POV: Elara
"Maybe I wasn't made to fit this world… because I was born to break it open."
The words echoed in my mind as the sun bled over Blackthorn's broken towers, but peace didn't come with daylight.
Kael slammed the door shut behind him. The sound cracked through the chamber like thunder.
"You saw a child with dragon blood and didn't tell me?" His voice was low, but deadly.
I turned, breath catching. "I didn't even know what she was!"
"You didn't tell me." He stalked forward. "Not after everything we've been through. Elara, this isn't just some rogue creature; this is prophecy. This is war."
"She looked like a child, Kael!" I shouted back. "She smiled. She was scared. And I was trying to make sense of it, without dragging another sword into it."
Kael's jaw tightened. "You should've trusted me."
"I do trust you," I whispered. "But I don't trust what's coming. I don't even trust myself anymore."
That stopped him. He took a step back, then exhaled sharply. "We can't afford secrets, not now. The mark, the vision, the whispers, this kingdom is being tested again. And you… You're the key."
The great hall buzzed with tension as the new Elders were called in, fresh blood to replace the traitors, or so we thought.
I sat beside Kael, my back straight, my hands tight in my lap.
One of the Elders, a pale-skinned man with sharp teeth and a cruel smile, never stopped glaring at me.
Finally, he spoke.
"Her kind ended our first kingdom," he said coldly. "You crown her now, and you invite the same fire that consumed our ancestors."
I rose from my seat slowly. "My kind?" I said, eyes narrowing. "Do you mean hybrids? Or just women who refuse to kneel?"
Gasps filled the room.
Kael stood beside me instantly. "Enough. This council was called to protect this kingdom, not tear it apart again."
The Elder scoffed. "Then don't let fire sit on your throne."
After the meeting, I walked the corridor alone, needing air, needing space.
That's when it happened.
A glint of silver.
A blur of movement.
A blade swung for my throat.
I ducked, but not fast enough. It grazed my shoulder, burned like acid.
A guard stood there, wild-eyed, silver dagger in hand.
"You don't belong here!" he shouted. "You'll kill us all!"
Before I could strike back, Kael's sword slashed through the air, knocking the weapon away. He slammed the guard against the wall.
"Who sent you?" he snarled.
The guard grinned through bloodied teeth. "She'll never save you. None of you will survive when the gate opens."
"What gate?" I demanded.
But he bit down on something in his mouth, poison, and went still.
Later, in Kael's chamber, I pulled my shirt off to tend to the wound.
His eyes widened, not at the injury, but something just below it.
"Elara," he whispered. "Your back…"
I turned to the mirror and froze. A glowing mark, bright and golden, spiraled across my spine. A rune of fire. "It wasn't there before," I whispered.
Kael reached out, barely touching it. "It's a dragon sigil."
"What does it mean?"
"It means…" he swallowed, eyes locked to mine, "you've been chosen for war."
The room spun. Chosen again, not for love, not for peace, but for war.
Suddenly, the rune pulsed. A deep throb through my spine. Heat spread like lava through my veins.
"Elara?" Kael's voice broke.
I gasped. My vision blurred, and then... Flames erupted from my skin.
My knees gave out. Kael caught me before I hit the ground.
"Elara!" he shouted, but I couldn't answer... because inside me… something had awakened, and it was no longer asking permission to rise.
They crowned me in ash, but the fire inside me was never theirs to command. It was mine. Always mine.
The sigil pulsed on my back, each beat a whisper, each glow a scream, and still, I couldn't move.
Kael's arms held me tightly against his chest, but even his warmth couldn't slow the storm raging through me. My breath came in short gasps. My vision blurred with smoke and light, but it wasn't from the room.
It was from inside. "Elara, stay with me," Kael whispered, voice shaking. "I've got you. You're okay."
But I wasn't, I was burning.
My skin didn't blister. It shimmered. My veins glowed. Fire rippled just beneath the surface. The sigil etched across my spine like it had always been waiting there, hidden, dormant, until now.
Until I saw her, the girl, the prophecy, and the gate.
"Kael," I rasped, barely able to lift my head, "it's not just me." He leaned down quickly. "What do you mean?"
"There are others. Hybrids. They're waking up."
He didn't speak. He just stared at me with an expression I couldn't read, half fear, half awe.
The fire didn't stop… but it changed.
It wasn't wild anymore. It began to settle inside me, coiling like a dragon learning its cage again.
I exhaled slowly. The heat faded from my skin. The flames dimmed. My strength returned, like the power had burned through my weakness and left something else behind.
Steel.
"Are you alright?" Kael asked carefully.
I sat up slowly. "I'm not sure. But I think… I think I'm changing."
He nodded once, tense. "And the sigil?"
I turned toward the mirror again. The glowing rune still shimmered across my back, but it no longer pulsed in pain.
Now, it shimmered like a crown carved in flame.
"I don't know what it means," I whispered.
Kael stepped closer, his hand hovering over my back. "I've seen it before. In a book, the Elders were once sealed away. It was the symbol of the First Flame."
"The First Flame?" I asked, turning toward him.
He nodded. "A weapon. A creature. Or maybe a queen. No one ever agreed. But she was said to be the one who would rise from both bloodlines, wolf and dragon, and choose whether to burn the world or save it."
I went cold. "And they sealed that knowledge?"
"They feared it," Kael said. "They feared her."
"Because she couldn't be controlled," I muttered. "Because her fire didn't bow."
He looked me in the eyes. "Because her fire destroyed their gods."
The weight of it settled around me. This wasn't just about blood or power anymore.
This was about history. Truth. Legacy.
"What happens now?" I asked, voice low.
Kael was quiet for a long moment before answering.
"Now," he said, "we prepare."
I dressed in silence, fingers shaking slightly as I tied the dark wrap around my shoulders. The sigil burned softly beneath the fabric like a second skin.
Kael hadn't left my side, but he'd grown quieter. Tighter. "Say it," I finally said, not looking at him. "Whatever's in your head."
He took a breath. "If the Elders saw that mark…"
"They'd kill me," I finished.
He didn't argue.
"So we keep it hidden," I said. For now. His jaw clenched. "But the kingdom won't stay calm for long. Rumors are already spreading. The guard that attacked you wasn't acting alone."
I turned to him. "Then we find who else wants me dead."
His lips twitched, part admiration, part concern. "And if it's more than one? If it's the Council itself?"
I stared at him. "Then we burn them all."
That night, I stood by the open window, watching the stars blink like dying embers.
The child's voice echoed in my head: "You smell like me." She had known, and the gate?
It wasn't just a myth; it was real.
Somewhere, something ancient was waking. Something older than wolves. Older than dragons. Something that reminded me of the first war... the one no one dared to write down, and whatever it was… It had marked me.
"The crown never made me a queen. The fire did