Chapter 6 The Awakening

The museum doors crashed shut behind them with finality, but the echo of Raelith's laughter still rang in Elian's skull. Mrs. Lowell's grip on her arm was vise-like as they hurried through the mist-choked streets, the teacher's breath coming in sharp, angry bursts.

"Wait-slow down!" Elian gasped, stumbling as her vision swam. Blood dripped steadily from her nose, splattering dark droplets across the cobblestones that seemed to sizzle faintly before disappearing into the mist.

Mrs. Lowell didn't relent. "Not another word until we're back." Her voice was steel wrapped in velvet, the kind of tone that brooked no argument. Behind them, Jason and Mira followed in stunned silence, their faces pale in the flickering gaslight.

Elian's entire body thrummed with unnatural energy. The cut on her thumb pulsed in time with her racing heartbeat, each throb sending a fresh wave of heat through her veins. The pendant-now fused to her chest-burned like a brand, its silver tendrils having burrowed beneath her skin to form delicate, moon-shaped scars.

As they turned onto the hostel's street, a shadow detached itself from a nearby alleyway. Alistair, their tour guide, stood blocking their path, his rheumy eyes gleaming with something like triumph.

"Ah," he croaked, his yellowed teeth bared in a smile. "I see the king has found his queen at last."

Mrs. Lowell stiffened. "Move aside, Mr. Volkov."

Alistair chuckled, stepping closer. Elian caught the scent of grave dirt and old blood as he leaned in. "You feel it, don't you, girl? The call in your blood?" His gnarled finger pointed to her chest. "That mark means you're-"

Jason shoved between them. "Back off, creep."

For a heartbeat, something dark flickered in Alistair's gaze. Then he bowed mockingly and melted back into the shadows, his final words hanging in the air:

"He'll come for you before dawn."

The hostel's common room felt like a prison. Mrs. Lowell had confiscated their phones and posted herself by the door, her expression stormy. Outside, the wind howled like a living thing, rattling the windows in their frames.

Mira pressed a damp cloth to Elian's forehead. "Your fever's getting worse," she murmured, her fingers trembling. "And your eyes..."

Jason paced like a caged animal. "We need a doctor. Or an exorcist. Or-"

"No doctors." Mrs. Lowell's voice cut through the room. "Not after tonight's stunt." She fixed Elian with a piercing stare. "What exactly happened in that museum?"

Elian opened her mouth, but Raelith's voice slithered through her mind first:

"Tell them nothing."

The words came out unbidden: "I don't remember."

Mrs. Lowell's eyes narrowed. "Don't lie to me, Elian. That statue-"

"Was just a statue," Elian interrupted, her tongue moving without her consent. "We got scared and ran. That's all."

A strange pressure built behind her eyes as she spoke, the pendant growing hotter against her skin. Across the room, Mrs. Lowell's expression went slack for just a moment before clearing.

"Well... just rest then. We leave at first light."

Mira and Jason exchanged a horrified look-they'd seen it too. Whatever Elian had just done, whatever power she'd unwittingly wielded, it had worked.

The dreams came the moment Elian closed her eyes.

She stood in a grand hall lined with mirrors, each reflection showing a different version of herself-some dressed in medieval gowns, others in modern clothes, all with the same crescent moon brand glowing on their chests.

At the center stood Raelith, his coat pooling around him like liquid night.

"Do you understand now?" He gestured to the mirrors. "You're but the latest in a long line of vessels. Seraphina's blood runs thin, but strong enough to wake me."

Elian turned to the nearest reflection-a woman in a bloodstained wedding dress. As she watched, the woman's throat was slit by an unseen hand, her body collapsing to reveal another mirror, another Elian.

"They all failed to break the curse," Raelith murmured. "But you... you're different."

He was suddenly behind her, his cold hands sliding over her shoulders. In the mirrors, a thousand versions of them stood just like this, his lips brushing the shell of her ear.

"You don't just carry her blood. You carry her will."

