A sudden spark singed her fingertip, sharp enough to sting but not enough to burn. Alora gasped, dropping the flower.
The bloom tumbled down her skirts, landing on the floor.
Then, before her eyes, it withered.
Its scarlet petals curled inward like claws, turning black as soot. The light faded in an instant, and the flower crumbled into ash.
Alora stared, her next breath stalling in her throat.
She glanced down at the yellowed page. There, sketched in ink was the same bloom. Same delicate shape. Same curling, spidery petals. Beneath it, was a caption in elegant script:
Blood Bloom:the corpse flower of the damned. Forbidden to touch. They grow where darknessfesters, and calamity looms. For it is a mark of awakening or the herald of death.
Alora’s heartbeat roared in her ears as she read her mother’s penmanship over and over.
Segrith’s words echoed through her mind:the Blood Blooms will sing. They were singing now. She could almost feel them humming beneath the stone.
Whatever this was, it wasn’t a coincidence.
Rune knew. He had to. Every secret he refused to speak, every half-truth wrapped in tenderness—it all circled back to this.
To her.
To the curse.
The flower had withered the moment it touched her. She stared at the ashes on the floor. A mark of awakening. Or of death.
Alora rose to her feet, heart hammering, the page trembling in her hand. She didn’t need Rune’s answers anymore. She would find them herself come morning. And she already knew where to start.
The Gate.
The corridors were silent when she slipped from her chambers at dawn, her boots moving soundless over the stone. The mountain itself breathed slower, darker, as though drowsing.
She descended through the winding halls, following the pull in her chest, the same pull as before as she made her way to the Gate chamber. The air grew hot and stifling. Her gasp echoedthrough the grand chamber when she found Vorak’s throne reduced to a pile of rubble. Then she smelled the smoke.
“No…”
Alora hurried toward the Gate chamber and when she stepped into the cavern, her heart sank.
The ground was scorched.
Where the Blood Blooms had once glimmered in eerie splendor, was now a ground of scorched ash.
Rune had burned them.
Alora knelt, brushing her trembling fingers over the blackened stone. It was still warm.
He did it last night. Precisely when he pried into her thoughts.
She clenched her jaw, rising to her feet. Anger pressed against her ribs, heavy and sickening. He wasn’t protecting her. He was hiding something from her.
Her fingertips still tingled where the bloom had stung her. It had left a small blister over her scar. She rubbed her hands together, trying to shake off the sensation, but the unnatural buzzing remained.
Rune,she called through the bond tightly.You can’t keep the truth from me!
He didn’t answer.
By the time Alora turned back toward her chambers, fury had steadied her steps. She wouldn’t let him get away with this. The hall was empty until a softmeowcut through the quiet. Nexus padded out of the shadows, golden eyes wide, tail swaying.
