I never imagined a place could feel alive, but this one did.
The sanctuary the Forgotten Fangs led us to was buried deep within the western cliffs, hidden behind a waterfall that whispered in tongues older than language. The air shimmered with raw energy. Trees bowed, and stones pulsed with faint golden veins — like the earth itself remembered who I was.
But I didn't remember myself.
Not yet.
"You feel different," Rhydan said, watching me from across the training ground.
"Different how?" I asked, hands still trembling after another failed attempt to summon flame.
He tilted his head, eyes serious. "Like you're on the edge of becoming something else."
I looked down at my palms. "I don't know what I am."
"Yes, you do," he said gently. "You're just scared to accept it."
I didn't argue.
Because he was right.
My training began the day after we arrived.
Not with weapons.
Not with spells.
But with silence.
"Listen," instructed Kira, one of the older Forgotten Fangs. Her eyes were dark amber, and her hair flowed like woven shadows. "The fire in you isn't something to tame. It's not a horse or a wolf. It's a heartbeat. You don't command it — you hear it."
"I've tried," I said. "It only comes when I'm afraid. Or angry."
"Exactly," she replied. "Which means it already knows how to protect you. Now you need to teach it how to protect others."
Easier said than done.
Days passed.
Every morning, I trained under Kira's watchful eye, balancing blindfolded on cliff edges while trying to sense the warmth within me. I burned my fingers more times than I could count. I set a tree on fire twice.
But something was changing.
The more I pushed past my fear, the more the flame responded. Not like a monster — but like a memory. A part of me that had always been buried, waiting for the right moment to rise.
Still… something wasn't right.
Because the dreams were back.
They started softly.
A girl standing in ash.
A wolf with silver eyes bleeding beneath a red moon.
Chains — wrapped around a tree, slick with blood.
And always… the same voice whispering:
"He will betray you."
I'd wake gasping, drenched in sweat.
Rhydan would be there every time, sitting beside my bed, his jaw tight, eyes unreadable.
"You scream her name in your sleep," he said one night.
"Whose name?"
"The Flame. The one you once were."
I looked away. "Do you think I'm still her?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "But I know you're not the same girl I dragged out of the mountain three weeks ago."
"You regret it?"
He leaned in, close enough that I could feel the heat of his skin.
"Never."
But even as he said it… I saw the shadow in his eyes.
Something he wasn't saying.
A truth buried behind that brooding stare.
And then, late one night, I found him talking to my mother.
Whispers.
Tense.
Urgent.
I stayed hidden behind the pillar, heart pounding.
"She can't know yet," Rhydan said.
"She deserves the truth," my mother snapped.
"She deserves time," he growled. "She's barely holding herself together. If she finds out what I did—"
My breath caught.
My blood froze.
What did he do?
I confronted him the next morning.
In the sacred pool where I was training, the steam rising around us like spirits.
"What aren't you telling me?" I demanded.
Rhydan flinched. Just barely. But I saw it.
"I heard you last night."
He didn't deny it.
"You said I shouldn't know something. Something you did."
Silence.
My stomach twisted. "Tell me."
He stepped into the steam, eyes dark, shoulders tense. "The night you awakened… that wasn't the first time we met."
"What?"
"I saw you years ago," he said. "Before any of this. When I was barely more than a wolf. I was part of a patrol near the human borders. We weren't supposed to interfere, just observe. But I… I sensed something."
I stared, cold creeping into my limbs.
"You saw me?"
"You were maybe thirteen," he said. "You were crying in the woods behind your foster home. Your hands were bleeding. There was power leaking out of you even then. Unformed. Wild."
My throat closed. I remembered that night.
I had screamed at the stars.
Begged the universe to explain why I never felt normal.
"You didn't help me," I whispered.
"No. I was ordered not to."
"But you watched?"
He nodded once. "Every full moon. I checked in. From the shadows. Just to be sure you were… okay."
I didn't know whether to cry or scream.
"That was you," I whispered. "The black wolf I always dreamed about."
He looked at me then — fully. "Yes."
My knees weakened. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"
"Because I wasn't supposed to care. But I did."
He stepped closer.
"I watched you grow, Aeryn. Watched you fight the darkness inside you without even knowing what it was. And when I saw you again at the mountain… I knew. I knew you were mine."
My heart cracked open.
"You've always known," I said. "Even when I didn't."
"I'm sorry."
I reached for him.
And I didn't pull away.
That night, I didn't dream of fire.
I dreamed of stars.
Of a girl wrapped in flame and a wolf watching from afar.
And for the first time… the voice in my head went silent.
But it wasn't peace.
It was warning.
Because when I woke, the sky outside was bleeding.
And a single word echoed through the sanctuary halls.
"Murder."