Chapter 31 Little Flame
LITTLE FLAME
Sleep claimed me and then… it didn’t.
As if something in my subconscious wouldn’t allow me peace for long.
Which was why I found myself lying awake in his bed, the low hum of the manor pressing in around us.
The fire had died down to embers, glowing faintly in the hearth, their soft orange light painting shadows that stretched and curled along the walls like living things.
Vas had fallen into a restless stillness beside me, his breathing deep but uneven, his hand still draped over my waist as if even in sleep he couldn’t let go. The warmth of him seeped through the sheets, anchoring me in place, yet my mind refused to be still.
His mother. The hunger. The scream.
The way the darkness in his eyes flickered when he spoke of her.
Every piece of it tangled together inside me until I could hardly breathe. But beneath all of that, something else began to stir.
A pull.
Soft at first, so faint I thought I imagined it. It came like the faint hum of electricity beneath the skin, a vibration that seemed to travel through the air, through the mattress, through me.
I sat up slowly, careful not to wake him. The room was quiet except for the faint whisper of wind against the windows, yet I could feel it, a call, low and thrumming, tugging at the edge of my mind.
The necklace.
The thought came unbidden, sharp as a blade. I hadn’t spoken it aloud, yet it filled the air as though I had. My heart began to pound. I pressed my hand to my chest, trying to steady myself, but the sensation only deepened. It wasn’t sound, not exactly, but a pulse, one that was dark and rhythmic.
My thoughts drifted to where the necklace lay beneath my bed, hidden in the shadows where I had kicked it during the fight. I could see it in my mind’s eye, the red stone gleaming faintly like a drop of living blood, the light inside it pulsing as though in time with my heartbeat.
For a fleeting moment, I thought I heard something, not a voice, but a whisper that curled just beneath the surface, soft and coaxing. My breath hitched, my fingers curling against the sheet.
It felt like it was calling to me.
My pulse raced as I glanced toward the door, half expecting to see a shadow move beyond it.
Nothing. Only silence. Yet the feeling didn’t fade.
It grew stronger, spreading through my chest like warmth and cold all at once, until I could almost taste the metallic sweetness of it at the back of my throat.
Vas stirred beside me, a low sound escaping him, almost a growl. His grip on me tightened, his fingers pressing lightly into my hip as though his body sensed something his mind hadn’t yet woken to.
I froze, too afraid to breathe, afraid to move, caught between the warmth of his body and the pull of something dark and ancient that waited just beyond the threshold of the room.
The whisper came again, clearer this time,
‘Nessa…’
I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth. The sound had been inside my head, soft and feminine, familiar in a way that chilled me to my core.
I turned slowly toward Vas. He didn’t wake, but his brow furrowed, his body shifting uneasily.
His darkness stirred beneath his skin, faint but visible, moving like shadowed veins beneath the surface.
It responded to something unseen, something I could feel pressing closer.
The air thickened, the warmth fading from the room as a cold breath slid across my skin. I swallowed hard and whispered,
“It’s just a dream.”
But even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t.
The necklace was awake.
And whatever lived inside it was no longer content to be hidden.
It was as though invisible fingers were curling around my mind, tugging gently, insistently, beckoning me closer.
I knew it was dangerous. Every instinct screamed at me to stay where I was, to remain wrapped in the safety of Vas’s arms and the faint hum of his shadows that lingered protectively around the room.
But danger had never whispered to me quite like this.
Because this voice did not feel foreign.
It felt familiar, intimate even, like a memory that had been waiting in the dark for me to remember it.
My gaze drifted toward the door, and at that moment, I knew what I had to do.
Carefully, I eased myself from Vas’s hold, moving slowly so as not to wake him.
I found my pajama pants first and slipped them on, then reached for his black t-shirt, choosing it over my own torn, bloodstained one.
A faint smile tugged at my lips as I looked down.
The hem nearly brushed my knees, a small reminder of just how much taller he was.
I looked back at the bed, stepping closer, as if the pull back to Vas was fighting the one that wanted to lure me back to where the necklace lay. The whisper brushed against the edges of my consciousness, soft and pleading.
