CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT #3
Carefully, I lifted the kittens and placed them on the towel by the hearth. They didn’t stir. I rose, walked into the hall, and opened the storage closet again. Pushed past a stack of blankets, reached between boxes, until I found what I was looking for. A duster. I picked it up and looked around.
“We should clean this place up,” I said softly. “In case the family comes back.”
The mother cat tilted her head, watching me from the hearth.
“Was it your family?” I asked, as if expecting an answer from the cat. “Did you live here with them?”
There was obviously no answer, just the hush of rain and fading thunder.
I moved through the room, dusting the mantle, the windowsills, the chairs.
I folded a blanket, straightened the rug and fixed a crooked frame that wouldn’t stay straight.
When I reached the bookshelf, I paused. My fingers drifted across the backs of the books.
Books about ancient gods, lost cities, creatures made of bone, ash, and lightning. Then one caught my eye.
Tales of the Deep: The Kraken and Other Sea Monsters
I thought of the man who called himself the Kraken.
The leader of the Wardens. I wasn’t even sure he was real, and if he was…
he was likely dead by now. I pulled the book from the shelf and sank to the floor again, tucking my legs beneath me.
The book was too big to hold in my hands, so I set it down in front of me on the floor and eased it open.
The white kitten wandered over again, climbed into my lap, circled once, then tucked herself in with a soft little sigh.
I let my hand rest on her back, fingers brushing through her fur.
Inside the book were stories of krakens and sirens and trolls.
Creatures with talons and scales and too many eyes.
Myths that people told to explain what they couldn’t.
I kept flipping the pages. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for.
Maybe an answer. Maybe something that made me feel less alone.
There were tales about shapeshifters and seers.
People who could bend water, call the wind, see the future before it came.
But none of them were like me. There was nothing about a girl who could survive being burned alive. A girl who could turn someone to ash.
With every page, my chest grew heavier. If there were no stories like mine, maybe there was no one like me at all. Maybe there had never been.
And I was alone.
A mistake.
A monster.
I grabbed another book. Desperate now, trying to find anything to explain what I was. But it was the same, just more stories, more myths. Still nothing like me.
I didn’t hear the footsteps until I felt him behind me, and I didn’t have to look up to know.
“Still awake?” Will asked. “And... are those cats?”
My fingers were shaking. “I’m a monster,” I whispered.
He stepped closer, worry already written across his face.
“No, you’re not.”
“Then what am I?” My voice shook. “There isn’t even a word for me. I’m not a seer. I’m not like Licia, or like you and Aran. I can heal people—but I can also hurt them. What do you call that, if not a monster?”
“You’re. Not.” Will snapped.
“There aren’t even myths about someone like me,” I went on, backing away like I could put distance between myself and the truth. “There are werewolves, mermaids, sirens… but there’s nothing. Nothing even close. If no one else like me exists, then I’m alone in this.”
Will crossed the room and laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You’re not alone. I’m here. Aran’s here. We’re not going anywhere.”
“But no one can help me. No one understands what I am. I don’t even know what I’m capable of.”
“And you don’t have to figure it out alone,” he said. “We’ll do it together.”
My eyes snapped up to his. “But you’re scared of me.”
“I’m not—”
“You were,” I cut in. “After the inn, you flinched. Like I wasn’t me anymore. Like I’d turned into something else. Something that frightened you.”
I swallowed hard, my chest tightening. “And that’s still in my head. No matter how hard I try to forget it. The way you backed away from me.”
“I wasn’t scared of you,” he said. “I was overwhelmed. Yeah, I was frightened—but not of you. I’d just woken up in a burning building, Kera. I needed a moment to breathe. It was something I’d never seen before. I’m only human.”
“Yeah.” My voice dropped. “At least one of us is.”
He paused. “What does that mean?”
I hesitated, my throat felt raw, like the words would slice me on the way up.
“That woman, the seer,” I started, but my voice cracked, and I had to try again.
“Before she…died. She told me to leave. Said she couldn’t help me anymore.
” My arms had folded in without me noticing.
I held them tight to my chest, like that might keep everything from spilling out.
“She was terrified. Not just startled, like, truly terrified. She couldn’t even look me in the eye.
