Chapter 12 – The Fire Beneath the Skin
[LYRA'S POV]
The moment she touched the page again, it burned.
Not in the way fire does, but like her fingers had brushed across memory itself.
The old book Elyna left behind sat open on her lap, glowing faintly around the edges of a faded symbol: a crescent moon swallowed in flames.
It was the same symbol she had seen once in a dream.
And now it had followed her here.
---
Outside the cabin, the wind howled.
Inside, her veins hummed.
Her skin tingled like lightning was trapped beneath it. Her breath came faster. The mark on her chest itched, then pulsed—hard.
Then…
The candle beside her flared.
---
She shot to her feet, knocking the chair over.
Another candle sparked to life across the room.
Then another.
And another.
She wasn't touching them.
She wasn't doing anything.
But they obeyed her.
They knew her.
---
"Stop."
She whispered it like a prayer.
But the flame listened like a lover.
It danced. It curled. It burned her name without ash.
---
[KAIRO'S POV]
He felt it from across the field.
Something wrong.
Something calling him.
He didn't run.
He shifted mid-stride and burst through the trees in seconds.
The scent hit him first: smoke, pine, her.
He shifted back before reaching the door, body still humming with power.
Then—
Bang.
The front door blasted open.
And there she stood.
Eyes wide.
Hands glowing.
Hair lifted slightly as if gravity had surrendered to her energy.
The fire didn't touch her.
But it worshipped her.
---
Kairo froze.
His wolf surged forward.
> Mine. Mine. Ours. Take her. Mark her. Bind her.
> Shut up.
> Touch her and you'll know.
---
"Lyra," he said slowly, voice ragged. "What happened?"
"I don't know. The book. The candles. I didn't mean to—"
He stepped forward.
The flames dimmed.
Like they recognized him, too.
---
She looked at her hands. "I can't stop it."
"Yes, you can."
"How?"
He stepped closer. Slowly. Carefully.
Until they were barely a breath apart.
> "Focus on me," he whispered. "Let the flame come down."
She looked up at him.
Eyes full of fear.
But not of him.
Of herself.
---
"I don't trust me," she whispered.
"I do."
---
It came out before he could stop it.
And the second it did—
The flames vanished.
---
Just like that, the cabin fell into silence.
Only their breathing filled the space.
Fast. Unsteady. Too close.
She was still staring at him like he was the only thing holding her to the ground.
And he…
He didn't move.
Because if he touched her now—
He wouldn't stop.
---
"Thank you," she said softly.
He clenched his fists. "Don't thank me."
"Why not?"
"Because if I let go for one second, I'll do something I can't take back."
---
She blinked.
Then stepped forward anyway.
Not much.
Just enough that her chest brushed his. Her voice barely a whisper.
> "What if I don't want you to take it back?"
---
The tension snapped like a live wire.
His hand cupped her jaw.
Her breath caught.
Their lips almost met.
---
But—
A knock at the door.
Loud. Urgent.
They both froze.
Then a voice called out.
> "Alpha, you need to see this."
---
[SCENE CUT – OUTSIDE]
Burned into the largest oak tree at the edge of the clearing…
Was the same symbol from Lyra's book.
The crescent moon. Swallowed in flame.
Below it, in crude, carved letters:
> "Return what is not yours."