Chapter One: The Forgotten Pact
Rating: PG13 – Supernatural lore, ancestral mystery, and teenage innocence.
Long before they were called monsters… they were angels.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7tygJuQm0O
Not the kind that wept over clouds or plucked harps in holy halls—but beings of impossible beauty, born from light, forged in obedience. They stood at the edge of Heaven’s mercy.
Until they fell.
The world calls them Nephilim—the Fallen.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuOsCevBvhy
They were not supposed to love. But they did.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI67VrI9Ph9
Not supposed to touch. But they did.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsEkofZAinL
Not supposed to stay. But they refused to leave.
When they descended and walked among humans, their love birthed bloodlines with power—children of heaven and earth, made to be vessels, messengers, soldiers. The Church hunted them. Kingdoms feared them. But there were three women—seers, sworn to protect the balance. They made a pact: to bind the Nephilim beneath the earth… sealed with their own blood.
Generations passed. The pact was forgotten.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmsyXbDeacE
But the bloodlines remained.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJURH2D78YR
Carried in silence.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL78c4AKJO6
Waiting.
Present Day9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡla7tIcxtfw
St. Mercia’s High School, 3:57 PM
Naomi Mendoza was still fuming from math class.
“It’s not rocket science,” she muttered, slamming her locker. “I said the answer was twenty-three.”
Beside her, Nica, her younger sister by ten months, was humming as she doodled hearts in her notebook. “No one cares about integers when your crush just said ‘see you tomorrow’ with a half-smile.”
Naomi rolled her eyes. “You mean Angelo?”
“He has lashes that could cut glass.”
“Please,” Naomi sighed. “You’ve never even talked to him.”
“Maybe I don’t need to,” Nica said, tapping her temple. “Vibes don’t lie.”
Naomi snorted. “That’s not a power, that’s delusion.”
From behind the locker rows came a squeaky yell.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdX7WsmqfOm
“GUYS! I FOUND A DEAD CAT!”
Nikki, the youngest of the Mendoza sisters, popped out like a tornado—face pale, hair half up, eyes too wide. “Under the stairs. Its eyes were open but, like… not seeing.”
Nica gagged. Naomi winced. “Thanks for that visual.”
“I had a weird dream last night,” Nikki mumbled, grabbing her phone. “There were crows. A storm. And a whisper saying they’re coming.”
Naomi raised an eyebrow. “Okay, Edgar Allan Poe.”
“I’m serious.”
“We’re high school girls, Nik,” Nica said. “We have classes, quizzes, feelings. Not cryptic spirit messages.”
Nikki looked down. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right.”
But that night, Naomi would dream of wings made of ash.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILOv5LCwse
Nica would wake with someone else’s thoughts echoing in her skull.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjh0a0Hsky
And Nikki would see the school burning—in perfect silence—long before the sirens came.
None of them knew it yet.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkcSk0lphR
But something ancient was stirring.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUXnriQkfWV
And blood… always remembers.
9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4m2bTT71R1
Chapter Two: Cracks in the Ordinary
It started small.
The lights in the hallway flickered every time Naomi lost her temper.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9Qm9n4e4C
The television changed channels when Nica was deep in thought.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xr13gikCp
And Nikki… Nikki had begun talking in her sleep—in languages no one understood.
Their parents noticed. Of course they did.
At dinner, their mom would watch Naomi too long, her eyes flickering with fear she tried to hide behind a smile. Their dad started unplugging electronics before bedtime, claiming the surge protector was faulty. They spoke in hushed voices behind locked doors. Phone calls. Pages of old books being turned in secret.
The girls pretended not to notice.
But one night, Nica heard it—not with her ears, but her mind.
“It’s happening again. It’s starting.”
Tuesday Evening9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNpHM0k9U5
7:41 PM | Mendoza Household
“Why are we acting like this is normal?” Naomi asked, staring into the bathroom mirror. She’d just watched her toothbrush levitate and shatter against the wall.
“It’s not normal,” Nikki said quietly. “But it’s real.”
Nica didn’t answer. She was focused—eyes unfocused—listening to something distant, tuning out the world to catch a whisper that didn’t belong.
Downstairs, their mom dropped a plate. Their dad yelled—not in anger, but fear.
Then the ground trembled.
It wasn't an earthquake.
The tiles cracked like dry bone. The hallway lights exploded, plunging the house into a dim, reddish glow from the kitchen nightlight. Naomi instinctively reached out—and the cabinet doors slammed shut on their own.
Nikki clutched her chest. “They’re coming.”
“Who?” Naomi demanded.
Before anyone could answer, the living room wall split open.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡts2XIgdrVs
Not like a crack, but like a wound—tearing wide into something dark and deep and breathing.
From it came creatures—skeletal things, eyes glowing faintly, shadows clinging to them like second skin. Their forms shifted like smoke.
Nica screamed. Naomi raised a hand—furniture flew, knocking one monster off its clawed feet.
“RUN!” their dad shouted. He stood between the girls and the breach, shielding them with nothing but his body.
“Take the girls!” their mom cried.
But the creatures didn’t come for the girls.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZx9SjvtwdB
They came for the parents.
Naomi reached for her dad—but he was ripped backward into the darkness. Their mother fought to stay—gripping the doorframe, screaming—but another claw latched to her ankle.
With a final, horrified glance toward her daughters—
She was gone.
The wall sealed shut.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFWiKtSLCyj
The air stilled.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3au3MJ3Wx8
Only silence remained.
The sisters stood frozen.
Naomi’s hands trembled, blood trailing down her temple from flying debris.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpaQ5CdsnSA
Nica was whispering, over and over—“They knew. They knew.”9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqggG5m5b3
Nikki… was crying. But not for their parents. For what she already saw coming.
“They took them because of us,” Nikki whispered. “We triggered it.”
“What the hell is going on?” Naomi said.
“We’re not normal,” Nica answered finally. “We never were.”
And that night, in the ruins of their living room, with blood on their shirts and fear in their bones—
They finally realized:9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNe0hqKAZe
This wasn’t starting.
It had already begun.
Chapter Three: The Uncle Who Shouldn’t Exist
The morning after the world shattered was… quiet.
Too quiet.
There were no sirens.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQmCAp4GSp6
No neighbors gathered outside.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGBFSshFIiD
No police tape.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ii0Bsa5XN
Just birdsong—and the sound of hammering from downstairs.
Hammering?
Naomi rushed down the stairs, ignoring the dried blood on her wrist. Her chest tightened at the memory of claws, screams, and vanishing light.
The living room was spotless.
No cracks. No broken furniture. No scorch marks. No hole in the wall where monsters came through. The floor was newly waxed. The curtains were drawn. There was even a faint scent of cinnamon in the air.
Standing in the center of it all, sleeves rolled up and hair slightly singed—was Uncle Ron.
“You’re up,” he said without looking at her. A screwdriver floated mid-air, twisting itself with lazy precision.
Naomi blinked. “You’re… fixing our house?”
“No,” he said casually. “I already fixed it. Now I’m improving it.”
Nica and Nikki emerged behind her, both frozen.
“You were in Japan,” Nikki whispered. “You haven’t visited since… Christmas.”
Ron turned, finally looking at them—eyes sharp, kind, and knowing. “Plans changed.”
With a snap, the tools dropped to the floor and slid neatly into a nearby toolbox—on their own.
“I saw them take Mom and Dad,” Naomi said hoarsely.
“I know,” Uncle Ron replied. “That’s why I came.”
His words were calm, but his jaw clenched.
Nica stepped forward. “What are you?”
Ron looked at her like she already knew. “I’m your father’s brother. And I’ve been waiting for this moment your whole lives.”
The girls exchanged a look.
“You have powers,” Nikki whispered.
“Two,” Ron nodded. “Teleportation. And a bit of… mental persuasion. You know, nudging minds. Moving things without lifting a finger. Useful stuff.”
“You knew this would happen,” Naomi said, voice rising.
“I hoped it wouldn’t,” he corrected. “But I’ve been watching. And once the seal broke—there was no going back.”
The doorbell rang.
Uncle Ron didn’t flinch. “Stay here.”
He vanished—blinked out of existence—with a shimmer of blue light.
They gasped.
Seconds later, the front door opened and two police officers stepped in, looking calm. Too calm.
“Yes, just a misunderstanding,” Ron said smoothly. “Some wind damage. A few toppled shelves.”
The girls peeked from the hallway as one of the officers scratched his head. “Odd. Thought dispatch said something about a break-in?”
Ron placed a gentle hand on the man’s shoulder. “Just static on the line.”
The officer’s eyes glazed, then softened. “Static. Right. Well, uh, have a good day, sir.”
They left without taking a single note.
Ron returned with a grin. “Mind-fluence. Old school trick. Works better when people are already unsure of what they saw.”
Back inside, silence reigned.
“I can’t do this,” Naomi muttered. “This isn’t normal. This isn’t our life.”
“But it’s always been our blood,” Ron said gently. “Your mother and father tried to shield you from it. Hide the truth. But now… the bloodline is calling. And you three—”
He looked at them, one by one.
“—are the last ones left.”
Chapter Four: Sparks and Shadows
Naomi never thought she’d be forced to levitate kitchen chairs before breakfast.
“Again,” Uncle Ron barked, pacing like a coach with a clipboard made of sarcasm.
Naomi groaned, wiping sweat from her brow. “It’s been an hour.”
“That chair’s still on the floor, isn’t it?”
With a grunt, Naomi reached out. Her fingers trembled, her brow furrowed—and the chair rattled. Floated. Then dropped like a sack of bricks.
From across the living room, Nica was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, trying to silence the noise in her head.
“Don’t focus on what you hear,” Uncle Ron advised. “Focus on where it’s coming from.”
“Too many voices,” Nica whispered. “It’s like a hallway full of whispers.”
“Good. That means you’re opening up. Try to pick one.”
Nica’s lips moved silently, mouthing someone else's thought. Then she gasped—her eyes wide. “Ms. Salazar is cheating on her husband with the chemistry teacher!”
“Gross,” Naomi muttered.
“Focus!” Ron snapped.
In the corner, Nikki wasn’t training.
She was staring out the window. Still.
“Something wrong?” Ron asked her gently, joining her side.
She blinked. “There’s someone outside.”
Ron’s expression changed instantly.
“Who?”
“I don’t know,” Nikki said. “I just… see them. Or feel them. Like I’m being watched—but from far. Like behind a glass wall. A place I can’t reach.”
Naomi exchanged a glance with Nica.
