The valley was quiet—but the calm was dangerous.
I had expected movement, whispers in the wind, the low hum of magic attempting to mask itself. But nothing came. Too still.
Elara's eyes never left the forest line. "They're planning," she murmured. "Waiting for the moment they think we are vulnerable."
Rowan crouched beside me, blade resting lightly against his shoulder. "Or for the moment you falter," he said.
I shook my head. "I won't."
But then came the sign I had feared the most: a figure approaching from the opposite side of the valley, walking with purpose, familiar—but wrong.
It was Selene, one of the few allies we had trusted. Her eyes met mine, and I froze—not because of recognition, but because the certainty in her gaze was unlike any warmth I had known from her before.
"Elara," she said, voice sharp, cutting through the quiet. "She has to come with me."
"Elara?" I asked, heart tightening. "She? Who—"
"You know what this is," Selene interrupted. "You've been hiding pieces of yourself. You don't understand the danger yet."
I stepped forward, power surging beneath my skin, not wild but precise. "And you think taking me will make it safer?"
Selene's lips twitched—almost a smile. "No. It will make you… contained."
The betrayal hit harder than any hunter's blade. Not physical pain—emotional. Trust shattered into sharp fragments in an instant.
"You were supposed to be with me," I said, voice low, trembling with rage. "I trusted you."
Selene's expression didn't waver. "Trust is a luxury for those who don't wield power that can change the world."
I felt Nyxara's echo ignite within me—warning, guiding, daring.
This is your choice. This is your fire.
I exhaled slowly, letting the power settle like molten metal in my veins. The earth beneath us trembled in anticipation. The air itself grew thick with tension, responding to the unspoken command that now pulsed through me.
"You will not take me," I said. The words carried farther than I imagined, bending the valley, stirring the wind. Roots erupted from the soil, twisting and coiling around Selene's feet, binding without crushing, holding without harming.
Selene faltered, eyes wide with disbelief. "Ariana… what have you become?"
"Not what I was," I replied, voice steady. "What I choose to be."
Rowan's blade flashed, cutting a path to her side—not as attack, but as protection. Elara whispered behind me, "You are no longer the girl we tried to hide. They can't take you. Not anymore."
Selene struggled, but the roots held. I stepped closer, grounding the valley, bending every element, every shadow to my presence. I felt the betrayal, tasted its sharpness, and transformed it into clarity.
"You can try," I said, letting the wind lift my hair around me like a crown of fire, "but no one—no one—controls who I am."
The echoes of Nyxara hummed in harmony with me, fierce and unrelenting.
Selene fell silent.
I didn't give her mercy. I gave her understanding: the first lesson of the girl who had been hidden, divided, and underestimated for too long.
From the shadows beyond the valley, I knew others were watching. Waiting. Judging.
Let them watch.
Let them fear.
Because Ariana had claimed herself fully—and anyone who tried to deny that would feel the consequences.
The war for my truth had only just begun.
And betrayal had just made me unstoppable.