Chapter 5 THE SISTER I NEVER KNEW

I sat across from him at the cabin Kael's wolves used for healing.

He was shirtless, bloodied, stitched up across the ribs, but still-he looked like war wrapped in skin. His breathing was steady. Controlled.

Mine wasn't.

"So," I said, breaking the silence, "want to tell me why I just screamed an entire army backward like I swallowed a thunderstorm?"

Kael didn't look at me right away. His hand rested on the bandages around his side. "You accessed something ancient," he said. "Something no one should be able to access without training."

"Well, I've never been good at waiting for permission."

He finally met my eyes. "You could've killed me too."

"But I didn't."

"No," he said slowly. "You didn't. Which means... it's bonded to you. Which means..."

His voice trailed off.

I waited.

"Which means?" I pushed.

Kael exhaled through his nose. "You're not just marked, Aria. You're claimed."

I blinked. "By who?"

"I don't know."

"Can you find out?"

He stood. Slowly. Wincing, but still towering. "Not without risking you."

"You think I haven't already been risked?"

"I think someone's been waiting for you to activate," he said. "And you just did. Which means they'll come again."

"I saw a girl," I blurted. "In the fire. In the vision. She called me sister."

That made him pause.

I continued, "She had my face. My eyes. And she was with the rogue. The one with the cracked silver eyes."

Kael's expression darkened. "That's not possible."

"Apparently, I'm a walking list of impossibilities."

He turned toward the window, fists clenched. "There's an old legend," he said. "One the elders buried a long time ago. About twin souls born under a cursed moon. One would inherit light. The other... the dark."

I swallowed. "So you're saying..."

"You and the girl in your vision may be two halves of a prophecy."

I was five.

I remembered it now-too clearly.

I was in a white room. Alone. Crying. There was a hand.