Chapter 148
Chapter 148
*Jiselle
The fire in the Gatekeeper camp didn’t crackle. It pulsed.
Each flicker moved with purpose, as if responding to unseen rhythms I couldn’t hear. The flames were violet–tinged like my own but quieter–measured, ancient. They didn’t threaten. They watched.
So did the people.
Dozens of eyes followed my every step through the stone–etched corridor behind the veiled leader’s tent. No one spoke. Not one finger twitched toward a blade, but still, I felt the weight of a thousand unspoken warnings. I wasn’t welcome.
I wasn’t unwelcome either.
I was something else entirely.
At the end of the corridor, a tall arch awaited–etched with more of the sigils that had begun appearing everywhere since my awakening, I recognized a few now: balance, threshold, origin, memory. But others were still a mystery. Symbols not drawn from the academy’s texts, nor even the rogue scrolls Bastain had shown me. Older.
The veiled man who had declared me “threshold” gestured without speaking. The flap beside the arch lifted.
She stepped through it.
Serina.
She looked almost exactly as I remembered her from the visions–tall, angular, ethereal in that quiet, unshakable way. Her cloak brushed the floor like smoke, and her hair was loose, woven with starlight strands that shimmered when she moved.
But her eyes–those were the same. Familiar. Too familiar.
She didn’t smile. Didn’t rush to embrace me.
“Hello, Jiselle,” she said.
Her voice was low. Fluid. A current hidden beneath calm waters.
“I-I thought you died,” I managed.
She tilted her head. “I did. In some ways.”
“I saw you burn,” I whispered. “In the memory. On the cliff. I felt it.”
“You felt a moment,” she said. “Not an ending.”
That was when I realized the truth.
This wasn’t resurrection.
It was return.
“You’re not just some echo,” I said slowly. “You’re alive.”
Her gaze didn’t shift. “Alive enough.”
The silence between us stretched, threaded with something neither of us wanted to name.
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Chapter 148
“I thought you’d be glad,” I said after a moment. “To see me. To see that I lived.”
“I am,” she said. “But you misunderstand. I didn’t shape your path. I didn’t leave you clues. You were never meant to follow me
“Then why am I here?”
She walked closer, slow and deliberate. “Because you are what I could not be.”
I took a step back. “What does that mean?”
She didn’t answer directly.
Instead, she extended a hand. “Walk with me.”
Thesitated–but followed.
The path twisted beneath the mountain. No torches. Just veins of glowing violet running through the stone, like the leyline itself had curled into the earth here to sleep.
“Why did you let them think you were dead?” I asked.
“Because being Serina is dangerous,” she said. “Even now. Especially now.”
“But if they knew you lived-”
“They would try to use me. The same way they’ll try to use you.”
Her words hung heavy.
“I’m not theirs to use.”
She glanced at me. “A tool rarely knows it’s a tool until it’s already broken.”
We stopped in front of a sealed door. No lock. No handle. Just a smooth slab of star–metal and sigils etched deep into its surface. She placed her palm over one of them.
The door hissed open.
The air that poured out was colder than I expected–old air, untouched by time.
Inside was a chamber carved into raw obsidian. The walls glowed with embedded runes–each one distinct, but each one part of a pattern. Circles. Spirals. Flame. Chains. Memory. Echo. Veil. Origin.
And names.
So many names.
Some were smudged. Some burned into the wall. Some still glowed with fresh light.
My eyes scanned until I saw it.
JISELLE.
Etched beside names I couldn’t pronounce, names I hadn’t heard. Some repeated. Some circled. All tied together.
“What is this?” I asked, voice hoarse.
“This is where they record the ones they think matter,” Serina said.
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Chapter 148
“They?” I whispered.
“The ones who pretend to guard balance,” she replied. “The Gatekeepers.”
My chest tightened. “They knew about me? Before I was born?”
She turned toward the wall. “They’ve always know
They care that you open the door.”
