Chapter 6 Six

Eliana POV

The silence was broken.

I couldn't understand what was going on with me. One moment I was okay. I was barely managing to fit the cracks that threatened to tear me to pieces. Then I was undoing. I shook. I had fire in my lungs. And my heart, it seemed to me that I could feel it wanting to crawl out of my chest.

And then I saw it– red. Not only in the eyes of my own, but in the air, in my own skin, in every fiber of the place. A gorgeously severe scarlet that flashed like lightning up my veins.

"Eliana-look at me!" Alexander's voice cut through the haze.

I heard him, but I couldn't obey. My gaze was already locked ahead, but I wasn't seeing him. I was watching the storm, my storm, swirling within me.

I cried out, and shot pained through my ribs. I sank on my knees, and clasped my breast. "It's painful," I said, barely getting the words out.

"Ray, Darren-stay back!" Alexander growled. It was Alpha-commanding, cutting through the tension at a sharp enough voice, but even he could not keep out of it the fact that he was panicking.

The windows shook with a high pitched hum, as though a tuning fork had been clapped in the middle of a thunder shaft. I could hear the most minute cracking as the glass started to crack at the corners.

"Eliana," Alexander said again, gentler now, kneeling in front of me. "You need to breathe."

"I am breathing!" I snapped, though the scream that followed made it clear I wasn't.

The pain intensified. My skin felt too tight. My bones were too small. A growl echoed from somewhere within me-not mine, but hers. Scarlet. Not fully awake, but stirring. Crawling toward consciousness like a flame licking dry wood.

"Something's wrong," I whimpered, doubling over.

A memory I didn't own flared to life-an endless forest painted in silver mist. A wolf, massive and ancient, stepped out from the trees. Its eyes were not red, but molten gold. It looked at me-through me. And it whispered one word:

"Awaken."

The earth shook at my feet. Energy flared forth upon my body in a rush so fierce that I saw wood break and glass shatter somewhere far.

"Eliana!" Alexander touched me and nearly before he touched me a shock dashed him backward.

Slowly I turned. I wanted to, but it brought on this feeling of being under the control of some other person now. In the cracked mirror I froze.

I was not only red eyed, I was burning. I could feel blood burning in my veins, flickering vaguely under my skin like molten lava barely millimeters below the surface.

"What... am I?" I breathed.

Ray moved forward. "She's dangerous, Alpha. We need to sedate her-"

"Don't touch her," Alexander growled. "She's not a threat."

"She doesn't look harmless," Darren muttered, but he obeyed.

And when I opened my mouth to protest, another shriek sprang out of my throat, savage, barbarous, animalistic. It wasn't just pain anymore. It was fear. It was a loss.

The wolf inside me clawed harder now. I could feel her scraping against my ribs, snarling in frustration, her essence flooding into my limbs. But she didn't come forward. She just circled, pacing in my head.

Not yet, she whispered.

Now there was a blinding, white, hot surge of power out and out of my chest, and then there was nothing anymore.

---

I floated.

Weightless. Empty.

It was quiet here. No crackling windows. No growls. No pain. Just... mist.

"Eliana," a voice called from the nothingness.

I turned-or thought I did. The voice came again, lower now. Familiar. Not Alexander. Not Scarlet.

Something older.

"Eliana." This time it was a whisper in my blood.

From the fog, the same massive wolf appeared. Taller than any creature I'd ever imagined. Fur silver as starlight. Eyes bright gold and wise with time. He bowed his head.

"You are not just of the Blood Moon," he said. "You are of the First Flame."

"The what?"

"The fire before the moon," he replied. "The beginning before the end. The bloodline hidden from time. Forgotten... but not gone."

I shook my head. "No. That's not me. I'm not-"

"You were born from power long buried," he said, stepping forward. "And you were marked by the Red Flame at birth. The others only see the Blood Moon. They do not see the truth of what you carry."

"I don't understand. What is Scarlet? What is this pain-this fire?"

"She is your wolf. But you... are something more."

My pulse quickened even here, in this dream-space. "What am I?"

He looked at me sadly. "Not ready."

"Ready for what?!"

He made no reply. The vapour was going round and round me, like a string around my limbs, dragging me from him. I made my efforts to keep his gaze, but once more the world was slipping.

"Eliana," he called one last time. "They will try to control you. But remember: you are flame-born. Do not let them douse your fire."

---

My eyes snapped open.

Light flooded my vision, too bright. My body ached as if I'd run for miles through thorns. I was lying on something soft. A bed.

"She's awake!" someone called.

A moment later, Alexander appeared beside me. His expression-relief mixed with exhaustion. "Thank the Goddess."

"What... happened?" My voice suddenly cracked.

"You fainted," he answered in a low tone, stroking the hair away from my brow. "That energy surge took out half the windows in the east wing."

I flinched. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't be." He smiled faintly. "You didn't do it on purpose."

My gaze shifted to my hands. They looked normal now. No red veins. No glow.

I whispered, "I saw him."

Alexander tilted his head. "Who?"

"A wolf. Huge. With golden eyes. He said I wasn't just from the Blood Moon." I met his gaze. "He told me I belonged to some such thing called the First Flame."

He made no change in expression, but I caught the glint behind the eyes. Recognition. Worry.

"You've heard of it," I said.

He hesitated. "It's... an ancient myth. One no one's proven real. Some say the First Flame was the origin of all Alphas. A fire spirit in wolf form that gave birth to the bloodlines."

"Then why do I feel like it's waking up inside me?"

He was quiet.

"I'm scared," I admitted.