The forest swallowed Elara whole.
I followed the stranger's path through tangled roots and shimmering leaves, my breath visible in the cold, magic-laced air. The deeper i went, the more the world changed. The trees whispered in languages i couldn't yet understand, and ghost-lights hovered just out of reach.
Still, i pressed on.
The stranger moved fast, barely disturbing the underbrush, as if the forest knew him. When he finally stopped at a stone arch half-buried in moss, i nearly ran into him.
He turned. "You kept up."
Then I saw him
I hadn't meant to stare, but the moment my eyes found him, words abandoned me.
He stood there as though the shadows themselves had shaped him dark hair falling carelessly across his brow, the sharp cut of his jaw catching the dim light. His eyes… storm-gray, restless, with silver hidden in their depths, like lightning waiting to strike. They pinned me in place, and for a breath I forgot how to move. There was something dangerous about him, not in the way of a drawn blade, but in the way of a flame quiet, flickering, impossible to look away from even as you knew it could consume you. Beautiful wasn't the right word. Beautiful was too soft, too fragile. He was devastating. And as his gaze swept over me, steady and unreadable, my pulse betrayed me, racing so fast I thought he could hear it. I forced myself to blink, to breathe, but it was too late.
I'm not fragile, I managed to say, wiping sweat from my brow. "Now tell me who you are. All of it."
A long silence passed. Then he spoke.
"My name is Kael. I was once sworn to the High Circle to guard the realm's magical balance. But they broke the pact. They opened the seal beneath the mountains using a forbidden rite and they used your bloodline to do it."
My bloodline? i repeated. My family's magic was lost generations ago.
Kael's eyes locked onto mine. "No. It was hidden. Your mother helped bury it. You are the last mage of the Wyrn Line the guardians of the Heart Gate. And now the gate is waking."
I stared at him, torn between disbelief and the way my magic pulsed at his every word. Something deep inside me responded, like a key turning in a lock.
If they opened the gate, i said carefully, what's on the other side?
Kael's expression darkened.
"Shadow. And something older. It feeds on chaos… and it remembers your name."
Suddenly, the air shifted. A chill swept through the trees, and Kael stepped in front of me.
"They've found us."
Dark shapes slithered between the trees—twisted wraiths with hollow eyes and claws made of smoke.
Kael drew a curved blade that shimmered with wardlight. "Stay behind me."
But I stepped forward, my palms glowing with barely contained energy.
I won't hide anymore.
The first shadow lunged and Elara's power erupted.