Chapter 5 The Mark
SERINA POV
The ground was still trembling when I landed.
Kaelthar dumped me in some alley three blocks from the ruined shrine, then dissolved into smoke like he'd never been there. Except his voice stayed behind, crawling around my head like he'd moved in permanently.
Run home, little weapon. Your brother's running out of time.
"Get out of my head!" I punched the wall. Stone cracked under my knuckles actually cracked, like I'd hit it with a hammer instead of my bare fist.
Can't. We're stuck together now. Where you go, I go. What you think, I hear. Better get comfortable.
My arms were still glowing. The crimson scales pulsed with light, beautiful in a really disturbing way. They didn't hurt, but they felt wrong like someone had replaced my skin with something that didn't quite belong to me.
No time to freak out about it. Tym needed me.
I ran.
When I got back to our building, everything looked normal. For maybe half a second, I thought we'd actually be okay. I'd wake Tym up, heal him with dragon magic, and we'd vanish before anyone noticed what happened at the shrine.
Yeah. That lasted about five seconds.
Tym was awake. Standing at the window. When I came through the door, all the color drained from his face.
"Sera?" His voice came out strangled. "What happened to your arms?"
Right. The glowing dragon scales were kind of hard to miss.
"I made the contract," I said. "Got the power to save you."
"Your arms have scales on them." He backed away like I might bite. "What are those?"
"Dragon scales." I moved toward him. "Tym, it's fine. I'm still me, just "
"You bonded with a dragon?" He stared at me like I'd sprouted wings. "Sera, there aren't any dragons left! The Council wiped them out centuries ago!"
Not quite all of us, Kaelthar murmured in my head. Just most.
"Turns out they missed one," I said. "And I needed his power before they "
The bells started.
Not the regular ones that chimed the hour. The alarm bells. The ones that meant something bad was happening.
They felt the shrine wake up, Kaelthar said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. The Council's having a meltdown. Wonderful.
"What's going on?" Tym grabbed for my arm, then yanked his hand back when the scales burned hot against his skin. "You're burning up!"
"I'm okay!" Total lie. The scales were getting hotter by the second, and power was building under my skin like water about to boil over. "We need to leave right now."
Mrs. Chen from next door slammed through our door without knocking. Terror was written all over her face.
"Enforcers!" She could barely get the word out. "Searching every building in the slums! They're looking for whoever broke into the Old Quarter. They're three floors down!"
Three floors. Maybe ninety seconds before they reached us.
"Thank you," I managed. Mrs. Chen looked at my glowing arms, made some kind of protective sign, and bolted.
"Tym, move." I snatched up our emergency bag always kept one packed with food, water, spare clothes. "Now."
"Where are we supposed to go?" Real fear in his voice. Maybe fear of the enforcers. Maybe fear of me. "Sera, you're getting brighter!"
He wasn't wrong. The scales were blazing now, filling the room with red light. The power inside me was looking for a way out, and I had no idea how to stop it.
Stop trying to control it, Kaelthar whispered. Let it burn.
"No!" I tried shoving it back down. Instead, it exploded.
Dragon fire blasted out of my hands and took out the entire wall. Just gone. Bricks, wood, plaster, everything scattered across the alley below.
I stared at the smoking hole where our wall used to be. "Oh gods. Oh no "
Beautiful! Kaelthar sounded thrilled. Your control is nonexistent. Perfect.
Boots hammered up the stairs. The enforcers definitely heard that.
"Go!" I shoved Tym toward the door, but we were out of time. Three guards in Council armor crashed into the room, spells already glowing in their hands.
"Found her!" one yelled. "The dragon vessel! Take her alive!"
Fire spells came flying at us. I didn't think just reacted. Power erupted from somewhere deep inside me, a wave of red fire that caught all three guards and threw them backward through my new hole in the wall.
They hit the ground two stories down and didn't move.
I stood frozen, staring at what I'd done. Steam rose from their melted armor. The smell of cooked meat filled the air, and my brain finally caught up with what that meant.
Dead. I'd killed them. Three people, just gone because I couldn't control this thing inside me.