“This is new,” Nikki murmured. “It started after they took Mom and Dad. I’ve been dreaming of eyes. Big ones. Empty. Watching us like we’re… a game.”
Ron knelt in front of her. “You’re seeing into the in-between. That’s rare.”
“In-between?” Nikki echoed.
“Where the watchers wait,” he said quietly.
“Nephilim?” Naomi asked, tensing.
“No,” Ron whispered. “Worse.”
That night, Nikki didn’t sleep.
Because every time she closed her eyes, she saw a boy standing in the mist. Pale skin. Black eyes. No mouth.
And he wasn’t watching her anymore.
He was walking closer.
Chapter Five: The Blood That Calls
“Why us?” Naomi asked.
Her voice trembled—not from fear, but fury. “Why do they all want us?”
Uncle Ron didn’t answer at first.
He walked slowly to the window, looked out at the dark horizon, then locked the curtains shut with a flick of his wrist. The glass shimmered faintly, then went black.
“Because you’re not just seers,” he said. “You’re Keys.”
Nikki flinched. “Keys to what?”
Ron turned.
“To an ancient war that was never finished.”
He brought out a book—thick, leather-bound, older than their house.
Nica stared as he flipped through pages of strange symbols and violent illustrations.
“There are stories,” Ron began, “that after the Fall, the Nephilim’s bloodline spread. Some chose to stay hidden. Some intermarried with witches, or shamans. Some bled into creatures we now call monsters. Vampires. Wolves. Seers. Shifters.”
He paused.
“And then… there were three.”
He pointed to an illustration of three glowing figures—one with eyes of fire, one levitating a mountain, one holding a mirror reflecting time itself.
“A prophecy,” he said. “Of three sisters. One mind. One force. One vision. Born of the blood that binds them all.”
Naomi looked pale. “Are you saying we’re... descended from everything?”
“No,” Ron said grimly. “I’m saying you carry enough of everything… to become something else entirely.”
That night, the air turned strange again.
The moon glowed red.
And three signs came.
—
To Naomi:9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKjarDHRsxx
A bat outside her window. But when she looked closer—it had no shadow.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyxuWozWOt
A red sigil burned into the glass.
The vampires had marked her.
To Nica:9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdOefoMRGtQ
A dream. A woman cloaked in silver, whispering in a foreign tongue—“The Circle of Ash sees you, sister of the mind.”
Witches.
To Nikki:9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrnqVtJv9TQ
A howl in the woods.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlTIKm79Ilf
A wolf… with two different colored eyes. Watching. Waiting.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡattxWbaOQe
Then disappearing like smoke.
The werewolves were coming.
They gathered in the living room, shaken.
Ron looked at each of them.
“You’ve been marked.”
“We didn’t ask for this,” Naomi spat.
“No one ever does,” Ron said. “But the factions don’t care. They’ll offer power, loyalty, even love. But they all want the same thing.”
“Our powers,” Nica whispered.
“No,” he said. “Your future.”
Outside, in the forest’s deepest dark, another creature stirred.
An ogre—massive, cloaked in rotting leaves and dark magic—growled.
“The sisters live,” it rumbled. “And soon, they’ll have to choose.”
9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2MOPGaIWYC
Chapter Six: Crimson Visitor
It happened at dusk.
The wards Uncle Ron placed around the house had never been breached—until now.
The front gate creaked. Not loudly. Not like it had been forced. But opened, politely, like a gentleman arriving for tea.
Naomi felt it first.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGjsuGVlSbm
A pressure in her chest. A pull in her blood.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcbegZH8ve
She rushed to the porch.
He stood at the edge of the property. Pale skin, dark eyes, hair like shadows falling across his brow. A crimson coat. A smirk too confident for someone who hadn’t been invited.
And yet—he didn’t cross.
Not yet.
“Naomi Mendoza,” he said. “It’s nice to finally meet the fire.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”
“I represent the Crimson House,” he said, hand over heart like he was making an oath. “We seek alliances. Power. Preservation. Your bloodline is… valuable.”
Behind her, Nikki whispered, “He’s a vampire.”
No one needed confirmation.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpm4zO5queQ
He looked it.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBBJjdPEyF
He radiated it.
“My name is Lucien,” he continued. “And I won’t lie—I came with a purpose. We all did. The factions know what you are.”
“Which is?” Naomi asked coldly.
“Hope. Or destruction. Depends who gets to you first.”
He smiled, and Naomi hated that it made her stomach turn.
“I’d love to offer a deal,” Lucien added. “Protection, training, sanctuary—”
“Bribery,” Nica cut in.
Lucien didn’t flinch. “Call it what you want. But our world isn’t kind to unclaimed power. Others will come. Less charming. Less... gentle.”
“And what makes you different?” Naomi asked.
Lucien tilted his head. “Because unlike them, I’ve already started dreaming about you.”
That night, Naomi couldn’t sleep.
Her blood still burned from the way he looked at her—not like prey. Not like property.
But like a riddle only he wanted to solve.
She tried to dismiss it as part of his trick. A vampire’s manipulation.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMYVrQX2iL9
And yet...
She dreamed.
Of a ballroom lit in red. Of Lucien bowing.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG8MyQJI68s
Of dancing, laughing, and a kiss that tasted like danger and night.
When she woke up—
There was a rose on her windowsill.
No roots. No dew.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7eQUSuRT4w
Just petals black at the edges, and a note tucked in the stem.
“They told me not to care.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzxWY0z8dHM
Too late.”INTERLUDE – LUCIFER IN CRIMSON
Lucien’s POV
She was fire.
Even from across the barrier, Naomi Mendoza burned brighter than any sun he’d ever tasted. He’d seen royalty fall, seen witches bleed, seen blood run like rivers through centuries of war… but he’d never seen her.
Until now.
And she wasn’t even trying.
She stood there—barefoot, defiant, a thread of power coiled around her wrists like it hadn’t woken up yet. But he felt it. It wasn't just the bloodline. It was something else.
Something dangerous.
Lucien had come to offer a contract. A charm. A bribe, if needed. The Crimson House wanted her power leashed—or owned.
But when she spoke?
He forgot the lines he rehearsed.
He forgot why he came.
All he could think about was how her voice curled around his name like she'd always known it. Like they weren’t enemies. Like fate had left a bookmark on this page of his life just for her.
When he left that rose, he knew it was against protocol.
He didn’t care.
He was already losing.
CHAPTER SEVEN: CIRCLE OF ASH
Nica woke up with wax on her palms.
Candles.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0MZjGll17F
Melted.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXynjKeuCBE
But she hadn’t lit any.She sat up, breath sharp in her throat. There were symbols all over her floor, drawn in ash. Circles. Runes. Binding marks. Burned into the wood like old scars.
“Ron!” she screamed.
He came in seconds.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBTiGPsmEQl
Looked once at the floor—and froze.“No,” he said, backing up. “They’ve marked our ground.”
“Who?”
“The witches,” he said tightly. “Circle of Ash.”
That morning, the sky turned copper.
All their mirrors shattered.
Every drop of water in the house turned to salt.
The sisters stood trembling as ravens perched along the fence—watching, cawing in eerie unison. A gust of wind blew through, and suddenly every book in their living room opened to the exact same page:
“We see you, Mindwitch.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAw0OH4ut4Q
Come willingly.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL3uqAsek7w
Or burn with the rest.”Nica gripped her temples as voices crowded her head.
“Too loud,” she gasped. “They’re already inside—Ron, I can’t block them!”
Ron drew a sigil in the air, hands glowing faint blue. “You’re not blocking them. You’re connected to them. That’s how they’re pulling this off. You’re blood. They think you belong to their coven.”
Naomi grabbed her sister’s arm. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Ron’s face hardened. “The witches don’t ask permission, Naomi. They cast spells. They tear through realms. If they want Nica bad enough…”
He looked toward the sky, as clouds swirled unnaturally above their house.
“…they’ll come themselves.”
Chapter Eight: The Broken Pact
Amber didn’t walk.
She glided.
Hair like candlelight. Eyes like gold coins melted into honey. Her voice didn’t echo—it lingered, sweet and venomous.
“I am not a witch,” she said as she stepped over the salt barrier Ron drew hours ago. “I am what witches fear they’ll become if they lose control.”
“An Enchantress,” Ron whispered, backing the girls behind him. “From the Circle of Ash.”
Amber smiled, baring teeth too perfect to be human.
“Such a pretty word, isn’t it?” she purred. “Much nicer than weapon.”
With a flick of her wrist, the entire garden wilted. The air grew thick. Heavy. Naomi gasped as her lungs tightened. Nikki fell to her knees, vision flashing. Nica clutched her temples again.
But Ron moved.
He drew a sigil mid-air, shouting something in the Old Tongue—an explosion of light sparked between them, slamming Amber back a step.
Only… it wasn’t enough.
Amber hissed. “Did you just touch me with that crude little spell?”
She raised a single finger.
And Ron screamed.
His body lifted, convulsing, before crashing into the ground. The sigil on his chest burned through his shirt. Blood gushed from his nose.
“RON!” Naomi ran toward him, but Amber’s voice pinned her mid-step.
“One more move and your uncle dies faster.”
Amber turned to Nica.
“You. We know who you are. The Circle of Ash has waited centuries for your bloodline to return. You are the Mindwitch of Three. Our legacy. Our crown.”
Nica stared at her—fists clenched.
“Come with me willingly,” Amber coaxed. “And we’ll spare your family. Even the foolish one bleeding at your feet.”
Nica’s lips parted.
“I’ll come.”
Amber smiled.
Ron coughed, trying to lift himself up. “Don’t—Nica, she’s bluffing. They won’t spare anyone. You can’t trust her.”
Nica turned slightly toward him. Her voice was cold. Convincing.
“I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it to save my family.”
Amber extended her hand.
Nica stepped forward.
And then—
She spit in Amber’s face.
The wind howled.
Amber flinched—only slightly—but her composure shattered.
“You… dare?” she whispered.
“I’d rather burn with my sisters than be ruled by liars,” Nica spat. “You don’t own me.”
A silence followed.
Then Amber’s smile returned.
“Very well. You’ve broken the First Covenant.”
A tremor shook the ground. Ron’s eyes widened in horror.
“No,” he gasped. “Nica—you don’t understand. That covenant… it protected your parents.”
Amber turned, eyes glowing.
“Now it protects nothing.”
And with a snap of her fingers—
She vanished in smoke and fire.
They ran to Ron, trying to stabilize him.
Naomi shouted. Nikki cried.
But Nica stood frozen.
“I didn’t know…” she whispered. “I thought I was bluffing.”
