Chapter 14
The Storm Breaks
Thunder rolled closer, low, and steady, like a heartbeat, trying to remind the world it was still alive.
She blinked back into the present. The flashbacks never warned her—they just came, drug her under, leaving her gasping like she had drowned in someone else’s blood.
Rain finally started to fall, heavy and cold. It soaked through her hoodie, through the gauze, until she could taste the metallic tang of it on her tongue.
The dragon shifted beneath her skin, restless again. Not angry this time—alert.
Something changed.
The air felt wrong, heavy in a way she recognized. It was the kind of pressure that used to hang over us before Shadow made a move. That perfect stillness before violence.
She stood, every nerve awakened, scanning the tree line below the ridge. Nothing but black and rain. Still… the dragon didn’t lie.
A flicker of headlights flashed far down the road. Just one. It was too slow to be a random traveler, and too deliberate to be chance.
“Not yet,” she whispered to the night. “You don’t get to find me first.”
The wind snatched the words, hurled them into the dark. Somewhere below, the engine cut out.
And for a breath, there was silence again.
Then the dragon spoke, low and cold:
“He remembers the fire too.”
Lightning cracked across the sky, splitting the clouds wide open. For just a second, she saw the road below—wet asphalt, an empty bike parked at the curve, and a figure stood beside it.
She couldn’t make out his face.
She didn’t need to.
Shadow found her.
The dragon purred like a blade being drawn.
And she smiled, slow and bitter.
“Good,” She whispered. “Let him come.”
Rain poured harder, washing the blood from her fingers. The storm wasn’t mercy—it was a witness.
And tonight, it belonged to her.