Sera's POV
"Going somewhere?" Cassian's voice cut through the darkness like a knife.
I yanked the door open and ran.
"Sera, wait!" Cassian called behind me, but I was already flying down the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Phoenix Vault. Using her. Control her. The words echoed in my head with each pounding step.
I'd been so stupid. Again. Trusting someone who only wanted to use me.
I burst through the building's front door into the early morning streets. The sun was just starting to rise, painting the sky pink and orange. My lungs burned, but I kept running.
Footsteps chased me. Fast footsteps.
"Sera, stop!" Cassian was gaining on me. Of course he was—he probably had super wolf speed or whatever.
I ducked into an alley, hoping to lose him. Big mistake. It was a dead end.
Cassian appeared at the alley entrance, blocking my escape. He wasn't even breathing hard.
"Don't come near me," I warned, backing up until I hit the wall.
"You heard the conversation." It wasn't a question. His silver eyes looked... sad? Guilty? I couldn't tell and didn't care.
"Yeah, I heard. You're using me to open some vault. Was any of it true? The oath? Your family? Or was that all just a story to make me trust you?"
"It's not what you think—"
"Then what is it?" I yelled. "Because it sounded pretty clear! You and that woman want to control me, make me unlock something whether I want to or not!"
Cassian ran a hand through his dark hair, frustrated. "That woman is Lady Morgana. She's... complicated. Yes, she wants access to the Phoenix Vault. It's a legendary treasure room that only a Phoenix heir can open. But—"
"But nothing! You lied to me!"
"I haven't lied to you once!" His voice rose, matching my anger. "Everything I told you about your uncle, your powers, the danger you're in—all of it is true. Lady Morgana has her own agenda, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that you need protection and training."
"From you? The guy who's planning to use me?"
"I'm planning to protect you!" He stepped closer, and I pressed harder against the wall. "Morgana wants the Vault opened. I agreed to find you because it was the only way she'd give me the resources to investigate your family and track down Damien. But I never agreed to force you to do anything."
"That's not what she said—"
"I don't care what she said!" Cassian's eyes flashed. "You heard me refuse her, didn't you? You heard me say I wouldn't use you as a tool?"
I had heard that part. But could I believe it?
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
Cassian stared at me for a long moment. Then he did something unexpected. He pulled off one of his black gloves.
His hand was covered in scars. Terrible, burn-like scars that twisted across his palm and fingers.
"Memory magic leaves marks when it's forcibly broken," he said quietly. "These scars are from the day I finally shattered the false memories they planted in my mind. The day I learned the truth about my family's murder. It hurt worse than anything I've ever felt, but I did it because I refuse to be controlled by anyone ever again."
He looked directly into my eyes. "I would never do to you what was done to me. Never. You can choose to trust me or not, but I swear on these scars that I will protect you, not use you."
My anger wavered. The pain in his voice sounded real. The scars looked real.
But I'd been wrong about people before.
"I need time," I said finally. "Time to think."
Cassian nodded slowly and pulled his glove back on. "All right. But you can't go back to the streets. If not my apartment, then at least let me take you somewhere safe until—"
A woman's laugh echoed through the alley.
We both spun around.
Someone stood on the wall above us. Actually stood on the vertical wall, like gravity didn't apply to her. She wore all silver—a silver jacket, silver pants, and a silver half-mask that covered the top half of her face.
"Well, this is awkward," the woman said cheerfully. "Lovers' quarrel?"
"Mirage," Cassian said, sounding relieved and annoyed at the same time. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving your dramatic rear end, obviously." The woman—Mirage—jumped off the wall and landed gracefully in front of us. "Lady Morgana's getting impatient. She sent me to check on your progress."
"Tell her I'm handling it."
"Are you though?" Mirage looked at me with bright, curious eyes. "Because it looks like the Phoenix heir is trying to run away from you. That's not very 'handled.'"
"Stay out of this," Cassian growled.
"Can't. I'm invested now." Mirage pulled something from her pocket—a small crystal vial that glowed with soft blue light. "Besides, I brought a present for our little Phoenix."
"What is that?" I asked suspiciously.
"A memory. Stolen from one of your uncle's servants." Mirage's voice turned serious. "I think you need to see it."
My heart started pounding. "A memory of what?"
"The truth." She held out the vial. "Touch it, and you'll see what I saw."
I looked at Cassian. He nodded slowly. "Mirage is a phantom thief. She steals memories and stores them in crystals. If she says this is important..."
I didn't trust Cassian completely. But I needed to know.
I reached out and touched the crystal.
The world disappeared.
Suddenly I was standing in a fancy room I'd never seen before. But I wasn't really there—I was seeing through someone else's eyes, feeling what they felt. It was like being a ghost in someone else's body.