Ron coughed. “It’s not your fault.”
But his voice cracked.
“Now we have to find them. Before the witches do.”
Chapter Nine: The Vision She Buried
They reached the ruins by midnight.
A dome of cracked stone and bramble cloaked in protective magic. The scent of old blood and burned herbs lingered in the air. Ron stood behind them, weakened but alert, tracing sigils into the dirt with his last strength.
“Your parents are inside,” he whispered. “But the witches… they’ve prepared for this.”
“Then we burn it down,” Naomi snapped.
“No,” Nica said. “We sneak in. We can’t out-spell them, but we can outsmart them.”
Nikki trembled.
She wasn’t fully with them.
Not since the vision.
In her dreams, she saw it.
One of them will die.
She didn’t see the face. Just blood. Screaming. A hand reaching out.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxkVgyb6SKz
Then silence.
So she said nothing.
She couldn’t.
They entered through the northern gap—silent as shadows. But the witches knew. The witches always knew.
Amber was waiting.
With others.
And Mom and Dad? Trapped in a binding circle. Their eyes vacant. Floating. Chained to the ground by glowing roots.
Naomi charged.
Too fast.
Nica shouted, but the spell hit them before she could warn her. A pulse of energy sent Naomi crashing into the far wall.
“Naomi!” Nikki cried.
Amber laughed. “Such impulsive blood. Not worthy of the crown you carry.”
Ron tried to cast—but he was too slow, too drained.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Amber said coldly. “But if you insist on dying here—”
And then the girls snapped.
Nica blasted a psychic wave, collapsing three witches at once. Naomi grabbed debris and flung it telekinetically into the air, turning rocks into daggers. Nikki knelt beside their parents—her eyes glowing, hands trembling.
Something inside her broke open.
And that’s when she saw it again.
The prophecy.
But this time, clearer.
It was Naomi.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMej0RqY1B
Bleeding.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDyIL1DnqX
Still.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbNgbaf83Ke
Gone.
She screamed.
Her power lashed out like lightning—raw, ancient, and untrained. The entire dome shook. Amber’s enchantresses were thrown to the ground. The roots retreated from their parents.
But it wasn’t enough.
A backline of witches cast a banishment spell so strong the sisters were pulled backward, ripped from the room.
Ron shouted a retreat order.
Nikki didn’t move.
Naomi had to drag her out.
Outside the ruins, the night was still again.
But everything had changed.
“You ruined everything!” Naomi shouted.
“I was trying to help—” Nica began.
“Help? You started this war! You bluffed, and now Mom and Dad are still inside, maybe dying!”
Naomi turned to Nikki.
“And you. What were you doing? Just… shaking on the floor?”
“I—I saw something,” Nikki whispered.
“What?!”
But Nikki only looked down.
“I can’t say.”
“Why not?!”
Tears welled in Nikki’s eyes.
“Because if I tell you… one of us dies.”
The silence hit like a grave.
Nica stepped back.
Naomi’s fists unclenched.
Nikki wiped her eyes.
And for the first time since their powers awakened—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmltDtaz8b
they stopped being sisters…
…and became ticking time bombs.
Chapter Ten: The One That Time Forgot
Naomi woke up screaming.
She couldn’t remember the nightmare.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡogT7s7WhBo
Only the voice.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVKcYJzM6Q
And a name whispered in her ears, over and over like a curse:
“Seraphina.”
Her sheets were soaked in sweat. Her palms ached. Her lamp was shattered on the floor, and blood ran in thin lines from her nose.
She touched her lips.
They were burned.
Meanwhile, far from the city, inside the deepest, abandoned ruins where no sigil dared to glow—something opened its eyes.
Not human.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQYQkB2TnE
Not demon.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh9704J9mSP
Something older.
It rose from the hollow between realms.
It was blind. Yet it saw everything.
The girls had been awakened.
And that meant the war had to begin again.
The next morning, nothing felt right.
Birds didn’t chirp.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHuVrmYj1vi
Ron was nowhere to be found.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqw3xGqdxAn
Even Lucien’s usual mocking roses didn’t arrive.
Instead, the house groaned.
Nikki heard it first. A low vibration under the floors. Like the house itself was breathing.
And then the mirror cracked.
Not shattered—split cleanly down the middle.
A shadow stepped through it.
Tall. Hooded. Skin pale as ivory, marked with black veins that moved like ink. And no eyes. Just hollow sockets that stared into Naomi like it knew her soul.
“You carry a name you’ve forgotten,” it spoke.
The girls froze.
“I am the Hollowborn.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMaCK6btxIj
And you, Seraphina...9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRUy9l9EGPC
You were once ours.”
Ron appeared just as the shadow reached for her.
He didn’t teleport.
He crashed through the window, holding a blade made of something not from this world.
“GET AWAY FROM HER!”
The Hollowborn tilted its head. “Ronald. Still alive. Unfortunate.”
The blade touched the entity’s robe—and turned to ash.
“Your toys won’t work anymore.”
It vanished without a trace.
But not before leaving one last message:
“Three of one blood.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzIhwtZd5kZ
One must fall.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ60fYv8VXEr
Two must choose.”
Later that night, Naomi stood at the mirror.
Staring at the word now carved into the glass:
SERAPHINA.
And in her sleep, she remembered—
A battlefield.
Wings.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiRYOqGzd0a
Flames.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrizc12K7bC
A war she wasn’t supposed to survive.
Chapter Eleven: What the Fire Tried to Bury
Naomi hadn’t slept in two days.
Every time she closed her eyes, the same image burned behind her lids: a sky on fire, a sword in her hand, and voices screaming her name—Seraphina.
She didn’t tell her sisters.
Not yet.
She didn’t want them to know she was losing grip on what was real and what was... before.
Because how could she explain memories of a war she never fought?
Of wings—hers—that had been ripped from her back by something holy and cruel?
Meanwhile, Nikki was growing quieter.
She kept doodling circles in her notebook. Symbols. A figure—tall, faceless—always watching. And on the thirteenth page, she stopped drawing altogether.
Because that night, she saw it.
It was supposed to be just another vision.
Just another dream.
But this one? This one pulled her under like drowning. Nikki opened her eyes inside the dreamscape—and realized she wasn’t dreaming.
She was being watched.
By It.
The Hollowborn.
But no longer cloaked.
No longer distant.
It stood before her in its true form—a mass of corrupted light and rotting starlight, thousands of writhing voices speaking through it, from forgotten timelines and broken realms.
“You are not ready to see us, Mindseer.”
Her body seized.
Veins glowed. Blood boiled.
She tried to wake up—she couldn’t.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJRxYfNesj
She tried to scream—her throat collapsed.
She felt her mind split, and saw futures. All of them ending in death.
Then—something grabbed her hand.
Light. Warm. Familiar.
Naomi.
Nikki gasped awake, drenched in cold sweat. Her mouth tasted like ash. Her nose bled again. Naomi was holding her tight, whispering, “You’re here. You’re here.”
“I—I saw it,” Nikki choked. “The Hollowborn. All of it. They’re not just after us, Naomi… They want to reclaim you.”
Naomi’s breath hitched. “Why me?”
Nikki stared at her, trembling.
“Because you’re not Naomi. Not really. You’re Seraphina. And you used to fight them.”
The room fell silent.
Until Naomi whispered:
“I remember a field of fire.”
And in her mind—clearer than ever—Naomi saw her own hands holding a burning sword.
She saw her sisters at her sides.
And she saw herself fall.
Chapter Twelve: When Monsters Pray
The Blackwood Chamber hadn’t been opened in two centuries.
It was sacred ground, once soaked in the blood of ancient beasts and darker gods. No light entered it—only magic, tension, and the trembling of old bones buried deep beneath.
Tonight, the circle was full.
On one side: Amber, her enchantments humming, a storm barely contained under velvet skin.
Across from her, seated on a throne of living thorns: Lucien, the vampire prince, his eyes like two dying stars, drinking in the room like wine.
And pacing in between them, shirtless, scarred, furious—Torren, Alpha of the Hollowclaw Pack.
“I don’t know why we’re even here,” he growled. “We’ve hated each other for centuries. Don’t pretend that’s changed.”
“No one’s pretending,” Lucien said coolly. “We’re terrified.”
Amber placed a hand on the obsidian table. “This isn’t about politics. It’s about her.”
She waved her hand, and a vision shimmered in the air—Naomi, asleep, glowing faintly with celestial fire.
“She’s remembered,” Amber said. “The Seraphina Soul has awakened.”
Silence.
Even Torren stopped pacing.
“Impossible,” he whispered. “Seraphina died in the Great Fall. We watched her burn.”
Amber’s smile was thin and bitter. “Did we? Or did we convince ourselves she died so we could sleep easier?”
Lucien’s voice darkened. “If it truly is Seraphina… then the Hollowborn are already moving. We felt it, all of us. The energy shift. Magic unraveling in the west. The storms that sing her name.”
“Magic worships her,” Amber muttered. “And it will again.”
Torren slammed his fist into the table, cracking the obsidian.
“If she remembers everything, if she turns, do you know what that means?”
Amber nodded.
“It means we’re all dead.”
For a brief moment… none of them spoke.
Because in their bones, they felt it:9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqxamPUeyOP
the turning of a wheel that had not moved in ages.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8pAo3W67L
The stirring of an old war.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQhn2Uh6x5
The final reckoning.
Lucien leaned forward. “So what do we do?”
Amber’s eyes burned. “We stop the sisters before the Hollowborn claim them.”
Torren growled. “You mean kill them.”
“No,” Lucien said coldly. “We mean protect her.”
Amber blinked. “You’re siding with them?”
Lucien didn’t answer right away.
Instead, he whispered, “She’s more than a weapon. She was a shield once. A guardian of balance. If she remembers that… she might save us.”
Torren scoffed. “And if she doesn’t?”
Amber answered: “Then we die screaming.”
Chapter Thirteen: The Ones Without Names
It began with the flies.
Hundreds. Maybe thousands. Coating the windows. Buzzing like static in their ears.
Then the air shifted—thick, wrong, like breathing through soaked velvet.
Ron jolted up from meditation in the basement.
“Something’s coming,” he muttered. “No... someone.”
But he was wrong.
It wasn’t someone.
It was them.
Naomi, Nica, and Nikki were upstairs.
Nikki had just started eating again after the Hollowborn vision. Nica was scanning a new map Ron had drawn. Naomi sat quietly in the corner, staring at her reflection in the glass—noticing how her pupils sometimes shimmered like mirrors.
