Author
It began with thunder.The kind that split the heavens open and made the world hold its breath.
Serena Hawton had always loved storms. They'd been her family's gift — her father's command, her mother's song, her brother's laughter echoing in the rain. But that night, the sky turned against her, and the storm she loved learned to scream.
She had been 10. The heir of House Hawton, standing at her balcony, watching the horizon burn. At first she thought it was the reflection of lightning. Then she saw the fires.
"Serena!" her brother's voice — bright, breathless — echoed down the hall. "They've breached the gates!"She ran. Bare feet on cold stone. Wind howling through the shattered windows. The keep that had been her world trembled with each strike of thunder. Soldiers shouted; magic collided in flashes of silver and black.
When she burst into the great hall, the world stopped.
The banners of her house — silver lightning on a black field — hung in tatters. Her father lay fallen near the dais, his crown twisted beside him. Her mother knelt beside him, her hands trembling, whispering a prayer Serena couldn't hear. Her brother, the boy who had always followed her through every reckless dare, reached for her — and then a blade of shadow cut through the light.
Serena screamed. The sound tore through the air like the storm itself breaking.
And through the chaos, **Xaiden Dilph** walked forward.
His cloak was torn, his blade gleaming with darkness that pulsed like a heartbeat. The boy she had known — the rival who used to spar with her under the hawthorn trees, who used to laugh when she challenged him to duel the sky — was gone. In his place stood a stranger, his silver eyes colder than steel.
"Xaiden," she choked, stumbling toward him. "Please. Stop—"He didn't.
The shadows moved with him, obeyed him, devoured everything she loved.
"You don't have to do this!" she cried.
"I already have." It wasn't anger in his voice. It was something worse — finality.
The storm outside raged louder. The keep trembled. When the thunder struck again, her world went white. And when it cleared, her family was gone. Silence fell — heavy, unnatural. The hall that had once been filled with laughter now smelled of smoke and loss. Serena stood alone amid the ruin, shaking, her hands reaching for a past that had already turned to ash.
Xaiden stood at the far end, watching her with a face carved from stone.
"Why?" she whispered, barely breathing.He didn't answer. A muscle twitched in his jaw, and for a heartbeat, pain flickered in his eyes — there, and gone again.
"There was no other way," he said softly.
"There's always another way." She stepped forward, but the shadows surged between them, forcing her back.
When she spoke again, her voice was nothing but a promise of ruin. "I will never forgive you."
Xaiden's expression didn't change, but something inside him seemed to fracture. He turned away, disappearing into the storm he'd summoned, leaving her with nothing but echoes.
Serena sank to her knees beside her family — her father's crown cold against her palm. The lightning outside flickered, answering her grief, bending to her rage. The wind rose, shrieking through the ruins, as if the sky itself mourned with her.
That night, the girl who had loved storms died.
In her place rose something new — something vast and merciless.
Serena Hawton, heir of storms, child of ashes, swore her vengeance beneath a blood-red sky.
"I will make him remember," she whispered to the wind."I will make him fall."
And as the thunder rolled across the land, even the gods seemed to listen.
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