I willed myself.

I forced my legs to move faster, my breaths coming in short, ragged gasps. My vision blurred at the edges as panic tightened its grip around my lungs.

'I protect! I help!"

My Ember was a force inside of me, raging harder but fear wouldn’t even let me respond.

If that creature caught me, I'd die. If I used my Ember, I’d die.

And I couldn’t die.

Not yet.

Not when I hadn’t gotten my freedom.

Not when I hadn’t taken everything from the prince.

I pushed harder, my steps uneven as I nearly slipped again, catching myself against the wall. My palms scraped against the rough surface, skin burning, but I didn't stop.

I rounded another corner, the gates coming into view, and relief flickered weakly in my chest.

I was leading us to the guards, it was the fastest way to get their attention—

The evidence of an attack.

At least with the creature making noise—

Then—

Just as I entered the hall before the gates, I stopped in my tracks. Realization dawned on me.

Silence.

My breath still came fast and loud in my ears, but something was wrong.

I hadn’t heard anything but me.

Not since the shriek. No claws. No movement. Not a single sound.

My steps faltered.

I turned my head slowly, my eyes scanning the ceiling, the walls, every shadow—

Nothing.

It wasn’t there.

The silence pressed in around me, thick and unnatural.

Even the air felt still. Too still.

My heart pounded harder.

Where did it go?

My ember pulsed uneasily.

‘Protect…’

I swallowed, my throat tightening.

“No…” I whispered under my breath.

Suddenly, the gates burst open.

The sound was deafening—it was a harsh, metallic screech that split through the silence.

I flinched violently—

And then they fell.

Bodies.

Dead,—

Dozens.

Seemingly hundreds.

They poured through the gates, collapsing onto the floor in a sickening cascade of limbs and blood and broken forms.

The sound—

Gods, the sound—

The mutilated flesh hitting stone. Bones cracking.

Wet, heavy thuds that echoed endlessly in the corridor.

A scream tore from my throat before I could stop it.

I stumbled backward, my legs giving out as I hit the ground hard, pain shooting through my knees.

Blood.

There was so much blood.

It spread across the floor in thick, dark pools, seeping into the cracks of the stone, the metallic scent flooding the air so quickly it made me gag.

My hands trembled as I tried to push myself back, but I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t breathe.

Faces.

There were faces.

Some I didn’t recognize.

Some I did.

Twisted in terror.

Frozen in pain.

Eyes wide and empty.

A hand landed near me with a dull slap, fingers curled like it had been reaching for something.

My stomach lurched.

The last time I had seen this many bodies—

My vision blurred.

No.

No, no, no—

Suddenly i wasn’t here.

I wasn’t in the palace.

I was six, small and helpless as tears fell freely from my eyes.

“Please! please!”

My voice—smaller and weaker echoed in my ears.

I could see my father, bleeding on the ground.

His body, torn apart piece by piece as the rift creatures swarmed him where he lay still atop a pile of dead bodies, finishing what the Iron Kingdom had begun.

I could hear my mother screaming. I could feel her arms tighten around me as she ran.

But I didn’t want to run.

I didn’t want to leave him.

“Help him!” I cried, reaching out, my small hands grasping at nothing. “Mama, please! help him!”

But she didn’t stop.

She didn’t even look back.

And I did.

I watched.

I watched as they ripped him apart.

As his blood soaked into the bodies below him and the earth below them.

As his voice—strong and steady even then—called out one last time before I watched the life leave his eyes.

“Run.”

My breath hitched violently as the memory snapped into place.

I was on the floor again.

In the palace.

Surrounded by death.

My nails dug into the stone beneath me, my chest tightening painfully.

Blood—

There was so much blood.

I couldn’t—

I couldn’t face him again.

“I betrayed him…” The words slipped out before I could stop them, barely more than a whisper.

My throat burned.

“I just left him…”

My vision blurred with tears.

“I left him.”

I repeated as my chest tightened painfully, guilt clawing its way up my throat.

“I let her take me away. I didn’t fight. I didn’t stay. I didn’t—”

My voice broke.

Even though I had been a child.

Even though there had been nothing I could have done.

The guilt racking up inside me didn’t care.

I forgot him. I had to let myself forget, force it into the back of my mind because the nightmares almost claimed my life.

I remember waking in cold sweat, my body trembling so violently I could barely breathe. The phantom pain in my chest like a blade twisting deeper and deeper, over and over again.

I remembered that moment.

The sword.

The way it pierced through his head.

Again.

And again.

And again.

It never stopped.

I remembered clawing at my chest, desperate to tear the feeling out of me. Remembered slamming my head against the wall just to make it stop—just to replace one pain with another.

