Page 23

The Night the Fire Ceased to Sleep

M icah leans on the porch railing, a golden ring coils around his bicep. A white tunic drapes lazily across his chest. His face sharpens the second he spots me.

His eyes trail down my legs, bare beneath the skirt I forgot I was even wearing. Then to the urn clutched against my chest. And finally, to the black, sleek beast of a car behind me—still humming with heat.

The Kainen.

Micah’s jaw locks. He rises to his feet like a soldier responding to a threat. Shoulders squared. Hurt. Possessive. A storm barely caged behind his eyes.

Micah, once my safe place, the boy who carried my aunt’s ashes at her funeral. The boy who kissed me like I was fragile. The boy who let me slip away, never realizing I was already gone.

Now... I’ve returned.

But I’m no longer the girl he thought I was.

“No,” I whisper. “You’re beside me.”

Kainen sticks close beside me. A tall shadow stitched from moonlight and menace. Not fully human. Not quite monster. Something in between. Dangerous and breathtaking.

Mine.

Whispers ripple through the party. “Is that Selene?”

“She’s not wearing her glasses.”

“Is that a freaking Lamborghini?”

With Kainen at my side, radiating a presence that silences rooms and sears skin, I move through the crowd like a blade slicing through water.

Then Micah steps forward.

“Selene,” he breathes, voice low and strained. His eyes dart to Kainen. “What the hell is going on?”

“Does it matter?” I reply coolly, my voice unshaken.

Pain twists his features. “You disappeared. No calls. No answers. And now… him?”

“He has a name,” I say. “Kainen.”

Kainen tilts his head. A predator measuring prey.

Micah bristles. “You don’t even know him.” Micah steps closer, voice lowering. “And now you’re sleeping with him?”

I open my mouth—but Kainen moves first. He steps between us, black leather and smoke and thunder. His voice cuts like a blade. “I suggest you tread carefully. Whatever she was to you is no more.”

Micah flinches, his mask cracking. “You’re not the same,” he says to me, almost mournful glancing at my dress. I'm thankful it's a costume party so I wouldn’t have to explain.

“I came back to get my things and to say goodbye,” I say softly.

Silence falls like a shroud.

Then Kainen wraps an arm around my waist, possessive and final.

“She’s mine,” he says—not for Micah’s benefit, but as a vow. A claim etched in fire.

Micah flinches again but says nothing.

I meet his eyes one last time.

“Goodbye,” I whisper.

He doesn’t understand it’s forever. I don’t see Diana like I originally planned but I tried or maybe she’s inside with someone special.

We leave the party in silence. Kainen doesn’t speak.

And neither do I.

There’s nothing left to say.

Micah lingers in the back of my mind, but it’s different now.

He isn’t home. He isn’t comfort. He isn’t even the boy from my past.

He’s just a shadow. A fading memory, too small for who I’ve become.

We slip back into the car—into him. Malachi.

Kainen doesn’t look at me. But I feel him everywhere. His heat, his power, his presence are soaked into the leather beneath me. The air between us thrums with the residue of magic and desire.

He’s everywhere.

He always is.

“Are you ready?” His voice is rough, barely above a whisper.

“Yes.”

Back in the dorm, the world goes dark around us. I place Diana’s letter on her bed.

Diana,

I don’t know how to explain this in a way that makes sense. Maybe I’m not meant to.

The one who reminded me that life wasn’t just pain wrapped in skin. That laughter mattered. That I mattered—even when I didn’t believe it myself.

You told me to go to that party. You told me to try.

And I did. What happened after… it’s hard to explain. But I’m not where you left me. Not anymore.

If you’re reading this, I’m gone. Maybe for good.

Maybe not. But I need you to know something before the silence settles:

You were my anchor to this world when I had no one. even when I thought I did. If it wasn't for you, I would have never known what a piece of shit Micah was. You opened my eyes, Diana. For that, I thank you.

And I’m so, so sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye.

If anyone comes looking for me—don’t follow.

If you hear my name whispered in ways it shouldn’t be—don’t answer. But if you feel warmth in the wind… or see fire that doesn’t burn…

That’s me. Somewhere.

Thank you for being real,

Selene

We stand side by side in front of the mirror. The witch appears, robes whispering in the wind like smoke. But the mirror isn’t silver anymore.

It burns red. Molten. Alive. A heartbeat felt like hours. Like blood pumping with every heartbeat.

The runes carved around the edges pulse in sync with my heartbeat.

“The gate is open,” the witch says.

Kainen doesn’t blink. His eyes hold mine like iron. “We go together.”

“I know.”

And this time—I land steady.

Snow.

It consumes me.

The cold strikes my chest like a war hammer. I spin?—

No Kainen.

No Malachi.

Only white. Endless. Blinding. Mercilessly white.

The snow crunches beneath my boots, too deep to move quickly. My breath escapes in shuddering bursts, curling into fog that vanishes in the freezing air.

I am alone.

Wind tears at my clothes, slicing through the thin fabric clinging to my thighs. The snowfall is heavy and slow, like ash drifting down from a dying sky.

I clutch the Book and urn tighter. Not out of fear.

Out of instinct.

This place is still—but not dead.

It’s watching.

Waiting.

“Kainen?” I whisper.

No response.

Then—

Footsteps.

Measured. Deliberate.

Each one thunders through the snow like distant drums of war.

Through the whiteout, a figure appears—towering, cloaked in white furs as dense as the shadows around him. He moves like a monarch born from the bones of the earth. A sword hangs at his hip. His hair, like winter itself, gleams silver-white.

His face is half-shadowed…

But his eyes?—

I know them.

Like… Kainen.

“You’ve returned,” he says.

His voice is smoother than Kainen’s.

Colder. Sharper.

Precise.

“She did the same.”

I stagger back, breath caught. “Who are you?”

He doesn’t smile.

He doesn’t have to.

“You’ve never met the blood I carry,” he says.

My heart twists.

Therion.

He inclines his head. A slow, calculated nod.

“You’re so much like her,” he murmurs, drawing closer. “Soft. Loyal. Real.”

Disgust drips from every word.

I stand my ground.

The book presses tighter to my chest. “I don’t want anything from you,” I say. “Just send me back home.”

“Home?”

He scoffs. “You mean that rotting world you clawed your way out of?”

He lifts a hand.

Magic slithers around my throat like frostbite.

His fingers graze my cheek—cold as death, but burning.

“You reek of him,” he says. “Kainen. I can smell his filth.”

I flinch. And in a blink—He’s behind me. His magic explodes—violent, raw. His body pins mine, stealing the air from my lungs. Cold. Heat. Shadow. Hunger. Power.

“Don’t be afraid,” he breathes into my ear. “I won’t break you. Not yet.”

He pauses. A breath. A promise. “But you—You’re the one who’ll finally break him.”

A scream tears from my throat—But no one answers.

Not Kainen. Not Malachi. No one.

Only Therion.

And the storm rising behind his eyes. His voice is the one I shouldn’t listen to. But the fire in me answers him with my eyes.

His hand reaches for me. “Don’t be afraid, I’ll save you.”

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The Book of Shadows

“ One king offered her the world.

The other promised her the stars.”