Chapter 30. Blood Pact

The walk back from the seer’s den felt stretched by centuries, every step heavier than the last. Neriah kept her head down, eyes tracing the pale scars in the earth left by last night’s storm. Trees pressed close, their canopies thick enough to blot the sun into a dull ache behind clouds. Shadows drifted around her ankles, tangled with the memory of what she’d seen.

The vision clung to her ribs—sharp, cold, unrelenting. Images flickered behind her eyes: forests burning black, wolves howling as ash rained from a sky gone red; her own hands outstretched, the Flame spilling from her palms, wild and beautiful and terrifying. She tried to shake the memory away, but it only burrowed deeper.

Each step scraped the vision raw, like claws dragging across bone. Her fingers tingled with ghost-flame, a prickling heat pulsing beneath her skin even though the Ashen power had gone quiet for now. But it hadn’t left. It never left. It was in her blood, now—a second heartbeat, silent and f