Chapter 3 Kael Thorne

The night was still cloaked in silence when Kael nudged the ignition and pulled the car onto an abandoned stretch of road. Elara sat beside him, arms wrapped tightly around her knees, watching her town disappear in the rearview mirror. She had nothing-no bags, no clothes, no photographs of her past. Just the burning mark on her shoulder and a stranger beside her who said he was her guardian.

And yet, something inside her whispered: this was exactly where she was supposed to be.

They drove through forests older than maps, past roads that didn't exist on GPS and maps, until even the stars above began to look unfamiliar. Trees grew taller, wilder. The moonlight sharpened. The world twisted subtly around them, like reality was being rewound.

Elara broke the silence. "Where are we going?"

Kael didn't take his eyes off the road. "To Eldoria. A city that doesn't exist on any human map. It's hidden between the veils of realms, where our kind live in secrecy."

"Our kind," she echoed. "So, it's real? All of it- Lycans, vampires, hidden kingdoms?"

"More real than anything you've known," he said. "And more dangerous."

Elara leaned her forehead against the window. Her thoughts churned with memories- Garrett's smirk, Mrs. Harrow's cold shoulder, the endless grey of her life. She should've been afraid. But she wasn't. She felt... awake.

"I never belonged there," she whispered.

Kael glanced at her. "That's because you were never meant to stay there."

After hours, the car stopped on the edge of a cliff. Below it stretched a vast chasm filled with silver mist. A broken bridge extended halfway out, crumbled into nothing.

"We walk from here," Kael said.

Elara followed him out. "Across that?"

He smirked. "Not exactly."

Kael removed a silver medallion from around his neck and held it up. The air shimmered, rippled, and then the mists parted, revealing a hidden stone pathway suspended above the abyss.

Elara gasped. "Is it... safe?"

"Only if you're meant to walk it."

She hesitated. "What happens if I'm not?"

"You fall."

She stared at the steps. Then at him.

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

Her heart thundered, but she nodded. "Yes."

They stepped onto the path.

Wind whipped around them, screaming through the canyon. Elara felt the stone shift beneath her feet, not in weight, but in memory. Every step forward came with a whisper, a ghost of a life she hadn't lived. A cradle. A fire. A woman's voice singing a lullaby in a tongue she didn't know.

Halfway across, she stumbled.

Kael grabbed her hand. "The bridge tests you. It wants to know if your soul belongs in Eldoria."

"Does it?"

Kael looked at her, eyes unreadable. "We're about to find out."

The final step was the hardest.

As soon as Elara's foot touched the last stone, light burst from the cliffside an enormous archway carved from obsidian and bone emerged from the mountain wall, runes glowing across its surface.

Kael stepped forward and placed his palm against it. "Kael Thorne. Bloodsworn Guardian of House Moonstone. I bring her home."

The runes flared.

Elara's mark burned in response.

The gate groaned open.

And beyond it, a city of twilight revealed itself.

Eldoria.

Floating towers. Trees that shimmered with bioluminescence. Roads woven from moonlight and crystal. Creatures with wings, horns, and cloaks some humans, some not. And at the heart of it all, a massive palace that pulsed like a living heart.

Elara's breath caught in her throat. "This is..."

"Your inheritance," Kael said. "If you survive it."

She turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"You've entered their world now," he said. "They'll see your mark. They'll remember the prophecy. Some will want to follow you."

"And the rest?"

"They'll want you dead."