Chapter 10 The Fire Spreads

Chapter 10 – The Fire Spreads

Greywood didn't sleep.

But tonight-it screamed.

Sirens wailed across the eastern district. Flames flickered on the horizon. People ran, not from gunfire or gangs...

...but from shadows with wings.

Isaac saw the first one from the rooftop.

A dark shape darted between the buildings-too fast, too smooth to be human. Wings like shredded flags. Eyes like burning coal.

He watched it land on a car, slice open the engine with a flick of its claws, and vanish into smoke.

Crowbinder.

He remembered the name from Elya's files.

A Black Serpent elite enforcer. Shadow-walkers. Emotion drinkers. They didn't kill their targets outright...

They turned them into messages.

Isaac didn't wait.

He ran.

Maya's apartment building was already burning when he got there.

The air stank of sulfur and blood. A woman screamed from the second floor. Isaac's blood surged. No hesitation.

He punched through the lobby door and ran headlong into smoke and chaos.

The stairs were blocked. So he climbed-pipes, railings, torn curtains-using strength he hadn't even known he had. The gold in his blood burned with purpose.

The flame protects.

He found the woman curled behind a broken wall, bleeding from the scalp. A child sobbed at her side.

Isaac didn't ask who they were.

He scooped them both up and jumped out the window.

He landed on the fire escape, knees bending, metal groaning. It nearly collapsed-but held.

From the alley below, a Crowbinder looked up at him. It grinned. Mouth filled with too many teeth.

Isaac handed the woman off to a bystander.

Then he dropped into the alley.

Face to face with his first real enemy.

The Crowbinder moved like ink spilled on glass-too smooth to follow.

It slashed with hooked claws, trailing black fire. Isaac ducked, rolled, and countered with a golden blast from his palm.

It hit.

The thing screamed like a dying raven. Smoke poured from its wounds.

But it wasn't done.

It morphed-grew a second pair of arms, a tail made of vertebrae. It laughed with his father's voice.

"Still just a child."

Rage filled Isaac's lungs.

"I'm not a child," he growled.

He remembered what Selene said: "Pain gives shape to your power."

He focused.

He let it burn.

His blood ignited.

A ring of gold fire erupted around him-concrete cracked beneath his feet. His eyes went fully bright, no pupils, no whites. Just light.

He charged.

This time, he moved faster. Landed three hits before the Crowbinder could dodge. Flame-wrapped fists shattered ribs. Kicks sent shockwaves up the alley.

The Crow tried to phase-Isaac grabbed it mid-vanish.

"No more hiding."

He crushed it between two waves of fire.

The thing screeched. Then crumbled into ash.

Silence followed.

Only the flicker of distant flames. Sirens in the background.

And then-

Clapping.

From the other end of the alley, a man stood.

Long coat. Gloves. Face covered in a bone-white mask shaped like a serpent's skull.

"You've come along nicely," he said.

Isaac didn't move. "Who are you?"

"I wear many names," the man said. "But for you-just call me Handler."

"You work for the Black Serpent?"

"No," Handler said. "I lead one of its heads."

He reached into his coat and tossed a silver coin onto the ground. It shimmered and spun in place, defying gravity.

"When you're done playing hero," Handler said, "come find me. There's more to your bloodline than burning buildings and saving strangers."

He vanished into smoke.

Isaac stared at the coin.

On one side: the twin serpents again.

On the other:

"Ascension Awaits."