Page 28

T he forest seemed alive with whispers, every branch creaking and shadow shifting as though the trees conspired to keep me in their grasp. Each step I took seemed heavier than the last, as if the weight of what I’d become sank deeper into my soul.

The beast growled quietly in my mind, entertained by my inner turmoil.

“Why resist? They were correct, you see. Together, we could bring this realm to its knees.”

“I don’t want power,” I murmured, my voice hoarse and wavering.

“ Liar ,” it hissed. “You felt it, the rush, the freedom. You tasted what it was like to be unstoppable.”

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms. Blood welled and dripped onto the forest floor, yet the pain hardly registered. The beast was mistaken, or at least, I wished it were. However, its words resonated in a way I couldn’t dismiss.

I halted, resting against a tree as my breath came in ragged gasps. The moonlight filtered through the canopy, illuminat- ing the crimson streaks on my hands .

“Elara,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “What would you say if you could see me now?”

However, there was no response.

Her absence was a wound that refused to heal, a constant ache that gnawed at the edges of my sanity. I now realised that she wasn’t real, she never had been. She was a creation of my fractured mind, a desperate attempt to cling to something pure in a life consumed by darkness.

And yet, in my heart, she still felt genuine.

I closed my eyes and saw her as she had always appeared to me: radiant, fierce, and unyielding. Her presence had been a beacon, guiding me through the chaos. Without her, I was adrift.

“ She was never real ,” the beast sneered, its voice laced with contempt. “ A figment, a weakness. You don’t need her. You have me .”

I pushed away from the tree, my jaw tensed. “You’re mistaken. She was the only part of me that wasn’t broken.”

“ And see where that has led you. Isolated. Pursued. A mere pawn to powers you scarcely comprehend .”

“No,” I growled through clenched teeth. “You don’t have control over me.”

“ Don’t I? Admit it, Kaelen, you’re nothing without me. They’ll all realise it soon enough. ”

The sound of footsteps disrupted my internal struggle. I froze, every muscle tensing as the soft glow of torches emerged through the trees.

The council.

They closed in, their presence a suffocating force that threw the beast into a frenzy of excitement.

“ Yes ,” it purred. “ Let them come. Let us show them the true meaning of fear .”

But as I gazed at the approaching group, another thought emerged, faint yet persistent. If I gave in now, I would lose myself completely. The beast would take over, and I would become precisely what the council desired: their perfect weapon, their monster .

I couldn’t allow that to occur.

Taking a deep breath, I turned and sprinted. The forest blurred around me as I moved quicker than I ever had, the beast’s strength surging through my veins.

“ Coward ,” it hissed.

“Survivor,” I retorted.

The council’s shouts receded into the distance, their torches

engulfed by the darkness. Yet, I knew this was merely the beginning. They wouldn’t cease until they had captured me, or until I annihilated them.

And the worst part? A small, treacherous part of me wanted to do exactly that.

As the night wore on, the forest receded, and I stood at the edge of a cliff, gazing down at an expansive, shadowy valley. The wind howled around me, carrying the faint echo of Elara’s voice with it.

You are more than this.