Elian tried to pull away, but the dream held her fast. "I'm not her!"

Raelith's chuckle vibrated through her bones. "No? Then why does the pendant sing for you? Why do the runes answer your blood?" His fingers traced the mark on her chest. "Why do I feel you in every shadow, every reflection?"

A scream built in Elian's throat-

-and she woke to a hand clamped over her mouth.

Jason's face hovered inches from hers, his eyes wide with terror. "Don't. Make. A sound."

Through the window, silhouettes moved in the courtyard below-figures in long coats, their weapons glinting in the moonlight. The hunters had found them.

Mira crouched by the door, her ear pressed to the wood. "They're on every floor," she whispered. "Mrs. Lowell's gone."

A crash echoed from downstairs, followed by the sharp scent of gasoline. They were burning the hostel.

Jason hauled Elian up. "Secret passage. Now."

As they slipped into the hidden servants' stairwell, the first flames began to lick at the hallway behind them. Elian's pendant pulsed wildly, its rhythm matching the frantic pounding of her heart.

Raelith's voice curled through the smoke:

"Run, little queen. But know this-you can't outrun what you are."

The catacombs beneath Veyruhn stank of damp earth and old bones. Mira's flashlight flickered as they navigated the narrow tunnels, its beam catching on stacks of centuries-old skulls.

Jason wiped soot from his face. "Okay, new plan: we find a way out of this helltown and-"

"No." Elian stopped dead, her skin prickling. The pendant was ice-cold now, its pull unmistakable. "I have to go back."

Mira grabbed her arm. "Are you insane? Those people just tried to burn us alive!"

"And they'll keep trying!" Elian's voice echoed through the tunnels. "Don't you get it? This started the moment I touched that statue. Maybe... maybe even before." She touched her pendant. "I'm part of this now."

A skittering sound came from the darkness ahead-too large to be rats. Jason stepped in front of them, his stolen fire poker raised.

The thing that emerged from the shadows was neither human nor animal. It walked on too many limbs, its flesh stretched taut over bones that jutted at unnatural angles. Where its face should have been, there was only smooth skin and a lipless mouth filled with needle teeth.

"Blood," it hissed, its head cocking toward Elian. "We smell the king's mark."

Mira screamed as it lunged.

Elian reacted without thinking-her hand shot out, and the creature froze mid-air, suspended by some unseen force. The pendant blazed with cold fire as power-real, terrifying power-surged through her veins.

The creature's mouth stretched into a grotesque smile. "Yes. Just like her."

Then the tunnel behind them collapsed, and everything went black.

Consciousness returned in fragments.

Cold stone beneath her cheek. The drip of water somewhere in the darkness. The scent of bergamot and old parchment.

Elian opened her eyes to find herself in a circular chamber, its walls covered in the same runes from the museum. At its center stood Raelith, his coat billowing despite the still air.

The hunters-now bound and gagged-lay at his feet.

"Awake at last." He didn't turn as he spoke. "Your friends live, for now. A courtesy, for saving my pet."

Elian struggled to sit up. "That... that thing was yours?"

"One of many who've waited for my return." Finally, he faced her, his eyes glowing faintly in the dark. "Just as I've waited for you."

Behind him, the silver-haired hunter met Elian's gaze, her eyes blazing with hatred. She spat out her gag with a furious twist of her head.

"Don't listen to him, girl. He's not what you think."

Raelith backhanded her without looking, sending her crashing into the wall. "Silence." He knelt before Elian, his cold fingers tilting her chin up. "You felt the power today. The truth in your blood."

Elian trembled, but didn't pull away. The memory of that surge-of the creature frozen by her will alone-thrummed through her.

"What am I?" she whispered.

Raelith's smile showed fangs. "Mine."

Outside, the first rays of dawn painted the sky blood-red. Somewhere in the distance, a bell began to toll-once, twice, thirteen times.

The hunter's face went pale. "Oh god. It's begun."

Raelith spread his arms, his coat becoming wings of shadow.

"Let the hunt commence."