Then the floor cracked.
No warning. No flash of light.
Just a single sound, like a breath being sucked from the earth.
And then—they were there.
Creatures made of void and teeth, crawling through the foundation like insects through rot. Not witches. Not vampires. Not even Hollowborn.
Ron screamed from below:
“THE NAMELESS. RUN!”
But it was too late.
They moved too fast.
One lunged at Nica—she threw up a shield of raw psychic force, but it shattered like glass.
Naomi blasted the second one with a flame that came from nowhere—not her magic, but Seraphina’s rage, and it screamed as it dissolved into smoke.
Nikki tried to run. One of them grabbed her ankle.
And the moment it touched her—
She saw everything.
A world without stars.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4tBA2cz2Y5
A sky where gods were hung by chains.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn3NNzJft2F
A place where nothing ever lived again.
Her mouth opened.
A scream came out that wasn’t hers.
It shattered the windows.
It knocked the Nameless back.
And it nearly stopped her heart.
Ron appeared in a flash of blue light and grabbed all three girls.
He didn’t teleport them this time—he ripped them from the room, collapsing the entire top floor as a ward of fire exploded behind them.
The Nameless scattered, crawling back through cracks in the world.
But their message remained.
Etched into the blackened wall, in claw marks:
“She remembers.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo8hZnI3ucd
We come next.”
Hours later, in the underground safehouse Ron conjured, the girls sat in silence.
Nikki was pale. Still trembling.
Naomi held her hand, refusing to let go.
“I don’t know what I saw,” Nikki whispered.
“Yes, you do,” Nica said softly.
They all did.
There were more enemies now.
Not just creatures of power.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdk91rhgw4t
But monsters of nothingness.
Born from the moment Seraphina fell.
Born to consume what she left behind.
Chapter Fourteen: What the Fire Forgot
Naomi couldn’t sleep.
She’d barely said a word since the Nameless Ones fled. Her hands still shook. Her skin still glowed faintly when she breathed too fast. And her dreams were no longer hers.
They were Seraphina’s.
Visions like broken glass—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvYn581p4y8
A blade burning gold.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTdvrqBHQiJ
Wings of white turned red.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡamGzOfxfAy
A scream that cracked the sky.
Downstairs, Ron placed three stones around a bowl of ash. “It’s time,” he said, his voice low and grim. “You have to know the truth. You’ve all earned it.”
The sisters gathered. Nikki still looked pale. Nica held her hand protectively.
“What truth?” Naomi asked, though part of her already knew.
Ron tossed something into the bowl—a single feather, glowing faintly.
And the flames began to whisper.
The room filled with smoke—and memory.
They saw her.
Seraphina.
In all her glory.
She stood at the gates of Heaven, a sword in her hand, her eyes wide with horror. Around her, angels screamed—not in pain, but in fury.
“You gave mercy,” a voice thundered.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ20mZCb8UIV
“You chose them over us!”
She’d fallen in love with a mortal.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXrgg5ZLgeY
She’d spared too many souls from divine punishment.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKSSPgvz2SE
She believed redemption was for everyone.
But Heaven didn’t.
So they cast her out.
“She didn’t fall,” Ron said quietly. “She jumped. To protect the ones she loved.”
They watched her burn through the skies, crashing into the Earth like a meteor. Her light dimmed. Her power fractured.
From her soul, three sparks scattered.
One drifted to a lake under a blood moon.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3IjtzYwPlg
One wept inside a newborn’s cry.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMgK3f8MZQx
And one was buried under stone, in the body of a girl who would never know she was once fire.
Naomi opened her eyes, trembling.
“So we’re... her?”9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd9da6Ozyyw
“No,” Ron said. “You’re you. But she’s waking in you.”
Nikki looked up, her voice barely above a breath. “And the Hollowborn? What are they?”
Ron hesitated.
“They were angels too. Twisted by hate. Jealous of Seraphina’s compassion. They followed her down—not to protect her... but to punish her.”
“They want her destroyed. Again.”
Silence fell heavy in the room.
And then Naomi spoke, voice firm, heart pounding.
“Then let them come.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDwp5IIAbb0
This time… she’s not alone.”Chapter Fifteen: The Eye That Sees Back
The sky had turned a shade of copper.
The failed rescue left them bleeding—not just physically, but deep in spirit. The three sisters sat in silence beside a dwindling fire, their eyes vacant.
Nikki hadn’t spoken since her vision.
Nica avoided everyone’s gaze.
Naomi stared at her burned hands. The flames from earlier still echoed in her veins.
They thought it was over for the night.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2poLqTLy9X
But then… the wind shifted.The fire crackled backward.
And in the shadows behind the flame, a figure appeared—gliding across the ground like it wasn’t touching the earth at all.
The Oracle.
Draped in pale robes, skin carved with glowing symbols, and a voice that sounded like it echoed from within time itself.
“You have awakened forces that were never meant to stir.”
Ron immediately stood. “How did you find us?”
The Oracle did not look at him. Only the sisters.
“Because the relic stirs… and so does the world.”
Nikki’s lips trembled. “Are we… the ones from the prophecy?”
The Oracle tilted its head.
“You are the spark. But sparks do not always become fire. Some die in ash.”
It reached toward Nica first.
“You. The mind too sharp. The heart too silent. You will lie to protect, and lie again to destroy.”
Nica flinched.
To Naomi:
“You. The flame reborn. You will carry war in your blood—but you fear you are more weapon than woman.”
Naomi felt the words slice straight through her.
And finally, Nikki:
“You. The seer. The one cursed to know and still be helpless. You will see too much. One day, you will beg not to.”
Tears welled in Nikki’s eyes.
“One of you,” the Oracle said softly, “will not survive what is coming.”
Ron stepped forward. “Can we stop it?”
The Oracle didn’t answer. Instead, it raised one glowing hand—and a map burned itself into the ground.
A canyon. Obsidian cliffs. Golden runes.
“The Covenant Bone rests here. But it does not wish to be found. It will test you. It will know your hearts. And if it deems you unworthy, it will destroy you.”
The light faded.
“Go. Or don’t. But either way… the end has already begun.”
The Oracle vanished as quickly as it came.
The fire turned to ice.
And all three sisters knew:
They didn’t just need the relic.
They needed to survive what it would see in them.
Chapter Sixteen: Ashes and Aftermath
The Oracle’s last words clung to Naomi’s chest like burning chains.
“You are not ready.”
She hated it.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH58l4OvM82
She knew she wasn’t perfect, but to be told she was the weakest link—when she was trying the hardest to be strong—was a wound deeper than any flame.And now, she was angrier than ever.
They barely left the Wyrdroot when the sky cracked like glass.
An ambush.
Dark wolves—not werewolves, but darker creatures. Feral. Hulking. Covered in rotting moss and whispering tongues.
“Briarspawn,” Ron growled, appearing beside them just in time. “They serve the Bog Queen.”
Nikki screamed as one lunged. Naomi threw her hand out—flames burst, so bright they blinded.
Nica caught a second with her mind and slammed it into a tree.
“Why are they after us now?” Naomi yelled.
“They want the Covenant Bone,” Ron shouted. “They want to keep it buried.”
Naomi’s fire was endless. She burned through them.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkVgl3crtOh
One by one, they howled.Then another charged her—twice as big, snarling.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlrhylmoUSj
Nikki shouted, “Naomi, stop—!”But she didn’t.
She raised her hand and screamed.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7bZUrbsAYU
The flame became white. Blinding. Writhing. Alive.She didn’t just burn the creature.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKQddPfJ5c
She incinerated it.And everything around it.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3SX2s3bsD
The trees. The ground. Even the air.When the light faded… there was nothing left.
Just a smoking crater.
And the rest of the Briarspawn ran in fear.
Ron grabbed Naomi’s shoulders. “What did you do?!”
Naomi looked at her hands. They were shaking. Glowing.
“I—I didn’t mean to… I just wanted it gone…”
“You unleashed her,” he whispered.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYvShX99xX
“Seraphina.”Later that night, they set camp near the River of Still Echoes.
Ron was silent. Nica kept watch. Nikki hadn’t spoken since the blast.
Naomi sat away from them, knees drawn to her chest.
“I was trying to protect us,” she whispered to the dark. “But maybe I’m worse than the monsters.”
Suddenly, Nikki sat beside her.
“You’re not a monster,” she said.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmNfCVLH433
“But you are changing. We all are.”Naomi looked up, tearfully.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRJmpuSmaTV
“Do you think I’ll lose myself?”Nikki looked away.
“…I think you already are.”
Chapter Seventeen: The Eye Without Mercy
It took two days of travel and one nearly-broken map before they reached the canyon.
There, buried beneath shattered obsidian and runes that pulsed with gold, was the Sanctum of First Light—the final resting place of the Covenant Bone.
Ron paced nervously.
“This place wasn’t just hidden,” he said. “It was sealed. That means something worse than demons guards it.”
Inside the sanctum, silence pressed down like a mountain. The walls were lined with scripture none of them could read—except Nikki, who whispered the words unconsciously.
Naomi touched the markings.
Burns flared across her palm.
“This relic was never meant to be held again.”
Still, they pressed on—until they reached the chamber.
And in its center… hovered the Bone.
It glowed with pale gold light.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLd6GeP7W25
Wrapped in prayer bands.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wPXG9TjJ3
Floating midair.But before they could approach, a roar shattered the silence.
The ceiling split open.
And it fell—
A being not quite angel, not quite monster.
It had no face.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjCg8E0c4o
Just wings.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOAQ2AREecp
And one massive eye where its heart should be.It pulsed with light, locking them in place.
“THREE OF FRACTURED FLAME,” it intoned.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9U8IwbXPZ
“ONE OF YOU IS CORRUPTED. ONE OF YOU IS UNSTABLE. ONE OF YOU IS BLIND.”The girls couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
“ONLY ONE MAY TAKE THE RELIC.”
Ron tried to step in. “They’re not ready—”
The Watcher turned. With a single blink, Ron fell—his mind flooded with divine silence. Not unconscious… but lost.
Naomi screamed.
Nikki clutched her head. “It’s in me—it’s judging everything I’ve ever seen!”
Nica, trembling, stepped forward.
“No,” she said. “If only one of us can take it… let it be me.”
But the Watcher hissed.
“YOU LIE TO YOURSELF. YOUR MIND IS A MAZE OF MASKS.”
And then—Naomi stepped forward.
Shaking. Glowing. Terrified.
“I don’t know who I am anymore,” she said.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡakoHcHHkwj
“But I’ll never stop protecting them.”And with a roar of flame, she reached out—
And grabbed the Covenant Bone.
