"Not every healer mends. Some re-open wounds to test your strength."
---
LYRA
Vren sat across from me.
Chained.
She didn't look afraid just annoyed.
Like this interrogation was a mild inconvenience.
"I never lied," she said calmly. "I just didn't tell you everything."
Kairo stood behind me, arms crossed, his presence as heavy as the storm brewing outside the windows.
"You marked Felix heading toward the caves," I said. "But you didn't stop him."
She lifted a shoulder. "Because it wasn't him."
"What?"
"It was something… wearing his scent."
I blinked. "A rogue?"
"No," she said slowly, voice turning cryptic. "Something older. Something that remembered you."
Kairo stepped forward. "Enough riddles."
Vren met his gaze evenly. "You want answers? You won't like them."
"Try us."
She looked at me again. This time, something flickered in her eyes recognition?
Or regret?
> "Your mother didn't hide you to protect you from danger, Lyra.
She hid you because you are the danger."
The words hit like a slap.
My throat tightened.
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to," Vren said, leaning back. "But you'll feel it soon. The power inside you... it's not just flame."
Something cracked in my chest.
She wasn't lying. I could feel it lately like something shifting inside me, trying to claw its way out.
Kairo put a hand on my shoulder, grounding me.
But I could feel the way his fingers tensed.
> He was starting to wonder too.
---
KAIRO
I didn't want to doubt her.
God, I didn't.
But I had seen the flames she left behind.
The tree.
The way the air itself vibrated when she got angry.
And now this
Vren, claiming she was some kind of weapon waiting to go off.
Still, I spoke firmly.
"She's not a threat to us."
Vren's lips curved into a smile.
> "Then maybe you're not the Alpha you think you are."
I growled.
But Lyra touched my arm gently.
"I want to know more," she said. "Everything."
Vren leaned forward, the chains clinking softly.
> "Then come with me. Alone.
Let me take you to the ruins Seraphine left behind.
That's where the truth is buried."
I opened my mouth to object hell no but Lyra cut me off.
"I'll go."
"Not without me."
She looked at me, softly. "Kairo, you can't follow me through every door."
"But I can damn well burn down the ones that hurt you."
Later…
That night, I stood outside her door.
I didn't knock.
Just stood there, listening to the silence behind it.
Because what scared me more than her power…
Was how much I wanted to belong to it.