76. Chapter 76
T here was no air, no ground, no sound save for the steady rumble of Vortharax in the distance, somewhere in the abyss.
Vortharax saturated the void.
“ Let me burn it all down. No more betrayal. No more weakness. Only fire ,” he rumbled again, the words vibrating in Ren’s marrow.
A sound split the void.
Light but steady footsteps.
Vortharax let out a low, guttural growl that rippled through the dark, carrying more annoyance than fear.
Ren whirled to the sound coming from behind and saw a figure emerging from the shadows, until the shape peeled free, coalescing into a woman.
Ren froze. Her throat tightened.
It couldn’t be.
“Eve…” Ren whispered.
Her sister stood before her – older, sharper.
The years had carved lines into her face, the kind that spoke not only of age but of battles fought and choices paid in blood.
Her once-braided hair now spilled in wild, dark waves down her back, threaded with streaks of silver.
Her frame was leaner, honed to something almost blade-like, as if life had pared her down to steel and sinew .
But it was her eyes that rooted Ren to the spot. Those same eyes she’d once trusted above all others now burned with a light she didn’t recognize. A shadow lingered in them, an echo of someone Ren used to know, twisted into someone she could barely name.
“Ren.”
Vortharax’s growl rumbled deeper in the distance, as though irritated by Eve’s intrusion.
Ren staggered, the sight before her cleaving through her like a blade. For a heartbeat, she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. It was impossible that Eve stood there, flesh and bone and shadow, when Ren had buried her a thousand times in memory.
This couldn’t be real.
“No,” Ren hissed, the word scraped raw from somewhere deep, shaking her head so hard her vision blurred. “You don’t get to say my name. Not after what you did.”
Ashrend was heavier in her hand than it had ever felt, as though it too recognized the history between them.
Ren’s body moved before her mind could catch up. The fury carried her forward, unspooling like fire through her veins. She lunged, sword flashing, teeth bared in something feral, something broken.
Eve didn’t flinch. Didn’t even blink. She slipped aside with practiced ease, the faintest turn of her body sending Ren’s strike into empty air. Her hands rose in defense, in restraint.
Ren snarled, swinging again, desperate to sever the past from the present, but her strikes faltered. Every blow seemed slower, clumsier, as though the void itself reached for her, dulling her blade, dragging at her limbs.
“You still move like you’re carrying every battle on your shoulders,” Eve murmured, slipping past another swing. She didn’t strike back. Didn’t even draw a weapon. “Always pushing forward, afraid of what will happen if you stop.”
“Shut up!” Ren spat. “You don’t get to talk to me like you know me!”
Another slash, another miss.
Eve sighed as though they weren’t locked in the hollow belly of the void with a dragon the size of a mountain looming over them. As if her little sister’s fury were a child’s tantrum .
“I came here to help you, Ren. We need to talk, and there’s not much time.”
Ren froze at that. Just for a heartbeat.
Vortharax’s chuckle filled the silence. “ The one who already abandoned you once now comes crawling back with pretty words. Do you really think this time will be different ?” His voice slid into her bones, every syllable a poisoned hook.
“ She’ll leave again. They always do. And when she does, you’ll remember what I told you: fire doesn’t need loyalty. It only needs fuel. ”
Eve stepped closer, her eyes glinting. “I knew this day would come. The day you’d face him. The day Vortharax would try to take you. I couldn’t leave you to face him alone.”
Ren’s jaw clenched, tears stinging her eyes, though she would have bitten her tongue bloody before letting them fall. “You already did.”
For the first time, something flickered across Eve’s face. “I can’t undo the past. But I can help you remember who you are. You are not his pawn, Ren. You are not his vessel.” Her hand lifted, tentative, palm open. “Don’t let him strip away the last piece of you that’s still yours.”
Ren’s heart thundered, torn between fury and longing, hate and the part of her that still ached for the sister she’d lost. Behind them, Vortharax stirred, tail lashing against the unseen ground.
“ Pathetic mortals ,” Vortharax snarled, his voice rattling their bones. “ You cling to blood as if it were a chain that binds you to meaning. But blood is nothing. Blood betrays. Blood rots. She will shatter, as you shattered, kin-slayer .”
Ren flinched at the word. Kin slayer.
Eve ignored him. Her gaze stayed fixed on Ren, unwavering.
“Listen to me. The Pact is broken. The dragons will rise again, and they will remember the slaughter, the betrayal. They will not come with mercy. And he—” she flicked her chin toward Vortharax, “—will twist your pain into chains if you let him. But you are Flamebearer, Ren. That means you choose. Always.”
“You think I can just… choose not to break? When you left me? When Elira betrayed me? When every step of this cursed life is just waiting for me to be stupid enough to trust again?” Ren’s voice cracked on the last word .