The Watcher screamed.
Light exploded—judgment made.
But it didn’t stop her.
Because for the first time…
Seraphina wasn’t afraid.
Chapter Eighteen: When the World Took Notice
The moment Naomi touched the Covenant Bone, the world shivered.
It echoed through every hidden realm:
The wolves howled in panic.
The witches’ moons cracked.
The vampires tasted ash in their wine.
And deep beneath the Hollowlands…
Something opened its eyes for the first time in 3,000 years.
Ron woke with a gasp.
He looked at the relic glowing in Naomi’s hands. “You shouldn’t be holding that,” he whispered. “It doesn’t just remember the First War—it wants it again.”
Naomi didn’t speak.
But the flame in her eyes had changed color.
Not red.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQA5Ihi0YP
Not orange.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxKwsurvkq2
But white.At the summit of the Blackspire Mountains, the Witches' High Council convened in emergency.
Amber was furious. “We told her not to choose war.”
An old crone hissed, “Then we must take the relic by force.”
In the vampire courts, Lucien clenched his jaw. “I warned them. The Covenant Bone is a key—and keys open doors best left locked.”
Even the Werewolf Alphas growled for blood.
“No more watching.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoAWKoLdlNh
We hunt.”Back at their hideout, Nica scanned the incoming messages through Ron’s enchanted mirror. Her telepathy flickered—too many minds, all vibrating with panic and rage.
“They’re coming,” she said. “All of them.”
Naomi didn’t flinch.
“Let them.”
That night, Nikki saw the future again.
But it wasn’t clear. It wasn’t sharp.
It was chaos.
The Bone cracked.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98gEEJtofM
Seraphina rose.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOrAf1sASmN
Naomi screaming.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiUbvTM4AmZ
Nica bleeding.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA7ZgKKxIIo
Someone falling into black water.And fire.
So much fire.
When she woke, she couldn’t breathe.
Meanwhile…
In the deepest shadow of the Hollowborn realm, the Nameless One stirred.
It whispered to itself:
“The piece is moving.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFMJ3dE9f0
The vessel awakens.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAOLCg2NPa
The world will burn again.”And it laughed.
Chapter Nineteen: The Bone and the Blood
They didn’t have a plan.
No backup.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs8B7zfG8NS
No army.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG6IjUZtDkZ
No idea what to do next.But they had the Bone.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnpsyW1viGf
And they had each other.The mansion Ron warded trembled in the wind. The air reeked of approaching death.
Nica closed the mirror with a sharp snap. “We have thirty minutes. Maybe less. Wolves. Witches. Vampires. They’re all coming.”
Naomi spun the relic in her palm. It pulsed. Like it was alive. Like it wanted them to make the first move.
Ron was pale. “They don’t want to talk. They want the Bone.”
“So?” Naomi said, stepping forward. “Let’s give them something to be afraid of.”
They ran to the woods.
It was no longer about hiding.
This was where they’d stand.
This was where they’d make everyone realize:
The girls they once ignored were now something else entirely.
They came like a wave.
The wolves howled first—ripping through the tree line.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVlDtBA5tYL
Behind them, shadow-walkers. Pale witches with glowing eyes.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5slgX9gcNW
Above, vampires in flight—fangs bared, eyes burning.Three girls.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKSk99ecicA
No backup.The odds were a joke.
Until Naomi raised her hand—and the Bone ignited like a star.
It began.
Fire met claw.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBVDiRLEA2q
Light crashed against spell.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl4Cf8W81h0
A vampire dove for Nica—and mid-air, her eyes glowed purple and his body froze mid-flight.“You don’t get to touch me.”
Naomi spun, shielding Nikki as three shadowlings closed in. The flames from her hands burned so hot they turned the mist into steam.
“Come closer,” she whispered. “I dare you.”
And Nikki?
She didn’t run.
She stood at the center—eyes white, hands out—and whispered names that hadn’t been spoken in centuries.
The earth shook.
One by one, the attackers slowed.
Confused.
Terrified.
“THEY’RE CHANNELING THE OLD ONES!” someone screamed. “THE BONE IS ACTIVE!”
And then—silence.
Because from the Bone… a voice echoed.
“They are not yours to claim.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzzE1QY3rr
They are not pawns.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI1rvTcqk7B
They are the storm you should have feared.”It ended as suddenly as it began.
The invaders fled.
Some burned.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhK0ZqcSsRY
Some broken.But all of them… scared.
Ron stared in awe.
Naomi was breathing hard, eyes glowing white-blue.
Nica cracked her neck. “They won’t stop.”
Nikki simply looked at the Bone. “Then neither will we.”
A laugh that turned mirrors dark for miles.
Chapter Twenty: Where the Threads Cross
Nikki hadn’t spoken since the battle.
While Naomi burned and Nica fought with her mind, Nikki had stood completely still—eyes glowing like twin moons.
Even when it was over, she didn’t move.
Not until now.
“I know where the Oracle is.”
Ron turned fast. “What?”
“I saw it. Not a dream… I was there.”
Her voice was deeper. Not older, just... more.
“The Bone didn’t just protect us,” she said. “It opened me. And I followed the thread.”
Nica took her hand gently. “Thread?”
Nikki’s eyes flicked to hers.
“Fate.”
She began to draw on the scorched earth using ash and light from the Bone. Circles, runes, lines that moved even after she traced them.
A map formed—shifting like breathing ink.
A cave. Surrounded by snow. Ice not found in any country they knew.
“Above the Hollowlands,” Ron whispered. “The Peaks of Ruhaen. No one goes there. Even the Fallen don’t fly over it.”
Nikki turned to them.
“That’s where the Oracle waits.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKFI68Vkz4
That’s where our next answers are.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHYwHKIC8iv
That’s where one of us… almost dies.”The silence after that was deafening.
Naomi stood slowly. “How sure are you?”
Nikki looked at her—tired but steady.
“I was there, Nay. I smelled the snow. I heard the wind sing. I heard our names written in the ice.”
Naomi blinked. “Our names were... written?”
Nikki nodded. “Like the mountain knew we were coming.”
Ron gripped the hilt of his dagger. “Then we leave by first light.”
Nica shook her head. “No. We leave now. Before someone else finds that place first.”
Because they all knew—
If the Oracle saw them before...9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPdU1g3Im6
It sees others, too.As they gathered their things, Nikki hesitated.
She looked at the Bone—then at her sisters.
“I didn’t say everything,” she whispered.
Naomi turned to her. “Then say it now.”
Nikki exhaled shakily.
“The Oracle isn’t just waiting.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoiW3Q04hql
It’s hiding.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeDaP5bfOxt
Because something is hunting it, too.”Chapter Twenty-One: Frostbite and Fireblood
The Peaks of Ruhaen were not meant for the living.
Snow came down like knives.
The air bit at their lungs. Even Naomi’s flames flickered weakly under the storm’s cruel breath. Ron cast heat wards, but they cracked fast.
Still, they pushed on.
For Nikki.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1HFoYBEDQ
For their parents.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxJw1OvoX45
For the truth.They reached the mouth of a frozen ravine.
The Bone pulsed in Nikki’s hand.
“Here,” she said, almost in a whisper. “Beneath us… buried deep. The Oracle’s chamber.”
Nica tapped her temple, frowning. “Something’s close.”
Naomi drew her weapon. “Define close.”
That’s when the wind... changed.
It stopped.
Dead still.
Too still.
Then came the scream.
Not human. Not beast.
It was hollow, like bones grinding inside a cathedral.
Something massive leapt from the cliff’s edge—black limbs, ribcage exposed, and eyes that bled dark light.
Ron cursed. “Hollowborn!”
Nikki froze.
“That’s not just any Hollowborn,” she said. “That’s Drexus. The one hunting the Oracle.”
Nica’s eyes widened. “You saw him?”
“No.” Nikki’s voice trembled. “I felt him in my bones.”
The creature landed—earth cracked beneath it.
It didn’t speak with words.
Just… hunger.
Its voice thundered through their minds:
“I smell the Threefold. I taste destiny. Give me the Seer.”
Naomi stepped in front of Nikki, hands flaring bright.
“You want her?” she said. “Come burn for her.”
And then—
Battle.
Ron went first, teleporting above the beast, driving a dagger of flame into its shoulder—but Drexus swatted him away like ash.
Nica tried to freeze its mind.
It laughed.
Naomi threw fire.
It swallowed it whole.
Nikki clutched the Bone. “Let me in,” she whispered. “Let me see.”
The Bone glowed.
And suddenly—Nikki’s eyes rolled back.
She saw not just Drexus…
But his birth.
Forged in betrayal.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqwGAPqKx1z
A Nephilim who fell too far.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBabjhQeuad
Who tore his wings and drank the blood of oracles.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzTLJyaMbqR
Who now wanted her power to become complete.She screamed.
But the vision gave her one name:
“ORIELLE.”
She gasped back into her body.
“THE ORACLE’S NAME IS Orielle!” Nikki cried.
Naomi roared, flames turning white-hot—and for the first time…
Drexus reeled.
“WE HAVE TO SPLIT HIM!” Ron shouted. “Buy time—Nikki, find the entrance!”
“But—”
“GO!”
Nikki ran, the Bone guiding her down a path only she could see.
As snow turned to ice, and the mountain itself whispered.
And just as Drexus screamed again—
A hidden archway opened beneath her feet.
Glowing with runes. Whispering her name.
She turned back once.
Her sisters fighting with everything they had.
“Please,” she whispered, “hold on.”
Then she stepped inside.
And the mountain swallowed her whole.
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Oracle of Ruhaen
The air inside the mountain was... silent.
Not just quiet—but suffocatingly still.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9Bmrbr9uI
As if time itself was holding its breath.Nikki stood inside a cavern of glowing frost. The walls shimmered like diamonds, carved with symbols older than language.
And at the center…
A woman sat.
She wasn’t old.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl76kUXxLLQ
She wasn’t young.She looked like someone who had watched the rise and fall of empires—and had mourned every one.
Her hair was silver-white, flowing like liquid snow. Her eyes, pale violet, didn’t blink—because Orielle didn’t need to blink.
She simply saw.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Orielle said, her voice like the hum of starlight.
Nikki stepped forward. “You knew I’d come.”
“I dreamed you. All three of you. But it was always your heartbeat that reached me first.”
Nikki swallowed. “Then you know why I’m here. Our parents—”
“Taken. Yes.” Orielle lowered her gaze. “But not by chance.”
