In the Ashes, Something Wakes

Lyria’s POV

Darkness did not come softly.

It swallowed me whole, a thick, suffocating void where time bled into nothing. I floated in it not dead, not alive, suspended between one heartbeat and the next. The last thing I remembered was the fire clawing up my body, the scent of my own burning skin mingling with smoke.

Then… silence.

Silence so complete it became a living thing pressed against my bones.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I wasn’t sure I even had lungs anymore.

But I heard it.

A pulse.

Deep beneath me.

Like the heartbeat of the world.

Child of fire… you called to me.

The voice trembled through the darkness not loud, not quiet, but inevitable. It was ancient. Older than the packs. Older than the Council. Older than the first Alpha.

I tried to speak, but sound didn’t exist here. Only thought.

Who are you?

A low hum shivered through the void.

I am the one your ancestors feared. The one they buried beneath root and stone. The one they swore never to awaken again.

A pause, thick with expectation.

But you… little flame… you bled for me. You burned for me. And in your final breath, you asked to rise.

Memories surged Rowan’s lies, the Council’s judgment, the fire consuming me, the scream trapped in my throat. Rage ignited in what remained of my chest, hot and acidic.

I don’t want mercy, I said. I want strength.

The darkness stirred, curling around me like smoke.

Then strength you shall have.

Something touched my skin if I had skin. A brush of heat, soft yet searing, like the embers of a dying fire breathing back to life.

Your body is broken, the voice murmured. Your wolf is shattered.

Another pulse.

But I can make something new. Something neither wolf nor human. Something born of fire and hunt.

A tremor raced through the void.

The darkness brightened just a flicker, like a spark kissing dry tinder.

Do you accept my bond? It will cost you everything you were. Everything you loved.

Rowan’s face flashed across my mind. His betrayal. His cold eyes as they lit the pyre.

I have nothing left to lose.

The earth’s heartbeat quickened, pounding through the void until it became a rhythm in my bones bones I suddenly felt forming again, piece by molten piece.

Then rise, ash-born.

Flames erupted around me, but they did not burn. They wrapped my limbs, stitched flesh over bone, carved new life into the empty shell of my body. I gasped an actual gasp as breath tore back into my lungs.

With it came smell. Heat. Earth.

Sound.

My heart my new heart thundered.

The darkness cracked open like a shell, spilling me onto cold soil. Mud pressed against my cheek. Rain kissed my shoulders. My fingers dug into dirt as though they were learning how to exist again.

I pushed myself up slowly, every motion trembling with raw power.

Smoke rose from my skin, but it wasn’t from burning.

It was coming from within me.

My veins glowed faintly with ember-light.

My wolf stirred but she was different. Wilder. Sharper. A creature built from flame and fury.

I stood, unsteady but alive.

Alive.

Above me, the full moon cut through a ragged cloud, its silver light bathing the clearing. Ash clung to my hair. Soot lined my nails. The ropes that had bound me were nothing but charred threads scattered around my feet.

I did not feel like a girl.

I did not feel like a victim.

I felt like a beginning.

And when I took my first step toward the woods, the earth whispered beneath my feet,

Burn the ones who burned you.

I intended to.