Chapter Five: The Blades in the Trees
The trees exploded into chaos.
Steel hissed through the air. Shadows moved with inhuman speed. The cloaked attackers poured into the clearing like a wave of silent death, their glowing white eyes empty of emotion, their blades gleaming with something darker than metal — something cursed.
Aria stumbled back, heart thundering in her ears.
Kael was already in motion.
With a roar, he leapt past her and collided with the first attacker, slamming them into a tree so hard the bark cracked. Another came from the side, blade raised — but Kael twisted, caught the attacker's wrist midair, and drove his knee into the figure's chest with a sickening crunch.
"Stay down!" he barked over his shoulder.
Aria dropped to one knee just as a dagger flew past where her head had been a second earlier.
Riven moved next — fast and precise, his fighting style a stark contrast to Kael's raw power. He danced between enemies with fluid grace, his twin daggers gleaming as he sliced one attacker's throat and pivoted to drive a blade into another's chest.
Blood sprayed the trees.
"They're Shadowsworn!" Kael yelled. "Trained assassins — Council elite!"
Aria barely registered the words. She was still staring at the cloaked bodies, at the way they bled smoke instead of blood — dark tendrils of magic curling into the air from their wounds.
One of them spotted her.
He charged.
Aria tried to scramble back, but her foot caught on a root. She went down hard, air knocked from her lungs.
The assassin raised his blade.
"ARIA!" Kael roared.
But the blow never landed.
Because in that instant — something inside her snapped.
A flash of light erupted from her mark.
The blade froze mid-air.
The Shadowsworn soldier convulsed — eyes wide with terror — before a surge of silver-blue energy blasted from Aria's chest and threw him across the clearing like a rag doll.
Silence followed.
Even Kael and Riven stopped fighting.
Aria sat up slowly, breath ragged.
Her entire body was glowing.
The mark on her wrist burned like starlight, and veins of silver-blue light ran up her arm like lightning beneath her skin.
"What… was that?" she whispered.
Kael stepped toward her, awe and terror on his face.
"You're awakening."
---
They didn't wait.
Once the last of the Shadowsworn lay dead or fled, Kael scooped Aria into his arms — despite her protests — and ran.
Riven followed silently, his presence just behind them like a shadow clinging to her heels.
They didn't stop until they reached the edge of a cliff — a high ridge overlooking the silver lake Aria remembered from her vision. The wind was stronger up here, but the air was cleaner. Safer.
Kael finally set her down.
She pulled away, pacing. Her skin still tingled from whatever had just happened.
"I nearly killed that man," she said.
"He was trying to kill you," Kael reminded her.
"But I didn't mean to do anything. It just… happened."
"That's how it starts," Riven said.
She turned toward him.
"You were always strongest under pressure," he said softly. "You don't summon your magic. It summons you."
Kael rolled his eyes. "Enough riddles."
"I'm telling the truth."
"You're manipulating her."
Aria held up a hand. "Enough. Both of you."
They both went silent.
She looked at them — two men who clearly hated each other, both tied to her by threads of a past she didn't remember. Both willing to kill for her. Or lie to her.
"Who were the Shadowsworn?" she asked finally.
Kael answered. "Assassins bred by the High Council to track and eliminate threats to the realms."
"Me," she whispered.
"They thought your bloodline was gone," he said. "When you died, the Rebirth was erased from the scrolls. They believed the prophecy was broken."
"What prophecy?"
Neither of them answered right away.
Then Riven spoke.
"The prophecy said a Crescent Queen would rise to destroy the corrupted bloodlines and break the boundary between worlds. That she would shatter the balance — and make a choice that rewrites destiny."
Aria's pulse raced.
"What kind of choice?"
Kael answered darkly. "The kind that could kill a kingdom."
---
They returned to the cabin that night. Aria had insisted.
She didn't know why — maybe she needed a sense of normal. Maybe she needed to stand somewhere familiar after everything that had happened. But as soon as they stepped inside, the silence felt wrong.
Too quiet.
Kael's body tensed. "Something's off."
Riven was already scanning the shadows.
Aria walked slowly toward the pantry door — the same place she'd hidden with Kael just two nights before. It was open. The floor stained with dried blood.
But there was something else.
On the wall, carved deeply into the wood, were words that hadn't been there before.
"Return to the throne… or the town burns."
Aria felt ice crawl down her spine.
Kael cursed. "They're not just after you anymore."
"They've threatened everyone," Riven muttered. "Typical Council move. Use fear to break the Queen."
"Then we leave," Aria said. "We run. We warn them."
"No," Kael said firmly. "We fight. We awaken the rest of your power. And we take the fight to them."
Aria turned toward him, eyes flashing.
"You want me to fight with magic I can't control, against people I don't remember, for a kingdom I've never seen?"
Kael didn't flinch. "Yes."
"Because you think I'm the same girl I used to be?"
"No." He stepped closer. "Because I think you're stronger."
---
That night, Aria sat alone in her room — what used to be the attic. A small space with a low bed, her bookshelves, and a cracked window that framed the moon perfectly.
Only this time, the moon wasn't red.
It was silver.
Clear.
Watching.
She opened her palm and stared at the mark on her wrist.
It didn't hurt anymore.
Instead, it pulsed with a calm rhythm — like it was… settling. Accepting. Syncing with her heartbeat.
A knock on the door startled her.
Kael stepped in, silent as ever.
"I came to check on you."
"I'm still here."
He hesitated.
"I meant what I said," he said quietly. "You're stronger than her. Than who you used to be. You have her soul… but your mind. That's what makes you dangerous."
Aria looked at him. "Dangerous to who?"
"To everyone who wants to control you."
---
Later, just before sleep took her, she dreamed.
She stood in the middle of the silver lake, barefoot, moonlight shimmering all around her. Her reflection rippled — not with her current face, but one older. Fiercer. Regal.
The Crescent Queen.
Her reflection reached out a hand from the water.
Aria took it.
And the world turned white.