Zara's POV
The fire spirit's roar shakes the entire prison. Stones fall from the ceiling. Prisoners scream. Heat blasts through the hallway like someone opened an oven door to hell.
"Run!" the guard captain yells. "Everyone out! The fire temple seal is breaking!"
Guards scramble to unlock cells, not because they care about us, but because they're terrified. An ancient spirit waking up means everyone dies—prisoners and guards alike.
My cell door swings open. For a second, I think about running. But then I hear Lyra crying in the next cell.
"Zara! Don't leave me!"
I grab the nearest guard by his shirt. "Open her cell! Now!"
"Get off me, criminal!" He shoves me backward.
The floor cracks. Fire erupts between the stones—not normal fire, but blue-white flames that don't burn the stone. They just hover there, angry and alive.
Through the flames, I see something move. A shape forming in the fire. Getting bigger. Coming closer.
The guard sees it too. His face goes white. He drops his keys and runs.
I snatch the keys from the floor and unlock Lyra's cell. She crashes into my arms, sobbing. She's so thin. They haven't been feeding her. Rage burns in my chest hotter than any fire spirit.
"We have to go," I tell her. "Right now."
We run through the prison with everyone else. Smoke fills the hallways. More prisoners escape their cells. Some head for the main doors. Others just collapse, too weak to move.
Behind us, that voice speaks again. Closer this time. Right beneath our feet.
"Three hundred years. Three hundred years they kept me in chains."
The wall beside us explodes. Flames pour through the hole like a living thing. They circle around us, blocking our path. The heat should kill us, but it doesn't. The fire just watches us. Waiting.
"Zara." Lyra grips my hand. "What's happening?"
"I don't know."
The flames part. And through them walks a man.
No. Not a man. Something that looks like a man but moves wrong. Like fire trying to remember how to be human. He's tall with bronze skin covered in scars that glow like cooling metal. His eyes are molten gold—not brown or yellow, but actual liquid gold that shifts and swirls. His hair is copper-colored and floats around his head like he's underwater.
He's the most terrifying and beautiful thing I've ever seen.
"You." He points at me. His voice sounds like crackling flames. "You have spirit-blessed blood."
I push Lyra behind me. "Stay back!"
He tilts his head, curious. "You don't know what you are, do you? They sealed your power. Hid you from people like me." He steps closer. The stones beneath his feet turn black from heat. "But I can smell it on you. Ancient bloodlines. The ones who used to bind with spirits as equals."
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Of course you don't." He laughs, but it sounds painful. "They've been hunting your kind for centuries. Killing the children. Burning the families. All to make sure no one can challenge their stolen power."
Before I can ask what he means, guards flood the hallway. Twenty of them, armed with swords and magical shields.
"The fire spirit!" one yells. "Contain it!"
They shoot spells at him—ice, water, binding chains made of light. Everything hits him at once.
The spirit doesn't even flinch. The spells just melt against his skin. He waves his hand lazily and fire explodes from his palm. It crashes into the guards like a wave. They scream and run.
"Pathetic." He looks at his hand like he's disappointed. "Three hundred years of imprisonment weakened me. I used to be able to destroy entire armies."
"Please." I don't know why I'm talking to him. "Just let us go. We're nobody. We're not worth your time."
Those gold eyes focus on me. "Nobody? You're the first spirit-blessed human I've seen in three centuries. You're worth more than everyone in this kingdom combined."
The ceiling cracks. More stones fall. The entire prison is collapsing.
"Come here, girl." He holds out his hand. "Let me see what they sealed inside you."
"No!" Lyra pulls on my arm. "Don't touch him!"
But something in his voice makes me trust him. Or maybe I'm just desperate. Or maybe I've already accepted that I'm going to die, so what does it matter?
I take his hand.
Pain explodes through my body. It feels like someone's tearing my spine apart from the inside. I scream. Something breaks—not bones, but something deeper. A seal carved into my soul.
Power floods through me. Real power. Magic I never knew existed. It burns through my veins like liquid fire. I look down and see flames dancing across my skin, but they don't hurt. They feel like coming home.
"There you are," the spirit whispers. "Hidden all this time."
Then his eyes widen. He drops my hand like it burned him. "Impossible. Your bloodline—it's—"
The prison explodes.
Fire erupts from below, blasting through every floor. The roof tears off. Walls crumble. Lyra screams. I grab her and curl around her body, trying to protect her.
But we're falling. The floor disappears beneath us. We're going to die.
Strong arms catch us both. The fire spirit holds us against his chest as fire and stone rain down around us. He shoots upward through the collapsing building, moving faster than anything human.
We burst out into open air. Night sky. Stars. The prison below us is now just a pile of burning rubble.
He lands on a rooftop three blocks away and sets us down. Lyra clings to me, shaking. We're covered in dust and blood, but we're alive.
"Why did you save us?" I ask him.
He studies me with those impossible eyes. "Because I've been imprisoned for three hundred years, and the first person I meet who has the power to understand what that means is you." He touches my cheek. His finger burns but doesn't hurt. "And because your bloodline is the key to everything."
"I don't understand."
"You will." He steps back. Flames wrap around his body. "The Magistrate will hunt you now. Not just for theft, but for what you are. They'll kill you to keep their power safe."
"Then help us!"
"I can't. Not yet. The seal broke but I'm still weak. I need time to recover my full strength." He starts to fade, becoming pure fire. "But I'll be watching, spirit-blessed girl. And when the time comes, I'll find you again."
"Wait! What's your name?"
The fire swirls into a massive shape—wings and claws and eyes made of flame. A phoenix. An actual phoenix made of living fire.
"Ashram," his voice echoes. "Remember it. Because soon, everyone will."
He explodes into the sky and disappears.
Lyra and I stand on the rooftop, watching the prison burn. Guards swarm the rubble. People scream in the streets. And somewhere in the chaos, I hear the Magistrate's voice shouting orders.
"Find the prisoners! Especially the girl! She's worth more than all of them combined!"
"Zara." Lyra tugs my sleeve. "What do we do?"
I look down at my hands. They're still glowing slightly with inner fire. Power I don't understand. Power that makes me dangerous.
"We run," I tell her. "And we figure out what the hell I am before they figure it out first."
We climb down the building using a drain pipe. My body moves differently now. Faster. Stronger. Like the seal breaking unlocked something more than just magic.
We hit the street and blend into the panicking crowd. Everyone's running from the fire. No one notices two more dirty girls.
But as we turn the corner, I see them. Davos and Isla, standing with a group of guards. Searching faces in the crowd.
Davos looks right at me. Our eyes meet.
His mouth opens to shout.
And my hand bursts into flames.