Chapter 19 The Battle At Ash Vale
Chapter 19 The Battle At Ash Vale
The Blood Moon sat in the clouds like an open wound above the valley, saying everything it could say like a warning as it bled red. My armor vibrated under my skin as the runes Mira had put glowed faintly with every heartbeat. Rae was on my left and Mira stood to my right but none of them said a word. It was as if they were waiting for something to happen..
Theron’s command echoed through the forest behind us. “Crescent, hold your line!”
But the atmosphere had already changed. It smelled of iron, smoke and deceit.
A sign that The Hollow Flame was near.
When the first arrow cut through the sky, I didn’t hesitate. I joind my palms together and there was an explosion.
For a heartbeat, everything slowed, the flames froze in midair, the world was caught between silence and ruin. Then the sound returned all at once, loud and shattering. The clash of metal. The thunder of paws feets. Even the ground itself seemed to cry under the weight of so many lives that is about to collide to ash
Suddenly, troops rushed out of nowhere to attack us. The battle began with chaos as steel and claws were colliding, fire against moonlight. I moved through it like instinct, every motion was born of pain and defiance. My flames bursted out, forming wings of gold that burned in the air.
“Aria!” Rae shouted as a blade swung toward me and i doged it but the heat from my own fire burned my cheek. I turned as i hit the attacker's ribs with my elbow, then unleashed a burst of fire that sent him sprawling into the ash.
The air began to scent of something burning like coats and the cries of pain and anger merged with the howl of the wind filled the atmosphere. The Hollow Flame’s mark shone across each of their armor. I recognized it as the same rune I had seen carved into the bodies at the ambush.
I cut through them with every bit of rage I had carried since Moonshade. Every scar, every rejection, every whisper calling me cursed instead of savior was what I poured into the flame.
But amidst the fire, a voice rose that cut through it all. It was smooth, familiar and cruel.
“Still fighting, little ember?”
My breath ceased!
It was Kael. He stepped from the smoke like a shadow given shape with his armor which gleamed black under the Blood Moon, and his silver eyes that reflected the fire around us like mirrors of contempt.
“Kael!” My voice came out low but raw. “I thought cowards stayed behind their walls.”
He smiled faintly. “And I thought traitors died quietly.”
His words hit like claws. I wanted to strike, to end it right there but the air between us suddenly changed. The fire around me flickered and then paused. His presence pulled something that was buried deep inside me, something that felt too close to my own power.
“What did you do?” I hissed.
“Nothing you didn’t begin,” he said. “The fire in you, it’s borrowed. You’re her echo, Aria. The Ember Queen’s shadow is given flesh.”
I took a step forward like i was ready to fight him. Then i said firmly with a stern look, “I am no one’s shadow.”
His smirk deepened. “No… you’re her half. The other soul, the other flame. But tell me, what happens when two halves burn in opposite directions?”
He raised his hand and fire came out of his palms. It was dark, filled with crimson light and ready to consume. It struck me harder than i can imagine, knocking breath out of my lungs. I fell to my knees, my own fire was reacting violently, gold against red, the air between us trembling with force.
I could feel pain run through my chest down to where the Ember mark burned brightest. For a moment, I saw visions of two crowns, one was whole while the other was shattered. Then I saw two faces, one was wrapped in light and the other was cloaked in frost.
“I can see that you felt it?” Kael said, his voice was heavy with triumph. “The second fire. She walks beneath the frost. And when she rises, you will burn for her throne.”
I screamed, not from pain, but from the fire that burnt me. My flames exploded in anger, brighter than It had ever been, then the ground split as molten cracks raced toward the cliffs.
Kael staggered back in surprise, shielding his face away from my fire. Gold was now replaced with red as the Blood Moon dimmed in the face of something purer and something unchained.
“Enough!” I shouted as my voice echoed through the valley. “You will never decide my fate. Not you, not her, not anyone.”
For a moment, Kael’s expression changed. It wasn’t fear, but recognition. He saw something in me that wasn’t supposed to exist.
Then he smiled again. “The fire has chosen. But it always burns what it loves first.”
Before I could answer, he vanished in a burst of shadowed flame, his soldiers retreated into the smoke and the air reeked of smoke and blood.
I fell to my knees with a heavy chest. The ground around me glowed faintly with a ring of golden ash where my fire had erupted.
Rae rushed to me, catching my arm before I collapsed completely. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine,” I lied. My vision blurred out with gold flickering at the edges. “Where’s Theron?”
“Still fighting by the ridge,” he said. “We’ve lost too many.”
I looked around at the valley as Crescent soldiers were spread across the ground, the forest was still burning. Victory had never felt so empty.
Mira stumbled toward us, her face streaked with soot and tears. “They’re retreating,” she said with her voice trembling. “But they took prisoners… Crescent wolves. They’re heading east.”
I tried to stand up but my legs trembled. Rae caught me again, worry was full in his eyes.
“I saw Kael,” I whispered. “In the fire, and he spoke of the other half of me that she’s real.”
Rae’s grip tightened. “What did Kael mean?”
I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know. If it was Kael or her, but whatever she is…” I glanced toward the horizon, where the smoke and the moon’s last light merged into one. “…she’s not done with me yet.”
The last of the flames died out behind us and the valley fell into silence.
Somewhere in that silence, a whisper rose, faint, feminine and distant.
“Sister.”
The word echoed in my ear like a promise or rather a curse.