Kiara lay awake that night.
No lights. No music. No distractions.
Just her mind looping what that thing had said — "She bears the mark… Her blood is tied to your fire."
What did it mean?
How could her blood — her ordinary blood — have anything to do with Kaelith's hellfire?
She pulled up her sleeve, staring at the spot where the creature nearly touched her. Nothing visible. But she swore… when Kaelith saved her, her veins had lit up. Just for a second.
---
Elsewhere…
Zander stood barefoot in the woods.
He didn't know how he got there. One second he was sleeping. The next, his feet carried him.
The trees were dead silent — like they were listening.
He turned around.
And froze.
There was a mark on his wrist.
A strange circle of ash, burned right into the skin.
When he touched it, pain bloomed across his whole arm — and then visions followed.
Screams. Fire. Wings.
Kaelith.
And a throne of bones, lit with black fire.
Zander gasped, stumbled back… but something inside him grinned.
He didn't understand it — but he liked it.
And deep in the trees, something laughed with him.
---
Back at Helen's House
"You're saying she's not fully human?" Kaelith's voice was low, almost shaking.
Helen flipped through another page in the old book. The candlelight made the ink look red.
"She's human," Helen said. "But her blood is older than most. Tied to a line we thought ended centuries ago."
She turned the book toward him.
A family tree.
At the bottom:
Kiara Everen.
Above it — branching off from a line marked with fire sigils — one word:
Solae.
"What is that?" Kaelith asked.
"A flame-kin," Helen whispered. "Humans born from unions with elemental spirits. Rare. Powerful. Forgotten."
Kaelith blinked. "So she's…"
"She's fire. Just like you. But born clean. Untouched. She doesn't carry the curse — but she can awaken it."
He looked down at the page. Something ached inside him — not fear. Not anger.
Recognition.
"She's the key," Helen added quietly. "She can either tether you… or destroy you."
---
Meanwhile… at Zander's house
The mark on his wrist pulsed again.
This time, it whispered.
Not a word he knew.
But it echoed in his mind like a command.
He went to the mirror.
His eyes weren't normal anymore.
They shimmered — not red like Kaelith's, but a sickly gold, like candlelight dripping.
"Let me in," the voice said again.
And Zander smiled.
---
Kiara's Room, 2:43 AM
A sound woke her.
Not outside. Not the wind. Not a knock.
A voice — from inside her mind.
"You are flame-borne."
She sat up fast, breathing hard.
Outside her window, the moon turned red.
And a shadow moved across her wall — not her own.