Uncle Damien sat across from an elegant woman with white hair. Lady Vivienne from last night.
"The girl turns seventeen in two weeks," Damien was saying. "We need to act before her birthday."
"And you're certain she's the heir?" Vivienne asked.
"Positive. Her mother was a Phoenix descendant. The girl will awaken on her seventeenth birthday." Damien's voice was cold, hateful. "Once she awakens, she'll be unstoppable. We have to kill her first."
My uncle. Talking about killing me.
"The fire needs to look natural," Vivienne said. "No evidence of magic or accelerants. Just a tragic accident that kills the entire family."
Damien smiled. It was the cruelest smile I'd ever seen. "Don't worry. I've planned this for years. My dear brother and his wife won't suspect a thing. They trust me completely."
"And the pendant?" Vivienne asked.
"It should burn in the fire. But if the girl somehow escapes with it, I have people who'll hunt her down. Either way, the Phoenix bloodline ends with her."
The memory ended.
I yanked my hand back from the crystal, gasping. My whole body shook.
"That was real," Mirage said softly. "I pulled it from a servant who was in the room. This conversation happened two weeks before the Thornwick fire."
Two weeks before my birthday. Before my entire world burned.
My uncle had planned it. Planned to murder me and my parents in cold blood. And he'd done it.
Rage exploded inside me like a volcano.
Heat rushed through my veins. My skin felt like it was on fire from the inside. The pendant around my neck blazed with light so bright it hurt to look at.
"Sera, calm down," Cassian said urgently.
But I couldn't calm down. The heat kept building, building, building until—
Flames burst from my hands.
Real, actual fire. Red and gold flames danced across my palms and fingers, spreading up my arms. The heat should have hurt, should have burned my skin away.
But it didn't hurt at all.
It felt right. Like this fire had always been inside me, waiting to come out.
"Whoa," Mirage breathed. "That's new."
I stared at my burning hands in shock and wonder and terror. The flames flickered and swirled, responding to my emotions. When I felt angry, they burned brighter. When I felt scared, they dimmed slightly.
"This is impossible," I whispered. "This can't be real."
"It's very real," Cassian said, moving closer slowly, like approaching a scared animal. "You're awakening, Sera. Your powers are manifesting."
"Make it stop!" The flames grew bigger, spreading across my whole body. "I don't know how to make it stop!"
"You don't stop it," Cassian said calmly. "You control it. The fire is part of you now. It won't hurt you."
"How do you know?"
"Because you're a Phoenix heir. Fire is your birthright."
The flames suddenly surged outward in a wave. Cassian threw up his arms to shield his face. Mirage jumped backward with a yelp.
"Okay, definitely need to work on control," Mirage said.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to will the flames away. Slowly, gradually, the fire shrank back into my hands, then into my skin, until it disappeared completely.
When I opened my eyes, smoke rose from my clothes. Small scorch marks covered the ground around me.
But my skin was perfectly fine. Not a single burn.
"What's happening to me?" I asked, my voice small and scared.
Cassian stepped closer, his expression gentle. "You're becoming what you were always meant to be."
Before I could respond, Mirage suddenly tensed. "We have company."
"What?" Cassian turned.
Three figures appeared at the alley entrance. They wore dark clothes and carried weapons. And their eyes...
Their eyes glowed red.
"Damien's hunters," Cassian muttered. "They found us."
The lead hunter smiled, showing too many teeth. "The girl comes with us. Alive or dead, Lord Damien doesn't care which."
Cassian moved in front of me, his hand going to where his sword was hidden. "She's not going anywhere with you."
"Then you'll die protecting her." The hunter raised his crossbow.
Everything happened so fast.
The hunter fired. Cassian moved to block the bolt. But he wasn't fast enough.
The bolt was aimed at me.
Time seemed to slow down. I could see the bolt spinning through the air, heading straight for my heart. Could see Cassian trying desperately to reach me.
Heat exploded in my chest.
Flames erupted from my body in a massive wave. Not just from my hands this time—from everywhere. Fire covered me completely, forming a shield of red and gold flames.
The crossbow bolt hit the fire shield and disintegrated into ash.
The hunters' eyes went wide with fear.
"Impossible," one of them whispered. "She's already awakened?"
Behind my shield of flames, power coursed through my veins like nothing I'd ever felt. I wasn't scared anymore.
I was furious.
"You want me?" I heard myself say, my voice strange and echoing. "Come and get me."
The fire shield expanded outward. The hunters screamed and scattered.
But the lead hunter stood his ground. He pulled something from his belt—a small black stone that pulsed with dark energy.
"Damien said you might manifest early," the hunter said. "That's why he gave me this."
