Chapter 23 – The One Who Burned First
LYRA
I didn't sleep that night.
Even after Kairo escorted me back to my room. Even after he stood outside the door like a silent shadow.
Because something inside me was restless.
Burning.
Not the kind of fire that destroys.
The kind that remembers.
The moment I closed my eyes, the world around me shifted.
I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't awake.
I was somewhere else.
A long hall stretched before me — black marble floor, blood-red banners hanging like whispers from the ceiling.
At the end of the hall stood a throne of flame.
Empty.
But pulsing.
Like it was alive.
Waiting.
---
I took a step forward.
The ground beneath my feet sizzled.
And then—she appeared.
A woman. No… not a woman. A shadow.
Long hair like smoke, gold eyes glowing, her voice echoing like it came from every wall at once.
> "She finally wakes."
My breath caught.
"Who are you?"
She smiled, but there was no kindness in it.
> "I'm what's left when fire forgets it was light."
Then she stepped aside.
And a mirror appeared behind her.
I stepped closer… and looked.
But the reflection wasn't mine.
It was a girl — young, maybe sixteen — standing in a burning village.
She was barefoot, covered in soot, screaming as flames rose around her.
> She didn't run.
> She called the fire.
And as the village turned to ash, the people began to kneel.
Not from fear.
But worship.
---
The vision shifted again.
Now the same girl stood on the throne of flame.
A crown melted to her skull.
Eyes glowing red.
And behind her, written in smoke across the walls:
> "The First Flame will return.
And when she does, the wolves will kneel… or burn."
I stumbled back.
The mirror cracked.
The woman's voice followed me as the vision faded.
> "You bear her blood, child.
But the fire doesn't make you chosen.
It makes you haunted."
I woke up gasping.
My skin was hot.
My hands glowed faintly for a moment — just a flicker — then faded.
A knock.
Kairo again.
He didn't wait for me to speak. He opened the door and stepped in.
"You screamed," he said, eyes scanning me.
"I saw her again," I whispered.
He didn't ask who.
I think he already knew.
Instead, he sat beside me, the silence heavy between us.
Then I told him everything.
The vision. The girl. The throne.
And the name that wasn't spoken aloud, but etched into my mind like a curse.
Seraphine.
Kairo froze.
"You heard that name?"
I nodded.
His jaw clenched.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because Seraphine was the first wolf marked by the gods," he said. "But she wasn't just a legend."
"She burned the North pack to the ground."
I swallowed.
And whispered the part I hadn't said yet.
"She looked like me."