The voice pulled her out of the darkness like a hand gripping her collar and hauling her upward. Aria gasped awake, her lungs burning as if she'd been underwater for minutes, not seconds. The glow under her skin sputtered and faded, leaving faint gold veins along her arms still visible, still wrong.
The room was a wreck. The door lay halfway across the floor, snapped off its hinges. One of Rowan's shelves had toppled. Serin knelt a few feet away, hands shaking, her hair wild as if a windstorm had blown through.
Caelum reached Aria first.
"Aria, Aria, look at me." His voice cracked in a way she'd never heard before. He cupped her face, thumbs brushing her cheekbones as if to confirm she was still alive. "Tell me you're here."
She wanted to answer, but her heart was beating too fast. Her vision flickered in and out, like candlelight fighting a gust of wind.
Rowan swept into the room a second later, staff in hand, eyes furious and terrified all at once. "Don't touch her."
Caelum snapped his head toward him. "She just"
"Move." Rowan's tone was cold enough to freeze the air.
Caelum reluctantly shifted aside, still hovering protectively.
Rowan placed two fingers against Aria's wrist. The moment he made contact, Aria felt something rush beneath her skin, an echo, a whisper, a tremor.
He yanked his hand back as if burned. "It's worse than I thought."
Serin stood, dusting off her knees. "Rowan, the power, it wasn't just a surge. Something… answered her."
Aria swallowed. "You heard a voice too?"
Serin shook her head. "No. But the room… shifted. Like reality bent for a second."
Caelum gripped Aria's hand again. "What voice?"
Aria hesitated, because even thinking about it made her skin prickle. "It didn't sound like Malachi. It was older. Stronger. Like it was inside my bones."
Rowan's expression hardened. "He's waking up."
Caelum stiffened. "Who?"
Rowan's silence said enough.
Aria's stomach twisted. "Rowan… who's waking?"
He exhaled, resigning himself. "Every bloodline has history. Yours has a prophecy."
Caelum muttered, "Perfect."
Rowan ignored him. "There was an ancestor, an ancient wolf-prince whose power was said to be locked away after he nearly tore the realm apart. A royal born with the ability to manipulate reality itself. They buried him. Sealed him. Swore he would never rise again."
Aria's pulse thudded. "What does that have to do with me?"
Rowan looked her dead in the eye. "He's your blood."
The world tilted.
Serin swore under her breath. Caelum's face was drained of color.
Aria forced air into her lungs. "No… that can't be."
"It is." Rowan's tone was grim. "You are waking what he left in his line. Malachi must have sensed it. That's why he's been pushing into your dreams. He wants control over something he could never win in open combat."
Caelum stepped forward, his voice low and lethal. "Then we cut his tether. Tonight."
Rowan snapped, "You don't cut a tether to a prince of shadows with brute force. You'd rip her mind apart."
Aria pressed a hand against her forehead, trying to steady herself. "I can feel him, Malachi. Even now. Watching."
Serin crouched beside her. "You're getting stronger too fast. Your body isn't built to hold this kind of power yet. If we don't stabilize it, it'll burn you out."
Aria swallowed. "How do we stabilize it?"
Rowan hesitated.
Serin's eyes widened. "Rowan… no."
He didn't look at her. "It's the only way."
Caelum bristled. "What way?"
Rowan's jaw tightened. "The stream."
Serin shook her head violently. "Rowan, you can't, she'll drown."
"She won't," Rowan snapped. "If she doesn't go in, she dies anyway."
Aria stared at them. "Why the stream?"
Rowan met her gaze. "Because it is ancient. Older than this forest. A place where magic remembers its origins. It can ground you. But it takes what it wants in return."
Caelum stepped in front of her. "She's not touching that water."
Rowan raised a brow. "Then Malachi takes her. Or her own power tears through her skull. Choose."
Aria pushed herself up shakily. "I'll do it."
Caelum whipped around. "Aria"
"I'll die if I don't," she said softly. "I'm not ready to be anyone's puppet. Not Malachi's. Not some ancestor's."
Caelum clenched his jaw but didn't argue again.
Rowan grabbed his staff. "We go now."
They moved through the forest quickly, the night air sharp, heavy, charged. The trees felt too still, like the entire woods were listening. When they reached the stream, the hair on Aria's arms lifted.
It wasn't like any stream she'd ever seen.
The water was unnaturally clear, glowing faintly with silver and blue currents swirling underneath the surface. It hummed, a low sound that vibrated in her bones.
Rowan motioned toward the shallows. "Step in. Slowly."
Aria did.
The moment her foot touched the water, the world shifted. The wind stilled. The moon brightened. The ground seemed to pulse.
Caelum muttered a curse and reached toward her, but Rowan stopped him. "She must do it alone."
Serin gripped Caelum's arm. "If you interfere, the stream will drag her under."
Every instinct in Aria screamed to run.
But she stepped deeper.
The water rose to her knees. Then her hips.
Her skin lit with the same golden glow but instead of burning, it felt like the water was pulling something out of her. Untangling threads inside her chest, cooling some parts, igniting others.
For a moment, everything was quiet.
Then the stream shifted.
And pulled her under.
Caelum lunged forward with a furious shout, but Rowan slammed his staff into the ground. Runes burst outward like shockwaves, blocking him.
Aria fought the water, but it coiled around her like hands, dragging her deeper, deeper
Until she was in complete darkness.
Then something opened beneath her feet.
A cavern? A dream? A memory not her own?
She floated in blackness speckled with gold, like a night sky with no horizon.
A figure stood there.
Tall.
Armored in ancient markings.
Eyes glowing with the same gold now burning under her skin.
He looked at her with a familiarity that made her breath hitch.
"My blood," he said.
Aria froze.
"My heir."
Her throat tightened. "Who are you?"
The figure stepped forward.
And she realized.
He had her eyes.
"I am the truth they buried," he whispered. "And you… are waking me."
Aria stumbled back. "No. I don't want this."
"It doesn't matter what you want."
His voice echoed like thunder underwater.
"You will break. Or you will rise."
Suddenly his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. Pain blasted through her. Her body arched.
"STOP!" she screamed.
"You must choose," he hissed. "NOW."
Her vision blurred.
Then snapped back into the real world.
But she wasn't in the stream.
She was on the forest floor.
Alone.
The cottage was gone.
Rowan, Caelum, Serin…
Gone.
The trees around her were dead.
The sky was wrong.
Everything was wrong.
And a voice drifted through the wreckage of the forest, sharp enough to make her ribs tighten.
"Aria."
Malachi.
She turned slowly.
He stood only a few steps away, shadows rippling behind him, eyes glowing with victory.
"You finally crossed over," he murmured. "Welcome to my realm."
The ground cracked beneath her feet.
And something enormous moved in the darkness behind him.
Something that wasn't human.