Zack's POV
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The forest watched us.
Not with eyes — but with memory.
Every step we took, the trees bent closer.
As if recognizing her.
As if warning me.
Selena moved ahead, quiet but restless.
Since we crossed the border into Thornwake, she hadn't spoken much.
But I saw the change.
Her eyes were darker now — like shadows had taken root behind them.
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We followed the map carved in bone.
Each marking bled into the next, like it was alive — and maybe it was.
Thornwake was no ordinary forest.
It whispered.
Not just with wind, but voices.
Some cried.
Some begged.
Some... called her name.
> "Selena…"
She flinched every time. I reached for her hand. She let me.
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We reached the clearing by dusk.
The ground was soft — like ash soaked in sorrow.
And there it was:
The altar.
Stone cracked with runes. Bones braided around its base.
Above it — a tree made entirely of silver thorns, pulsing faintly with red light.
Selena stepped closer. Breath shallow.
> "I've seen this," she said.
"In dreams."
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She touched the altar.
And the world shattered.
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We weren't in Thornwake anymore.
We stood in a burning field — sky split with lightning.
Selena stood before a woman cloaked in shadows.
Eyes like mirrors. Skin like dusk.
> "You should not have come," the woman said.
"Not until you were ready."
Selena trembled. "Who are you?"
The woman lifted her hand — and we both fell to our knees.
> "I am your blood. The one they buried to protect you. The one they cursed to keep hidden."
> "You were born in fire. Raised in lies."
> "Now choose: stay human and forget… or awaken and burn."
---
The vision snapped.
We were back at the altar.
Selena collapsed. I caught her.
Her pulse — slower. Colder.
But something shimmered under her skin.
A mark.
Like a crown… made of thorns and flame.
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> "Zack…" she whispered.
"She was my mother."
---
The forest howled.
And the Bone Tree from the sanctum — the one we trained under — cracked in the distance.
Something had been awakened.
---
🩸 Endnote
Some truths are roots.
Others are blades.
Wil Selena make a choice that will break her — or crown her.
To my Mystics: thank you for dreaming in blood with me.
— Mysterious_frnd