--Thank you for clicking on this story. This story is very close to my heart, and I'm genuinely excited to share it with you. I hope you'll like it. Just wanted to say hello before you dive in. Enjoy!--
**Six years ago**
The screams that night were raw and ugly. Smoke choked the air, a nasty mix of burning wood and the coppery stench of blood.
Twelve-year-old Isaldora stood frozen solid in the middle of the chaos, tears cutting clean tracks through the grime on her face. She was too scared to move. Each breath burned her lungs. Everything she knew—veverything she loved— her home— her people— was being ripped apart right in front of her.
Aetherwyn was going down in flames.
Her hands shook so badly she could hardly keep them up. She wanted to help, to fight back, but she was completely paralyzed, forced to watch her world end. The sky was on fire. Bodies were scattered everywhere like broken toys. And underneath the screams, she could hear the attackers' cruel, laughing voices.
"FATHER!"
Her voice broke as she sprinted across the courtyard, her bare feet slipping on blood-slick stone. Her father—the man she thought could never fall—was on his knees. The strong silver eyes she loved were glazing over as a vampire sank its fangs into his throat and a werewolf clawed into his side.
Her mother blasted the creatures to ash, but she was stumbling, badly hurt.
Her father collapsed into her mother's arms, his blood drenching them both.
"No!" Isaldora dropped beside him, her heart hammering against her ribs like it wanted to escape.
He grabbed her trembling hands, his own grip scarily weak. He gave her the faintest ghost of a smile. And then, just like that, the light in his eyes went out. His chest stopped moving.
Isaldora froze.
"No… no, no, no!" Her words came out broken, choked by her sobs. She couldn't believe it.
Next to her, her mother let out a scream that tore through the night.
But they weren't safe. Enemies were closing in from all sides—wolves with drooling jaws, vampires with bloody chins, and witches and warlocks she recognized. People who had eaten at their table. People who had once smiled at her. Now they just sneered, stepping over bodies without a second glance.
Then she saw him and her heart shattered again. "Ivan!" Her brother's body hit the ground with a sickening thud, his throat ripped open. Blood spilling everywhere.
She scrambled to him, pressing her hands hard against the horrible wound, trying to stop the bleeding. "No—no, stay with me—please, IVAN!" She screamed his name, her voice breaking, shaking his body, but his skin was already turning cold.
Behind her, a faint, broken voice called her name.
"Mama…"
Her mother was dragging herself across the ground, barely holding herself up. She was covered in deep cuts, soaked in blood. Isaldora rushed over, trying to hold her.
Her mother's bloody hands gently cupped her face. Her eyes were full of a love and sorrow so deep it hurt. "Listen to me, my little star. You have to go. Now."
"No! I can heal you, I can fix this, just don't—"
"You can't, my love," her mother said, her voice firm even as it broke. "There's no time left."
"I'm not leaving you!" Isaldora sobbed, shaking her head. "I couldn't save anyone—"
"Enough." Her mother's tone cracked like a whip. "You will survive. You are the last of us. Our blood. Our light. You are the only hope left."
She leaned her forehead against Isaldora's, her breathing shallow. "You're stronger than you know. One day, you'll fight and rise again. But tonight — you have to run."
"Ma..Mama—please—don't leave me."
"I will never, ever leave you, sweetie. I'll always be right here." She pressed her bloody hand over Isaldora's pounding heart. My beautiful daughter, my light." She cupped her face sobbing. "Swear to me you'll live. Swear it."
"I—I swear," Isaldora choked out, sobbing.
Her mother's hand lingered on her cheek a heartbeat longer, feeling her for one last, precious second. It broke her heart to leave her baby alone. Then, with her final breath, she whispered, "Go."
Isaldora wanted to refuse, wanted to fight it, but the sob tore out of her chest and the world blurred as she vanished into thin air.
Silence swallowed the ruins of Aetherwyn. A silence too heavy, too cruel.
From the smoke, the last attackers stepped out, laughing low as the looked around the destruction they created.
"They're gone. The scum who thought they could rule us."
"Master will be pleased."
Their laughter carried as they disappeared into the trees.
But when the night fell still again, Isaldora reappeared.
She hit the ground with a thud, knees scraping against broken stone, but she didn't even feel it. The world around her was quiet now—no more screams. Just silence, thick and heavy, broken only by the crackle of dying flames. Her eyes locked on the bodies scattered around her — her mother, her father, her brother — faces she'd kissed goodnight a hundred times now frozen, lifeless.
"No… no, no, no!" Her voice cracked as she crawled forward, grabbing at her mother's hand, shaking it like she could wake her. "Mama, please, please get up! You can't leave me, you promised, you PROMISED!"
"Somebody help them!"
Her screams tore through the silence, raw and desperate. She pressed her forehead against her father's chest, sobbing until her throat burned. She shook her brother's shoulders, hysterically. "Stop playing Ivan—wake up! Please, I'm begging you—I swear I won't annoy you—please—don't leave me!"
