Chapter 96
Chapter 96
*Jiselle*
They watched me like I was a storm waiting to break.
Not a leader. Not a prisoner. Not even a wolf.
A question.
I felt it in every stare as I crossed the courtyard–rough–hewn stone under my boots, morning mist curling around the old sanctuary like breath. This place wasn’t carved from nature; it was claimed by it. Ivy crawled the walls, moss choked the ancient arches, and the earth itself pulsed faintly with the energy of buried runes. The rogue wolves called it Hollowfire Keep. To me, it felt like a graveyard for things not yet dead.
The sanctuary housed nearly fifty wolves–gifted, half–gifted, some broken beyond even Kael’s reach–but I hadn’t spoken to more than a handful. Not because I didn’t want to. Because they didn’t. They whispered when I passed. Flinched when ! moved too quickly. Bowed their heads… or bared their teeth.
Not out of respect.
Out of fear.
“Morning, spark,” someone muttered as I passed, voice dry and mocking. A young woman, tattoos curling like serpents down her arms, leaned against a rusted blade rack. Her eyes flicked to my cuffs–still cracked, still half–bound with fading runes–and she smiled with too many teeth. “Still deciding if you’re one of us?”
I didn’t stop walking. “Still deciding if ‘one of you‘ is something worth being.”
A few chuckles followed me, some amused, some bitter. No one followed. Not yet.
The sparring pit sat low in the hillside, carved from old stone and ringed by thick iron poles humming with containment magic. This was where the gifted came to train. Or bleed. Or both.
Lira was already waiting.
She stood barefoot in the dust, twin blades strapped to her back, arms folded over her chest. Fire coiled up her fingers like smoke made solid, and her eyes–golden, sharp–cut through me like knives.
Kael’s second–in–command.
His flame–born general.
“Thought you’d hide behind prophecy a little longer,” she said, tossing me a practice dagger. “Nice to know you have a spine.”
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“I thought this was training, not a death match,” I replied.
She smiled. “Depends on how fast you learn.”
I caught the dagger and stepped into the ring.
The others gathered slowly–wolves of all ranks and tempers, perched along the edges like crows waiting to see if the fox would bleed. They said nothing. Just watched.
Lira circled me, loose and confident, heat rising off her skin in lazy waves. I felt my own magic thrum faintly beneath my skin, still unpredictable since the trial, still aching for control. The cuffs had dulled it, but not buried it. Not anymore.
“First blood,” she said. “Or until someone begs.”
“I don’t beg.”
“Good,” she said, and lunged.
She moved like lightning–one blade drawn, spinning toward my ribs with a grace I couldn’t match. I blocked on instinct, barely twisting aside as the blade kissed my side, ripping fabric, not skin.
Pain bloomed sharp and immediate. The crowd hissed.
I didn’t retreat.
I countered.
Magic surged–not like before. Not rage. Not fear. Just a pulse, like my body remembered something my mind didn’t. The air snapped around me, and my hand moved without command, the dagger aimed for her thigh.
She blocked, barely.
Eyes narrowing, she pushed back hard enough to send me stumbling.
“Impressive,” she said. “For a Council pet.”
My vision tunneled.
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Chapter 96
“What did you call me?”
“You heard me,” she spat. “Collared. Controlled. Bred for obedience.”
I struck.
I don’t remember deciding to. I only remember heat. The blade flew from my fingers, my hand flaring with light. Lira dodged, but the magic followed, silver and sharp and hungry. It caught her shoulder and spun her, dropping her to one knee.
The crowd rose.
Lira growled, flames licking across her skin. She shot forward, too fast, too close and I reacted.
My magic exploded.
She was airborne before I even blinked, flung backward by a column of fire laced with white sparks. She crashed into the far wall and dropped hard, smoke curling from her tunic.
Silence.
My breath came in heaves. The cuffs on my wrists pulsed–then cracked further.
And I saw it.
In the crowd.
Fear.
Real fear.
Even Lira didn’t move.
Until Kael stepped between us.
He didn’t raise his voice. Didn’t touch me.
“Enough,” he said.
I lowered my hand slowly.
He looked at Lira, then at me.
“Everyone out,” he added.
They scattered. Even Lira, after a long, unreadable glare.
Kael turned to me, eyes unreadable.
“You’re spiraling.”
“I didn’t mean to-”
“Yes, you did,” he said quietly. “And it’s not your fault.”
I staggered back a step. “What?”
“You’re changing. Faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. Your power is evolving beyond what the Council ever trained for.”
“That’s not possible.”
“It is,” he said, stepping closer. “Because your bond was severed.”
I froze.
“What?”
“When the bond between mates is shattered violently, it destabilizes the energy channels tied to your wolf. Your soul. Most wolves collapse. Some die. But you didn’t. You survived–and your power rewired itself to cope.”
I shook my head. “I don’t… I don’t feel the bond anymore.”
“No. But it left a scar. A channel still open. And something is leaking through it.”
My throat tightened.
“Leaking?”
“You hear him, don’t you?” Kael’s voice was gentler now. “In dreams. In flashes. You still feel his breath in your sleep.”
I didn’t answer.
He didn’t need me to.
“I’ve seen it before,” he said. “Only once. A girl who tried to break the bond with her mate before the ritual was complete. Her power went wild. She vanished in a storm of her own making.”
“What happened to her?”
“She became something else.”
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Chapter 96
The wind picked up around us. The dust stirred at our feet. My cuffs gave one final shudder–and split, metal falling to the ground like dead skin.
Kael didn’t flinch.
He watched me as if I were sacred.
Or dangerous.
“I don’t want to become something else,” I whispered.
“Then anchor yourself,” he said. “To something stronger than the bond. To something that won’t break.”
His meaning lingered, sharp and quiet..
I stepped back, heart racing.
Kael said nothing else.
But I saw the flicker in his eyes.
Hope.
And that terrified me more than the flames ever had.
