CHAPTER NO 13
The Crimson Mountains (Part 1)
The road to the Crimson Mountains was paved not with stones, but with silence.Every mile they crossed seemed to take them farther from safety and deeper into something ancient something watching.
Selene sat on the back of the black carriage, wrapped in Nyra's cloak. The morning fog blurred the world into shades of silver and red. Birds didn't sing here; even the wind moved carefully through the trees.
Nyra rode ahead on horseback, her dark armor dull with dust and rain. She hadn't spoken much since they left the palace, but Selene could feel her worry. The bond between them pulsed softly an invisible thread tugging at their hearts.
"Are you sure this is the way?" Selene asked, her voice trembling slightly in the cold.
Nyra slowed her horse. "There's no other. The Crimson Mountains are where the first blood was spilled. If the prophecy is real, that's where the truth sleeps."
"The truth," Selene repeated quietly, "or the end?"
Nyra's gaze flicked toward her. "Sometimes they're the same thing."
The forest thinned as the ground rose into jagged cliffs. Rust-colored mist coiled around their feet, glowing faintly in the dim light. The air tasted like iron and rain. Selene shivered and pulled the cloak tighter.
After hours of silence, they reached a stone bridge carved over a deep chasm. Beneath it, molten rivers glowed lava or blood, Selene couldn't tell. Across the bridge, mountains clawed at the sky like the bones of giants.
A ruined gate waited at the far end, half-buried in rock and vines. Symbols glowed faintly on its surface: the mark of the ancient vampire kings.
Nyra dismounted and turned to her. "Stay close to me. Whatever you see, don't speak its name."
"What do you mean?"
"Names have power," Nyra said softly. "And here, power listens."
They crossed the bridge slowly. Every step echoed like thunder. The air grew heavy, pressing against Selene's chest. She clutched Nyra's sleeve without realizing it.
Halfway across, a whisper brushed her ear.
Selene…
She froze. The voice was her own but older, colder. She turned, but nothing was there.
"Don't listen," Nyra said sharply, pulling her forward. "They'll try to divide us."
When they finally reached the gate, Nyra pressed her palm to the runes. Her blood mark glowed crimson, and the stone groaned open. Warm air rushed out thick with ancient breath.
Inside was a vast cavern lit by crystals pulsing like hearts. Carvings covered every wall stories of vampires, gods, and something else: winged shadows bending before a figure with light in her hands.
Selene stepped closer, tracing one of the figures. "That's her, isn't it? The heir of light."
Nyra nodded. "The one who was supposed to end the war between life and death. But she vanished before she could finish it."
"Vanished?"
"Some say she became the first star," Nyra whispered. "Others say she was betrayed by the one she loved."
Selene's throat tightened. "And now you think she's… me."
Nyra didn't answer. She walked toward the center of the cavern, where a round pool of glowing water waited. "This spring remembers. If you touch it, it will show you who you are."
Selene stared at the reflection shimmering in the red light. Her heart pounded. "What if I don't like what I see?"
Nyra's voice softened. "Then I'll see it with you."
Slowly, Selene knelt and placed her hand on the water. It was warm too warm. Ripples spread, and the surface darkened until it became a mirror.
She saw herself as a child in the wooden box again the night she'd been abandoned. Then the vision shifted: a battlefield under a blood moon. A woman with the same hair and eyes stood among corpses, holding a blade made of light. Vampires and humans knelt before her, both afraid and awed.
You are not the first, Selene, a voice whispered from the water. You are what remains.
The reflection cracked like glass. A pulse of energy exploded from the pool, throwing her backward into Nyra's arms.
The cavern trembled. Crystals shattered. From the far wall, a sealed door glowed with the same mark on Selene's palm.
Nyra's eyes widened. "You awakened it!"
"I I didn't mean to!"
The door split down the middle with a hiss of light. Wind poured out, cold and sharp, carrying a faint echo of laughter.
A figure stepped from the glow tall, cloaked in shadow, its eyes burning gold.
"Who enters my tomb?" the voice demanded. It wasn't loud, yet it filled every corner of the cavern.
Nyra drew her sword, stepping in front of Selene. "Nyra of House Vareth, Princess of the Bloodline. We seek truth."
"Truth," the figure repeated, almost amused. "You come to me with mortal breath on your hands and ask for truth?"
The air darkened; the pool turned black. Selene felt her chest tighten again the same mark flaring like fire beneath her skin.
The figure's gaze turned toward her. "Ah… so the heir has returned."
