The Sister Of Ashes

Aurora spun around, every nerve alight. The voice was unmistakably female—low, smooth, and chilling.

From the threshold of the doorway stepped a figure cloaked in black, her presence warping the air around her like heat over asphalt. Her hood fell back, revealing a face that mirrored Aurora's. Same eyes, same cheekbones. But colder. Hardened. Tainted by something ancient.

"Hello, sister," she said.

Zayne immediately stepped between them, his stance defensive. Fiona's dagger flashed into her hand without hesitation.

Aurora didn't move. She couldn't.

"You…" she whispered. "You're real."

The girl—no, the woman—smirked. "Realer than the lies you were raised on. Did they tell you what they did to us? How they tore me from you in the dead of night and buried me in shadow?"

Her voice cracked with fury. "How they let you have a life while I was left to rot in the dark?"

Aurora took a shaky step forward. "I didn't know. I swear, I didn't know you existed."

"But I knew about you." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I felt you every time you laughed. Every time you loved. While I… survived."

Fiona muttered to Zayne, "We need to move. She's not just here to talk."

"Correct," said the twin. "I came to give you a choice."

The room seemed to tilt with her words. Power crackled in the walls.

"You have until the blood moon reaches its peak. Surrender your magic… or I take it by force."

Aurora's voice trembled. "Why? Why now?"

"Because only one of us can live through the rise. That's how the curse was made. One power. One flame. If both survive, the world burns."

The Vanishing

Without warning, a shadow spiral engulfed the twin. Fiona lunged, but it was too late—she vanished in a blink, leaving behind only a scorch mark on the floor.

Aurora collapsed into Zayne's arms, her skin clammy, her breathing shallow.

"She's stronger than me," she whispered.

Zayne held her close. "Then we make you stronger."

Fiona looked down at the mark on the floor. "She's not just fueled by power. She's fueled by vengeance. That's more dangerous than magic."

The Truth Beneath

Back at the flat, Ethan returned with old records and bloodline charts.

"There's something you need to see," he said, laying out documents. "The Holloway line—your mother's line—was meant to birth a Flameborn every thousand years. But… twins? That's never happened. The prophecy was supposed to produce one."

"So we were a mistake," Aurora said quietly.

"No," Ethan corrected. "You were a fracture in fate. And fractures can reshape the whole structure."

Zayne traced one of the old drawings—two flames twined together in the shape of a heart, pierced by a dagger. "There's an old rite," he murmured. "A fusion ritual. Dangerous. Ancient. It could combine your powers… or destroy you both."

Aurora's voice was hollow. "What if I don't want to destroy her?"

Fiona scoffed. "She clearly wants to destroy you."

"But she's still me," Aurora said. "She's what I could've become."

Ethan looked grim. "Then maybe the only way to win is to understand her. To become her… without losing yourself."

The Dreaming

That night, Aurora dreamed of fire.

She stood in a field of ash, the sky above blood-red. Across from her stood her sister, flames spiraling around her body like wings. In her hand—a black blade pulsing with magic.

Aurora held nothing. Only the ache in her chest.

"You're not ready," the twin

End of chapter 21...