Chapter 16 – The One Who Watches Through Flame
LYRA'S POV]
The fire was the first thing I saw.
Not around me—inside me.
It curled in my lungs, flickered in my fingertips, throbbed in my chest like a second heartbeat.
But I wasn't afraid.
I should have been.
---
Kairo had fallen asleep across the room, one arm hanging off the couch, the other draped over his face like he was hiding from the world.
I envied how easily he surrendered to sleep.
Because mine never came clean.
Every time I closed my eyes, I felt it.
That hum beneath the skin.
That ancient whisper crawling across my bones.
Tonight, though…
It wasn't whispering.
It was calling.
---
I blinked once—
And the cabin melted away.
---
Suddenly I was standing in the middle of a vast red plain.
Ash swirled in the air like snow.
The sky was dark, burning at the edges like a torn page set on fire.
A single tree stood in the distance.
Black. Twisted. Still smoking.
I didn't know how I got here.
I only knew I'd been here before.
---
"Lyra."
The voice wrapped around me like silk dipped in smoke.
I turned slowly.
No one stood behind me.
But the presence was there.
Close. Watching.
Breathing in rhythm with mine.
---
And then I saw them.
Eyes in the flame.
Gold. Slit. Unblinking.
Watching me like prey that had wandered into its nest.
---
"You return to us at last," it hissed.
My knees buckled.
"What is this?"
A laugh echoed through the smoke.
> "The in-between. The truth beneath your blood. The part your wolf cannot tame."
---
I backed away.
But the flames reached toward me.
Not to burn.
To touch.
To remember.
---
And I remembered.
A woman screaming in childbirth.
A name shouted to the heavens.
> "She is born of flame and echo—watch her or be consumed!"
And the mark…
Branded into me before my first breath.
---
"You were never meant for their world," the voice murmured. "But you chose it."
"No," I whispered. "I don't remember choosing anything."
Another laugh.
Soft. Cold. Knowing.
> "You will. When the veil burns."
---
I gasped.
The world snapped back.
The red plains vanished.
The fire was gone.
But I wasn't alone.
---
Kairo sat in front of me, his face pale, his hands gripping mine.
"You disappeared," he breathed. "You stopped breathing."
I blinked.
There were tears on my cheeks.
Sweat on my neck.
Ash under my fingernails.
---
"I saw them," I whispered.
"Who?"
"I don't know. I think… they were inside me. Watching me. Waiting."
He cupped my face gently, but there was a flicker of fear in his eyes.
"Lyra… your mark was glowing through your skin. Your eyes were white."
I blinked. "What did I say?"
Kairo hesitated.
"You said: 'The veil will burn.'"
---
[KAIRO'S POV]
Her voice hadn't sounded like hers.
It had sounded ancient.
I didn't want to admit it.
But something had woken up in her.
Something that knew her name before I ever learned it.
And I knew now — keeping her here, in this cabin, this forest, under watch?
It wouldn't be enough.
Because it wasn't just enemies coming for her.
> Something was coming through her.
---
"I'm scared," she whispered, her voice cracking.
I didn't speak.
I just pulled her to my chest.
Because I was scared too.
But not of her.
> I was scared of what I'd do
when someone tried to take her.