Nikki’s hand tightened around the Bone.
Orielle stood. Her movements were slow, precise, like moving through another realm. “This Bone is not just relic—it’s a key. It opened what was sealed. And what was sealed… has been watching.”
Nikki trembled. “The Hollowborn?”
“Drexus is a shadow. But he’s not alone. The true Hollow One is coming. Drexus only seeks to merge with you—to become your vessel. But the Hollowborn King?”
Orielle looked up. Her eyes… were wet.
“He wants to unmake you.”
Nikki took a step back.
“You’ve seen echoes of him,” Orielle continued. “In dreams. In mirrors. In the way your powers burn your skin. That pain? It’s him. Calling to you.”
“Then tell me how to stop it.”
Orielle walked to a frozen altar. Her fingers traced the surface.
“I cannot stop fate. But I can show you the path.”
With a wave of her hand, the altar melted—revealing a blade. Forged of silver flame and etched with runes.
“This is the Ecliptic Fang. It kills not with steel, but with truth.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr08BTSr8VJ
It severs ties of power—both divine and cursed.”Nikki stared at it. “That’s what we need to stop Drexus?”
“No,” Orielle said softly. “That’s what you need to stop one of your sisters.”
Silence. Cold. Heavy.
Nikki’s breath caught. “What?”
“One of you is marked. Bound to the Hollowborn.”
“No.” Nikki shook her head. “That’s not—”
“It is,” Orielle said, gently. “And if you don’t choose... the Hollowborn King will choose for you.”
Nikki stumbled backward. “There must be another way.”
“There always is,” Orielle whispered. “But it comes with cost.”
Suddenly, the mountain trembled.
Orielle closed her eyes. “They’ve found you. Your sisters are trying to hold the breach—but Drexus is close.”
Nikki grabbed the Fang.
“I’m not letting either of them die,” she said. “Not Naomi. Not Nica.”
Orielle didn’t smile. She just nodded.
“Then prepare to do the unthinkable.”
As Nikki ran out of the chamber—Ecliptic Fang in hand—Orielle whispered one last thing to the wind:
“And so it begins...
The unraveling of Threefold.”
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Fire That Breaks
Nikki didn’t speak as she rejoined them.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oaKPRpowU
Her fingers wrapped tightly around the Ecliptic Fang, hidden beneath her cloak.Nica looked up first.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghuOPugMgK
Blood on her cheek. Smoke in her lungs.“Nikki!” she shouted, pulling her into a hug. “We thought—”
“She’s here,” Naomi interrupted.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡea2x60iUIM
Her voice had changed.Deeper.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLiNCHjupOb
Sharper.Too calm.
Nikki pulled away from Nica. “Where’s Ron?”
“Injured,” Nica said. “Amber’s spell did something to his mind. He barely knows his name.”
Naomi was quiet.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjVJT2XkEDg
Her eyes stared out over the cliff.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTbxzS3vs53
Too still.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wcZv8LR8X
Too unreadable.Then she turned.
And smiled.
It wasn’t her smile.
“The fire inside me, it doesn’t burn anymore,” Naomi said. “It feeds. It wants more.”
Nikki froze.
Nica whispered, “Naomi…”
But Naomi held up a hand.
“Don’t lie. I can hear it. The fear in your voice. Even yours, Nikki. You’re hiding something.”
Nikki stepped forward. “You’re not well.”
“I’m better than I’ve ever been.” Naomi’s eyes gleamed—red-hot, unnatural. “I’ve finally stopped holding back.”
The wind cracked.
The ground sizzled under her feet.
Naomi raised her hand—and the cliff behind them melted from heat.
“I can feel it now. The Hollowborn inside me. His purpose. His fire. His clarity.”
Nica backed away. “Naomi, this isn’t you—”
“I AM THE FLAME,” Naomi screamed, her voice no longer hers. “I will burn the lies away.”
She raised her hand.
A wave of pure fire blasted toward them.
Nikki acted on instinct—teleporting herself and Nica behind the ruins.
“We need to knock her out!” Nica shouted.
“No,” Nikki whispered, gripping the Fang. “We can’t.”
“What?”
“I saw it. The moment she breaks. The death count. The cities. The children.”
Nica paled.
“Nikki…”
The fire screamed again.
And Naomi—Naomi who once laughed with them at midnight, who held them after their worst dreams—now stood like a sun made flesh.
“One of us has to stop her,” Nikki whispered. “You can’t. Ron can’t. It has to be me.”
She stepped forward.
And whispered, more to herself than anyone—
“I’m sorry, Naomi.”
She raised the Ecliptic Fang.
Naomi turned.
Their eyes locked.
“You chose this?” Naomi whispered.
Tears spilled from Nikki’s eyes.
“No. I felt it long before I ever wanted to.”
The Fang ignited—light from truth itself.
Naomi roared and charged.
And Nikki screamed her name—just once—before she struck.
Chapter Twenty-Four: A Heartbeat Between Worlds
Nikki screamed.
The Ecliptic Fang fell from her hands, its glow fading, its truth spoken.
Naomi collapsed to the earth—smoke rising from her chest, a brilliant mark burned into her skin where the blade had kissed her. Her eyes flickered between flame and void…9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOs2INyUsNX
And then shut.“No… no no no no—”9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBdn07b5Nc
Nikki dropped beside her, trembling.She touched her sister’s face.
It was warm.
Too warm.
Burning still—without her willing it.
“Nikki, what did you do!?” Nica’s voice rang like thunder.
“I had to,” Nikki choked. “She would’ve killed us all.”
But Nica didn’t listen.
She ran to Naomi, dropped to her knees, and held both sides of her sister’s face.
“No. I’m not letting you go. Not like this. Not because of this.”
Nikki tried to speak—but Nica had already closed her eyes.
She dived inward.
Inside the mental corridor of Naomi’s mind, Nica screamed through the dark.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIpzlEMqDyn
Everything was fire.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ382lWgko7U
Everything was rage.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ0hvhgRecF
Naomi’s inner self was curled, bleeding, consumed by a shadow that stood just inches away, its claws in her spine.“GET. AWAY. FROM HER!” Nica roared.
The shadow turned. It had no face—only hunger.
“You can’t save her,” it hissed. “She chose me.”
“She never did!”
And then—Nica remembered:
Telepathy wasn’t just about hearing. It was about holding.
Holding truths.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEv51mOifuK
Holding love.Holding what remained.
She ran to Naomi’s mental self—her crumbling form—and whispered into her mind:
“You’re not this. You’re not gone. You’re mine.
We shared bunk beds. We stole candy. You held me when I cried for mom.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGDi0yG49Oo
You protected us all our lives—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWnXtu2z64T
Let me protect you, just once.”Naomi looked up.
Her eyes flickered.
Nica gripped her harder.
“Let me in.”
The shadow screamed.
But Naomi’s form began to mend.
Fire turned into light.
Ash turned into breath.
And suddenly—a pulse returned.
On the outside, Naomi gasped. Her chest rose.
“NIKKI!” Nica shouted. “She’s coming back!”
Nikki’s eyes filled with tears. “How…?”
“I anchored her,” Nica panted. “I fought for her inside.”
Naomi opened her eyes. This time—no fire.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡipe7U4WgYT
Only exhaustion.Only guilt.
“Did I… hurt anyone?” she whispered.
Nikki nodded, trembling. “You almost did. But Nica…”
Naomi turned to her younger sister.
“You saved me?”
Nica smiled weakly. “You saved me a thousand times. It’s only fair.”
The three sisters—burned, broken, bleeding—held each other.
But just as they breathed…
A quake shattered the ground.
And from the shadows behind the hills—
A voice emerged.
“So the sisters finally defied fate…”
“Let’s see how long that lasts.”
The Hollowborn King… has arrived.
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Hollow Throne
The sky split.
Black lightning tore through the heavens.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpU5LKOItdV
The mountains trembled as if bowing to something they were never meant to witness.And from the smoking crater at the hill’s crest—
He walked out.
Not Drexus.
Not an elemental.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBVOdnCVQL
Not even a creature with flesh or blood.But a figure shaped from ancient shadow, wearing a crown of bones and fire.
“Threefold,” the Hollowborn King said. His voice carried no echo—but the world seemed to recoil.
“You were supposed to be mine.”
Nikki stood first.
Naomi, barely able to hold her weight, tried to rise—but Nica held her steady.
“You’re not taking us,” Nikki said. Her voice didn’t shake.
The Hollowborn King stepped forward. “Child of light and sight. Your visions told you the truth—you saw your sister fall. And yet, you refused fate.”
“She’s still here,” Nica spat. “We made a different choice.”
The Hollowborn paused.
“Then I will make one, too.”
He raised his hand—
And Drexus appeared beside him, still bleeding from his last encounter, fire scars painting his once-human face.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnxnibs3AjX
But this time, he bowed.“I failed to take her,” Drexus said bitterly. “But I gave her enough.”
Naomi's eyes flickered with residual heat.
“You tried to twist me.”
“No,” Drexus smirked. “I freed you.”
The Hollowborn didn’t smile. He didn’t move.
“You are my blood. All three of you.”
Naomi frowned. “We’re Nephilim.”
“You’re more,” the Hollowborn replied. “You are the descendants of Seraphim and Fallen Kings. The very mix the Heavens tried to erase.”
He walked between them like smoke.
“One with fire.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsUN2UQuehp
One with sight.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHSvRsPZQXZ
One with the mind that bridges all.”He stopped before Nikki.
“And you—who holds the blade of truth. You would make a lovely Queen of Silence.”
Nikki gritted her teeth. “Over my dead body.”
“So be it.”
With a wave of his arm, the battlefield changed.
They were no longer in Ruhaen.
They were in a throne room—made of bones and obsidian.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡczMuyS3wXk
Spirits cried from the walls. Fire rained from the chandeliers.And sitting on the throne—
A future version of Naomi.
Eyes black. Hands soaked in blood.
She looked at them—and whispered:
“This is what happens… if you lose.”
Then they were back in Ruhaen.
Naomi gasped, grabbing her head.
“He showed me a possible future.”
“He’s done playing games,” Nica growled. “We need to fight.”
The Hollowborn King raised both arms—
And monsters emerged from the hills:
Ogres. Twisted vampires. Broken witches bound in shadow.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPzIPjakEa
Creatures pulled from myth and nightmares.“Come, daughters of Seraphim,” the King declared.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1c2wxTAGCx
“Let’s see if your lineage is enough to stop the end of the world.”Naomi staggered upright, fire burning gently in her palms.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh9NfPE9DNS
Nikki drew the Ecliptic Fang once more.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQrhH3yELb
Nica closed her eyes, breathing deep—and entered the minds of the enemy.“No more running,” Naomi said.
