Chapter 1 The Mark

They say you feel the fire before you see it that the Moon Flame speaks in heat first, not light. I felt nothing.

Not the chill wind clawing through the open archways of the Temple. Not the hush of a hundred expectant breaths. Not even the sharp sting of my own fingernails digging crescents into my palms. Just... numb. I'd perfected numbness over the years. It was easier than I had hoped.

The Choosing was supposed to be Lira's moment.

Everyone knew it. She stood tall beside me in her deep indigo robes, chin lifted, posture perfect. Even now, in the flickering torchlight, she looked like she belonged on a throne. I looked like I belonged in the background.

The Seers began to chant, low and rhythmic, like the heartbeat of the mountain itself. The stone beneath our feet pulsed with their words. My fingers trembled, but I didn't move. Not even to wipe the sweat trickling down my neck. Lira glanced at me once. Just once. Her expression was calm, unreadable. But I knew that look. I'd spent my entire life studying it.

She was ready.

I was not.

The Moon Flame sparked in the brazier at the center of the chambera tiny flicker, almost lazy. Then it flared, hungry and wild, leaping skyward like it had caught a scent. Gasps echoed. The chanting stopped.

A single tendril of silver flame snapped toward Liraand then veered.

I didn't understand. Not at first.

The fire roared toward me, a brilliant column of white-gold light. I opened my mouth to scream, but the sound caught in my throat as the flame coiled around my wrist, not burning, but searing something deeper. My skin lit up with ancient marking scurving script I'd only seen carved into temple walls. A crescent moon blazed into the flesh of my palm.

The chamber erupted.

"NO!" Lira's voice cut through the chaos. It was raw. Wild. I turned just in time to see her step back, shaking her head.

Elder Malric stumbled forward, his eyes wide with something that might've been awe. Or horror. "The Flame has chosen."

"It's wrong," Lira hissed. "She's notshe's not supposed to be Luna."

I couldn't speak. Couldn't move. My heart slammed against my ribs like it was trying to escape. The flame hadn't hurt me, but it had changed something. I could feel it. Like a door had opened inside me I never knew existed.

And then he stepped forward.

Kade Blackthorn.

I'd seen him beforeonce, from a distance. The Alpha Commander. The Moon Order's warhound. He looked like a storm wrapped in muscle: tall, broad, and dressed in black leathers that were stained with dust and dried blood. His steel-gray eyes swept across the room, then landed on me.

The flame leapt from my hand to his chest.

No one moved.

A second crescent branded itself into his armor, glowing for a heartbeat before vanishing into the leather. The mate bond had formed.

Kade's jaw clenched.

I waited for him to say somethinganythingbut he only turned to Malric. "Undo it."

My stomach dropped.

Malric blinked. "It cannot be undone. The Moon has spoken."

"Then the Moon made a mistake."

Lira looked like she might collapse. Her hands were fists at her sides, trembling with fury. "She can't lead. She can't even speak without stuttering."

My throat burned. Not with power. With shame.

"Luna Ayla," Malric said, turning to me, bowing his head. "You must come with us. The bond must be sealed before"

"No," Kade interrupted. "She's not my mate. I never agreed to this."

"You don't get to choose," Malric said sharply. "None of us do. The Flame does."

Kade looked at me then. Not kindly. Not even curiously. Just... cold.

Like I was something broken that had landed in his lap and now he had to pretend to care. I looked away.

Behind us, the Moon Flame flickered low, then died.

They didn't let me return to my room. Instead, I was led through a labyrinth of stone tunnels beneath the Temple. My feet dragged. My thoughts scattered like leaves in a storm. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the fire. I saw Kade's face.

"You should be proud," Elder Rema said softly as we walked. She was one of the gentler Seers, her voice always like falling snow. "It's an honor to be chosen."

I almost laughed. "He doesn't want me."

She didn't deny it.

They brought me to the Moonveil Sanctuarya room carved from pure crystal, where mate bonds were sealed under moonlight. The walls shimmered faintly with trapped light. I hated it.

Kade waited near the altar, arms folded, expression carved from stone.

He didn't speak until the Seers left.

"I won't touch you."

I flinched. "I didn't ask you to."

His eyes narrowed. "You didn't ask for any of this. I know."

We stood in silence.

"I'll request the Elders to reexamine the prophecy," he said. "There has to be another way."

"What if there isn't?"

He turned to me. There was something sharp in his gaze now not hatred, but calculation. "Then you need to learn how not to die."

The training began at dawn.

Kade didn't train me himself not at first. He assigned one of his soldiers, a grizzled woman named Elara, who looked like she ate silver for breakfast and punched trees for fun. She hated me on sight.

"You're soft," she said after my first fall. "You'll get someone killed."

I wiped blood from my lip and stood again.

Three more times I fell. Three more times I rose.

By the end of the week, the bruises on my body were matched only by the ones inside me. Kade rarely spoke. When he did, it was to correct my stance. Or remind me I was still a liability.

But something shifted after I saved the soldier in the courtyard.

A young guard had lost control of his wolf mid-shift. No one moved fast enough. I didn't think so. I just moved.

I grabbed a spear from the rack and planted it between the guard and the child he was about to trample. My arms shook. I thought I'd die.

But the wolf stopped.

Kade had seen. He said nothing. But that night, he didn't avoid me in the corridor. He nodded.

And I nodded back.

A week later, Lira disappeared.

She left nothing. Not a note. Not a scent trail. Just gone.

The Temple went still. The Seers whispered. Some thought she'd run. Others believed she'd been taken.

Then the High Seers were found dead.

Five bodies. Slaughtered in their chambers. Their symbols burned away. On the stone above them, a message etched in blood:

Only one twin shall live.

Kade ordered a lockdown. I wasn't allowed to leave my room. Guards posted at every entrance.

But the nightmares came anyway.

I dreamed of Lira's eyesblack with something ancient. I dreamed of a mirror dripping blood. I woke screaming, only to find the crescent on my palm glowing softly.

Something was coming.

And I was the bait.

The last time I saw the Temple, it was on fire.

Kade had decided it was no longer safe. "She's coming for you," he said. "She's not your sister anymore."

I wanted to argue. I wanted to believe he was wrong.

But I saw the fear in his eyes.

We rode into the mountains at dusk, the wind bitter and sharp. Below us, smoke curled into the sky. The Temple of Flames the only home I'd ever known reduced to ash.

I didn't cry.

I didn't look back.

Kade rode ahead, his silhouette sharp against the dying light. I watched him and wondered: would he ever see me as more than a mistake?

I didn't know.

But I was starting to feel something stir in my chest. Not the fire. Not yet. Just a flicker.

Not of power.

Of defiance.

That night, as the wind howled through the mountain pass, a shadow moved at the edge of camp.

Kade tensed beside the fire.

I stepped into the dark.

A whisper brushed against my ear.

"She's found you, sister."

Then the scream came.

Not mine.

Kade's second-in-command.

Dead before he hit the ground.

Lira had arrived.

And she wasn't alone.