The sun rose bloody over the hills.
Mira crouched near a shallow creek, rinsing the blood from her hands. Her reflection in the water shimmered, unfamiliar. Her face was the same, but her eyes, no longer hollow.
Now, they burned.
Behind her, Grey kept watch as Liam helped their father settle against a tree trunk. The man looked barely conscious, but alive. Mira couldn't stop glancing at him, torn between relief and dread.
"You did it," Liam murmured. "You broke the chains."
"No," Mira said softly. "The pendant did. Our mother's magic."
Grey stepped closer, his eyes flicking to the healing wound on her side. "You need stitches."
"I'll heal."
"Still. Sit."
She did.
Grey knelt in front of her, pulling gauze and antiseptic from his kit. As he cleaned the wound, she hissed but didn't flinch.
"How are you not panicking right now?" she asked him.
"You mean after watching you transform into the most powerful wolf I've ever seen?"
She smirked faintly.
He wrapped her side carefully. "I'm panicking on the inside."
A pause.
Then:
"You were magnificent," he said quietly.
Mira's breath hitched.
She looked away. "It wasn't supposed to happen like that."
"It was supposed to happen exactly like that."
Liam approached, looking pale but steady. "He's awake again."
Mira rose and crossed to her father.
He opened his eyes slowly. The black was gone. Only gray remained.
"Mira."
She swallowed. "Hi, Dad."
He reached for her hand, callused fingers trembling. "You've grown fierce."
"You would've too, if you'd survived what I did."
"I tried," he whispered. "But Valda took everything. She made me watch. She needed me as a tether… to find you. To track you."
Mira knelt beside him. "Is she working alone?"
"No. She serves something bigger. Something older. She believes you were meant to rule the wolves… through fear."
Mira's jaw tensed. "That's not happening."
His eyes hollow with guilt, met hers. "Then run. Hide. Never let them catch you again."
Grey stepped in. "We're not running."
Her father looked at him, studying. "Alpha Maddox. You've bonded with her."
Grey nodded once. "Yes."
"Then protect her from herself. The blood you carry is sacred. But hers… is cursed."
Mira stood. "No more riddles. No more fear. I'm going to find out exactly what I am."
"And when you do?" her father asked. "What if you don't like it?"
"Then I'll carve a new future with my own claws."
A silence stretched.
Then Liam spoke.
"Where do we go now?"
Mira turned to Grey. "The seer."
Grey frowned. "We already…"
"No. We only scratched the surface. He gave me the pendant, but he didn't tell us what the prophecy really says. I need to hear it. All of it."
Grey nodded slowly. "He won't like being pushed."
"Good," Mira said. "Neither do I."
They packed what little they had and began the trek back toward the wastelands.
But as they crossed a ridge, Mira paused.
A strange scent hit the air.
Sharp. Clean. Metallic.
Liam smelled it too. "That's…"
"Smoke," Mira finished.
They climbed the last hill and saw it.
The seer's sanctuary was in ruins.
Ash floated on the wind.
His cave had collapsed. The runes burned. The fire was unnatural, no sign of spreading, no scent of fuel.
"Valda," Grey muttered.
"She silenced him," Mira said. "Destroyed the only one who could tell us the truth."
A low growl rumbled in her chest.
Then she saw it.
Carved into the cliff face, in blood:
"YOU WERE BORN TO BURN."
End of Chapter Eleven
...
The seer is dead. Valda is silencing every voice that might help Mira resist. But the prophecy is still alive and Mira's blood is burning hotter than ever.