He crushed the stone.
Black smoke erupted from it, spreading through the alley like a living thing. Wherever the smoke touched my flames, they died. My fire shield flickered and weakened.
"That's shadow magic," Mirage yelled. "It cancels out elemental powers!"
The smoke was everywhere now, choking out my flames, pressing in on me. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
My fire went out completely.
The lead hunter grinned. "Gotcha."
He lunged forward, a knife in his hand, aimed at my throat.
I closed my eyes, waiting for the blade.
But instead of pain, I heard a terrible, animalistic roar.
I opened my eyes to see Cassian changing. His body twisted and grew. Fur sprouted across his skin. His face stretched into a wolf's snout. Within seconds, where Cassian had been standing, there was now a massive black wolf with silver eyes.
The wolf launched itself at the hunter with savage fury.
The other hunters pulled back, suddenly terrified. "A Veylan shifter," one breathed. "Run!"
They fled.
The lead hunter tried to fight, but the wolf was too fast, too strong. Within moments, the hunter was down and unconscious.
The black wolf turned to look at me, breathing hard.
Those silver eyes were Cassian's eyes.
"You're really a wolf," I whispered.
The wolf nodded slowly.
Movement at the end of the alley made us both turn. A fourth hunter stood there, holding something I recognized with horror.
A memory crystal. Glowing. Recording everything.
"Lord Damien will pay well for this," the hunter said with a nasty smile. "The girl's awakening, caught on crystal. And a Veylan wolf protecting her." He backed away. "This changes everything."
Mirage threw a knife at him, but the hunter was already running, disappearing into the crowded morning streets.
"No!" Mirage cursed. "He got away!"
The wolf-Cassian began changing back into human form. Bones cracked and shifted. Fur retracted. Within moments, Cassian stood there again, looking exhausted.
"This is bad," he said. "If Damien sees that memory..."
"He'll know I've awakened," I finished. "He'll know I'm alive and that you're protecting me."
"Worse," Mirage said grimly. "He'll know exactly where to send an army."
The three of us stared at each other.
I'd just manifested fire powers in front of witnesses. Cassian had revealed himself as a wolf shifter. And my uncle now had proof of both on a memory crystal.
"We need to leave the city," Cassian said. "Tonight. Before Damien's forces surround us."
"Leave and go where?" I asked.
Cassian's silver eyes met mine, deadly serious.
"To the one place Damien can't follow without starting a war. To the Moonwhisper Court."
Mirage's head snapped toward him. "The Moonwhisper Court? Are you insane? They've been hidden for decades. No one knows how to find them."
A slow smile spread across Cassian's face. "I do. Because the Moonwhisper Princess owes me a favor."
"What princess?" I asked, confused.
Mirage suddenly went very still. Her hand slowly reached up to touch her silver mask.
"No," she whispered. "You can't mean..."
Cassian looked directly at her. "Hello, Princess Elara. It's time to go home."
The blood drained from Mirage's face. "How long have you known?"
"Since the day we met."
I looked between them, completely lost. "Someone want to tell me what's happening?"
Cassian kept his eyes on Mirage. "Our phantom thief friend isn't just a memory collector. She's royalty. The missing Moonwhisper Princess who was kidnapped as a child and had her memories stolen."
Mirage—or Elara—pulled off her mask with shaking hands.
And I gasped.
Her eyes were different colors. One silver, one gold. The mark of Moonwhisper royalty.
"I'm not a princess," she said, but her voice wavered. "I'm just Mirage. That's all I remember being."
"Then it's time you remembered the rest," Cassian said. "Because if we're going to survive what's coming, we need the Moonwhisper Court's protection. And they'll only grant it if their lost princess returns."
Mirage looked at him with fear and hope warring in her mismatched eyes. "What if I go back and I'm not who they want me to be?"
"Then we figure it out together," I said, surprising myself. I moved to stand beside her. "All of us."
Cassian nodded. "We leave at sunset. Pack only what you need. And Sera?"
"Yeah?"
His expression turned grim. "From this moment on, everything changes. Once Damien sees that memory crystal, he'll send everything he has to kill you. Assassins, hunters, worse. You need to be ready."
"How do I get ready for that?"
"By embracing what you are." He looked at my hands, where phantom flames still flickered beneath my skin. "Stop fighting your power. Stop being afraid of it. Because that fire inside you? It's the only thing that's going to keep you alive."
I looked down at my hands. Flames danced across my fingers at the thought.
He was right. The scared, helpless girl who ran through the streets was gone. Burned away.
Someone new was rising from those ashes.
Someone dangerous.
"Okay," I said. "Teach me."
Cassian smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was the smile of a wolf who'd just found prey.
"Lesson one starts now."