“No more hiding,” Nica whispered.
“No more fear,” Nikki finished.
The three stood side by side.
And charged.
Chapter 26: The Last Sight
The night was heavy with smoke and starlight.
Orielle, the last true Oracle, lay slumped against a broken pillar, her white robes stained crimson. Around her, time seemed to slow, the chaos of the courtyard silenced by the gravity of one final heartbeat.
Nikki knelt beside her, trembling. “No, no no no—don’t close your eyes, please.”
Orielle smiled faintly. “It’s time, child.”
“You can’t leave,” Nikki whispered. “I still need you. We still need you.”
“You don’t need my eyes anymore,” the Oracle rasped, fingers twitching in the air. “Because yours… are ready.”
A sudden light surged from Orielle’s chest—soft at first, like a candle. Then brighter. Gold, ancient, alive.
“No—don’t—” Nikki tried to stop it, but it was too late.
The light passed between them like a heartbeat.
It struck her square in the chest.
She gasped. Not from pain—but from clarity.
Visions—hundreds of them—rushed into her like a flood. Past, present, futures that haven’t yet been born. Shadows of other worlds. Echoes of every choice. Threads of fate she never saw before. Names she hadn’t spoken yet. Faces she didn’t know—but would.
Orielle’s body slumped, lifeless.
But her voice lingered, one last whisper inside Nikki’s soul.
“See clearly, and choose wisely. The Hollowborn waits… but you are not blind anymore.”
Naomi collapsed to her knees just feet away, the burst of energy from earlier now leaving her drained and hollow-eyed. “She’s dead?” she asked. “You let her die?”
Nikki didn’t answer right away. Her head was spinning. Her pupils were wide and shifting like mirrors.
“I didn’t let her die,” she said. Her voice was different now. Stronger. Echoing.
“She gave herself to me.”
Nica stumbled toward them, wounded but alive. “What did she give you?”
Nikki turned to her slowly. Her eyes now glowed with the same light Orielle once had. “Everything.”
Far above, from the highest watchtower, a scout for the Hollowborn stepped back in fear.
“They have a new Oracle,” he whispered into the dark.
The wind didn’t answer.
But something deep within the mountains began to stir.
Chapter 27: Threads of Fate
Nikki didn’t sleep after Orielle’s death.
Her body lay still, wrapped in white silk and gently set within the temple’s stone sanctum, but Nikki’s mind was far from peace. She sat cross-legged at the edge of a cliff behind the ruins, eyes blank, pupils flickering like candle flames—unfocused, yet seeing too much.
Every blink came with a whisper.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyVJE1Kg1ja
Every breath came with a vision.The stars no longer twinkled for her—they spoke.
And they told her terrible things.
“She's been like that for hours,” Naomi muttered, pacing in the background. Her hands sparked with uncontrolled flickers of psychic energy. “That thing inside her—it’s not natural. It’s not her anymore.”
“She’s still Nikki,” Nica replied calmly, arms crossed. “But now she’s something more. You felt it too, didn’t you?”
Naomi scowled. “I felt the world shift when Orielle died. I felt the Hollowborn stir. That’s all I need to know.”
“You’re scared,” Nica said gently.
Naomi didn’t answer.
She was.
Nikki flinched as another thread of fate unraveled before her eyes. She watched a possible future where Nica died in a blaze. One where Naomi lost herself to the fire inside. One where she, Nikki, turned cold—an unfeeling vessel of pure foresight, used by others until she crumbled.
But among them all, one thread pulsed violently.
A future where one sister… killed the other.
She couldn't see who. The vision cracked before it reached the end, every time.
But she felt the weight of it.
Someone has to die. One of us… maybe me. Maybe Naomi.
She stood up shakily.
And for the first time, she felt older. Like her heart now carried centuries of knowing.
“Are you okay?” Nica asked, rushing to her.
“No,” Nikki said honestly. “But I’m not broken either.”
Naomi approached, guarded. “Then what are you now?”
Nikki looked at her. Right into her soul. Her voice calm, like ancient thunder wrapped in silk.
“I’m the last Oracle. And I’ve seen what’s coming.”
The ground rumbled beneath them. The Hollowborn’s forces were on the move again.
But this time, something was different.
They weren’t just looking to capture.
They were preparing to destroy.
Because the Oracle had returned—and the prophecy was back in play.
And the sisters?9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0eJ0RspAHI
They were no longer just targets.They were keys.
Chapter 28: The Bite of Betrayal
He emerged from the fog like a secret unburied.
Lucien’s silhouette was unmistakable—tall, regal, yet carrying the kind of pain that made shadows cling to him like a second skin. Nikki was the first to sense him. Nica the first to draw her weapon. Naomi? She stood perfectly still, her eyes narrowing.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Naomi said coldly.
Lucien tilted his head. “And yet… I am.”
He looked different. Not just colder—but fractured. There were wounds he wasn’t showing, bruises hidden beneath the smirk. Nikki’s vision shimmered faintly; his threads were tangled, blurred, like someone who had defied fate too many times.
“Why are you here, Lucien?” Nica asked carefully. “You made your choice. You left us.”
“I came to offer you a path,” he said, tone eerily calm. “One that ends with fewer graves. One that doesn't cost you your sister’s life.”
Naomi flinched—but only slightly.
“You saw it,” Lucien added, now turning to Nikki. “Didn’t you?”
Her throat tightened.
Yes. She saw it. The death of one sister. Still obscured, still blurred by fate—but closer now, like a noose pulling tighter.
Lucien walked closer.
“There’s a way to break the thread,” he said softly. “But it requires sacrifice. And… betrayal.”
He stopped, glancing at Nica.
“Unfortunately, it has already begun.”
“What do you mean?” Nica stepped forward, defensive.
Lucien’s face darkened.
“One of you… has been marked. Not by your will. Not by your hand. But someone whispered to the Hollowborn in a dream—unwillingly—and now they know our next move.”
Nikki gasped. Her power flared as a sudden vision hit her like lightning.
A dream.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOzxFjLHwj1
A sleepwalker.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwI01wk6fTU
A voice coaxed in the dark.And then—Nica.
Whispering secrets.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Z4r6d7Frt
Eyes wide open.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYchRTbK5F0
Mouth moving against her will.She staggered back. “No…”
Naomi turned, furious. “You what?!”
“I didn’t mean to! I didn’t know—!” Nica cried, horrified.
Lucien stepped in front of her, shielding her from Naomi’s heat.
“She was possessed through her dreams. A trap hidden in mercy. That enchantress? Amber? She left something behind in Nica’s mind. And now, they know everything.”
A silence fell over them like ash.
Nica collapsed to her knees. “I didn’t want this.”
Naomi’s fists clenched. “You’re lucky you’re my sister.”
“She’s yours,” Lucien whispered to Naomi, “but what about the others who will die because of this?”
He turned to Nikki.
“You have the power to unsee what’s coming—or to reshape it. But you need me to do that.”
Nikki’s voice cracked. “Why would you help us now?”
Lucien met her gaze. “Because I made a mistake. Leaving you. And because if Naomi dies… I die too.”
Their alliance was no longer a question of trust.
It was now a question of survival.
But with Nica unknowingly feeding the enemy…
And Nikki seeing too much too fast…
How long could they hold themselves together before fate tore them apart?
Chapter 29: The Fall and the Forsaken
The Sanctuary of the Forsaken wasn’t marked on any map.
It wasn’t a place you traveled to—it was a place you were summoned to.
Lucien led them through the mist-covered forest, every step colder than the last. The trees were twisted, ancient, as if they remembered a time when the world was young and cruel. Nikki kept close to her uncle Ron, her visions flickering in the corners of her eyes. Nica stayed quiet, withdrawn, weighed down by guilt that clung to her like a wet cloak.
Naomi hadn’t spoken a word since they left.
The air thickened the moment they reached the blackened altar at the edge of the chasm. There it stood—The Sanctuary. Carved from obsidian stone, wrapped in ivy that bled crimson, and humming with whispers only Nikki could hear.
“It’s here,” Lucien said. “This place holds answers… and something more.”
Naomi finally spoke. Her voice low, trembling with something between rage and pain.
“You nearly got us all killed.”
Nica didn’t move. “I didn’t know…”
“You dreamed our secrets to the enemy.”
“I didn’t choose to!”
“But it still happened!”
Nikki stepped forward. “Please—stop—”
Naomi turned to her youngest sister, jaw clenched. “No. You want answers, Nikki? You want to fix this? Then we need to face what broke us first.”
She turned back to Nica. “You’ve always been reckless with your gift. Always so sure that your heart could outwit the danger. Well now look where we are.”
And that’s when Nica snapped.
“I’ve carried this weight alone, Naomi! Do you think it’s easy hearing people’s thoughts? Their pain? Their disgust? Their love—even when it’s unwanted?”
Her hands trembled as she shouted, “Don’t act like I haven’t bled for this family too!”
In her fury, she stepped forward.
Naomi did the same.
And then it happened—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6nOmdxiM2l
A slip.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Yw7mXMKi9
A push.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJMUToOByx
A scream.Naomi stumbled.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhNyZ3sjU0
The edge gave way.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLEMQrmgua1
And in one breathless moment—She was gone.
“No!” Nica screamed, falling to her knees and reaching down the cliffside, but there was nothing. Just mist. And silence. And the sound of Nikki’s sobbing.
Ron pulled Nica away. “She’s gone.”
“No. No—she’s not—she can’t be—”
Lucien’s eyes burned red for a moment. His voice broke. “We can’t waste time. We need to enter the Sanctuary while we still can.”
“But Naomi—” Nikki choked.
“She may still be alive. This place bends fate. But if we wait, it’ll close again—and we’ll lose more than just her.”
Inside the Sanctuary, the air pulsed.
The walls whispered names. Some of those names belonged to them.
Nikki touched one of the carvings and saw flashes—of Naomi underwater, of a white-eyed creature dragging her, of an ancient gate opening.
“She’s alive…” Nikki whispered. “But not for long.”
Lucien stepped into the circle of glyphs, eyes narrowed. “Then we fight time. We fight the Hollowborn. We fight everything.”
And far below the cliff—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSyAkY3EWC
In the dark belly of the forest—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7GeKzdXPmz
Naomi's body stirred in the mist.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtyXCCjfolv
Bleeding.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYNGEODWQpk
Alone.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡksm8pXiJq1
And watched.Chapter 30: The Girl Beneath the Roots
She didn’t know how long she was unconscious.
