The world blurred into fire and ash as Rael was dragged back into the Hollow Flame ranks. Warriors surrounded him, their eyes glowing with the same cursed hunger that burned within his own. Yet he felt nothing of their triumph. Only the echo of her voice.
I am your mother.
The words gnawed at him, louder than the thunder, sharper than the clash of steel. His blade still trembled as if refusing to forget its pause—its refusal to pierce her heart. Malrik's hand slammed against his shoulder, claws digging into the armor fused to his skin. The warlord's presence was suffocating, a furnace of wrath and control.
"You faltered." The words were poison in his ear. "Chains do not break for whispers. You belong to me."
Rael's jaw clenched, though the tremor in his hands betrayed him. The chains burned hotter, their spectral links coiling around his chest, squeezing until his breath was ragged. He saw flashes—Selene's silver fire, her eyes brimming with desperate love, the defiance in her voice. Not your enemy. Your mother.
He staggered, clutching his blade to steady himself, even as the Hollow Flame pressed tighter around him. Their chanting grew louder, voices melding with Malrik's command, pulling him deeper into their fold.
But he couldn't silence the memory. He couldn't erase the word mother.
Malrik leaned closer, his presence filling every corner of Rael's mind. "You think blood ties matter? She abandoned you. She let you rot in chains while she wept for another man. That is your truth. Not her lies." The words struck deep, cutting at the fragile thread Selene had rekindled. Rage surged—hot, violent, familiar. He could drown in it, let it consume the ache of doubt.
Yet… beneath the fury, something else burned. A question. A possibility Rael lifted his head, and for a fleeting instant, his gaze cut through the storm. Across the battlefield, he caught a glimpse of her—silver fire rising again as she fought at Kieran's side. Her blade spun with unyielding defiance, her light carving paths through shadow.
And in that glimpse, his fury faltered. His chest ached—not from the chains, but from something he couldn't smother. Malrik's grip tightened. "You are mine." Rael's lips curled into a snarl, but this time it wasn't obedience that burned behind his teeth—it was resistance."No," he whispered, though the chains seared against the word.
The warlord's eyes narrowed, molten and cruel. The Hollow Flame around them surged as if to crush the defiance. Rael dropped to one knee, teeth gritted, veins alight with molten agony. His scream ripped through the battlefield, half fury, half defiance.
The Hollow Flame warriors faltered, startled by the fracture in their weapon. Malrik's face twisted with both fury and amusement. "So be it. You'll either learn to obey or you'll burn alive in your own rebellion."
He released Rael with a violent shove, sending him staggering into the ranks. The chains dug deeper, writhing like serpents across his flesh. The boy's wings trembled, half-shadow, half-broken flame.
But inside him, a seed had been planted.
Selene's words her fire her defiance and as Rael's gaze found hers once more through the storm, his whisper carried across the bond that no chain could sever: I'm still here.
Selene gasped mid-strike, her sword faltering for just a breath. Kieran noticed immediately, his gaze snapping to her, then following her line of sight across the battlefield. He saw the boy and for the first time, he saw more than Malrik's weapon. He saw the war being waged within.
The war that might decide them all.