The school felt wrong.
It wasn't just the quiet, or the way the wind scratched against the windows. It was in the air — heavy, like something waiting to breathe through someone else's lungs.
Kaelith noticed it first.
He stood near his locker, scanning the hall. Students walked like normal. Laughed like normal. But the shadows they cast… moved a little slower. And one of them didn't move at all.
Zander.
He leaned against the wall at the end of the corridor, smirking — too still, too patient.
Kaelith narrowed his eyes.
Then Zander smiled.
And the lights above flickered.
---
In the Cafeteria
Kiara sat at their usual table, arms crossed, head in her books.
She hadn't seen Kaelith yet, and her thoughts were loud. Too loud.
Flame-borne. Marked. Key. Destroyer.
She shook her head, whispering, "Get out of my head."
But the voice only laughed.
"He burns for you. And something else wants the flame."
The moment she stood to leave, the room dropped five degrees. A cold that didn't belong in daylight.
Zander stepped through the doors.
But it wasn't Zander anymore.
His eyes glowed like melting gold. His veins pulsed black. And behind him… the walls bent, as though the air itself bowed in fear.
He walked in silence. No threats. No noise.
Just a single sentence:
"She belongs to the fire. Give her to me."
---
The Attack
Screams followed instantly. Students scattered. Tables overturned.
But Zander didn't flinch.
He raised a single hand — and the floor cracked.
The shadows beneath Kiara's feet clawed upward, hands of smoke and ash grabbing at her ankles, yanking her down.
Kaelith burst through the side doors.
"ZANDER!"
The possessed boy turned slowly, that same eerie grin on his face. "You're too late, Halfborn."
He raised his arm — and Kaelith flew backward, slammed into the wall with a crash that cracked the tiles.
Kiara screamed. The hands dragged higher. Her legs were vanishing into black.
"No…" she gasped, "No… not like this…"
And then—
Her blood lit up.
Not with Kaelith's rage. But something older.
A light from within.
Her scream became a roar, and fire exploded outward — pure white, tinged with gold, hot enough to turn shadow to smoke and ash to wind.
Zander shrieked — not just him, but the thing inside him — as his body staggered, burning at the edges like paper caught in sunlight.
Kaelith forced himself to his feet.
He saw Kiara glowing — hair lifting, eyes gold, her flame not wild like his, but controlled. Focused. Divine.
She was the balance to his chaos.
He stepped beside her.
"You found it," he whispered.
She nodded, not taking her eyes off Zander. "I didn't want to. But it wanted me first."
---
The Burned Boy
Zander collapsed to his knees.
His face flickered — like something inside was trying to stay.
But it couldn't.
He looked up, gasping. For just a second… he was human again.
"I didn't ask for this," he whispered.
And then, he vanished — consumed by a single spark from Kiara's palm.
Gone. Ash on the floor.
---
Later That Night
In a room not touched by fire or light, something stirred.
A voice — deep, bitter — crackled like burning bones.
"So… the girl has awakened."
Another voice answered. Female. Cold. Ageless.
"She's more dangerous than he is."
"Then we bring her over," the deeper voice growled.
"And if she refuses?"
The shadows smiled.
"Then we burn the boy."