Chapter Eighteen: Bone and Truth
The forest felt colder than usual.
Kael rode beside Rina in wolf form, massive and silent, his fur brushing her knee as they approached the old burial grove where her mother had been laid to rest. The trees here whispered in strange tongues, and the wind never quite touched the ground.
Rina slid from the horse and knelt at the stone carved with her mother's name: Lira of the Quiet Flame.
"I never asked," she whispered. "And now I can't."
Kael shifted beside her, rising slowly to his feet, his hand steady on her shoulder. "You can, Rina. Sometimes the land remembers what people forget."
She placed the black feather on the grave.
And the wind stopped.
Leaves curled inward. The earth trembled. And a voice — not quite her mother's, but close — stirred in the stillness.
"Blood must sleep until it is called. You were hidden, child. Hidden to protect the packs from what runs in you."
Rina's eyes burned. "What am I?"
"Half wolf, half fire-born. The last daughter of the Ravenspell line. Your gift is older than the packs. Older than the forest."
She swayed, heart pounding. "Why didn't you tell me?"
There was no answer.
Only silence.
Back at the keep, Kael paced. "Ravenspell," he murmured. "They were wiped out generations ago. Banished. Feared."
"Because they could do things others couldn't," Rina replied, voice hollow. "Heal with fire. Call truth from bones. Bind Alphas without the moon's mark."
Kael froze. "That's what she meant. The curse."
Rina nodded. "If I lose control… I could bind more than a mate. I could command."
Kael stepped close, gripping her shoulders. "Then you'll learn to control it. You're not your blood, Rina. You're the woman who stood beside me when others fled. The one who healed, who fought, who led."
"I'm scared," she whispered.
"So am I," he said. "But I'd stand beside you in fire, in war, or in ruin."
She leaned into him, tears falling freely now.
"We'll face it together."
But outside the keep, the raven-cloaked woman stood watching.
And in her palm, a second feather burned.
"One spark," she murmured. "One wrong step… and the Alpha falls."