The wind howled as they left the broken chapel behind.
Celeste clutched the cloak tighter around her shoulders. The stars were fading above, swallowed by the coming dawn. Her boots crunched over dead leaves and ash, remnants of the fire that had erupted during the battle. Lucien walked ahead of her in silence, his presence a dark shadow against the silver light.
She couldn't stop staring at the mark on her wrist. It still glowed, faint and pulsing, as if it were alive. As if it was watching her. Listening.
"The place where your bloodline began," she murmured, catching up to him. "Where is that exactly?"
Lucien's jaw tightened. "A monastery. Hidden beyond the Silverpine mountains. Sealed to all but the Flameblood line."
Her breath caught. "So it's real."
"Yes," he said. "And ancient."
She looked at him. "Why didn't the Keeper take me there?"
"Because you weren't ready. And neither was I."
Celeste's mind raced. The Keeper's final words echoed in her memory. They will all come for you now. She had not fully grasped the weight of it then, but now every rustle in the woods made her flinch.
Lucien noticed.
"They're not following yet," he said. "Not tonight. But they will."
"Who exactly is they?" she asked.
He hesitated, then said, "The ones who want to control Hell. The ones who think you're the key."
Celeste frowned. "Because of the contract?"
"No," Lucien said. "Because of who you are."
They kept walking, the forest thickening around them. Moonlight filtered through the trees like silver blades, casting sharp shadows across the trail. An uneasy silence settled between them.
Celeste finally spoke. "What do you know about Flamebloods?"
Lucien exhaled slowly. "Not enough. Only that your kind were said to guard the Veil,the barrier between the living and the damned. You weren't just protectors. You were gatekeepers."
She swallowed. "But if we were guardians… why are we forgotten?"
He glanced at her. "Because someone erased you."
They stopped beneath a twisted oak, the bark blackened with scorch marks.
Lucien reached out, his fingers brushing a hidden rune carved into the wood.
Flames sparked along the bark, tracing a sigil she did not recognize. The tree groaned, then shifted. A hidden path opened before them, revealing stone steps leading down into darkness.
Celeste's pulse quickened. "What is this?"
"A shortcut," Lucien said, voice low. "And a grave."
She followed him, the air growing colder with each step. The stone walls were lined with runes that pulsed faintly with heat. It smelled of smoke and time, old secrets buried in volcanic rock.
At the bottom of the passage was a chamber.
Circular. Silent.
In its center stood a stone altar, carved with fire symbols that shimmered gold beneath the torchlight.
Lucien lit a torch from the wall and set it near the altar. Celeste stared at the runes, something deep inside her stirring.
"I've seen these before," she whispered.
Lucien turned to her. "Where?"
"In my dreams."
He stepped closer. "Then it's starting. The memories. The flame remembers even when the mind forgets."
She reached out, touching the center of the altar. Her fingers met cool stone. Then heat.
A flash behind her eyes.
A woman with fire in her veins, standing at the gates of a crumbling city. Screaming a name she no longer remembered.
Celeste jerked back, gasping. Her legs wobbled.
Lucien caught her before she fell.
"What did you see?" he asked gently.
"I—I don't know," she breathed. "A city. Fire. Someone was dying."
Lucien's eyes darkened. "Your ancestors died sealing the Veil. Someone must have survived… or the flame would have died with them."
Celeste stared at him, her voice barely audible. "Why me?"
He cupped her face. "Because fate is cruel. And power always returns to the blood that was meant to wield it."
She closed her eyes, leaning into his warmth. For a moment, they just stood there, the world fading behind them. Only the flicker of torchlight and the shared rhythm of their breaths remained.
"Lucien," she whispered. "What if I'm not ready?"
"You are," he said. "You just don't believe it yet."
Their faces were close. Too close.
She could feel his breath on her lips. Her heart thudded in her chest, loud and unrelenting. Her soulbound mark glowed again, brighter now, reacting to him. To this moment.
But he didn't move.
And neither did she.
Until..
The ground rumbled.
Lucien stepped in front of her instinctively, one hand pushing her gently behind him.
From the tunnel, a presence stirred. A low hiss curled through the air like smoke.
Lucien growled under his breath. "Shades."
Celeste felt the temperature drop.
The darkness that stepped into the chamber had no eyes, no face. Just smoke and bone and hunger. Shadows peeled from the tunnel walls, sliding toward them like oil.
Lucien reached for his blade.
Celeste raised her hand.
The mark on her wrist exploded with fire.
The Shades reeled back as flames danced up her arms, not burning her, but glowing with radiant fury. The flame obeyed her now.
Lucien watched, awe flickering in his expression.
Celeste stepped forward, eyes blazing. "You want the flame?"
She raised her hand.
"Then burn."
The chamber erupted in fire. Golden. Wild. Sacred.
The Shades screamed as they disintegrated, smoke vanishing into the stone. When the last one fell, silence returned.
Celeste stood in the center of the room, flames flickering around her like a crown.
Lucien moved toward her slowly.
"You awakened it," he said. "You didn't just inherit it. You claimed it."
She turned to him, chest heaving. "And now they know I'm not hiding anymore."
Lucien gave a crooked smile. "Good."
Then his expression turned grave.
"They'll come faster now."
Celeste nodded. "Let them."
Lucien touched her arm gently, eyes scanning her face. "There's more to you than I thought."
"There's more to all of this," she said. "And I want to know everything."
Lucien nodded once. "Then we go to the Monastery. But there's something you need to see first. Something only a Flameblood can unlock."
"What is it?" she asked.
He looked toward the altar.
"A prophecy."
Celeste blinked. "What kind of prophecy?"
He stepped back, revealing a hidden panel beneath the torchlight. "The kind that was written in blood and sealed in fire. Meant for the day the flame rose again."
Her soulbound mark pulsed.
And the stone wall began to shift.