Chapter 6 Bloodlines and Broken Promises

Kaela's POV

I didn't sleep that night.

Even with the fire dwindling and Ash keeping quiet watch, my mind wouldn't rest. Dreams came in flickers-blurred edges of a past I didn't remember living. A burning temple. A scream that wasn't mine. His hands showed signs of dripping blood through which silver energy surged.

Waking up found me short of breath while I lay under a layer of cold sweat. Rael sat opposite me by the campfire while he worked on sharpening a knife.

He looked up when he heard me stir.

"Bad dream?"

I merely nodded because my voice refused to cooperate.

He spoke in a soft voice when he asked what I had whispered. "You said 'It wasn't me.'"

I blinked at him, heart still pounding. "I don't remember."

He didn't press me. Just turned back to his blade, the sound of stone against steel filling the air between us. But something had shifted. He'd been more distant since we crossed into the Emberlands. Quieter. Watching me like he was afraid of what he'd find.

Or maybe afraid of what he already knew.

Later that morning, we came across an abandoned temple, its stone arches twisted by time and ash. I felt something pull me toward it-something ancient and quiet.

I stepped inside without thinking.

The second my foot touched the cracked marble floor, the air changed. A low hum buzzed in my bones. The columns around us bore carvings of the twin gods-Liora of the Moon, Saren of the Flame. One wept. The other burned.

Rael walked behind me like a ghost, silent, tense. His eyes never stopped scanning the shadows.

"What is this place?" I whispered.

He hesitated. "A shrine. To balance. They were all destroyed during the First War."

"But why?" I reached out to touch a half-shattered mural. It glowed faintly beneath my palm.

Rael didn't answer.

When I turned, I caught the flicker of guilt on his face. And something else-recognition.

I whispered to him "There's more information hidden inside your mind that you haven't shared."

His jaw tightened. "And you don't?"

That stopped me cold.

I confessed to the therapist "I don't know who I am." "Every day I wake up feeling like a stranger in my own body."

"But pieces are coming back, aren't they?"

I nodded slowly.

He sighed, walking past me toward the central altar. "This place... it wasn't just a temple. It was where the pact was made. Where the Moon and Flame chose to be equals. Before that was broken."

I stared at him. "You've been here before."

He didn't deny it.

"Who are you really, Ash?"

From his perspective, I witnessed the first fractures in his unyielding stare, free of emotion.

"My name is Rael Virek," he said quietly. "Prince of the Emberlands."

The words hit like a slap.

I staggered back. "You lied to me."

"I had to. You-" He stopped himself. "You don't understand what's at stake."

"You were sent to kill me."

Silence.

That was answered enough.

The person chased me while grabbing my wrist. Not harshly-desperate.

He spoke these words to me. "I didn't expect... you."

I stared at him, heartbroken.

"I trusted you," I whispered. "You were the only thing in this world that made sense."

"Kaela-"

"Don't."

A sudden motion carried me into the forest. I ran without knowing my destination because escape was all I needed. From the shrine. From him. All my previous understanding started falling apart as the truth burst forth.

Because if Rael was the prince...

Then I was the weapon he'd been raised to fear.

And no matter what I felt for him-what we might have been-it meant nothing.

Because this war was written in blood.

And I was already drowning in it.