Chapter 5 Eyes Behind the Canvas

What we paint in public never shows the secrets we conceal within.

__________________________

Lupinara market swirled around me, full of color and sounded like some living thing in motion. It was the first time I'd been able to walk unencumbered in the village square since the Council's judgment. My walk was determined, shoulders back, but I walked like a man who'd set his mind to remain-a even for danger in every step.

Children stared at me over wicker baskets. Peddlers stared at me side-ways, not comprehending enough to waste a turn of the head. Two wolves whooped their blades before the forge, stopped in their tracks as I passed by. But I did not relax.

Coci walked with me, arms across her chest, eyes daring us all to say something. Her fire only fell when we came to the canvas-covered stall bearing paintbrushes.

"Kaera," she told me. "Do you continue to paint that which you dream?"

The tall woman didn't glance up at first. When she did, her gray eyes did a slow sweep across us. "Only when the dreams permit me to sleep."

I let my eyes fall on her latest painting-a wolf stuck in mid-transformation, half-human, half-beast, glowing in the firelight.

"That's mine," I told her softly.

Kaera cocked her head. "It came to me the night you stepped out of the Flame Baths."

I pressed on. "Did it come in flames. or in blood?"

Her lips moved only slightly. "Both."

Later, in the black silence of Kaera's gallery hut, we sat between visions. Wolves under eclipse moons. Eyes waiting at forest's edge. A girl holding a smothering ember in her hands.

"I never requested any of this," I gasped.

"No one does," Kaera said. "The paint selects its canvas."

Coci's gaze locked with mine. "Why haven't you informed the others about what you're seeing?"

"Because they already see what they wish to see. My brush is no match for prophecy-or for Kael."

I frowned. "He's planning something."

She nodded once. "He visited me last night. Asked me to paint a scene from the ancient prophecies."

My heart tightened. "Which one?"

"The one where the Flameborn dies on a twin moon."

That night, when the wind began to blow, Coci and I walked to the forest's edge and looked out across the village lights. There was a cold that crept into the darkness, curling around us like an unspoken thing.

"You're certain he's the one?" she asked.

I nodded. "He knows too much. And he's not afraid to burn everything to get what he wants."

"What does he want from us?"

"Everything."

A howl tore through the trees-not of a wolf. Something much, much worse.

We froze where we were. My instincts were screaming.

"That's not one of us," I breathed. "We have to go."

Coci took the lead away from me, but then something emerged out of the dark. Tall. Cloaked. Eyes like two burning coals.

Kael.

"You shouldn't have come," I told him.

"Oh, but I'm already here," he answered, voice hard as flint.

Coci stepped between us. "What do you want?"

His smile was all crazy teeth and malevolence. "I want to scorch this world so hot we'll never know where we come from."

I curled my hands into fists, blood burning. "You'll burn with it. You can't command fire."

"You can't stop what's already in motion," he said to me, his voice constricting. "Not when the prophecy demands it."

I advanced on him. "Stop playing behind the veil of your father's legacy. We're not your pawns."

Kael's gaze pinched. "You should have stayed hidden, Elipha. Now you'll be scorched by the light."

And he was gone, like smoke on the wind.

Coci and I remained still, his words digging under our skin like ash.

She shuddered. "What does he know?"

I clenched my teeth and faced away from her. "More than he should."

---

It was in the village that the Council gathered under the meeting hall's great beams. The air vibrated with tension. Hushed voices mumbled in the candlelit shadows.

Kael approached, absorbing all breath and color into himself. He stood before the Elders, his eyes burning with black intent.

"Tonight," he told them, "we begin the purging. The Flameborn must reclaim authority."

There was grumbling, some looked away.

We need a plan," Kael continued. "A new approach. One in which we control the flame-not succumb to it."

The tension mounted. I felt it on the other side of the village. His zeal burning like fire.

"Cut your old allegiances," he chanted. "We begin anew."

---

I paced the hut like a wolf in a cage, thoughts burning hotter with each pace. Kael wasn't merely igniting the cold coals-he was igniting a blaze. And we hadn't the time.

A knock prevented me from slamming.

Kaera stood in the doorway.

"I know what you're thinking," she said. "And you're right."

I glared at her. "Tell me."

She stepped closer, shadow across her shoulders. "Kael's father survived the old wars as the last of the Flameborn. But Kael. he's found something worse than prophecy."

I pulled harder. "What is it?"

"The old fire," she said. "Hidden away in the mountains. If he unleashes it, it will not leave us alone. It will burn everything."

My heart thundered against the wind that pounded at the walls outside. "How do we stop him?"

She fell silent. "You'll have to stop him. Finish it before he can stoke the fires."

A second voice blended with ours out of the darkness.

"You're not alone."

Wrenna stood in the room, her shape unyielding and strong.

"We all are."

I looked from her to Coci, to Kaera.

We three were there together, surrounded by the storm to be.

And far away, the wind breathed.

"Let it burn

____________