Ficool

Chapter 5 - Chapter Five: Monster in the Flame

The creature lunged at me just in time as I rolled, its claws slashing through the air where my throat was.Veran moved faster than I'd ever seen, his sword flashing in the firelight.

Steel hit flesh with a bad crunch that the beast howled in anger not pain.

Its body was bent like a man but the skin was rough like tree back, glowing with moonlight. Its mouth was full of sharp wet teeth and Its eyes burned bright blue, too strange to be real.

"What is that thing!?" I yelled dodging another swing.

"Kraven," Veran spat driving his blade deep into its side. "Moon-spawned, they serve only the old ones."

I didn't know what that meant but I knew I was in danger.

It should've fallen after Veran's strike but instead the creature twisted its body unnaturally and jumped again, this time its claws scraped across Veran's chest,blood sprayed as he grunted and staggered.

"No!"

I screamed and rushed forward grabbing the dagger from the snow watching as the beast rose, I plunged the dagger into its neck.

For a moment i felt its blood on my hand, cold and it felt strange.

The Kraven made a loud shriek and burst into blue flames and it was gone just like that.

The forest went quite again and the fire crackled softly.

Veran knelt in the snow blood running down his ribs.

"You're hurt," I said kneeling beside him.

He winced. "Not bad."

"You're lying."

He didn't argue, I helped him get to the fire. The wound was deep but it was already closing and that was the strange thing about Veran, he healed fast like something not quite wolf or man.

"What did it mean?" I asked. "Daughter of the Moon, that thing spoke like it knew me."

Veran was quite at first, then he said, "There are old stories not many believe them now, but the oldest wolves from before the packs spoke of two daughters born from a single bloodline. One will destroy the world and the other will rule it."

I froze.

"You think that prophecy is about me and Amalric."

"I don't think it," he said. "I know it."

I shook my head slowly. "That's why they brought her here, that's she shifted so fast someone's forcing this prophecy to happen ."

Veran's jaw tightened. "The Crimson Maw, Deucalion. He's always believed in the old blood magic and If he thinks Amalric is the chosen one, he'll make her into it."

"Even if it's not true?"

He looked at me, his eyes heavy with something I didn't understand.

"Prophecies don't care if they're true, they just shape the people who believe in them."

Later that night after Veran fell into uneasy sleep, I sat by the fire unable to rest.

My hands still smelled like Kraven blood, that thing didn't come for Veran, it came for me.

"Daughter of the Moon…"

Why would something so old and monstrous, know me? I questioned myself in deep thought.

I looked up at the stars and felt something shift in my chest.

A memory returned not from this life, but from before.

A voice deep, cruel, whispering behind a silk curtain:

"If she ever rises kill her before the moon calls her name."

The next morning Veran was silent, he wouldn't meet my eyes or say what I already felt like something had changed between us that I wanted to ask or push but I couldn't.

Instead we made our way back toward the Whispering Pines, a neutral zone between packs. Veran said the Council might know how to stop the prophecy but I wasn't so sure.

"You said the prophecy speaks of two daughters," I said as we walked.

"Yes."

"But who made it?"

Veran slowed down. "A seer long before I was born, she walked into the center of the Moon Pit and came out blind. Said the Moon had shown her a vision of fire and war."

"And she saw us?"

"She saw you."

I stopped. "Just me?"

"She said one girl would die and rise again but her soul would split in two, one path leads to salvation and the other to ruin."

I stared at him and said, "And you didn't tell me this?"

Veran looked away. "I was going to but you weren't ready."

I stepped closer, my heart beating fast. "Or maybe you weren't."

He finally looked at me then and his eyes didn't show fear, they showed guilt.

"You knew me before I died."

He didn't answer he just stared at me.

My breath caught. "Didn't you?"

Still silence.

"Veran!" I said my voice shaking. "Were you there the night I died?"

"Yes."

My stomach twisted. "You were watching?"

"No."

"Then what?"

His voice was low.

"I was sent to kill you."

I stepped back like I'd been slapped.

"What?"

"I was ordered to find you before the prophecy awakened and I was supposed to end it, to end you."

My vision became blurry, my head felt hot.

"But I didn't," he said. "Because the moment I saw you I couldn't do it."

"You let me die anyway."

He flinched. "I was too late."

I stared at him numb. "So everything…saving me, training me and helping me was all to cover your mistake."

"No," he said firmly. "It stopped being about the prophecy the moment you looked at me and didn't see a monster."

I laughed bitterly. "I was wrong."

"Delphine…"

"Don't."

I turned and walked away from the fire into the dark. I needed to breath, scream, shift, I just wanted to forget about everything but I didn't get the chance.

Because as I stepped into the clearing something moved like a shadow, or two.

One stepped forward, she was taller now and her hair wilder.

"Hello, sister," Amalric said. "Did you miss me?"

I couldn't move at the spot. There she stood,

Amalric my half sister. The golden girl of the Thornhill family, the one who smiled when I burned.

And now she wasn't human anymore.

More Chapters