But when Naomi woke, her mouth was full of dirt and her back screamed with pain. The fall had thrown her into a bed of tangled roots at the bottom of a ravine, surrounded by mist that glowed faintly… like it was alive.
She groaned.
Every breath felt like glass in her lungs.
Her arms scraped. Her thigh bleeding. Her mind—fragmented.
“Nica…” she whispered.
No answer.
Just the soft hum of wind. A hollow murmur beneath her, as if something ancient had stirred.
Naomi tried to sit up, but her head spun. Somewhere deep in her gut, the heat surged again—that writhing, furious light she could never fully control.
It responded to her pain.
To her anger.
To her abandonment.
“They left me,” she said. It wasn’t a question. It was a truth.
Hours passed.
Or maybe days.
Naomi dragged herself into a hollowed-out tree. The roots cradled her like ribs of some dead god, and there she lay—half-awake, half-feral, and full of questions.
Why couldn’t I stop myself from fighting her?
Why did it hurt so much to fall?
Why am I still alive?
And then—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenSDoiFFrt
A whisper.“Finally. Awake, are we?”
Naomi’s eyes flew open.
A shadow crouched in the mist.
Tall. Lean. Eyes glowing silver.
“I watched you fall,” the figure said, stepping into view. He looked like a boy her age, maybe older—but something about him felt ancient. His clothes were a strange mix of bark, fur, and moss. His skin bore scars that glowed faintly under moonlight.
“Who—”
“I’m called Ash. You’re lucky. If you had landed closer to the black roots, they would’ve taken you.”
Naomi blinked. “Taken?”
“They feed on power. Especially broken ones.”
She tried to stand. Failed. “Why help me?”
Ash shrugged. “Because I’m tired of burying people.”
For days, he tended to her wounds with salves that burned and herbs that whispered. He spoke little, only answering when she asked. Naomi learned the ravine wasn’t natural—it was part of the Forsaken Wound, a sacred scar that pulsed with old magic.
“I’ve lived here since the Great Silence,” Ash said. “Watched the creatures crawl out when the moons turn. Most don’t survive here.”
Naomi looked at him with suspicion. “And why do you?”
Ash met her gaze. “Because I’m not supposed to be alive either.”
When strength returned, Naomi trained.
Ash taught her to listen to the breathing of the trees.
To sense the way her power wanted to move—not just erupt, but command.
She practiced beneath moonlight, fists glowing, arms trembling.
The anger made her strong.
But it was her grief that gave her control.
One night, as they sat by a flickering blue flame, Ash finally asked, “What’s your name?”
She hesitated.
“Naomi,” she said. Then, after a pause:9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKmrrt04Hi7
“But someone once called me Seraphina.”Ash’s eyes widened.
“I know that name,” he said slowly. “It’s written in the trees.”
She stared at him. “What are you?”
Ash only smiled faintly. “Someone who was once Forsaken, too.”
As she lay down that night, Naomi whispered into the quiet.
“I’m coming back.”
“To my sisters.”
“To myself.”
And to the voice in the darkness that still whispered her name like a prophecy—
The Hollowborn.
Chapter 31: A Storm Named Sister
She was gone.
No body.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLcRKMhpgkV
No trace.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIdaFaYlTp5
Just a shattered cliffside and the wind whispering Naomi’s name.
Nikki stood at the edge, her knuckles white from clutching the jagged ledge. Her eyes were dry—but only because she had no more tears left to give.
“She's not dead,” she muttered.
“She fell, Nik. We all saw it—” Nica began.
“No. She’s not dead!” Nikki screamed, her voice cracking through the trees. “I’d feel it. I would know if she was.”
But the silence that followed felt like mourning.
They buried Naomi’s necklace beneath a weeping tree.
It was the only thing they’d found. Burned. Twisted.
As the rain fell that night, Nica didn’t speak. Not when Ron tried to console her. Not when Nikki cried in her sleep. Not when Lucien laid down his sword at her feet, guilt etched into every inch of his beautiful, tormented face.
“She pushed her,” a whisper said in the wind.
And Nica believed it—because it was true.
She had pushed Naomi.
Not with hate. Not with intent.
But with fear.
Lucien tried to reach her.
“She didn’t die because of you.”
“She didn’t die,” Nica snapped.
He blinked. “Then what do you believe?”
Nica turned, eyes glowing faintly violet.
“I believe she’ll come back. And when she does… she might not be the same.”
Lucien stared at her for a long moment. Then nodded. “Then we prepare.”
Meanwhile, in the Sanctuary of the Forsaken, Naomi stood beneath a tree with roots like ribs and bark like burned bone.
Ash watched her wrap her arms in fabric charred from her old uniform.
“You’re not running,” he said.
“I never was,” Naomi whispered.
She stared at her reflection in the black pool beside them—her eyes now shone like fire behind glass. Her skin bore faint golden marks that pulsed with a rhythm she didn’t understand. She looked… older. Sharper. Unbreakable.
“I’m going back,” she said. “They need me.”
Ash stepped forward. “And what will you do when you find out what happened wasn’t an accident?”
Naomi’s jaw tightened.
“I’ll forgive her.”
“Even if she doesn’t forgive herself?”
Naomi turned. Her voice was soft, but steel-laced.
“I’m the storm. And storms don’t hold grudges.”
Back at the stronghold, the Hollowborn’s whisper bled through Nikki’s dreams again—this time colder, closer.
“You were born to betray her,” it hissed.
“And soon… you will.”
Nikki bolted upright.
Heart racing.
Palms burning.
She’s alive, Nikki thought.
But if she’s coming back…
What’s she bringing with her?
9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqM3guvnsn
Chapter 32: Broken Lines, Buried Fire9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDfKI2QQrW2
“You lied to me.”
Nica’s voice rang through the training hall like thunder.
Nikki flinched—but didn’t back down.
“I had to.”
“You saw it, didn’t you?” Nica’s eyes shimmered, unreadable. “You knew Naomi would fall. You knew what was coming and you said nothing.”
“I was trying to protect us—protect her.”
“By doing nothing?!” Nica’s power flared, shadows whipping like angry vines around her fists. “You don’t get to play God with our lives, Nikki!”
Nikki stepped forward, face pale, hands trembling—but her voice didn’t shake.
“I saw worse, okay? I saw her dying… for real. Not just gone, dead. If I stopped it, she might’ve been lost forever. I was choosing the lesser death.”
“Then what now?” Nica whispered. “What else are you hiding?”
Nikki opened her mouth—but the air shattered.
The walls trembled.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2BJEnepqAw
The lights pulsed.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3VDGZkcwJe
And suddenly—
He was there.
The Hollowborn.
A figure stitched from shadows and secrets. Smoke poured from its mouth like tar. Its voice was nothing—but felt like everything.
“You’ve come far, daughters of the Nephilim…”
Nikki stumbled back. “No—no, not now—”
Nica flung her hand up, creating a barrier of violet flame. “You don’t get to touch her!”
The Hollowborn laughed, slow and thick and echoing.
“I already have.”
Before either sister could move—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqCYPxTXv9
He lunged.
Nikki screamed—9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjUIIkaBF0F
But it was not pain.
It was power.
The Hollowborn collapsed mid-leap, body writhing, torn apart from within. His shriek wasn’t rage—it was surprise. Horror.
His essence—his curse—bled into Nikki like smoke into flame.
And then…
He was gone.
Nikki fell to her knees.
The silence was thunderous.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjr2Y2gyFPw
The floor cracked beneath her touch.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQGgBApLKRJ
And her eyes… no longer brown.
Now gold.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPb48XidRO
Now glowing.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbD9RfdJOu
Now divine.
Nica stepped back.
“Nikki?”
Nikki rose slowly. Her breath was steady. Her voice—lower, steadier, not her own yet more her than ever.
“I didn’t mean for this,” she said. “But it’s done.”
“You absorbed him,” Nica whispered.
“I became what he feared most,” Nikki replied. “A bearer of truth. A light in the shadows.”
“And now?” Nica asked, heart breaking. “What happens now?”
Nikki turned.
And for the first time, her younger sister looked like a goddess of fate.
“Now, we finish what he started.”
9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3quEAUnFl6
Chapter 33: The Final Sight9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5aB8j7Mu61
Naomi returned.
Bruised. Silent. Changed.
She stood at the edge of the Sanctuary, her eyes glazed with a glow that wasn’t entirely hers anymore.
“I saw it,” she said quietly. “The future. My future.”
Nica looked up, her arms still bruised from battle. “What did you see?”
Naomi smiled. But it wasn’t soft—it was broken.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsNBiESD0JS
“Destruction. Me… destroying everything I love. Including both of you.”
Nikki stood frozen.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7JJ8EgVlbn
Because she knew.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXSoHvvN5r
She saw it first.
Naomi turned to her.
“You’ve seen it, haven’t you?” she asked. “You saw what you had to do.”
Nikki’s throat clenched. Her palms burned. Her body buzzed with Hollowborn power she barely understood.
“You think I want this?” Nikki whispered, trembling. “You think I haven’t tried to find another way?”
Naomi stepped forward. “I’m telling you now… do it. Before I lose myself completely.”
“No!” Nica screamed, shoving herself between them. “There has to be another way. We are sisters! We don’t end each other!”
Naomi gave her a sad, fond smile. “You always believed in us. But this isn’t about belief anymore. This is about the world surviving what I’m becoming.”
The sky cracked overhead. The Sanctuary groaned beneath them. Magic pulsed, chaotic and restless, as Naomi’s power spun out of control.
The ground split.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsitFKv0ynz
The air caught fire.
“Nikki…” Naomi whispered. “Please.”
Nikki stepped forward, her eyes glowing gold, her hands raised with both fear and clarity.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I love you.”
Naomi smiled.
“I know.”
And Nikki released it.
A beam of golden light—pure, searing, ancient—struck Naomi straight through her chest.
Naomi didn’t scream.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡabD8HI9wtn
She breathed out.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmQJIiJmyiI
A sigh of peace. Of surrender.
Then she was gone.
Ashes on the wind.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAKTD4j0FV
Light fading into dusk.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4z20LKk9KK
Silence.
Nica dropped to her knees. “She was our sister…”
Nikki collapsed beside her, hollow and shaking.
“She still is,” she whispered. “She always will be.”
The screen fades to black.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF2478SsS33
A single line appears.
ns216.73.216.176da2“The end… is never the end.” Book Two: Ascension — Coming Soon.
