Chapter 71

Chapter 71
Ashes and Embers

The forge chamber was quiet now, save for the gentle hum of settling flame and the occasional creak of stone cooling. My legs trembled as I stood, still riding the adrenaline high from the battle, but now it was fading fast, leaving a hollow ache in my chest. I wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or grief.
Lucian was gone; his broken form dragged into the Veil as the tether collapsed. I didn’t know if he was dead or trapped. Part of me hoped he was neither. That he’d have to live with what he’d seen: us, united. Alive.
“Riley,” Kaelen’s voice was soft beside me, his hand gently wrapping around mine. “You’re shaking.”
“I know,” I murmured. “I just... can’t stop.”
“You don’t have to pretend you’re okay,” he said. “Not with me.”
I let the truth show in my eyes. “I’m not. I think part of me never will be.”
He nodded. “That’s fair. But you don’t have to carry that alone anymore.”
Sena appeared, blood crusted on her temple, her voice gruff but steady. “We need to move. This place isn’t safe, not yet. The forge is calm, but the mountain’s still bleeding.”
Raya stood at the edge of the dais, eyes closed, both hands pressed against the cooled crystal. “The new wards are holding, but it’s fragile. It needs time to stabilize.”
Darek knelt beside one of the runic conduits, muttering to himself. “I can reinforce it with binding lines... give it something to hold on to while it reforms.”
“Good,” I said. “We’ll help. But first, we find the others. We regroup.”
Kaelen tensed beside me. “If any of them made it.”
I clenched my fists. “They did. They have to.”
Nyra rumbled inside me, her voice still slow, like she too had burned herself down. “Some lights may flicker, but they’re not out yet. Trust your pack.”
My pack.
I looked around again, really looked: at the ash-covered faces, the weary eyes, the wounds, and the fire still flickering in all of them. Maybe we weren’t born a pack. But we were one now.
“We leave in ten,” I said. “Gear up, breathe, and remember, we’re not done yet.”

The passage leading out of the forge had changed.
The flame had carved new runes into the stone, marking our passage with glimmers of light. I touched one and felt it pulse beneath my fingers. Memory. It held memory.
Kaelen ran his fingers over another. “They’re protective. Marking you as guardian.”
I swallowed. “I didn’t ask for that title.”
“No one ever does,” Raya said behind me. “But you claimed it anyway.”
The tunnels narrowed as we pressed deeper into the upper caverns, where the Order had breached during the attack. We moved carefully, Darek at point, Sena behind him, Kaelen and I in the center, Raya covering the rear.
We didn’t speak much. Every sound echoed too loud. Every shadow felt like it might move.
Eventually, we reached the chamber where the Order’s forces had first entered. Blood stained the stone in jagged trails. Burn marks marred the walls. But more than that, there were signs of resistance.
“Look,” Sena said, crouching beside a shattered blade embedded in the wall. “This was a clean strike, Order steel, but broken by a counter.”
Kaelen’s eyes scanned the soot-covered floor. “Footprints. Too many for just attackers.”
“They fought back,” I whispered. “They’re alive.”
Hope ignited in me like a new flame.
We moved faster now, hearts hammering, until we reached a passage lit by weak lanterns. Beyond it, voices, faint, familiar.
Then Cambria stepped into view.
Her braid was scorched, her clothes torn, but her eyes lit up the moment she saw us. “You’re alive!”
We rushed forward, colliding in a hug so hard it knocked the breath from my lungs.
“I thought...” she started.
“We all did,” I said, choking on tears. “Where’s Ember? Tara?”
Cambria’s smile faltered. “They’re alive. But Ember’s... not the same.”
The words hit like stone.
“What do you mean?”
“She held the breach alone after the others fell back. Something happened. She’s awake, but she’s not talking. And she’s glowing.”
My chest went cold. “Where is she?”
Cambria gestured toward the back corridor. “With Selene. They’re trying to bring her back.”
Kaelen squeezed my hand. “Go.”
I ran.
Past more lanterns, past wounded students and bloodstained walls, until I found her.
Ember sat in the center of the floor, hair loose around her shoulders, skin glowing faintly like coals under snow. Her eyes were open, but distant.
Selene sat across from her, hands glowing with soft magic. “She’s caught between threads,” she murmured. “Spirit and flame.”
I dropped to my knees beside her. “Ember. It’s me. Riley.”
No response.
I reached out, took her hand, and felt it.
A second forge.
Alive and pulsing within her.
“She found her heartfire,” Selene said. “But it came with a price.”
I looked into Ember’s eyes. “Come back. We still need you.”
The glow flickered.
And she blinked.
“Riley?” Her voice cracked like dried wood. “You’re real?”
I exhaled. “Yeah. Very real. You scared the hell out of me.”
“I thought I was... gone.” Her gaze drifted to Selene. “I was in the flame. I saw things, worlds not yet born, others that burned away.”
Selene met my gaze. “Her soul is tethered across realms. We’ll need to guide her back slowly.”
Kaelen knelt beside me. “We’ll do it together.”
Ember blinked slowly, then reached for my hand. “Then don’t let go.”
I held her tighter. “Never.”

Hours passed. Darek and Cambria reconnected with the wounded, stabilizing what they could. Raya and Sena took turns running sentry rotations. Kaelen and I never left Ember’s side.
She spoke more now, little pieces at a time. Descriptions of what she saw, what she felt. Not all of it made sense, but some of it did. Enough to know we hadn’t just survived the forge.
We’d changed it.
By the time she stood on her own, her glow had dimmed but not vanished.
“I’m not who I was,” she said softly, testing her balance.
“None of us are,” I answered. “But we’re still us.”
She smiled weakly. “Then we better make sure the world knows it.”