Chapter 21 – Ashes on Her Hands
LYRA
It started as a whisper.
Not a sound.
A feeling.
Like the room exhaled and forgot how to breathe again.
I opened my eyes and sat up, heart pounding.
The window beside my bed was cracked open. I could see the edge of the forest in the moonlight.
But something was off.
The night wasn't quiet.
It was holding its breath.
---
Elyna burst through the door without knocking.
Her face was pale, and her voice shook.
"Don't panic… but you need to come. Now."
---
Outside, the packhouse courtyard was crowded.
The air reeked of burned wood and something worse—ash and iron.
Kairo stood near the center, his arms folded, jaw tight. When he saw me, he didn't speak. He just tilted his head toward the healer's hut.
Smoke curled from its windows.
---
I followed Elyna through the broken doorway.
The heat inside hit like a wave.
The mattress was scorched. The walls blackened. But the center of the fire… was clean.
Too clean.
---
The elder who had been sleeping there—Elder Voro—was gone.
No body.
No blood.
Only ash.
A full human body turned to dust, and not even the flames spread past his bed.
I turned slowly toward Kairo.
His voice was low, grave.
"There's no sign of attack. No claw marks. No scent."
"Then what happened?"
He looked at me for a long time before answering.
"We think… it was the mark."
---
I flinched. "Mine?"
Elyna nodded slowly.
"Lyra, you were the last one near him."
---
The room spun.
I hadn't even seen Voro since the vision.
Unless—unless the mark was flaring without me knowing. Unless it was... protecting me?
Or punishing someone?
---
A younger warrior stepped into the hut. His name was Ren. I'd seen him before, but he never spoke to me.
He did now.
"I heard her voice last night," he said coldly. "She was sleepwalking. She came near the hut, whispering something… and then the fire started."
I stared at him.
"I don't remember that."
"Of course you don't," he snapped. "Because it wasn't you. It was whatever lives inside you."
---
Kairo's growl rumbled low in his chest.
"Enough."
"She's dangerous."
"That's not your call."
"It's everyone's call if she's burning elders in their beds!"
---
I didn't know what to say.
I didn't know if they were wrong.
Kairo turned to me.
His voice was gentle, but there was steel in it.
"Did you feel anything last night?"
"I had a dream," I whispered. "A flame. But it was just a dream."
Ren scoffed and stormed out.
Elyna stayed quiet, watching me like she didn't know what she was seeing anymore.
Later that night, I sat alone.
The mark on my chest felt warm again, like it was breathing with me.
I wasn't sure if I was the girl with a mysterious gift…
Or the weapon no one could control.
A soft knock broke my thoughts.
Kairo stepped inside, slower than usual.
He didn't touch me.
He just looked.
"You believe them?" I asked.
"No."
"You believe me?"
His jaw tightened. "Yes. But that doesn't mean I'm not scared."
"Of me?"
He nodded.
And somehow… that hurt more than if he hadn't answered at all.
"I didn't mean for any of this to happen," I said quietly.
"I know."
"But it's happening anyway."
"I know."
Silence stretched between us like a thread, pulled too tight.
Then he walked over, sat beside me, and said something so quiet I almost missed it.
"I'll protect you… even if it's from yourself."
And for the first time since this began, I felt the tears come.
Not from fear.
But from the terrifying truth:
> He meant it.
Even if I turned out to be the very thing that burned his world down.