Chapter 43. Burn or Be Burned

The euphoria of victory lasted only as long as the echo of the distant, violent flash of white-gold light.

Neriah had achieved the impossible: she led a rogue army to crush the Council’s main military force. But the Ashen Flame, which had granted her that power, now demanded its payment.

The internal burning was no longer spiritual fatigue; it was a physical, agonizing consumption. Neriah’s knees buckled under the weight of the invisible fire, and she crumpled onto the iron-littered dirt of the Ashen Plains.

Kael caught her, his face a mask of primal terror. He was a Beta, a wolf of the earth, trained to fight with claws and steel. He was helpless against the otherworldly chaos consuming his Queen.

“It’s taking me, Kael,” Neriah gasped, clutching at the front of his tunic. Her skin was turning a sickly, opaque white, the color of fine ash before it disintegrates. “The power… it’s too much. I can’t stabilize it.”

“What do I do? What is it demanding?” Kae