My stomach lurched. I barely made it to the corner before throwing up everything in my stomach, heaving until I was empty.
Pathetic, Kaelthar said flatly. They were trying to kill you.
"They were people!" My hand shook as I wiped my mouth. "I just murdered three actual people!"
You defended yourself. Learn the difference.
"Sera." Tym's voice came out tiny. "More are coming."
More boots. More shouting. Dozens of them thundering up the stairs.
I grabbed Tym's hand. "Hold on."
"What are you "
Didn't give him time to argue. I jumped through the wall-hole, dragging him with me. Two-story drop, and we hit hard. My legs took the impact dragon strength keeping my bones intact. Tym screamed the whole way.
"Run!" I pulled him deeper into the alley maze, my glowing scales turning us into a running torch. Behind us, enforcers poured out of the building like angry ants.
"Stop them!"
Spells exploded around us. I threw up a shield without meaning to, blocking lightning that would've fried Tym. The power was coming easier now, like my body was learning even though my brain was still screaming.
We dove into a sewer entrance. The stench hit like a physical wall rot and human waste and decay. But it was dark down here, and my scales were finally dimming.
Maybe they wouldn't follow. Maybe we'd actually made it.
Safe? Kaelthar's laugh echoed in my skull. You just lit up like a signal fire for the whole city. The Council knows you exist. They'll hunt you until one of you is dead.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" I whispered, holding Tym against me. He was shaking hard, probably in shock.
Silence. Kaelthar had gone quiet.
We sat in the dark for what felt like hours. Tym passed out eventually, exhausted from pure terror. I stayed awake, watching my scales pulse with dim light. They wouldn't go completely dark. Like a beacon that would eventually lead hunters right to us.
At midnight, the shadows started moving wrong.
They twisted and thickened, forming into something solid. Something human-shaped.
Kaelthar stepped out of the darkness itself.
Different from the shrine smaller, almost human-sized, but still obviously wrong. Silver hair, gold eyes with slits instead of round pupils, and something about him that made the air feel heavier. His shadow-form looked almost see-through, like he was only half-there.
"Lesson one," he said, voice echoing strangely. "Your old life just ended. The girl who stole herbs and tried to stay invisible? She's dead. Now you're the most wanted person on the continent."
"Thanks for that!" I hissed, trying not to wake Tym. "You turned me into a monster!"
"I turned you into a weapon." He crouched down, those golden eyes pinning me in place. "Now I'm going to teach you how to use it. Because the Council's coming for you with everything they've got. Armies. Magic. All of it."
"Why tell me this?" My voice cracked. "I thought you wanted them destroyed anyway."
His smile made my blood freeze.
"I do. But you need to survive long enough to become the weapon I need." He reached out with one shadow-hand and touched my scales. They flared brighter. "Tomorrow, they'll send their shadow mages. The specialists who track dragon magic. They'll find you in hours."
Ice flooded my veins. "Then we run. Hide somewhere they can't "
"You can't hide from shadow mages. Those scales broadcast your location across miles." He tilted his head, studying me like I was some interesting bug. "So you've got one choice: learn to fight, or die."
"I don't know how to fight!" Panic clawed up my throat. "I'm not some warrior, I'm just "
"Nothing?" Kaelthar finished. "We covered this already. You're not nothing. You're mine."
The way he said that last word sent chills down my back.
"What does that mean exactly?" I asked carefully. "How bound are we?"
His smile got wider, showing slightly-too-sharp teeth.
"It means if you die, I die. And if I die..." He paused, eyes glowing brighter. "Let's just say the contract has certain consequences for early termination. Consequences that would make your brother's execution look gentle."
My throat went dry. "What kind of consequences?"
Tym jerked awake before Kaelthar could answer, gasping and pointing behind me.
"Sera! Someone's coming!"
I spun. Far down the tunnel, lights bobbed in the darkness. Moving toward us fast.
"They found us," I breathed.
Kaelthar stood, his form rippling like water. "Good. Your first real lesson starts now. Try not to die too quickly I've got plans for you."
He vanished, leaving me alone with my terrified brother and enemies closing in from every direction.