Chapter 31
The silence stretches, warm and steady, until Arden clears his throat. “Right, well—before this gets too sentimental—were you guys talking about your phoenix fire?” His voice is casual, but there’s genuine curiosity in it.
I blink. “You heard that?”
“Hard not to,” he says, smirking. “So? What’s the deal? Sounds like you’ve got more going on than just fancy flames.”
Selene steps in, her tone calm but confident.
“We think Metra’s fire isn’t ordinary. She can already shift at will, but we think her flame obeys her.
Burns when she wills it, spares when she chooses.
That kind of control? It makes the fire both a weapon and a shield. She’s only begun to tap into it.”
Arden whistles low, grinning. “Badass.” Heat creeps into my face, though for once I don’t want to hide it.
By the time we head back into the cave, the moment feels lighter—closer. Elaris is waiting in her chair, teacup cradled in her hands as if she’s been there all along. Her eyes sweep over us, sharp and soft all at once.
“I wondered how long it would take,” she says at last. “Sometimes people must come to their own truths without my guiding hand. If you’re not ready to see, no amount of urging will make your eyes open.”
Something inside me stirs, and before I can second-guess it, I speak. “I think I discovered something. About my phoenix fire. About what it can do.”
Her lips curve, but it’s her eyes—bright with both pride and sorrow—that strike me.
“I told you, child, your fire is older than memory. A phoenix has not walked this realm for a millennium. There are no scrolls, no records. What you uncover will be yours alone. But if you master it, it will be critical. Perhaps even the turning of the tide.”
My chest tightens as fear and wonder collide. But Elaris sets her cup aside and leans forward. “There is another gift you carry, one you do not yet understand. The Tongue of Realms that we discussed in the Atheneum. It is beyond comprehension. You may share it.”
I frown. “Share? What do you mean?”
“Donovans before you have given the gift to companions. If the need is great, you can open their ears as you have opened yours. Let them walk into foreign lands and speak as kin.”
My breath catches. “I could…give it away? Truly?”
Her nod is solemn. “But take care. Your magic’s instinct is to draw inward, to claim. To offer instead, you must master the art of restraint. If you falter, you could wound the very ones you seek to help.”
The words hit me harder than I expected. A lump swells in my throat. “For once,” I whisper, “I could give instead of take.”
“Yes.” Her gaze softens, though steel remains in her voice. “But only with control. You must not attempt it until you are certain. Promise me that.”
“I promise.” The vow feels like fire in my chest. “I’ll learn. The fire, the gift—everything. I’ll learn it all.”
Silence follows, heavy and full. Then, Elaris leans back again, fingers curling around her cup. “Once you have mastered them, you will be ready to learn from Nova Donovan.”
The name jolts me. “Learn from her? I thought we were finding her so she could open portals.”
A faint, unreadable smile touches her mouth. “You are a Donovan. This is your birthright. The power lies within you. Not every Donovan masters it—those who cannot, do not rule. But you, Metra, you must learn. The paths will answer to you.”
The weight knocks the air from my lungs. I glance around, desperate, but the faces I find—Lowan, Selene, Remli, Zillah, even Arden—are not doubting. They’re steady.
I swallow hard. “Then I’ll be ready.”
And maybe, just maybe, I will.
Elaris leaves us in the common room, but doesn’t imply that we need to leave, so we sit for a moment, tossing around everything that we’ve learned.
Zillah speaks first, breaking our reverie. “Metra, this is incredible. If you can control your phoenix fire, plus gift others with the ability to communicate in other realms, do you even realize how powerful you are?”
Lowan beams with pride at me. “I do. I’ve always known she was fucking incredible.”
I smile back at him, warmth spreading through my body at the idea that he is even mine to love.
“We can help you figure out how to tap into that power,” Selene promises eagerly. “Between the six of us, we can figure this out.”
Remli stretches languidly, cat-like, arching her back and rolling her neck, working out the tension of these last few days.
Arden eyes her hungrily. I see them differently now that I know what to watch for.
There’s lust, absolutely, but Remli was right.
I might not smell their emotions like her lynx form can, but I can see love blossoming there—in their touches, the way their eyes linger, the faintest blush.
Arden catches me watching and grins, happy to be caught.
