The forest swallowed their footsteps.
Kaeln's torch flickered as he and Aelira ran through the underground corridor. Behind them, Vyra's words still echoed in the stones—"And I will burn you again." But this time, Aelira wasn't the helpless girl on the pyre. Her fingers still buzzed from where they'd touched the Grimoire. The truth had ignited something inside her.
"You know she won't stop," Kaeln said, glancing behind them. "Even if you escape, she'll hunt you. She's always hunted you."
Aelira didn't respond. Her eyes were fixed ahead, heart pounding not with fear—but fury. Vyra had taken her life once. She would not get another.
They broke out into the open, the wind rushing at their faces like a slap. Aelira stumbled slightly, her foot catching on a vine as she emerged from the passage into the old part of the forest. The part no one entered. The cursed woods beyond the Veilroot.
Kaeln yanked her back before she could fall into the ravine that yawned before them. "This is far enough," he said, breathing hard. "She won't chase us here."
"Why not?"
He stared into the woods. "Because this forest… it remembers what she did."
Aelira turned to him, chest heaving. "What I did."
Kaeln's expression tightened. "No. What they did to you."
Wind howled through the trees like whispered names, like echoes too ancient to name. Aelira felt the magic in her blood stir again. Not like before—this was different. Older. Wilder.
Something watched them.
---
The trees around them leaned closer, and the light dimmed even though the moon still hung high. Aelira turned slowly, every inch of her skin prickling.
Then she saw it.
A figure—tall, antlered, with eyes like moonstones—stood at the edge of the clearing.
Kaeln tensed. "Don't move."
"What is it?"
He shook his head slowly. "I thought they were extinct."
The creature stepped forward, its limbs graceful and wrong at the same time—too long, too still. But when it spoke, its voice was unmistakably human.
"WitchhChild of fire and betrayal. The forest remembers you."
Aelira's voice caught. "Who… what are you?"
It didn't answer. Another figure appeared, and then another. Soon, they were surrounded. Six in total—horned, silent, ancient.
Kaeln lowered his weapon. "Dark Fae."
Aelira's breath caught. "Fae?"
The antlered one nodded. "You called to us, child. The blood you spilled, the book you touched—it opened the gate."
"I didn't mean to summon anything."
"Yet here we are."
Aelira tried to steady herself. "I need help."
The Fae's expression remained unreadable. "We do not offer help. We offer… balance."
Kaeln stepped in. "She's being hunted. By the same coven that destroyed her. She was Saelwyn. They burned her, cursed her, and now they want her magic again."
The Fae tilted its head. "Then perhaps it is time the forest answered."
One of the others, a pale-skinned female Fae with glowing scars on her cheeks, stepped forward. "If you walk this path, you cannot return to who you were. The magic you carry… it's not just Saelwyn's. It's ours, too. Bound by oath, lost in betrayal."
"What does that mean?" Aelira asked.
"It means you were born for more than vengeance."
She stepped forward. "Then show me. Help me."
The female Fae raised her hand and pressed a glowing finger to Aelira's brow.
Pain exploded through her skull.
---
She saw fire again—yes—but this time, from above. She saw her own body, screaming on the pyre, but around her… the High Priestesses weren't alone.
In the shadows, masked figures watched. Their eyes were not human. Their whispers weren't in coven tongue. And one of them… bore antlers.
Aelira gasped as the vision ended. She stumbled backward, clutching her chest.
"You… you were there."
The Fae woman's face didn't change. "We tried to stop it. Saelwyn made a pact before her death. But your kind never honors promises."
Aelira fell to her knees. "Then why are you helping me?"
The Fae knelt beside her. "Because the wound she died from... still bleeds."
---
Later that night, the forest gave them shelter in the ruins of an ancient stone hall overtaken by vines and glowing moss. Aelira sat before a small flame, her hands still shaking. Kaeln stood guard while the Fae drifted through the trees like mist.
"I saw them," she whispered. "The night I died. There were others. Not witches. Not human."
Kaeln nodded. "The Fae have always been close to the edges. But I didn't know they were involved."
"They didn't kill me. They tried to stop it. And I… I bound myself to them."
Kaeln turned to her. "What does that mean?"
She looked up, eyes glowing faintly. "It means I'm not just a witch reborn. I'm something else now. Something older."
Kaeln didn't speak. He didn't have to. The truth hung between them like frost.
---
Just before dawn, the Fae returned. The antlered one knelt and drew a circle in the dirt.
"This is the mark of blood-oath," he said. "If you step into this, you will awaken fully. No more dreams. No more lies. But the cost…"
"What cost?"
"You'll be hunted. Not just by the coven. But by everything that fears the power you carry."
Aelira stepped forward. "Let them come."
She stepped into the circle.
The ground trembled.
A scream split the air—hers. The sigil on her palm burned white-hot. Magic exploded around her, trees whipping in a frenzy of wind and sparks.
Kaeln reached out, but the Fae held him back.
"She has to finish it," they said.
The moment stretched.
Then everything stilled.
Aelira opened her eyes.
They were no longer violet.
They were white fire.
The forest bent toward her. The wind whispered her name.
Not Aelira.
Not Saelwyn.
But something new.
She turned to Kaeln, and her voice was no longer just hers.
"They'll never burn me again."