My hands shook violently against the floor now, dragging me back to the present as they slid through something wet, warm and thick.

My stomach lurched.

Blood.

My fingers trembled as they smeared through it, the reality of it crashing into me all over again.

A broken scream tore itself from my lips as I shoved myself away from it, my body reacting before my mind could catch up.

I pushed off the ground, desperate to get away— anywhere but here—

But my strength failed me.

Instead of standing, I collapsed backward, my body hitting the stone hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.

Pain flared across my spine, but it barely registered.

Because when my eyes lifted—

My breath stopped.

Almost like it was carved to the ceiling.

The rift creature.

It was above me once more. It had been so quiet, that had I not fallen, I wouldn't have seen it.

And it was looking right at me, as though it was studying me.

My heart slowly pounded in my chest—

My ember drifted under my skin, flowing in my body towards my fingertips.

'Help me…'

It was the first time i had reached out to it first.

Because my body felt like it was no longer my own, because my throat closed up and i felt numb.

'Protect.'

My ember answered and I knew without a shadow of doubt that it would do just that. I lifted my hands to the ceiling, towards the thing that wanted to tear me apart.

And in that split second as I felt my ember crackle ferociously under my fingertips, an overwhelming thunder of boots and voices flooded the hall, crashing into the moment. Shouts rang out, metal clashed, and chaos was close to erupting all around me.

It drowned everything.

Even the creature.

Even the fear.

Even the sound of my own breathing.

Then I saw its mouth open wider, its body tensing—

And then my ember broke free.

It exploded from my hands in a violent surge of heat and light, fire tearing through the air toward the ceiling.

But—

Nothing.

There was nothing there.

My flames struck empty stone.

My breath stuttered.

What?

Suddenly, I felt it before I saw it.

A stampede.

The ground trembled beneath me as something surged forward.

I twisted, my heart lurching into my throat and froze.

A horde of rift creatures poured into the hall like a flood, crawling over the pile of dead bodies, their limbs snapping and twisting unnaturally as they moved, impossibly fast, and hungry.

Their shrieks filled the air, high-pitched and inhuman, scraping against my skull.

And they were coming straight for me.

Fear rose sharp and vicious in my chest, choking me.

I didn’t even realize I was still firing flames at the empty ceiling.

I didn’t realize anything until the soldiers arrived.

They flooded into the hall, their weapons raised, crashing into the creatures without hesitation.

The clash was immediate.

I forced myself up, my legs trembling beneath me, my hands still blazing as instinct took over, firing at any rift creature that came my way, watching them disappear as my ember turned blue.

The soldiers didn’t question it, they didn’t even look at me. They were too busy fighting. Too busy dying.

But these rift creatures seemed stronger, faster, smarter. As they fought, they learned mid fight, they adapted and they killed. The soldiers were losing as quickly as they came. I knew nothing about taking lives but flames had the ability to grow and spread. My ember practically made me untouchable.

By the dozens, the soldiers fell to the rift creatures.

I backed away, my flames growing wilder, larger, forcing the creatures back—but there were too many and my back soon slammed against the cold stone, nowhere left to go.

They surrounded me. Their bodies twisted and coiled, their mouths open wide, teeth glinting—

I can’t die! Not yet!

The thought seared through me.

I have to kill Prince Kael.

What about my freedom?

Don’t I get to see for myself if my people still lived?

'I don’t want to die!'

I didn’t realize when I whimpered to my Ember.

'We Live!'

It roared in response..

Flames burst from my hands, larger than anything I had ever summoned before, roaring outward in a violent surge. It filled the room, swallowing everything in its path, crashing into the creatures with unstoppable force.

Gods it felt wonderful.

Power.

Pure, unrestrained power.

My flames moved like they had a will of their own, twisting and dancing through the air, devouring everything they touched.

Beautiful. Terrifying. And Alive.

If it weren’t for the blood—

For the death—

I might have smiled.

Suddenly—

My knees buckled.

The strength drained from my body in an instant.

A violent cough tore through me, and blood filled my mouth, spilling past my lips and splattering against the floor.

A sharp, blinding pain followed.

My shoulder…

Something was wrong.

My flames flickered, weakening, the room came back into focus as the fire receded and then I saw Prince Kael standing across the room. Still and unmoving.

His eyes locked onto mine, those cold eyes blazed with a fire. And somehow, everything else faded. Even the soldiers running around.

The bodies—

It was just him and me.

I looked down slowly.

I felt my lips curl as anger made its way into my head.

A sword.

Buried deep in my shoulder.

My mind struggled to catch up.

When—

How—

I hadn’t even felt it.

My vision blurred.

The world tilted.

And everything went dark.