” I swallowed hard. “And I begged her to tell me why. What had changed, said I wouldn’t go unless she did.
And eventually… she broke. And she said something.
Something I can’t stop thinking about, and I’m scared if I tell you…
if I say it out loud…” I looked up at him. “You’ll look at me like she did.”
“I won’t,” he promised. “You can tell me. Please, Kera. You can tell me anything.”
I swallowed hard, but it didn’t help. My voice shook. “She pulled a knife on me, Will. Her hands shaking, and she pointed it at my chest. And she told me… She said that I’m not human.”
Will wiped a tear from my eye before it fell. “I can’t say I haven’t thought about it too. What you are. Why you can do the things you do.”
He gave a small shrug, a sad smile tugging at his mouth.
“I don’t know what you are,” he said. “But it’s pretty clear you’re not like the rest of us.
We’ve known that for a while.” His mouth twitched, like he was trying to smile but couldn’t quite get there.
“Maybe you were born this way. Maybe your father was a werewolf or something.”
He gave a short, dry laugh, almost under his breath.
“Whatever it is… it doesn’t matter. I’m still here. You can’t scare me off.”
I stared at the floor. “She said there are old things in this world,” I murmured. “Things she didn’t want to speak of. Didn’t want to touch. And that whatever’s in me... doesn’t belong here.”
I paused. My throat tightened again.
“Then she told me the gods were speaking to her. Arguing. Some of them begging her to protect me, to help me. But others were ordering her to kill me. And she said... it wasn’t about anything I’d done. It was about what I will do.”
Will frowned. “What, like… some kind of prophecy?”
I nodded.
“She could’ve just been unwell,” he said gently. “You don’t know how much of that was—”
“I saw something,” I cut in. “After she... after it happened. There was a shadow. It came out of her., slithered out of her body like it had been inside her the whole time.”
“A shadow?” he repeated.
“I don’t know what else to call it.” I said shaking my head. “I don’t know what it was or what it means. But that night by the cave, when you two were asleep... I went back to the water.”
His eyes widened.
“And it was there,” I said. “The shadow. I think it’s what Aran felt. He said something pulled him under, right? It did the same to me. It wrapped around my legs, and I couldn’t breathe, water was filling my lungs, I couldn’t reach the fire and I panicked.”
I swallowed hard.
“But something else came through me. Something stronger. It cracked through my chest and the shadow shattered. I think I killed it.”
He rubbed his hand over his jaw. “You killed a shadow?”
“I know it sounds insane. That’s why I didn’t tell you. It was using her. Trying to make her kill me. And when she wouldn’t, it tried to do it itself.” ” I stammered. “She’s dead because of me.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Will said quietly.
“Okay? None of this is. And it doesn’t change anything.
Not to me. I’m still here. Aran’s still here.
.. for some reason.” He gave a small, tired smile.
“And I’m sorry. For everything you’ve been through.
For feeling like you couldn’t tell us, and having to carry all of this alone.
” His voice dipped lower. “But I’m glad you told me. ”
I blinked hard, forcing back the sting behind my eyes. “Do you think I can tell Aran?”
Will tilted his head toward the doorway. “Pretty sure he already heard the whole thing.”
I turned. Aran was leaning against the frame, arms crossed, like he’d been standing there for a while.
“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” he said. “But, you know. I’ve got ears.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Seriously?”
He shrugged, completely unbothered. “Look, I’m not gonna lie. You’re a freak. And your powers? Scare the hel out of me sometimes.”
My chest tightened.
“But you’re also my friend,” he added, before I could react. “Even if I’m not yours. And you’ve had my back more times than I deserve. So I’ve got yours.”
Then he smirked. “Besides, I’d rather be on your side than the side that gets roasted.”
I stared at him. “So you’re only sticking around so I don’t roast you?”
“Exactly.”
Will shot him a look, but Aran just grinned, unapologetic.
“Kera,” Will said, “if we were afraid of you... don’t you think we would’ve left already?”
Aran snorted. “Just promise not to use me for target practice, and we’re good.”
I let out a soft laugh, too tired to fight it. “I wouldn’t.”
”You’re laughing,” he said, raising an eyebrow. ”So that tells me you would.”