I wake to darkness.
Not the natural kind — not the quiet, moon-soft dark that settles over a world at rest. This one is thicker. Heavier. A living thing that presses against my skin like damp cloth, suffocating in its patience.
For a moment, I can't remember what breath is.
Then the first inhale tears itself into my lungs like fire dragged through broken glass.
Pain.Then awareness.Then memory, slow and vicious.
The ridge.The bond.Nyra screaming my name as her power split the world open.
And then — nothing.A void with teeth.
My eyes snap open.
There is no ridge. No sky. No night wind carrying the aftertaste of lightning.Only a chamber carved from stone so black it eats the light. Lines of faint, dying ember-glow coil across the walls in sigils I don't recognize. Ancient. Hungry.
My wrists ache.
I look down.
The mark.No longer just mine.Bright, violent traces of Nyra's flame streak through it like veins of molten metal. It pulses — weakly but unmistakably — a heartbeat with a rhythm not entirely my own.
Relief hits me so hard my knees nearly give out.
She's alive.
The bond may be fractured, twisted by the Flame, but the echo of her is still there. Faint. Fraying. But alive.
I reach inward instinctively — a habit burned into my bones long before I ever admitted what she meant to me — and pain detonates behind my ribs. A white-hot flash that forces a snarl from my throat.
Too soon.Too damaged.
I grit my teeth and try again, slower this time.
Her presence flickers. A dim ember trying to breathe.
She's afraid.And running.
My pulse stutters.She shouldn't be alone. Not with the hunt still active. Not with the Flame unstable. Not with—
Footsteps.
My head snaps up.
A figure emerges from the far end of the chamber, steps slow, controlled. Not human. Too tall. Too fluid in the way the shadows cling to its shape. Armor like liquid dusk ripples with each movement. A mask of onyx conceals its face.
One of the revenants.But not like the ones that hunted her.
This one radiates command.
It stops several paces away, as if amused by the idea that distance matters.
"Awake," a voice murmurs from behind the mask. Not spoken aloud — threaded directly into my mind. Cold. Precise. A blade dipped in silk.
I force my stance steady."That depends," I growl. "What did you do to me?"
"Saved you," it replies. "Reshaped you."A pause."Reforged you from the ashes she left behind."
The words hit like stone.
"That's not possible."If Nyra's Flame touched me — really touched me — I should be dead. No mortal body survives the Forsaken Fire.
Unless—My stomach twists.
"What am I?"
The revenant tilts its head, as though examining a crack in a blade.
"Something new."A whisper."Something she created and the world will fear."
My pulse roars in my ears.
Nyra didn't kill me.She remade me.The Flame didn't consume me — it claimed me.
I take a step forward despite the pain lancing through my spine."What do you want?"
"Not want," it corrects. "Warn."The chamber hums. The sigils brighten in response to its presence."She is awakening. Faster than expected. The world stirs. Kingdoms tremble. The old magic begins to breathe again."
My breath catches.
Nyra.The Flame.And the bond.
He continues, "If she does not learn control, she will tear the realms open."
I clench my fists."Then let me go to her."
A soft, almost human sound of amusement echoes through my skull.
"You are not ready. You are unstable. The bond is… volatile."
"That's exactly why I need to reach her."
The revenant steps closer — too close — and the chamber trembles."You are tied to her flame in ways even she does not understand. If you approach now, you could ignite a calamity."
I meet the void behind the mask without flinching."She's in danger."
"Yes," it agrees."And so are you. Which makes the next part unfortunate."
The air tightens. The sigils along the walls flare. Heat builds in the chamber like the breath before an explosion.
Before I can react, the revenant raises a hand.
Not an attack.A summoning.
The floor beneath me splits, revealing a vortex of ember-light and twisting shadows that reach for my legs like spectral chains.
I snarl, fighting it — but my strength buckles. My power flares wild and uncontrolled, sparks leaping across my skin.
The revenant watches with detached fascination.
"You are bound, Kael. To her awakening. To her fate. And until she reaches the next threshold…"Its head tilts."You will remain contained."
The shadows yank me down.The sigils vanish.The world collapses into heat and dark.
But before the chamber disappears entirely, the revenant speaks one last thing — soft, almost reverent.
"When she calls for you, nothing in existence will stop you from tearing the realms apart to reach her."
And then the darkness takes me.