Page 36 of Shifting Hearts 1
It’s not logical. Not safe. But something inside me hums with direction, like my blood remembers paths my mind doesn’t. The corridor narrows, the air thickens, and the light dims until I’m walking in shadow.
Then I see it.
A door—half-hidden behind a tapestry woven with dragons and moons. The fabric ripples as I approach, though there’s no breeze. I reach out, fingers brushing the edge, and the tapestry falls away like it was never stitched to the wall.
The door beneath is stone. No handle. No lock.
Just a sigil carved deep into its surface, a crescent moon cradled by a dragon’s tail. It looks like the one I was born with on my wrist.
My pulse stutters.
I press my palm to it. Not knowing why, just knowing I have to.
The stone is cold at first. Then it warms. Then it burns.
I gasp, trying to pull back, but the sigil flares with silver light, and the door groans open. Not outward. Not inward.
It dissolves.
Beyond it, a chamber waits.
The air inside is different; charged, metallic, like lightning trapped in stone. The walls are etched with symbols I don’t recognize, but they pulse faintly as I step inside, reacting to me. To my blood,maybe?
At the center of the room, a pedestal rises from the floor. On it rests a book bound in scales and moonstone, its cover glowing faintly.
I approach, heart hammering.
The book opens on its own.
Pages flutter, stopping on one marked with a single line:
“The Echo shall awaken the Flame. Her blood shall unlock the forgotten, and her bond shall break the old world.”
I stagger back.
The dragon. The flame. The bond.
Kieran.
I don’t know what this means. Not fully, but I know this chamber wasn’t meant for anyone else. It responded to me. To my blood.
And whatever I am… it’s not just rare.
It’s dangerous.
SEVEN
Kieran
The moment the sigil flares, I feel it.
A pulse, low and deep, rips through the mansion’s wards like a heartbeat skipping out of rhythm. My breath catches. The chamber’s awake.
I’m on my feet before thought catches up, fire sparking beneath my skin. The house groans around me, old stone shifting, whispering warnings in a tongue only dragons remember.
She found it. The hidden chamber was sealed centuries ago, buried beneath layers of magic and bloodline protections. It’s not supposed to open unless the Echo touches it.
Unless she touches it.
