Chapter 151 The First-Born’s Shadow
The blood of the sister is a mirror, showing you the parts of yourself you were never meant to see.
The cold metal of the rifle was a stark contrast to the warmth of the child in my arms. I didn't move. I didn't breathe. The Great Oak stood behind me like a silent giant, its leaves finally still.
"Sister," the word felt like a stone in my mouth. I turned slowly, keeping my body between the gun and my son.
Mrs. Higgins or whatever her real name was didn't look like the kind of woman who had brought me jam and advice. Her face was hard. Her Board uniform was crisp, the silver buttons gleaming in the dawn light. She looked like the very authority I had spent my life running from.
"Don't call me that," she said, her voice tight. "Henry Marlowe didn't want a daughter. He wanted a masterpiece. When I came out flawed, too human, too weak, he shoved me into the shadows and called me a neighbor. He kept me close just to watch me fail while he perfected you."
"I didn't choose this," I said. "I didn't ask to be his favorite."
"Favorite?" She laughed, and it was a sound of pure ice. "You were just the version that didn't break during the first lunar cycle. Now, give me the locket, Cassia. It’s the only thing that belongs to me. It’s the only thing our mother left behind before she 'disappeared' into the Board’s labs."
I looked down at the silver locket in my hand. It was heavy. It felt like it held the weight of a thousand years of lies.
Cassia. Look at her feet.
The thought wasn't mine. It was Evan. His voice was warm and resonant inside my mind, a living vibration from the child's soul. He was seeing things I couldn't see.
She isn't human, Cass. Look at the ground.
I looked down. Beneath Mrs. Higgins's boots, the grass wasn't just bent. It was scorched. Small wisps of smoke rose from the blue blades.
"You aren't a Board officer," I whispered, realizing the truth. "You’re a Burner. You’re the one they send to erase the failures."
"I’m the one who survived," she snapped. She stepped closer, the rifle steady. "The locket contains the sequence, Cassia. The code for 'Cleansing.' If I give it to the Board, they’ll give me the serum to stay human forever. I won't have to be a beast anymore. I won't have to feel the hunger."
"They are lying to you," I said. "The Board doesn't give cures. They only give collars."
"I’d rather have a collar than a cage!" she screamed.
She lunged.
I expected the weight of a woman. I felt the force of a landslide. Even in her human form, her strength was terrifying. She slammed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs. I tumbled backward, shielding the baby with my own body.
The locket flew from my hand, landing in the dirt near the roots of the oak.
"No!" I scrambled for it, but she was faster.
She pinned me to the ground with one hand, her fingers digging into my shoulder like iron hooks. With the other hand, she reached for the silver rifle she had dropped.
The music, Cassia! Evan’s voice was a roar in my head. The baby! Use the link!
I didn't know how. I looked at my son, who was lying on the moss a few feet away. He wasn't crying. His amber eyes were glowing. He looked at me, and then he looked at the locket.
Suddenly, the child let out a sound. It wasn't a yip or a cry. It was a low, humming note that vibrated through the earth.
The locket didn't just sit there. It began to spin. The silver surface cracked open, and a soft, violet mist began to pour out.
Mrs. Higgins screamed, pulling away from me. "What is he doing? Stop him!"
The mist didn't hit me. It rushed toward Mrs. Higgins. It wrapped around her like a shroud. She clawed at her throat, her eyes wide with terror.
"The sequence..." she gasped. "It’s not a cure..."
"It’s a memory," I said, standing up and reaching for my son.
As the mist touched her, the air filled with images. They weren't digital. They were old. I saw a village a thousand years ago. I saw a woman with violet eyes standing before a pack of wolves. She didn't have a rifle. She had a song. She offered her blood to the moon to save her people from a plague.
The wolves didn't bite her to kill her. They bit her to save her. The "curse" wasn't a disease—it was a shield. It was the only thing that could survive the Great Winter of the peaks.
The Marlowe bloodline wasn't a project. It was a legacy of protectors. And the Board had turned it into a weapon.
Mrs. Higgins fell to her knees. The anger in her face was gone, replaced by a deep, hollow grief. The violet mist faded, leaving her trembling in the dirt.
"He lied," she whispered. "He told me we were monsters. He told me the blood was a mistake."
"He wanted us to hate ourselves," I said, walking to her. I didn't have my claws out. I reached out a hand. "Because if we hate ourselves, we’re easier to control."
She looked at my hand. For a second, I saw the sister I should have had. I saw the girl who had been lonely for twenty years.
Then, a red dot appeared on her forehead.
"Get down!" I tackled her.
A shot rang out from the woods. A high-powered silver slug tore through the air, hitting the trunk of the Great Oak. The tree groaned, a deep, mournful sound that felt like a death rattle.
"Sniper!" Evan’s voice shouted. "North ridge! There are more of them!"
I looked toward the trees. Three men in black tactical gear were emerging. They didn't have Board uniforms. They had the crest of the "High Council"—the elders who had been hidden for a thousand years.
"The Board was just the front," Mrs. Higgins whispered, pushing me away. "The Council is here for the child. They don't want a masterpiece. They want the New King."
She stood up, grabbing her rifle. She didn't point it at me. She pointed it at the woods.
"Run, Cassia," she said. "Go to the peaks. Find the Pack of the Silent Valley. They’re the only ones who still remember the song."
"Come with us!" I begged.
"I’m a failure, remember?" She gave me a small, sad smile, the first real smile I had ever seen on her face. "But failures make the best distractions."
She turned and ran toward the snipers, firing her rifle with a scream of defiance.
"Sister!" I called out.
But Evan’s voice was pulling at me. We have to go, Cassia. The tree is dying. The anchor is breaking. If we don't leave now, I’ll be lost in the woods forever.
I grabbed the locket. I grabbed my son. I didn't look back. I ran toward the north, toward the mountains that looked like jagged teeth against the morning sky.
As I reached the edge of the clearing, I heard a massive explosion behind me. I looked back and saw the Great Oak engulfed in flames. My sister was nowhere to be seen.
I stood at the base of the cliffs, the child heavy in my arms. The path ahead was steep and frozen.
"Evan," I whispered. "How do we get up there?"
The child in my arms pointed a tiny finger toward the highest peak.
We don't walk, Cassia, Evan’s voice said, sounding stronger than ever. We hunt.
I felt a new sensation in my feet. A lightness. A power. I looked down and saw my boots were gone, my feet replaced by powerful, fur-covered paws.
I wasn't changing into a monster. I was changing into a survivor.
But as I took my first leap toward the peaks, I saw something in the locket I hadn't noticed before.
A small inscription on the inside of the silver casing:
To my third daughter. The one who will end the storm.
Third daughter?
If I am the second and Mrs. Higgins was the first... who is the third, and where has she been for the last twenty years?