The Forest Knows Our Names

Star POV

The forest whispered with things that had no mouths.

Trees, blackened at their roots, leaned like broken sentinels. Mist coiled between them, dense and low, pressing cold fingers against my skin. Moss glowed faintly along the bark, a sickly blue that pulsed when I stepped too close. I could hear Kael's breathing behind me, heavy and sharp like he didn't trust the air either.

This place was old. Not just in years—but in memory. The kind of old that remembered sacrifices.

I paused beside a stream, if it could still be called that. Its waters were the color of rust and bone. My reflection rippled, distorted: a girl with ember-burned eyes, hollow cheeks, and a star-shaped scar glowing faintly beneath her collar.

Me.

Star

I didn't recognize her anymore.

"Don't linger near the water," Kael muttered, stepping ahead, sword drawn but lowered. "The roots drink more than blood here."

"How comforting," I rasped, my voice raw from disuse.

We had been walking for days, dodging riders and seeking the hidden path to the Hollow Vale—a sanctuary whispered among deserters and witches. A place the Empire had failed to burn.

But this forest was not a sanctuary.

It was a test.

Kael stopped suddenly, raising a clenched fist. I crouched behind him instinctively, the embers in my chest pulsing. He turned his head slightly. "We're being followed."

My heart stuttered. "Cultists?"

"No," he said, voice tight. "Worse. They're quiet."

He meant Shades. Shadowspawn that lived in death, feeding on memory and warmth. They wore your face if they could. Your mother's voice. The one you missed most.

The trees began to groan.

Then I heard it—my sister's laughter.

Destiny. Dead in the fire with the rest. A laugh full of cinnamon and dusk, tugging at the rawest pieces of me. I froze. My legs refused to move.

"It's not her," Kael said sharply. "Don't listen."

But I turned.

And saw her standing there.

Destiny. Dressed in soot and flame. Her eyes wide, lips curled in a smile too sharp to be hers.

"You left me," she whispered. "You ran. I burned."

I couldn't breathe. The ember inside me roared. I felt it rise like a tide, heat building in my lungs, my fingertips, my eyes.

"Say something," the shade hissed. "Admit it. You wanted to survive more than you wanted to save me."

I fell to my knees.

Kael's sword swept out, cleaving through the illusion. The shade let out a screech that cracked the air, then dissolved into ash.

That was when they descended.

Not one shade. A dozen. A flood of shadows pouring from the trees, grinning with stolen faces—my mother, my childhood friend, even Kael's old captain.

Kael shouted, slashing through them like a man possessed. "Star, burn them!"

"I don't know how—!"

"Yes, you do! FEEL IT!"

I screamed as something cold and sharp bit into my shoulder. A shade had its claws in me, pulling at memory, trying to feed. I saw fire. Screams. My father's hands pushing me from the collapsing roof. The last thing I saw before the house fell.

I grabbed the shade's wrist.

And let go.

Of the fear. The grief. The guilt.

The ember answered.

Flames erupted from my skin, but they weren't orange or red—they were silver and black, flickering with strange symbols that danced along the bark of the trees.

The forest shuddered.

The shades hissed and writhed, trying to flee. I raised my hand—and the flame followed, curling outward like wings made of ash and fury.

One by one, they burned.

Until only silence remained.

I collapsed. My body felt hollow, like something had poured out of me. The embers receded slowly, leaving behind a dull glow in my chest.

Kael knelt beside me, eyes wide with something close to awe—or fear. "You burned through the veil," he whispered. "Even mages can't do that."

I didn't answer.

Because I could still hear Destiny's laugh in the back of my skull.

But I had survived.

We had survived.

And now the forest feared me.

That night, we made camp in a hollow beneath the roots of a twisted yew. Kael said nothing for a long time, only tending the fire and glancing at me like I might explode again.

I stared into the flames.

Not all power came from wanting it.

Some came from pain. From guilt. From love lost in the fire.

The Vale was still far away. And there were worse things than shades hunting us now. But for the first time, I felt something I hadn't since the day my world ended.

Not hope.

Not yet.

But control.

And that was enough.