Page 10

The Awakening

C assandra

I wake to silence. A strange kind of silence, too full and too still. The kind that feels like something is holding its breath.

Niko is still beside me, one arm slung around my waist, his breathing slow and steady against my shoulder. The early morning sun filters in through the balcony doors, but the room feels off. Like the magik in it has shifted.

No. it’s not the room. It’s me. I sit up slowly.

The sheets fall away leaving me naked, but I barely notice. My skin is glowing, softly, faintly, like moonlight caught in a glass jar. Purple-white pulses shimmer just beneath the surface, traveling like veins of stardust down my arms and torso, and down to my thighs.

“What the hell...” I whisper to myself.

I slide out of bed, my feet touching the cool tiled floor. Every step feels weightless. My fingers tingle and when I lift my hand, sparks flicker between my fingertips, elegant and controlled.

And then I hear the whisper. It’s not a voice but a pull. Like something ancient and buried has cracked open inside me.

“Niko,” I say, turning back. “Wake up.”

He does, instantly. His eyes are sharp, body tense, all warrior in this moment. His gaze falls on me right before his eyes widen.

“You’re ... glowing,” he says hoarsely, standing slowly. “Cass, what...”

The second his fingers brush mine, a burst of magik explodes around us. Light floods the chamber in a wave. The walls ripple and the air shimmers. The runes above the fireplace ignite, glowing in ancient Fae script I don’t recognize.

Niko curses and rushes to steady me, but I’m not falling. I feel anchored. I feel like I’ve never been more alive. And then, as suddenly as it began, the magik settles. Silence surrounds us and the glow on my skin dims. The room goes still around us, like it’s waiting to see what we will do next.

I look up at him. “What the hell was that?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he moves to the fireplace, staring at the glowing runes still etched across the stones.

“They’ve never lit up,” he whispers. “They’re dormant ancestral seals. Magik from the first rulers of Runic.”

“Why are they reacting now?” I ask.

He turns back to me slowly, something between reverence and fear on his face. “Because they’ve recognized a queen—their queen.”