POV: Kairo
The moment she stepped back through the gate, I knew something had changed.
Lyra didn't speak to anyone. Not me. Not the guards. Not even the healer who'd been tending her energy fluctuations. She just nodded, gave the excuse of needing rest, and disappeared into her chambers.
But her scent had changed.
Faintly scorched. Wild. Foreign.
And she wouldn't look me in the eye.
I didn't stop her. Not yet. I told myself she needed space, that maybe the fire inside her was shifting again. But deep down, I knew. She'd gone somewhere without telling me. Done something without me.
The same way I'd done to her before.
And now she was pulling back.
I left the tower and went to the southern post, where the warding runes had flickered earlier that day. Our border was rarely breached, but something — or someone — had pushed through.
Vren met me there, his face grim.
"We found him near the forest line. Watching the tower."
"Was he marked?"
Vren nodded. "Lower neck. Emberblood sigil. Carved, not burned. Looks recent."
I followed him to the cell.
The man was young. Maybe nineteen. Clothes torn. Pale with hunger. But his eyes were sharp. Clever. Not the kind of spy that talked easily.
I stepped into the holding room.
"Why were you watching the tower?"
He smirked. "Nice view."
Wrong answer.
I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the wall. The force knocked the breath out of him.
"I don't have time for games," I growled. "Did someone send you?"
"I came on my own," he wheezed. "But not for you."
I narrowed my eyes. "Then who?"
"Your fire girl," he said with a crooked grin. "She's changing, isn't she?"
I didn't move.
"She's remembering," he added. "And when she finally wakes up… you won't be able to stop her."
I released him.
And walked out before I did something that would stain my hands more than they already were.
Lyra.
He meant her.
And he knew something I didn't.
I climbed back to the tower, faster this time, my heartbeat too loud in my chest. I didn't knock on her door. I opened it.
She was sitting by the fire, barefoot, holding something in her hand.
It glowed.
I stepped inside, and she jumped.
She quickly shoved it under the pillow.
"Kairo," she said, too quickly. "You're—"
"You lied to me," I said.
She froze.
Her breath caught. Her fingers tightened in her lap.
"I know you left the walls," I said. "I know you met someone. Who?"
"I… I can't explain."
"Try."
She looked up at me. Her eyes were tired. Sad. Angry.
"I met someone who looked like me," she whispered. "She said she was my sister."
I didn't blink.
"She gave me this," she added. "A stone. She said… when the bond between us weakens, it will remind me of who I really am."
I felt something cold ripple through my chest.
"The bond?" I repeated.
"She thinks you're controlling me," Lyra said quietly.
"And you believed her?"
"I don't know what I believe," she snapped. "Everything is changing. I'm changing. And you don't tell me anything."
"I've been protecting you."
"Then maybe I don't want protection anymore."
We stared at each other in silence.
And for the first time, I saw her not as the girl I had to keep safe — but the woman who might one day burn me to the ground.
And I didn't know whether to stop her…
Or let her.