Chapter 4 4

Scene 1 :War Council Chamber, Silverpine Pack.

The war room had not been filled like this in years.

Flames flickered around the room, revealing the shadows of aged faces, furrowed brows, and the sigil of the Silverpine Pack that was carved into the stone that stood as a table in the center. The sound of a howling could be heard in the distance. There was thick tension in the chamber.

Kael stood at the head of the council table, every inch the Alpha even though his voice trembled with something older than anger.

Something that is close to grief.

"I need to speak of a name which we have buried for too long," he said. "Riven Thorne."

A ripple of murmurs went through the chamber.

"Impossible"

"I thought he was dead"

"Why do you bring that traitor's name back now?" grumbled Captain Drex, his thick arms crossed. He vanished after the fire. That is all we needed to know.

Kael's jaw tightened. "You think I have that I have not tried to forget him? You think I have not wanted to? He was my brother."

"Then, why now?" Mira asked softly.

Kael's eyes shifted to Maelin, who stood silent at his side.

"It is because of the girl, isn't it?" someone muttered.

Kael nodded. "Aeryn described a man in her nightmares. Silver hair. Cold eyes. She saw him stab her in visions of the past."

"She dreams of Riven?" Mira asked, alarm creeping into her voice.

"She should not know what he looks like," Kael growled. "But she does."

"That is not all," Elder Maelin said quietly, stepping forward. I did not tell you before, because we had no proof. But... before Riven vanished, I intercepted a raven that was bearing correspondence."

The table was still.

Letters were coded, but I understood enough. Riven had been contacting someone from the Bloodfang Pack, someone known only as "The Blind Seer."

"The Bloodfangs?" Drex snarled. "They have not crossed into our territory in years."

"They did not have to," Maelin said. "Riven opened the door."

Kael's voice lowered. "He was not just writing. He was searching."

"Searching for what?" Mira asked.

Maelin met Kael's eyes. A vessel for the "Moonborn Flame."

The chamber fell into stunned silence.

"No," whispered one of the younger advisors. "The Moonborn Flame is a myth."

Kael slammed his hand on the table. "So was the Hollow that rose from ash, and yet here I stand."

"And she," Maelin gestured, "Aeryn stands with you."

Drex exhaled slowly. "If Riven was trying to find a vessel... maybe he had found her."

Kael's voice dropped, ragged. "And maybe he tried to kill her."

Maelin's expression darkened. "Or maybe he created her."

Kael straightened. "If Riven is alive, and he is aligned with the Seer from Bloodfang, then this prophecy... this war... it is not just about reclaiming what we lost."

He saw each of their eyes.

"It is about stopping what will come next."

Scene 2: The Moonstone Grounds, edge of the Silverpine Territory

The ancient circle of moonstones sat on a moss-covered hill. Aeryn walked barefoot through the grass, the chill of the evening air kissed her skin. The stones rose around her, humming faintly with old magic. No one had told her what the stones were for, but her body had brought her here. It pulled her like a tether toward something that was deep beneath the earth.

She reached out, her fingers brushing the largest of the stones.

It pulsed beneath her skin.

A shiver climbed her spine.

Thrum.

Her palm burnt with heat.

And then flames.

Golden fire came out of her hand. It was not burning the skin, but coursing through her veins like it was liquid starlight. She cried out, falling to her knees, her palm was pressed flat to the stone. The moment she touched it fully.

Visions.

The world around her vanished.

She stood barefoot in a wide clearing under a silver moon. She was cloaked in white, her hands were outstretched toward a stone altar. Surrounding her were shadowy figures who were chanting in a language she did not know, but her voice rose above all of them. She was whispering words that chilled her to the bone:

> "Kael... find me. Through fire and blood, find me..."

Then she screamed.

Flames engulfed her.

Her body curled inward as the silver moon turned into crimson red.

Betrayal.

Pain.

A blade sliding through her back.

Her breath hitched as she collapsed, and from the trees, a figure stepped forward.

The figure was tall, silver-haired, and cold-eyed.

Riven.

Her mouth moved, even as her body burned. "You were my kin..."

But he only smiled, and shoved the dagger deeper.

Aeryn woke with a cry, her chest was heaving, her hand still touching the stone.

She looked down, and she froze.

The skin of her left palm glowed with an emerging mark which was half-charred, and half-healed. There were curving tendrils of light that were pressed into her skin in the shape of a crescent moon curling around a flame. A mark she had never seen but felt as though it had always been part of her.

Footsteps approached behind her.

She did not turn, rather she whispered, "It is happening again."

Kael's voice came from the shadows. "I know."

He stepped beside her, staring at her glowing palm.

His breath caught.

"That mark...."

"You recognize it," she said. "Don't you?"

Kael nodded slowly. "It was Liora. Our mate Mark. It appeared the day she swore herself to me under the moon."

Aeryn stared at her hand. "But I am not her."

"No," he said. "You are not."

"But somehow..." Her voice shook. "Part of her is in me."

Kael knelt beside her, his eyes searching. "What did you see?"

She whispered, "The ritual. Fire. The silver-haired man... Riven. He stabbed me."

Kael's face hardened. "Then we know the truth."

"But why would he...?" she asked.

"Because Riven was not trying to kill the Moonborn Flame," Kael said, his voice a low growl. "He was trying to bind it."

Aeryn looked down again. The fire was fading from her palm, but the mark remained. It was faint but undeniable.

"What does it mean?" she asked in a fragile voice. "Why do I carry the mark of someone else's mate?"

Kael touched her hand, the place where the mark burned. His own hand trembled.

"I don't know," he said softly. "But I think that fate is trying to write a story which we have not read before."

Far away, in a ruined sanctum which is lit only by cold blue fire, Riven Thorne stood before a wall of bloodstained mirrors. In one of them, Aeryn's glowing palm flickered.

He stared at it, his lips curling into a smirk.

"She is remembering," he said to the figure that stood behind him. It was a woman with sightless eyes and her veins were like molten glass.

"She is becoming," the Blind Seer whispered.

Riven drew a dagger from his belt, the same one that had once pierced Aeryn's back. Its edge shone crimson.

"She carries the mark," he murmured.

"She carries more than that," the Seer rasped. "She also carries the fire."

Riven's smirk deepened. "Good. Then soon..."

He raised the blade.

"...she will burn everything."