Chapter 19 - Shadow No More

He thinks I am still the obedient shadow he moulded me into.

Chapter 19 plunges the group into their most explosive confrontation yet.
As Ciaran forces his way into Honoria’s cabin and demands Alina’s return, loyalties fracture, secrets surface, and Lorianne, once his obedient shadow, becomes the storm he never saw coming. Amid shattered trust and explosive power, our heroes flee into the night, seeking refuge in a cave Ciaran once feared. But Lorianne carries knowledge even he could not control - and the first spark of a plan that may finally turn the game against him.

The knock at the door wasn’t a knock at all.
It was a command.

Three slow, heavy strikes made the wooden door shudder at its hinges.

Kaelan’s posture sharpened instantly. His shoulders squared, jaw tightening, one hand drifting toward the concealed blade at his hip. Damien exhaled a long, slow breath, pushing off the wall with the ease of a man stretching before a long-anticipated fight. He almost looked excited.

Bridget moved closer to Alina, her body taut with the readiness to sprint.

Lorianne, however, didn’t retreat. Her chest rose and fell too quickly—not with fear anymore, but with something else. Something volatile. Her eyes burned with a fury she was no longer able to contain.

And then…

The door swung open.

Ciaran filled the doorway like a shadow cutting out all light. His gaze swept over the room—one heartbeat, two—cataloguing every face.

The disappointment he failed to mask upon seeing Damien beside Alina.

The flash of betrayal when Kaelan met his gaze, steel in his eyes.

The calculating shift when he looked at Alina.

“Come to me,” he said to her alone, as if the others were nothing but vapor.
“No matter how these children meddle in matters they do not comprehend, the Circle still awaits its rightful guardian.”

Alina stepped back. Kaelan stepped forward.

“That won’t be happening tonight,” Kaelan said, low and dangerous.

Ciaran’s brows lifted, amused. “Delusional. Do you presume you have the authority to stand between me and what the Weave ordained?”

Damien snorted. “He’s in his Prophet mode. Love this part.”

Ciaran ignored him.
“Alina,” he continued, softening his voice disturbingly, “you were never meant to walk with the blind. Your place is at the Circle. At my side.”

Kaelan’s jaw flexed.

Alina felt the floor shift under her feet—contracting and expanding, like the dream she once had of being lost in narrowing streets, unable to reach her mother or Kaelan. Her pulse—Eirath’s pulse—hammered beneath her skin.

“You were meant to trust me,” Ciaran murmured.

Alina flinched. “I will never trust you. Where is my mother? What have you done to her?”

The mention of Eleanor—her friend—was the last spark Lorianne needed.

She stepped forward.

“No,” Lorianne whispered. Her voice trembled like a guitar string stretched too tightly. “She trusted you. I trusted you.” Her breath hitched on the words she couldn’t say aloud. “And you used us. Manipulated us. For your own despicable ends.”

For the first time, Ciaran’s expression flickered.

“Lorianne….” he began, smoothing his voice.

“No.” Her anger rose like a breaking wave. “I finally understand everything.”

A sharp intake of breath rippled through the room.

Bridget backed away.
Damien straightened instantly.
Kaelan watched Lorianne like a man watching a fuse burn toward gunpowder.

Ciaran stepped forward and reached out.

And Lorianne exploded.

Light—blinding, white-gold—ripped from her palms. Smoke burst outward with the scent of burning jasmine and something metallic. A shockwave slammed into the walls, rattling windows, sending lanterns, bottles, and books crashing to the floor.

Kaelan shielded Alina.
Damien braced himself.
Bridget ducked and pulled Alina toward the door.
Ciaran staggered, blood streaking from his lip.

The cabin roared with the force of her fury.

Then deafening silence.

Smoke swirled. The air vibrated with raw magic.

Lorianne stood trembling, pale like a ghost, tears cutting through the soot on her cheeks.

“That,” she whispered, “was for every lie you ever told me.” Another breath. “And by Eirath, you told me so many. Was any of it true?”

Ciaran straightened, wiping blood from his face. His eyes darkened into something cold and lethal.

Kaelan lifted his blade. Damien joined him.

“You would raise steel against your own father?” Ciaran hissed.

“You stopped being our father the day you chose power over us,” Kaelan answered.

“And the day you started dressing like a cult leader,” Damien muttered before Kaelan elbowed him sharply.

Ciaran stepped forward.

“Now!” Bridget shouted.

Lorianne hurled another sphere of smoke and distortion. Kaelan blocked Ciaran’s advance for one precious heartbeat.

It was enough.

The girls, followed by Lorianne burst into the cold night.

Branches whipped against them as they ran. Behind them came shouts, steel on steel, Damien’s unmistakable snarl.

The forest swallowed them.

“Where are we going?” Alina hissed.

“Somewhere he won’t follow,” Lorianne snapped. “Just trust me.”

The ground was uneven and slick; Bridget steadied Alina each time she stumbled. The woods stretched endlessly. The shadows felt eerily alive.

Lorianne finally stopped, breath heaving.
“There.”

A dark break in the rock face. A cave.

Bridget hesitated. “Are you sure…?”

“He never looked here before. He feared this place.”
The answer was too cryptic to inquire about.

Inside, the air smelled of stone and ancient water. They huddled in the widening chamber.

A twig snapped outside.

Alina froze.

Lorianne raised her hand, ready to strike.

“Wait,” Alina whispered.

Two familiar silhouettes appeared.

Kaelan stepped in first, scanning the chamber before his eyes found hers. Relief softened his face but it was quickly concealed. Damien followed, battered but smirking.

“You’re alive,” Bridget breathed.

“Barely,” Damien said, wincing.

Kaelan moved to Alina, checking her for wounds. Only when he found none did his breath ease.

“We had to fall back,” he said. “He wasn’t trying to kill us. Just delay.”

“How typical. That’s all he ever does,” Lorianne muttered.

Damien slumped against a rock. “He’ll be searching. We don’t have long before…”

“We’re not running.”
Lorianne’s voice cut through the cave, sharp and certain.

Everyone turned.

Alina felt something prickle along her skin. Lorianne wasn’t the same woman who had stormed out of the cabin. Something else had awakened in her.

Kaelan narrowed his eyes. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“That we stop reacting. That we stop letting him move every piece.”

Damien scoffed mockingly, until Lorianne’s murderous glare silenced him.

She stepped toward the deeper shadows, where the stone seemed to pulse faintly.

“He thinks he understands every move I could ever make,” she said softly. “He thinks I am still the obedient shadow he moulded me into.”

A single tear slid down her face. It evaporated on her skin.

“But he taught me far more than he realized. And I hid far more from him than he ever feared.”

Her voice steadied.

“I know exactly how to stop him.”

She turned to them fully—pale, trembling, eyes burning with a power she no longer restrained.

“And he will never see it coming.”

Thank you for reading…✨

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