‘Nessa… come back.’
The words were faint but unmistakable, slipping through the cracks in my mind like smoke. I pressed a trembling hand to my chest, my breath catching as the air around me seemed to shift, thickening with that same unnatural weight I’d felt the night she attacked me.
It’s the necklace.
It has to be the key to learning more.
The thought came sharp and clear. I didn’t know how I knew, only that the feeling in my chest, the strange rhythm pulsing through me, matched the faint throb I’d felt from that crimson stone as if our heartbeats had somehow aligned.
Vas was still, his breathing deep and uneven, a faint crease between his brows as if even in sleep his mind was fighting something unseen. I reached out then, brushing a stray lock of hair from his forehead, the movement tender as if I could reach him in his sleep.
“I’ll be right back,” I whispered, even though I wasn’t sure he could hear me, hoping it wasn’t enough to wake him.
The floor was cool beneath my bare feet as I crossed the room, every board creaking softly beneath my weight. When I reached the door, I looked back once more.
The sight of him there, half in shadow, half in the dim glow of the dying fire, made my chest ache. The idea of leaving him, even for a moment, felt wrong. Yet something inside me was no longer mine to control.
I opened the door, slow and silent.
The corridor beyond was cloaked in darkness, the kind that felt alive, pressing close against my skin as I stepped into it. The air was heavy with the scent of rain and old stone, faintly metallic, as if the house itself was bleeding memories.
My pulse quickened. Every instinct told me to turn back, to close the door and crawl back into the warmth of his bed. But the whisper urged me on.
Each step I took echoed softly against the polished wood, my shadow stretching long and thin across the floor from the few lamps that still held light.
By the time I reached the corridor that led to my room, the air had grown colder.
The manor was silent except for the faint sound of the wild weather beyond the windows, the rain still whispering against the glass.
And yet, beneath it all, I could hear something else.
A heartbeat.
It wasn’t mine. It wasn’t Vas’s. It was faint, rhythmic, and steady. Coming from behind my bedroom door. I froze, my hand hovering over the latch. The sound vibrated through the wood in perfect time with the throbbing that now pulsed beneath my skin.
For one fleeting second, fear almost won. I almost turned back. But then, as if sensing my hesitation, the whisper came again, soft, coaxing, feminine.
‘Don’t be afraid…’
My breath trembled as I pushed the door open.
The room was exactly as I had left it, except for one thing.
The faint glow beneath the bed. It was red, pulsing like the beat of a living heart.
I stepped inside, drawn toward it despite the warning bells screaming in the back of my mind.
My fingers trembled as I knelt on the cold floor, the air thick with the scent of rain and iron.
I reached under the bed, my skin brushing against the dusty wood and the cold edge of metal.
And then I touched it.
The world shifted.
A sharp heat rushed through my hand, searing, alive, and yet I couldn’t let go. The stone throbbed beneath my fingers, its glow flaring brighter as something unseen… something ancient, seemed to wake within it.
My breath caught. The room tilted. The whisper filled my mind again, louder this time, no longer soft but commanding.
‘Nessa… Finally… home’
I gasped, stumbling back, the necklace clutched in my hand. The voice wasn’t in my head anymore. It was in the room!
The air around me trembled.
It began as a low hum, then swelled until it filled every corner of the room, vibrating in the very bones of the manor. The glow from the necklace pulsed against my palm, a crimson heartbeat that no longer felt like mine. The whisper was no longer a whisper. It had a voice now.
Ancient and Ageless.
It wound through the air like smoke, soft and intoxicating, curling its words into the cracks of my mind.
‘So long… buried, forgotten, denied… but you hear me, don’t you, little flame? You can feel me.’
My breath came quick and shallow.
“Who are you?” I whispered, though part of me already knew the answer. It was in the weight of the voice, in the way it pressed against my skin like invisible hands.
‘The truth,’ it breathed.
‘The truth they buried beneath blood and lies.’
