Chapter Two: Awakening (continued)
I rose shakily to my feet. The silver light in my veins pulsed harder, almost as if it had heard Mara's words. The glow was faint but alive — a second heartbeat under my skin. My breath came fast.
"What did you do to me?" I asked.
Mara turned toward the candles. "I didn't do anything. That power was always yours. I only stopped the courtyard from collapsing on your body."
"Power?" I looked at my hands. "I don't have power. I've been powerless my whole life."
"Not powerless." Her tone sharpened. "Sleeping. Caged." She tapped her staff against the stone floor. "Now the cage is gone, and every predator in this city can smell it."
I staggered forward. "Alan… does he know?"
Mara's head tilted. "The boy who left you in the rain? Perhaps. He wears the scent of a clan. Not human anymore."
My stomach clenched. "He's one of them?"
She shrugged. "Everyone chooses a side eventually. Except you. You were born between sides."
A thunderclap rattled the chapel ceiling. Dust sifted from the beams above. Mara's eyes narrowed. "They're closer."
"Who?"
"Hunters," she said. "Agents from both factions. The vampire you interrupted last night — his clan wants your head. The witch, too. They'll send trackers first, then killers."
I swallowed hard. "Then why didn't you hand me over?"
Her mouth curved into a small, unreadable smile. "Because I'm tired of predators thinking they own this city. Because I was waiting for someone like you."
I blinked. "You don't even know me."
She leaned close, her white hair brushing my cheek. "I know enough."
A sound broke from outside: boots on stone, hushed voices, the faint smell of iron and salt. My new senses flared without warning — I could almost hear the hearts of the men above, feel the thrum of their weapons humming with spellwork.
I stumbled back. "They're here," I whispered.
Mara grabbed her staff. "Then it's time to move."
She snuffed the candles with a wave of her hand. Darkness swallowed the chapel, but for me it wasn't dark anymore — faint outlines glowed around the pews, the door, even Mara herself, as if my eyes had been remade for night.
"This way." She led me to a trapdoor behind the altar, its edge marked with sigils. She traced a pattern with her staff; the sigils dimmed and the wood swung open silently.
"What's down there?"
"Freedom, for the moment."
A sudden crash upstairs — the door burst open. Voices shouted in an unknown tongue.
"Go!" Mara hissed.
I dropped through the trapdoor. The passage below smelled of earth and cold stone, a cramped tunnel lined with roots. Mara followed, pulling the trapdoor shut behind us just as footsteps thundered across the chapel floor above.
We ran, bent double, down the tunnel. The silver glow under my skin cast faint light ahead of us. I could feel the vibrations of the men above, like ripples through the earth, but they faded as we moved deeper.
"Where does this lead?" I panted.
"The catacombs," Mara said. "Old tunnels the vampires forgot about when they built their city. We'll reach the outskirts before dawn."
"And then?"
"Then we find the Ashborn's heart."
I stumbled. "The what?"
She didn't answer.
We emerged into a cavern lined with collapsed columns and stone statues half-buried in moss. The air tasted of rust and ancient magic. Faint streams of moonlight fell through cracks in the ceiling.
I slowed, catching my breath. The silver in my veins flickered like candlelight, then faded. For a moment I felt like myself again — weak, shivering, confused.
"Why me?" I asked softly. "Why am I like this?"
Mara glanced at me, her eyes glinting. "Because someone wanted a weapon. Or a savior. Or both." She lifted her staff. "But questions won't save you. Movement will."
A low growl rolled out of the tunnel behind us. I spun. A pair of red eyes blinked open in the darkness. Another, and another. Shapes slinking along the tunnel walls — claws scraping stone.
"Trackers," Mara hissed.
"What do we do?"
"You do nothing." She planted her staff into the ground, whispering a string of words that vibrated the cavern. "I'll hold them."
"No," I said. The light flickered again under my skin, stronger now, as if something deep inside me wanted out.
The first tracker lunged from the dark — a twisted thing with a wolf's body and a mouth full of teeth. I flinched back, but as it leapt, the silver light burst from me again, not a pillar this time but a shield. The creature slammed into it and disintegrated into ash.
Mara's eyebrows lifted. "Interesting."
Another growl. More trackers circling. My heartbeat thundered. I raised my hands, and the glow surged higher, wrapping around me like wings of pale fire.
"I don't know how I'm doing this," I whispered.
"Then stop thinking," Mara said. "Do."
The cavern filled with shadows and claws. The silver light flared like dawn.
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