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??The Weight of What I Am

Ember

Days slipped by like smoke, but the dream clung to me, feral, haunting, and far too real to shake.

Even now, with sunlight bleeding through the windows and Dorian moving silently through the study below, I could still feel Kreed’s voice in my skull, like smoke that never dissipated.

You called me here…

I hadn’t.

Not intentionally. But the magic inside me, the part I was still learning how to carry, apparently had ideas of its own.

Kreed didn’t threaten me, but that didn’t make me stupid. Just because he spoke some words that appealed to me doesn’t change the fact that he tried to kill me… Twice, according to Dorian.

He offered something far more dangerous, answers. “ Dorian can love you. But only I can unlock you.”

I didn’t tell Dorian. Not yet. I didn’t know why. Maybe because Kreed’s voice wasn’t filled with menace this time. It was filled with recognition.

Like he knew exactly what I was becoming.

And maybe… I was afraid Dorian did, too.

I sat on the edge of the bed, still in Dorian’s shirt, watching the way he moved, calm, composed, always three steps ahead. But today, there's a different tension humming beneath the surface.

He looked up, and whatever he saw on my face, he didn't ask. He just crossed the room and sat beside me.

“He came to you,” he said quietly. “Didn’t he.”

I blinked, throat dry. “You knew he would?”

“I didn’t know for sure. But I knew it was inevitable once your powers surfaced.” I nodded slowly, heart pounding. “What did he say?” Dorian asked, not looking at me.

“That you can’t teach me everything. That I’ll need him to become what I’m meant to be.”

Dorian’s jaw tensed. But not with jealousy.

With dread. “He’s not wrong,” he admitted.

That surprised me. “But he’s not entirely right either.

You don’t need him to become something powerful.

You already are. But if we want to understand what the hell the Veil is doing to you, what your mother was hiding, you need more than just me. ”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying we’re going on a field trip?”

His lips twitched. “Something like that.”

We left that night.

No goodbyes. No explanations. Just shadows and the low hum of the car’s engine as we headed into territory neither of us had walked before.

He took me to the edge of something called the Crossbone Pines, a seer named Matavia. She didn’t look like much. Wrinkled skin. Empty white eyes. But when she touched me, I felt something split open inside me.

“You’re stitched in fate,” she rasped, her fingers cold and skeletal on my wrist. “But not by your own thread. You’re sewn by blood… and buried fire.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means,” she whispered, “you are both weapon and warning. The Veil feeds off both. And the Watchers were meant to guide it. But they’ve long since forgotten their purpose.”

I glanced at Dorian. He didn’t speak. Just watched me like he was waiting for me to break or bloom.

The next stop was a serpent witch in the swamplands. Her name was Inez, and her eyes were blacker than death.

“Your mother came to me,” she hissed, coiled on her throne of bones and waterweed. “She begged me to hide you. But I could only delay the prophecy. Not erase it.”

“Prophecy?” I asked, the word sharp on my tongue.

She smiled. Her teeth were too many. “The one that says you are the bridge. The vessel. The tear and the seal.”

My mouth went dry. “I don’t understand.”

“You will. The Watchers are not just there to monitor and observe. They were built to decide. When the Veil opens fully, what comes through, and what must be destroyed.”

I shivered. “And I’m supposed to make that choice?”

“Yes.” Her grin widened. “You are the key .”

Before I could ask anything else, she leaned forward, breathed hot and damp. “Your mother left you something. Hidden in the place where her life ended, and yours began.”

Dorian stepped forward, voice low. “Where?”

The witch’s eyes narrowed. “The Hollow Orchard. Beneath the roots of the oldest tree. But beware, only blood can unlock blood.”

We left in silence.

The car was colder now. Or maybe that’s just me.

Dorian glanced at me once, then again, his voice barely audible over the road. “Still think you’re meant to walk this alone?”

I shook my head. “No,” I whispered. “But I think… the road is only just beginning.”

He reached over, fingers grazing mine, and this time, I didn't pull away. Because the truth was burning clearer than ever: Whatever I was, whatever I was becoming, it’s not something I could hide from anymore.

And now that I knew where to look… I was going to find every answer my mother left behind.

Even if it killed me.