POV: Elara
And it had just opened its eyes.
I stood on the balcony of the newly reclaimed palace, the wind burning over my wings and the throne beneath me. The war was over. The victory was ours.
Yet,
Something didn't feel right. A hush fell over the celebration crowd below. Joy froze. A gasp echoed like an old memory.
It was a whisper.
"She's not the only hybrid."
Cold hair stood on my arm. I turned, I had to, but the balcony's stone pillars blocked sight. I scanned the crowd as best I could.
Then I saw them: a hooded figure slipping through smoke and firelight. A flash of amber-glowing eyes: too fierce, too uncanny.
I swallowed hard.
Kael appeared behind me, clutching his side, injured but steady.
"Kael," I breathed, stepping toward him. "Someone said… I'm not the only one."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
I let him lift an arm and lean on me. "A voice. I heard a whisper."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Then we remain vigilant."
We descended into the palace. Once throbbing with triumphant cheers, now eerily still.
The corridors were silent.
Too silent.
Guards stood at attention with frightened eyes, none meeting ours.
I felt watched.
Every shadow seemed alive.
I passed the servant quarters. Faces hid behind doors. Whispers died when I walked by.
In the quiet, I heard my wolf again, just a murmur, stirring inside me.
But she still wouldn't speak.
I needed air. I slipped into the castle gardens, where roses glowed under the moonlight.
There.
A slender figure.
A child.
She stared at me with eyes that burned amber. Scaled.
My breath caught.
She stepped closer.
"You smell like me," she whispered.
"Who are you?" I asked gently.
She cocked her head. "You're the dragon queen."
I knelt before her. "I am now."
She smiled faintly. "We are alike."
"Why are you here?" I asked. "What do you want?"
She looked at my hand, where the faint afterglow of fire still shimmered. "To tell you… The other blood calls."
I froze.
"What other blood?"
Her eyes flashed in reflection of rose petals. "They wake."
Then she disappeared into the garden's mist before I could say more.
That night I lay in my bedchamber, thoughts heavy. Kael slept fitfully beside me, breathing shallowly.
I closed my eyes. Then I dreamt: Fire rain. Red waterfalls from the sky. Dragons soaring, screaming, burning.
Then a voice. Lush and terrible. Echoing in my bones:
"Choose your side, child of ash."
I awoke gasping, sweat slick on my skin. My wings trembled. My heart pounded.
I turned to the space beside me. Kael was gone.
When I stood in the corridors, I saw that the castle was on lockdown, and the gates were barred.
Guards raced through the halls, shouting, and the girl... amber-eyed, scaled... was gone.
"They heard a dragon roar, but the real storm walked in silence."
The night felt alive now, not with victory, but with something ancient and hungry, calling us to choose again because the war hadn't ended.
It had only begun.
The corridors pulsed with frantic footsteps and whispered panic. Guards shouted orders, swords drawn. I moved like a shadow through them, barefoot and half-dreaming, but my senses were razor-sharp. My wolf stirred again, but still refused to speak.
And now… Kael was gone.
I stopped a guard near the eastern wing. "Where's the King?"
He blinked, startled. "Your Majesty, we thought he was with you."
"No," I said, with a firm voice. "Search every room. Every hall. And seal the gates. No one leaves until we find him, and a little girl."
His eyes widened. "A girl?"
"She's not ordinary," I muttered. "She's like me."
He ran without another word.
I gripped the pillar beside me to breathe.
That child.
Those scaled eyes.
"You smell like me."
The dream had been more than a vision; it was a warning.
Choose your side.
But how could I choose when I didn't even know the sides yet?
I walked back into the garden, following the path where the girl had stood. The roses were untouched. No prints in the dirt. No scent. Just air too still and moonlight too sharp.
She had vanished like smoke.
"Who are you?" I whispered aloud.
Behind me, a soft cough broke the silence.
I turned, and Kael stood at the edge of the trees, shirtless, wounded, bleeding through his bandages.
My breath rushed out. "Where were you?"
He limped closer. "I woke up alone… followed your scent here."
"You should've stayed in bed."
"You think I'd let you chase ghosts by yourself?" His smile was tired, pained. "Never again."
I ran to him, catching his weight before he collapsed completely. His arm slung around my shoulders.
"We need to talk," I said. "Now."
Back inside my chambers, I helped him sit on the bed, then paced.
"There was a girl," I said. "In the garden. She had scaled eyes, like mine. She said I smelled like her."
Kael tensed. "Another hybrid?"
"Maybe. Or something more." I swallowed. "She said something is waking. And then I had a dream, Kael, the skies were burning. I heard a voice, telling me to choose my side."
"Your side?" he repeated slowly. "You think this is about you?"
"No." I turned to face him. "I think it's about all of us."
His eyes searched mine. "You think the war we fought… it was just a distraction."
"I know it was."
There was a long silence.
Then Kael's voice, low and careful: "You think she was sent by them?"
"I don't know who 'them' is yet," I said, "but I can feel it. Something else is moving. Something ancient. And I don't think it cares about kings or queens."
He looked away. "The Elders have been whispering since we took the throne back. Secrets. Warnings. They speak of an old prophecy, one never fulfilled."
I stepped closer. "What prophecy?"
He hesitated. "About the first hybrid. The one born of shadow and flame. The one who would open the gate."
My heart stilled.
"Open… what gate?"
Kael met my gaze with a weight I wasn't sure I could carry.
"The one that leads to the forgotten realm," he whispered. "The realm of the gods."
I sank to the edge of the bed. "You think that's me?"
"I don't know. But your blood burns differently now. You're not just a wolf. Not just dragon. You're something else. And whatever is out there, whatever is watching, they know it."
I sat in silence, my thoughts louder than the room… maybe I wasn't the only hybrid.
But maybe I was the first of something else. Something they feared. Kael leaned forward, catching my hand in his.
"I made a promise," he said softly. "To never leave you again. I won't. But Elara… if this path leads to a war worse than the last…"
He trailed off.
"I'm not afraid," I whispered. "Not anymore." He touched his forehead to mine. "Then neither am I."
But as the candles flickered low, and Kael drifted into sleep again, my eyes remained wide open, because far beneath the palace… under stone and time and fire…
That gate?
It was waking too, and someone, something was calling for me. "Maybe I wasn't made to fit this world… because I was born to break it open."