Chapter 1 The Girl who Burned Twice

Nyra Valeis had always known the forest would betray her one day, but she hadn’t expected it to happen on a morning so quiet it felt carved from glass. The Ashen Wilds thrummed with their usual melody cracking branches, distant rustle of night creatures hiding from dawn, and the faint shimmer of emberflies drifting between the trees like sparks searching for a flame. Nothing about the world hinted that by nightfall, she would lose everything she’d tried to protect.

She moved silently through the undergrowth, her boots brushing aside silver-leafed ferns that glowed faintly under the early light. A satchel hung at her hip, filled with herbs she’d gathered before sunrise. Her hands were still dusted with the warm pollen of fireblossoms, the only plant that responded to the blood of the Phoenixborn. She kept her hood low, concealing the copper-red strands of hair that tended to glow when she was irritated—or frightened. Today, she was both.

The village elders had warned her: Blue fire has been seen beyond the ridge.

And blue fire only meant one thing the Hollow King’s assassins.

Nyra paused beside an ancient fallen oak, pressing her palm against the bark. A pulse stirred beneath her skin, a soft warmth blooming from the phoenix mark on her back. It had been dormant for years. Now it pricked like a needle. She clenched her jaw.

“Not today,” she whispered. “Please, not today.”

The mark warmed again in answer.

She adjusted her satchel and continued down the path toward Emberway, a small settlement built of stone and stubbornness. Smoke curled lazily from chimneys. Children chased each other near the well. Hunters sharpened blades on doorsteps. Nothing about the village looked threatened. Yet the air tasted wrong bitter, metallic, like the moment before lightning strikes.

Nyra crossed the wooden gate, ignoring the curious glances villagers threw her. They never asked questions, never pressed her about her past, and she never offered answers. That was the arrangement. She healed their wounds, gathered herbs, kept her head down, and tried not to ignite anything. In return, they pretended not to notice that she never seemed to age the way others did, or that her blood sometimes shimmered gold when she was careless with a knife.

She walked toward the healer’s hut, where Elder Marella waited. The old woman stood with her back straight despite her years, silver braids coiled into a crown.

“You’re late,” Marella said, though her tone held more affection than scolding.

“I had trouble finding wild emberroot. Something spooked the forest.”

Marella’s expression darkened. “The ridge burned last night. Blue flames.”

Nyra stiffened. “How close?”

“Close enough.” Marella gestured her inside. “We cannot hide you much longer.”

Nyra dropped the satchel onto the wooden table. “I can keep the magic under control.”

“You can suppress the flames,” Marella said gently, “but not the prophecy.”

Nyra turned away. She’d spent her life running from that word—prophecy. It haunted her dreams like smoke she couldn’t breathe through. She busied herself sorting herbs, refusing to meet Marella’s eyes.

A scream shattered the morning.

Nyra froze.

Another scream followed higher, desperate.

Marella’s face drained of color. “The north side.”

Nyra was already sprinting through the door.

She raced between stone houses, heart pounding, phoenix mark blazing under her cloak. Villagers scattered, shouting warnings. A haze of smoke curled upward from behind the grain storehouse.

And then she saw it.

Flames surged along the rooftops blue flames, unnatural and cold. They devoured stone as easily as straw, leaving behind nothing but glittering ash. A child stumbled dangerously close to a collapsing wall, crying for her mother.

Nyra didn’t think. She hurled herself forward, tackling the little girl just as the wall gave way. Blue fire washed over the ground, chilling the air like winter’s breath.

The girl sobbed into Nyra’s cloak. “Mama Mama’s still inside!”

Nyra lifted her gaze to the burning house. Her throat tightened. Blue fire couldn’t be extinguished. It fed on fear, on life, on anything with a heartbeat.

“Run to Elder Marella,” Nyra said gently, shoving the child toward safety. “Go!”

The girl hesitated before sprinting away.

Nyra stood, staring at the flames licking upward. Her own fire pulsed beneath her skin, begging to be released. But if she unleashed phoenix magic here, in front of everyone—

No. There has to be another way.

She braced herself and sprinted through the doorway.

The heat was unbearable, yet also strangely cold. Blue flames curled along the walls, whispering like voices trying to coax her closer. The ceiling groaned, showering sparks around her. She spotted the woman trapped beneath a fallen beam. Nyra rushed over, fingers burning as she tried to lift the heavy wood.

“Hold on,” she whispered. “I’ve got you.”

The woman coughed, eyes wide with terror. “Run… it’s not safe…”

“I’m not leaving you.”

The flames surged higher. The ceiling cracked.

Nyra pushed harder, drawing on strength she rarely used. The beam shifted just enough. She dragged the woman free and half-carried her toward the door.

But a roar erupted overhead. Nyra looked up in time to see the ceiling collapse.

She shoved the woman through the doorway and then the blue fire swallowed her whole.

Pain ripped through her, white-hot and absolute. She screamed as her skin cracked like burning parchment. Her vision blurred. Her knees buckled.

She knew this feeling too well.

Death.

Her pulse flickered, slowing, fading. The world dimmed. Her last thought was a familiar one:

Not again. Please… not again.

Her heart stopped.

Silence.

Then A spark.

A crack.

A thunderous rush of air.

Nyra gasped as a cyclone of golden fire burst from her chest, shredding the blue flames around her. Her hair blazed like a comet’s tail. Her molten eyes glowed. Wings of pure phoenix flame flared behind her for a moment before dissolving into embers.

She stood among the ruins, alive again. Reborn.

The villagers stared in stunned silence.

Then someone whispered: “Phoenixborn…”

Nyra’s breath caught.

A shape stepped from the smoke tall, armored in black, his presence colder than the blue fire he commanded.

Aric Thornfall.

The assassin who once tried to kill her.

He looked at her with something like awe and dread.

“So,” he said softly. “You rise a

gain.”

Nyra’s flames guttered, flickering gold along her skin.

And the world, once more, shifted beneath her feet.