He shrugs his shoulders and shakes his strawberry-blonde hair back from his face.
“I guess I need to apologize for going dark on everyone as well,” he says.
“Finding out your mother is the current Queen and asked for you to be murdered at birth because you had a dick… It’s a lot to process.
” He tries to sound light, but we can hear the hurt underneath.
Surprisingly, it’s Lowan who speaks this time.
“I have struggled to like you,” he starts, and no one is sure where this is going.
“You haven’t made it easy by any means, but in some ways you remind me of myself.
You hid behind your jokes; I hid behind my duty.
But it’s no different. It’s still a wall.
A facade against showing people who you are, letting them in. ”
He reaches for my hand, and we lock eyes for a moment.
“But Fate gave me a second chance,” he continues softly.
“A Thread to someone who changed it all for me, showed me I could be more than my guilt, my shame, my anger—more than my duty. You deserve a second chance, too. I can see you striving for it; don’t let it go.
The decisions of your parents, of my father?
Those weren’t your decisions. You shouldn’t pay for them over and over. ”
The room is silent, aside from Remli’s sniffles. My own tears spill freely as Arden rises and reaches a hand to Lowan. Lowan accepts and allows Arden to pull him up into an embrace.
Something shifts in the air between them—between all of us. The weight we’ve been carrying, jagged and separate, weaves together into something shared. The Threads of our grief, our shame, our fractured pasts—binding, not breaking.
Everyone’s eyes are shining with tears now, and the four of us—Zillah, Selene, Remli, and me—fold into our own embrace beside them. For the first time since stepping into this realm, I feel not just the burden of destiny on my shoulders, but the strength of family at my back.
Remli sniffs, wiping her eyes, then smirks. “To be fair, Arden…it turned out to be a really fantastic dick.”
We laugh long into the night, the sound of it loosening something tight in my chest.
When I finally lie down, it is not the heavy, restless fog that claims me.
For days, I’d drifted in and out of shallow dreams—haunted, fitful, waking to the weight of uselessness pressing me back into the mattress.
Sleep had been no kinder than wakefulness, both tangled in the same cycle of despair.
But tonight is different. I sink into proper rest, my mind quiet, my body uncoiled, my heart at peace.
When I wake, I can almost feel the sunlight streaming faintly across the stone outside, the smell of coffee rich in the air—as if the cave itself has noticed the change in me.
I stretch, and for the first time in what feels like forever, my body hums with energy instead of dragging like lead.
Lowan is already watching me, silver eyes soft. “You slept differently last night,” he says.
I nod, smiling as I brush a tangle of hair back from my face. “I feel different.”
His hand comes up to caress my cheek, warm and steady. “Good. I’m glad to see you coming back to yourself.”
Tears prick my eyes—not the bitter kind, but grateful. “Thank you,” I whisper. “For staying with me. For helping me find my way back.”
“There is no darkness you could ever wander into that I wouldn’t walk in after you,” he says, voice low and certain. “Just to light your way out.”
The Thread between us hums taut, and I swallow hard. “Sometimes I think I don’t even deserve you.”
His smile tilts wryly. “Then stop entertaining thoughts like that. You’re the catch in this relationship, Metra. Any day now, you’ll probably wake up and realize it.”
“Never,” I laugh, pressing my forehead against his. “You’re stuck with me. For eternity.”
“Good,” he murmurs, and seals it with a kiss to my temple.
When we emerge into the common room, the others are already gathered. There’s a shift in the air I can feel down to my bones. For days, there’s been a fracture running through us—secrets festering, tension straining, doubts pulling us apart. But now it feels healed.
Everyone’s eyes meet with quiet smiles, soft recognition, a kind of familial love forged by fire.
Blood, sweat, and tears have bound us tighter than any oath.
For the first time, I look at this group and think, this is my family.
I can tell from their faces that they feel the same.
The realization hits with an ache, because I miss my mother, Abigail, and Trevor more than I can say.
“All right,” Selene says, her voice bright with anticipation. “Are we ready?”
“I really am,” I answer, the words sparking something alive inside me. We step outside together, ready to begin.
The morning air is already humid as we step outside, the wet stone giving way to grass and earth beneath our boots. We instinctively form a loose circle, but then hesitate—no one is sure how to begin.