Chapter One – The Bleeding Sky
The rain didn't fall in Dravenfall. It bled.
Crimson droplets dripped from the cracked stone walls and splattered across the cobbled streets, thick with the stench of smoke and magic. The sky overhead churned a sickly violet, neither night nor day just a permanent storm of broken time. Lightning stitched the clouds with blood-red veins, and thunder groaned like gods in pain.
Alera Vayne kept her hood low, blending into the ruin. Her boots were soaked, her cloak weighed down by the rain that tasted of rust and memory. Dravenfall was no longer the kingdom she once knew. It was a haunted carcass of power, crumbling beneath the grip of shadows. Shadows she had once kissed. Shadows that now hunted her.
Her palm moved instinctively to her belly as another tightness twisted through her, not yet painful but undeniable. Life stirred inside her a heartbeat wrapped in secrecy, pulsing like a ticking bomb beneath her skin. Her child. His child.
The wind whispered his name.
Kieran.
She hadn't spoken it aloud in seven months. Not since the palace walls were torn down by betrayal and fire. Not since his hand warm, trembling, and coated in her brother's blood let go of hers.
But this wasn't a journey of nostalgia. She didn't come back for forgiveness.
She came back for war.
The old quarter lay ahead, where stone temples met the underground veins of the Syndicate. It used to be a place of prayer. Now it smelled of burned gold and stolen magic. She paused at a rusted gate carved with warding runes. Broken. Defaced.
She slipped inside.
Footsteps followed.
She didn't look back. Not until the smell of brimstone betrayed him.
"I warned you not to return," said a voice behind her. Smooth. Cold. Deadly.
Alera turned, face calm, cloak rippling in the storm.
"Hello, Kieran."
The man in the shadows didn't move. He wore a half-mask forged of obsidian and bone, his frame draped in black armor stitched with runes that pulsed faintly like a heart that refused to die. She had once memorized that face beneath the mask, traced it with fingers trembling from laughter and desire. Now, she barely recognized him.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, voice low. "This city devours its ghosts."
"Then I suppose I've returned to haunt you."
A flicker passed through his eyes. Pain? Fury? Regret? She couldn't tell.
"You've changed," he muttered.
"And you haven't," she replied. "Still hiding behind masks and monsters."
He took a step forward. She held her ground.
"I should kill you," he said.
"You already tried."
Reader's Note: What do you think Kieran feels right now guilt, love, or threat? Let me know in the comments!
Silence spread like poison between them. The wind carried the scent of magic, old and restless.
Then his gaze dropped to her belly.
The mask didn't hide the way his breath hitched.
"Alera…"
"Don't say my name like it means something," she snapped, voice sharp. "You don't get to speak to me like that not after what you did."
"Is it mine?" he asked, quieter.
She didn't answer. Not yet.
He stared at her for a long moment, as if searching for the truth in her silence. Then he turned away, hands clenched, shoulders tense with something like shame.
"You came back to start a war."
"I came back to end one."
"I buried the old kingdom for a reason."
"And I'm here to raise what you buried."
He faced her again. Lightning flashed behind him, carving him in light and shadow.
"If the others find out you're here…"
"They won't," she said. "Unless you tell them."
Kieran's jaw tensed. "You don't understand what's at stake."
She stepped closer, eyes fierce. "You don't understand what's growing inside me."
The wind rose.
The magic shifted.
And the silence broke with a whisper.
"The child of shadow and flame... will either save the realm or destroy it."
The voice was not hers. Not his.
It echoed from the stones. From the blood-soaked earth beneath them. From the curse whispered by dying gods a thousand years ago.
Alera shivered. The baby moved.
And Kieran finally understood.
"You're carrying the heir," he said.
She nodded once. "And the prophecy lives through him."
Quick Poll: Would you trust Kieran with the truth… or hide the child from him forever? Comment below!
They didn't speak again.
Not for a long time.
Kieran disappeared into the storm, his cloak a shadow swallowed by the wind. And Alera stood alone in the ruins of the city they once dreamed of ruling together.
The past burned behind her.
The future stirred inside her.
And in the distance, black banners rose above the fortress of the Syndicate.
A war was coming.
And this time, love would not be enough to stop it.
Author's Note:
What did you feel about Kieran and Alera's reunion? Was it tense enough? Did Alera's strength surprise you?
Leave a comment below even one line helps this story grow!
If you're loving this already, vote with a Power Stone and add to your library so you don't miss what's next!