Chapter 24 Twenty four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Sara’s POV
The moment my fingers touched the vial, warmth spread across my palm. Not heat—awareness. It felt like the memory inside recognized me. The sensation was so distinct and so personal that it made my chest tighten.
Xenon stepped closer, his posture shifting into full alert. “Sara. Let go if you feel anything sharp. Anything overwhelming.”
“I am alright,” I said, though my voice was soft and uncertain.
Kael examined the vial without touching it. “Your mother sealed it intentionally. These containers hold only one type of memory—the kind that carries danger.”
Xenon didn’t look away from me. “Danger from who.”
Kael replied, “From whoever this memory exposes.”
Ryker stood on the outer edge of the group, scanning the stone pillars for more shadow walkers. “Alpha. We need to watch the perimeter. They will not let us retrieve something this important without a fight.”
“Then watch,” Xenon said sharply, never breaking eye contact with me. “Do not let anything approach her.”
Ryker nodded and signaled the warriors to widen the perimeter.
I lifted the vial carefully. The liquid inside was colorless at first glance, but when the lantern light touched it, faint silver streaks swirled within it like mist.
“What am I supposed to do with it,” I asked.
Kael stepped closer. “Bring it to your lips. The seal will break only for you.”
Xenon’s reaction was immediate. “No.”
Kael shot him a frustrated look. “Alpha—”
“You are asking her to drink something her mother removed from her own mind,” Xenon said. “We do not know what is inside that vial.”
“It is not a poison,” Kael replied. “It is a memory.”
Xenon turned toward me. “It could overwhelm you.”
“It could stabilize her,” Kael countered. “That memory may explain why the Creed wants her. It may be the missing piece we need.”
Xenon’s jaw clenched hard. “Or it could trigger a full awakening she is not ready for.”
“I am right here,” I said quietly. “Both of you can stop arguing about me like I am not.”
Xenon looked at me then. The frustration in his expression softened, but only slightly. “Sara. You do not need to do this now. We can take the vial back to the pack house. We can analyze it first.”
“Time is not on our side,” Kael said. “Every minute we waste, the Creed gets closer. They will not leave without whatever she is carrying.”
It was my decision. And I knew it.
I looked at the vial again. The swirling silver inside moved as if stirred by an unseen touch.
“My mother left this for me,” I said. “Not for anyone else. If she removed a memory and hid it, it must have been important.”
I met Xenon’s eyes. “I need to see it.”
He closed his eyes briefly, as if weighing every possible outcome. When he opened them again, something resolved behind his gaze.
“If you do this,” he said quietly, “I stay with you. No matter what you see.”
I nodded.
Kael gestured for me to hold it up. “Break the seal when you are ready.”
My hand trembled slightly. I lifted the vial to my lips and pressed my thumb against the small rune etched into the top. It warmed under my skin.
A soft click sounded.
The seal opened.
I inhaled slowly and drank the liquid.
It slid down my throat like cool water. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the world tilted.
Not violently.
Not painfully.
But enough that Xenon’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm to steady me.
“Sara,” he said. “Talk to me.”
“I am still here.”
Kael stepped back. “Let it happen.”
The valley blurred. The sky dimmed. Shapes shifted around me.
And then the ground disappeared.
I stood in a room I had never seen before.
Stone walls. A wooden table. Lanterns flickering. My mother sat at the table, her hair loose around her shoulders. She looked tired. Not physically—tired in a way that reached deeper.
A man stood across from her. The same man from my earlier vision. The one who had appeared in the courtyard. The one with the empty eyes.
“We cannot let the Creed know,” my mother said.
Her voice was sharp, steady, and desperate all at once.
“They already know,” the man answered calmly.
“Not the full truth,” she said. “Not the first memory. They cannot.”
“They will find your daughter,” he said. “They always do.”
My mother slammed a hand on the table. “Then I hide it in her blood. I take the memory out of myself. They cannot extract what I no longer carry.”
The man looked at her with no emotion. “You do not understand what you are risking.”
“I do,” she said. “But she is the last one. I protect her or this bloodline ends.”
The image wavered.
The room disappeared.
The next scene hit fast.
My mother running through the forest with me in her arms. I was small. Crying. She looked behind her again and again.
“They are close,” she whispered.
Her face was wet with sweat and tears.
“They will not take you.”
A shape moved through the trees. A man stepped out. Not the empty-eyed one. Another. Taller. Stronger. His aura felt familiar even though I didn’t recognize him.
“Give her to me,” he said. “I will keep her safe.”
My mother shook her head. “No. They will track you too.”
“Let me carry her,” he said. “You are too weak.”
“I can do this.”
“You cannot outrun them alone.”
She hesitated. Just for one breath. Then she handed me to him.
The vision blurred again.
A final scene.
My mother kneeling beside the stone box in the valley. Her hands shaking.
“She will know,” she whispered. “One day. She will know the truth.”
She placed the broken pendant inside.
And then she pressed her forehead to the stone.
“I love you,” she said. “Forgive me.”
Everything went white.
I gasped and fell forward.
Xenon caught me before I hit the ground, pulling me against him. His heart was pounding hard, not steady like usual.
“Sara. Talk to me.”
I breathed shakily. “I saw her. All of it. She hid the memory so the Creed couldn’t take it from her.”
Kael leaned in, tense. “What was the memory.”
I swallowed. “Not the full truth. Just fragments.”
“Fragments of what,” Ryker asked.
I looked at the vial in my hand.
Of what my mother feared most.
And what the Creed wanted.
“She said I carry the first memory,” I whispered.
Kael’s face dropped. “The origin.”
Xenon held me tighter. “What does that mean.”
Kael answered slowly.
“It means Sara carries the knowledge of how the Creed began—and how to destroy them.”
The earth trembled beneath our feet.
A warning.
Xenon turned toward the edge of the valley as shadows moved between the stones.
“They are here,” Ryker said.
Xenon put himself directly in front of me. “Stay behind me.”
The Creed stepped into the open.
This time not scouts.
Leaders.
And the man with the empty eyes stood at the front.
“Now,” he said quietly, “she remembers.”
Xenon bared his teeth.
“No,” he said. “She understands.”