The room quivered, the shadows thickening around me. The floor creaked beneath me as if something beneath the house itself was shifting, stirring from a long sleep.
I wanted to drop the necklace. I wanted to run. But I couldn’t. My fingers wouldn’t obey. The heat from the stone seeped into my veins, racing up my arm like liquid fire, until it reached my heart and settled there, pulsing in rhythm with it.
Images flashed behind my eyes… blood… stone… a woman screaming and a dagger glinting in candlelight. And then a voice, this time masculine, low and furious.
‘You promised me a Fated one!’
I stumbled back, clutching my chest, the world spinning.
“Stop,” I begged.
“Please, stop!”
But the voice only grew louder.
‘They never wanted you to know. You are the key, little flame. The bond was never theirs to claim. It was his… our king.’
The light flared, flooding the room in a deep, red glow. My breath hitched. For an instant, I saw something in the reflection of the mirror, not myself, but a woman with eyes like molten gold and a crown of darkness, watching me as though she’d been waiting.
Then, as quickly as it began, the light dimmed.
Silence.
Only my heartbeat remained, ragged and uneven, echoing in the hollow space of the room. The necklace had cooled in my palm, but its pulse still throbbed faintly, alive and aware.
And then I felt it.
A presence.
Not the one whispering to me. Not the ancient thing that had spoken of truths and curses. This was something else… Someone else.
The moment I felt it, I knew.
Vas.
It wasn’t just his presence. It was his pain. His fear. It tore through me like a shuddering breath of winter air, sharp and suffocating. The connection between us burned to life in an instant, the bond forged by his blood and my veins blazing with warning.
Something was wrong.
I didn’t think.
I just ran.
The corridors stretched endlessly before me, the darkness swallowing the edges of my vision as the pounding of my footsteps echoed against the ancient stone floors.
My heart hammered, each beat faster than the last, the necklace still clenched tightly in my hand, its faint glow lighting the way like a dying ember.
The closer I got to his room, the stronger it grew, that terrible, suffocating terror. Panic clawed up my throat, each breath more frantic than the last. I could feel him. I could feel something surrounding him.
A threat against him.
The door was already open, yet I knew I hadn’t left it that way. I crept inside, breathless, the room spinning with motion and shadow.
But I didn’t see my life flash before my eyes.
I saw his.
The world around me flickered. The room shifted. For a heartbeat, I was no longer standing there, but inside him, his memories flashing like broken glass. The dagger. The scream. His brothers’ faces twisted with betrayal. His father’s voice, cruel and sharp. His mother’s cry.
Then something darker.
A bargain.
A hand made of shadow reaching from the abyss.
A voice whispering promises of power that came at the cost of his soul. The truth struck me like a blow.
Vas hadn’t just inherited the curse.
He had been chosen by it.
And every lie that had been told, every secret buried beneath blood and centuries, had led to this moment. I gasped, clutching my chest, the necklace burning against my palm as if it knew what I had seen.
For a heartbeat, I thought the room was empty, that the terrible presence I had felt was only a trick of my imagination.
But then my gaze landed on the bed. Vas lay there, still and silent, his dark hair falling across his forehead, the sheet tangled low around his waist. The faint rise and fall of his chest was the only sign that he lived.
He looked peaceful, almost human in sleep, the weight of his darkness hidden beneath the calm of dreams.
But it wasn’t him that stole the breath from my lungs.
It was the two figures standing over him.
Victor and Tal.
Their faces were pale in the dim firelight, their eyes locked on the sleeping form of their brother. And in Victor’s hand, gleaming coldly like liquid moonlight, was…
The dagger.
Its edge caught the faint light as he turned it, the same way a man might before delivering a death that had long been planned.
My throat tightened, sound catching somewhere between a gasp and a cry. But before I took a single step inside, Vas’s eyes snapped open just as the dagger came down on him.
Victor’s voice came first, low and rumbling, filled with barely contained fury.
“Where is our Fated?” he growled, his eyes flashing with accusation before roaring in fury…
“Where is Vanessa?!”