Eve’s expression softened. “I’m so sorry you had to endure all of that.
No one should have.” Eve stepped closer, and this time, Ren didn’t raise her blade.
“But you are stronger than us. Stronger than me, stronger than Elira.” She leaned in, her voice soft but unshakable.
“You are the spark that terrifies even him.”
Vortharax snarled again, but Eve’s lips curled in the faintest, defiant smile.
Ren’s shoulders sagged, trembling under the weight of it all. Her hand ached where she clutched Ashrend.
She didn’t know what she believed anymore.
“Ren…” Eve’s voice was gentle, almost hesitant, as if afraid she no longer had the right to speak her name. “What happened back then… it was terrible.”
Ren didn’t look up. She wasn’t sure she could.
Eve continued, voice thinning with something too raw to hide.
“But you need to know one thing. I made you a promise, to always protect you. I held onto that, even when everything else was falling apart. Mom and Dad…” Eve swallowed hard.
“They weren’t strong enough. Or maybe they weren’t good enough.
When Dad shattered his leg and couldn’t work anymore, everything spiraled.
They were drowning – their money gone, options gone, hopes of working gone.
And when the Embersworn came sniffing around in town, offering coin…
” Her voice cracked. “They were going to sell you, Ren.”
Ren’s breath hitched, a small, broken sound.
“I couldn’t let that happen,” Eve whispered. “So I went to the Embersworn myself. I offered them more. I offered them two people instead of one.”
Ren’s head snapped up. “Eve – ”
“Mom and Dad,” Eve said simply. “They’d already chosen you as the sacrifice.
I chose differently. I thought the flames might choose me.
If Vorthorax had taken me instead, you would’ve been spared.
You wouldn’t have had to carry him. You wouldn’t have had to live with this curse.
But that’s not what happened. The flames didn’t want me.
They wanted you . They crowned you the Flameborne the moment your blood sang to them.
All I could do after that was make sure you survived what came next. ”
Ren stared at her sister, this woman she’d loved, resented, trusted, lost, and mourned, all knotted into a single unbearable truth.
Eve’s eyes met hers. “I tried to save you, Ren. I swear I did. I would’ve given everything.
But fate had already laid its hand on you.
So I did the only thing I could. I rooted a small piece of my soul into yours, just enough that when this moment came, I could be here to tell you everything myself.
” Her features hardened in resolve. “You are the spark that makes the darkness retreat. Think back to the night the flames chose you. That was no accident, no twist of fate. They saw you for what you are. They answered to you. Fire does not kneel. It does not bow. It burns, it endures, and it is you .”
The void trembled as if Eve’s words themselves defied its hold. Vortharax’s roar split the silence, a cataclysmic sound that shook the endless dark to its core. Still, Eve did not flinch.
Eve stepped closer, pulling Ren into her arms, her hands trembling as they cupped Ren’s cheeks. Eve’s eyes glistened with the weight of years stolen, of love unspoken.
Of all the moments they’d lost.
But even as Ren clung to her, the world around them began to dissolve, the darkness thinning. The air shimmered, the edges of Eve’s form flickering. Panic clawed up Ren’s throat.
“No,” Ren sobbed, shaking her head. “Please don’t leave me. Not again.” Her fingers tightened around Eve’s wrists, desperate to hold on. “I need you with me.”
Eve smiled through the shimmer, her thumb brushing away a tear that wasn’t supposed to fall here. “One day, I’ll explain everything,” she whispered. “I swear it. But for now…” Her voice cracked as the void trembled around them. “Your friends need you. It’s time to go back.”
The void rippled.
A broken whisper seeped through the cracks like water through stone.
R—Ren…?
Help… can’t… please—
Ren’s protest broke on her lips, swallowed by the blinding rush of light.
“I don’t want to go back – I want to stay with you,” Ren sobbed, shaking her head. “I want to be with you , Eve. ”
Then a second voice surged in, drowning everything else.
Ren, listen to me. Please. Come back. I need you. Ren, come back to me. Don’t leave me.
Ren froze. Her breath caught in her throat. Recognition hit her like a blade to the chest.
Kaelin was calling her back. Commanding her back.
Begging her back.
“See?” Eve smiled softly. “It’s time to go. But never forget,” Eve pressed her forehead to Ren’s, grounding them both in the light as Kaelin’s voice echoed all around them. “I have always loved you. Fiercely. Beyond reason, beyond time.”
Her lips brushed Ren’s brow in a kiss as fragile as it was eternal. Her voice cracked, but the words carried like a vow. “And I always will. In this lifetime and the next, until every last star burns out.”
And as the light and dark fractured, dragging Ren back into the present, Ren carried with her the echo of Eve’s vow like a flame cupped against the wind, fragile yet unyielding.