Her hands clutched Ivan's limp arm, pulling him against her chest. "Okay… you're hurt—It's hurting right?—I'll make it go away—okay, I'll fix this—" She pressed her glowing hands over his wounds, trying, forcing the light to work but it was useless.
Her cries turned into wild, broken shouts. "Why?! Why them?! Somebody—anybody—please—help us—HELP!" she screamed into the empty air, "ANYONE, PLEASE!"
Tears smeared her face, her throat raw from shouting, but nobody came.
She clutched their bodies one after another, rocking, crying until her voice was nothing but hoarse gasps. Tears blurred her vision, dripping onto their skin. She rocked back and forth, wailing, her voice scraping her throat raw. "Wake up, please… please don't leave me alone… Mama… Papa… Ivan…"
Her sobs slowed, her screams dead, because her voice gave out. Her tears still fell as she stared, her head on her knees, rocking back and forth. Her silence became defeaning.
Then, like something inside her finally snapped, her sobs broke into a jagged sound—half-laughter, half-cry. Stumbling, she pushed herself onto her knees. Her hands trembled, dirt and blood smeared across her fingers where she had clawed the earth.
She looked at her family one last time—their faces, their lifeless bodies.
"I'll kill them," she whispered, voice shaking with rage. "Every last one."
The tears dried hot on her cheeks. Her breathing steadied. Her eyes hardened, cold and merciless.
"I'll make them bleed. I'll make them suffer. I'll rip their world apart the way they ripped mine."
A scream ripped out of her chest, raw, broken, tearing the air apart. The storm answered like it had been waiting, lightning slashing across the sky.
Heat pulsed under her skin, her blood boiling with something powrful. Lightning split the sky as silver ruines began to carve across her arms, her collarbone, her spine—glowing with the ancient magic of her bloodline.
She pulled a dagger from thin air, the blade glowing with her power. Without flinching, she slashed it across her palm. Blood spilled, dripping onto the ground as she pressed her hand to the earth.
"I, Isaldora Vaneese Aetherwyn, swear on my blood, on my family, on the fallen blood of Aetherwyn…" Thunder cracked above her. "I'll give back every ounce of pain they gave me. I won't stop until they're all dead. I will become their doom."
The ground shuddered at her vow.
Her voice dropped lower, heavier, almost unhuman. "Let this soil burn their flesh. Let their bones splinter. Let their lungs choke on ash. Let their minds rot with the screams of what they destroyed. May this ground bleed them dry."
The sky cracked open in rage. Rain poured, thunder roared. Aetherwyn's land—the beauty that had once been her home—dimmed under her spell. Its glow was swallowed by shadow, the land twisting into a barren wasteland, cursed forever.
And in the middle of it all stood Isaldora. She had once believed in love. In kindness. In good hearts. She had once believed the world could be gentle. That night burned all of it out of her. That night carved her hollow. Her heart froze solid.
She looked one last time at her family's broken bodies. Whatever was left of her died there with them.
And when she turned away, she wasn't the same girl anymore. She disappeared into the storm as something else.
Far off in the dark, the wolves began to howl. Their cries carried across the night—aching with a grief that had no name. Their sound bled into the silence like grief that would never end.
———
**Three years later**
Isaldora leaned back in the chair, calm as stone, eyes fixed on the trembling girl in front of her. She looked about nineteen, maybe twenty—wide-eyed, pale, trembling so badly her knuckles were white. Tears streaked down her cheeks, sniffling. Isaldora didn't so much as blink as she stared at her with a boredom.
"Now, Ms. Renna," she said, tilting her head slightly with a stern pout, "do you accept the job or what? Because let's not pretend—you don't really have a choice. Either you live… or you die."
The girl's lip quivered. She hesitated for a moment, before she finally dropped her head and gave a shaky nod.
"Good girl," Isaldora murmured, satisfied. With a lazy flick of her fingers, a crisp sheet of parchment appeared on the desk, along with a thin silver spindle that glinted under the light.
"Go ahead, sign."
Renna stared confused.
"Oh, yeah—silly me. You just have to drop a few drops of blood where your name goes." Isaldora mentioned it like it was nothing, almost rolling her eyes at Renna's stunned expression.
Renna's face drained of color. "B-Blood?!" she whispered, horrified.
"Yes. Blood. Hurry up."
With trembling hands Renna reached for the spindle and Isaldora almost soffed at her dramatics. The prick was quick, she dropped few drops on the paper and as soon as she did, the paper shimmered and vanished.
Renna felt the invisible grip that had been holding her in place suddenly broke and she bolted to her feet, running for the door—only to collapse to her knees, clutching her stomach as a sharp, searing pain shot through her.
"Don't be dramatic," Isaldora sighed, standing slowly, her tone flat and mocking. "You just signed a blood contract. You're bound to me now darling." She crouched down beside Renna, "Try running again, and you'll be dead before you even realize you moved."
Isaldora rose, smoothing her skirts as if nothing had happened, and returned to her chair. "But the good thing is, you do your job and you'll be paid with more than you can imagine." She slid an envelope across the desk, towards Renna.
"Your first payment," she said with a deadly smile. "Welcome to Aether Enterprises, Ms. Vane."