Selene could barely breathe. "Who… who are you?"
"I am the one who once bore your name," it said softly. "The first heir. The one who failed."
Nyra's grip on her sword faltered. "Impossible…"
The figure smiled sadly. "Nothing here is impossible, child of night. Not love. Not betrayal. Not rebirth."
It stepped closer, and for a moment the shadows melted away, revealing a woman pale, beautiful, with silver-pink hair just like Selene's.
Selene's voice broke. "You're me."
"I was," the woman said. "And you are what's left of me. My second chance… or my final curse."
"The Crimson Mountains" (Part 2)
The silence after her words was unbearable. The cavern seemed to breathe, every heartbeat echoing against the crimson walls. The woman Selene's mirror stood bathed in faint red light, her gaze both tender and sorrowful.
Selene tried to speak, but her throat was dry. "If you're me… what happened to you?"
The woman's smile wavered. "I loved the wrong heart. And when I did, I doomed us all."
Nyra's sword lowered slightly. "The prophecy… the heir's betrayal was it you?"
The echo of laughter filled the cavern. "Prophecies are never what they seem, child of night. I did not betray I was betrayed." Her eyes flicked to Selene. "And now fate drags you through the ashes I left behind."
Selene stepped forward, trembling. "Then help me change it. Tell me what to do."
The woman's form flickered like a dying flame. "I cannot change what has already been written. But I can show you where the ink begins to bleed."
She raised her hand, and the air rippled. Visions exploded around them battlefields drowned in blood, cities consumed by fire, and a tower of glass where a woman in light armor screamed as a blade pierced her heart. The sword's hilt gleamed with the same sigil now burning on Selene's palm.
Selene stumbled back, shaking. "No… I can't.
The first heir's voice cut through the chaos. "The mark you bear is a bond between two souls. One of light… one of shadow. If one dies, the other fades. That is why you and the blood princess cannot be parted."
Nyra's breath hitched. "You mean our lives are tied?"
The woman nodded slowly. "You are halves of the same flame. When the first heir fell, her shadow carried her essence forward, searching for rebirth. That shadow found you, Nyra."
Selene turned to her, eyes wide. "You're my other half?"
Nyra's hand trembled on the hilt. "Then everything I felt… every dream, every vision it wasn't madness."
"It was memory," the woman whispered. "Memory of what you were to each other."
The truth struck them like thunder. Selene felt the bond between them flare to life warm, overwhelming, ancient.The air shimmered. For a moment, Nyra's shadow stretched and merged with Selene's reflection on the stone floor, forming a single silhouette.
But then the cavern cracked again, a violent tremor shaking the earth. The woman staggered, her form breaking apart like dust in the wind.
"It's waking," she gasped. "The darkness that ended me. You've stirred it by coming here."
"Tell us how to stop it!" Nyra shouted, grabbing her arm.
"You can't stop it," the woman said, voice fading. "But you can survive it if you choose love over vengeance this time…"
"What do you mean?" Selene pleaded.
The woman smiled one last time. "Because the curse began with a kiss. And only another can end it."
Her image shattered into light, scattering into the crystals around them. For a heartbeat, everything was still then the ground split wide open. From the chasm below, smoke poured out, thick and black, carrying the scent of ash and sorrow.
A deep, guttural roar echoed through the cavern. The pool turned red once more, and shapes began to rise dark wings, molten eyes, the remnants of something ancient and hungry.
Nyra grabbed Selene's hand and pulled her toward the exit. "Run!"
The moment their hands met, the air exploded with energy. The mark on their palms blazed two flames merging into one. The shadows hesitated, as if blinded.
They reached the gate, but before crossing, Selene turned. Through the smoke, she saw the faint shimmer of the first heir's light, watching her from afar.
"Remember me," the whisper said. "And do not make my mistake."
Then the light was gone.
Outside, the mountains bled with dawn. The red sky stretched above them like a wound, but the storm had passed. Selene fell to her knees, gasping, her hands shaking from what she'd seen.
Nyra knelt beside her, cupping her face gently. "You're safe."
"No," Selene whispered, tears streaking her cheeks. "We're bound. Our fates are one. If the darkness rises again it will come for us both."
Nyra brushed her thumb across Selene's skin, her eyes dark and fierce. "Then let it come. This time, it won't take you from me."
And as the sun broke through the mist, two shadows stretched across the stone bridge no longer separate, but intertwined.
The heir and her protector.The flame and the night.Two souls reborn beneath the crimson sky.