Lily
The forest loomed before me, vast and shadowed, its trees rising like silent watchers. I tightened my grip on Miriam's spellbook, James's voice still echoing inside me, his story of Zal's betrayal and Miriam's sacrifice burning fresh in my heart. I could not turn back now.
The moment I stepped beyond the cabin's protective border, the air shifted. It was heavier, colder, as though Zal's presence had seeped into the roots of the earth. Yet instead of fear, determination flared inside me. This was Miriam's path once, and now it was mine.
Leaves crackled under my boots, each step drawing me deeper into the unknown. The silence pressed in, unnatural and thick, but I knew it was no accident. James had warned me; Zal's absence here meant he was working on Elis instead. Every heartbeat urged me forward.
I whispered to myself, "Hold on, Elis. Just hold on."
And with that vow burning in my chest, I plunged into the woods, chasing shadows that would lead me to my soul-sisters and to the only hope left for us all.
***
The ground tilted beneath me. One moment I was walking, the next I was on my knees, my palms digging into damp earth. A searing pain clawed through my skull, splitting me in two. My breath caught as the world dissolved into blinding white.
Then… I saw Elis.
I saw him as if the walls between us had been torn apart. His chamber was dark, the curtains drawn, yet shadows clung to him heavier than night. He writhed on the bed, sweat slicking his brow, his lips cracked as he whispered my name. Not once. Over and over, like a prayer and a curse.
"Lily…"
The sound shredded me. I wanted to run to him, to take his hand, to silence his suffering with my touch. But I could only watch.
Behind him, shadows slithered like smoke across the walls, never far, always whispering. Their voices coiled into his ears, poison laced with honey. I could not hear the words, but I felt their venom as Elis flinched, gripping his head as if trying to claw them out.
And then I saw it—the curse.
It stained his skin in jagged veins of black, crawling from his chest outward like cracks in glass. Every tremor of his body spread it further, the corruption feeding on his pain. Zal's mark. My stomach knotted, nausea rising.
"Elis!" My cry ripped out, though I knew he could not hear me. Still, he stirred, his gaze flickering as if sensing me across the divide. His lips parted, broken and desperate:
"Don't… leave me…"
My chest caved in. Every instinct screamed at me to drop the book, turn back, run to him. What did destiny matter if he died now? What use was power if he was lost before I could reach him?
My hands shook so violently the spellbook nearly slipped from my grasp.
I could not breathe. I could not think. All I could see was Elis drowning in agony while I was miles away, helpless and useless.
For a heartbeat, I nearly did it. I almost abandoned everything; my promise, my path and the fight James had pressed into my hands. My body tensed, ready to rise, to run back to the palace even if it meant straight into Zal's claws.
The vision held me captive, Elis's cries echoing through me until I was nothing but panic and a breaking wreck.
"Lily!"
James did not appear with his usual quiet calm.
He burst into my path like a storm, his form more solid than I had ever seen it. His eyes; ocean-deep and relentless, fixed on me as though they could pin me to the earth itself. His voice was sharp, a command, not a whisper.
I jerked back, clutching the spellbook against my chest. My knees were still shaking from the vision, from Elis's screams that felt carved into my bones. "I have to go back," I breathed, half a sob, half a vow. "He's dying…James, I saw it…"
"You cannot save him now." His words sliced across mine, unyielding. "If you turn back, Zal wins both wars. Do you understand? Elis will not be freed, and you will be bound in chains you cannot break."
I stared at him, trembling. "But he was calling me. He needs me…"
"And that is precisely the trap." James stepped closer, his presence crackling like salt spray and storm winds. For a moment, he looked less like a father, more like a commander forged of grief and battle. "Zal devoured Elis's strength, and through him he called to you. He wants you to break. He wants you to run back into his snare."
Tears blurred my vision. I wanted to cover my ears, to scream over James's words, but Elis's face still lingered in my mind, twisted in agony, calling my name. "I can't leave him like that," I whispered. My voice broke. "What if…what if he doesn't survive?"
James's features softened, just for a heartbeat. A father again. A ghost who understood loss. He knelt, not quite touching the ground, but lowering himself until we were eye to eye. His voice steadied, deep with sorrow.
"My child," he said, "if you break now, neither of you survives. Elis's only chance is if you endure. Do you hear me? You cannot save him yet, save yourself first."
The words landed like stones in my chest. Heavy. Cruel. True. I bowed my head, tears spilling into the earth. The spellbook trembled in my grip, its glow flickering as though it, too, waited for my choice. Elis's cry still echoed in me, sharp and desperate, and I wept because turning away felt like betrayal.
But James did not move until I nodded, until my sobs quieted into ragged breaths.
The vision faded at last, like smoke dissolving into air. Yet the echo remained; Elis's voice, broken and longing, burned into me like a brand. And James's final words lingered over it all: Save yourself first. I wiped my tears with trembling fingers, and they did not fall again.
The vision of Elis, his body twisting in pain, his lips calling my name, clung to me like a thorn I could not pull free. Yet James's words burned hotter than the ache: If I turned back now, Zal won.
The forest answered my hesitation with a low groan. The trees loomed closer, their branches interlocking overhead, weaving a ceiling of shadows that choked the moonlight. Every step I took felt like an intrusion into Zal's dominion. The air was thick, unbreathable, pressing against my chest as though the woods themselves wished to smother me.
Still, the spellbook in my hand pulsed faintly, the glowing script steadying like a heartbeat; mine and Elis's, beating together.
"I will not break," I whispered, clutching it to my chest.
Then, softer, to him alone: Hold on, Elis. I will come back to you stronger.
A sudden rustle exploded to my left. Shadows lurched from the undergrowth—a pack of half-formed spirits, their faces flickering like dying flames. Their voices were distorted echoes of the people they once were, a chorus of moans begging me to surrender, to join them.
I raised my hand instinctively, and the fire answered. A thread of orange sparks burst from my palm, licking upward like a serpent uncoiling. The spirits shrieked as the flame swept through them, dissolving their smoke-laden bodies into ash that never touched the ground.
But there was no time to breathe. A figure stepped from the darkness—a rogue wizard, gaunt and feral, his eyes black pits that dripped with malice. He did not speak, only lifted his staff, summoning a wave of green energy that slammed into the earth before me.
The blast hurled me backward. Pain bit into my spine, but the spellbook flashed brighter, reminding me: I was not weak. Not anymore.
I pushed to my feet, flame searing hotter in my hands until it roared into the shape of a blade. The wizard snarled, striking again, but I leapt forward, the fire cutting through his magic, burning away his shadows until only silence remained.
The forest grew heavier with each step, but I no longer trembled. Every monster that rose, every twisted spirit, every dark spell that came my way—I burned through them. I burned for Elis, for myself, and for the path I would not abandon.
By the time I paused, my chest was heaving, my arms aching, but the spellbook glowed steadily in my grasp, unshaken by the storm of battle.
I lifted my eyes toward the unseen heart of the woods. "Come, Zal," I murmured through clenched teeth. "I'm not like the Miriam you broke."
And with that, I stepped deeper into the dark, toward Miriam's coven, and the destiny waiting to test if my fire could truly endure.