My pulse echoed in my throat.
someone would come. Someone whose flame would not burn alone. They don’t care if you survive
“You said I was never meant to follow you,” I said. “But here I am.”
She turned back to me, eyes shadowed. “You’re not my descendant, Jiselle. You’re my continuation.”
The words didn’t make sense at first.
“Continuation?”
She nodded. “I wasn’t meant to carry the flame to its final reckoning. I was the first breath. You are the second.”
“So I’m not a new Sovereign,” I whispered. “I’m the same.”
“Not the same,” she said. “The next.”
I reeled back, hand hitting the wall for balance.
It pulsed beneath my touch.
I ripped my hand away.
“This is why the Gatekeepers follow me,” I said. “Because they think I’ll finish what you started.”
“No,” she said. “Because they think you’ll open the gate.”
“Didn’t you try to stop it?” I demanded. “Didn’t you burn yourself to stop what was behind it?”
She stared at me.
“I tried,” she said. “And I failed.”
The walls dimmed slightly as her words settled.
“But I didn’t die,” she finished.
I didn’t realize I was crying until a tear hit the floor.
“You’re telling me I can’t stop it either?”
She walked toward the far wall and placed her hand against a sigil shaped like a spiral cracking open. “I’m telling you not to make the sa
did.”
take l
“And what mistake was that?”
“I tried to bear it alone.”
Silence again.
But this time, it didn’t feel sharp. It felt… reverent.
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We stood together in the glow of forgotten names. Names that had lived and died for a cause they barely understood. Names that had opened closed bled, screamed.
And one name still glowing brighter than the rest.
Mine.
Serina stepped away from the wall. “There’s more.”
I blinked. “More?”
She nodded. “Deeper still.”
The floor beneath us trembled.
And a spiral stairwell uncoiled from the rock.
She descended.
I followed.
The passage was narrow. Claustrophobic. Each step echoed like it was being recorded by something ancient. The deeper we went, the colder the air became but my flame didn’t rise in defense. It pulsed gently, like it was listening.
ein other
At the bottom of the stairwell was another chamber.
Smaller.
But somehow more sacred.
At the center stood a single pedestal.
Upon it: a mirror.
Not glass.
Stone.
Polished obsidian etched with flame–like cracks that shimmered with violet light.
My reflection wasn’t mine.
It was hers.
Serina’s.
But not the Serina beside me.
A version of her consumed by fire, mouth open in a silent scream, arms outstretched as if shielding something behind her.
I couldn’t look away.
“Why are you showing me this?” I asked.
“Because you’ve seen the past,” she said. “But you haven’t yet seen the choice.”.
I reached for the mirror
And the light within it flared.
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Chapter 148
Runes bloomed across the surface.
Words formed from fire.
NOT ALL FLAMES CONSUME. SOME GUARD.
I stumbled back.
Serina caught me.
“You don’t have to die to win,” she said softly. “But you do have to choose.”
“Choose what?”
She stepped aside.
Revealing another door.
Unmarked.
But breathing.
Like something behind it was alive.
Waiting.
Watching.
“I can’t go in there,” I said.
“Not yet,” she replied. “But soon.”
The door pulsed again.
And in that pulse—I felt it.
A presence.
Not dark.
Not cruel.
Just…vast.
And patient.
“You said you failed,” I whispered.
“I did.”
“What did you lose?”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“Everyone.”
The room grew still.
My chest burned.
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Chapter 148
“Then I won’t,” I said. “I won’t lose them.”
She didn’t smile.
But she stepped closer and placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Then don’t become me,” she said. “Become what I couldn’t.”
We stood in the violet dark.
The names on the wall above still glowing.
The door still breathing.
And the fire inside me–no longer roaring.
But watching.
Just like the flame that surrounded the pedestal.
Alive.
Waiting.
And ready.
Serina stepped away, whispering-“This isn’t a prophecy, Jiselle. It’s a pattern. And it’s about to repeat.”
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
