Chapter 189- Ash and Breath
Tarria
The world drowned in smoke.
It poured from me like a storm unchained, thicker than night, heavier than shadow. For a heartbeat, I feared I had lost control—that it would consume me as easily as it had engulfed Kael. The air itself turned heavy, pressing against my lungs until every breath was fire and ash.
And then silence.
Kael’s roar cut off mid-sound, smothered into nothing. I could see only outlines now, the vague shape of him thrashing within the haze. His shadows lashed wildly, but they vanished into the smoke, swallowed whole. My power clung to him, dragged at him, burrowed deep.
I stood frozen, my blade lowered, trembling with the weight of what I had unleashed.
This wasn’t a weapon. It was a storm.
“Lexy,” I whispered, though I doubted she could hear me through the chaos of her battle with Adrian. “What have I done?”
For so long, I had feared this power, feared it was nothing more than a darker echo of Adrian’s shadow. But this—this was not his. His shadows poisoned, suffocated, enslaved. My smoke was different. It twisted, it bent, but it cleansed. It stripped Kael of his defenses, ripped the arrogance straight from him.
I could feel it, like threads connecting us—his strength unraveling as mine surged higher.
And then, for the first time, I noticed my hand.
The one I had lost in the first battle I fought with Lexy.
For years it had been nothing but pain, a phantom limb reminding me of the moment I fought for my tribe. A wound I carried not only in body but in soul. It also brought me pride.
But as the smoke surged, as it pulsed through me and out into the world, I felt something shift. The ache was gone. I glanced down—and nearly dropped my blade.
Smoke curled thick around the stump, shaping itself into fingers, into a palm, into a handmade not of flesh but of swirling, living shadow-light. Not Kael’s shadows. Not Adrian’s darkness. My own.
My smoke had given me a hand.
My heart lurched. For a moment, I could not move, could not think. I flexed, and the smoke flexed with me. Each wisp was steady, tethered to my will. It wasn’t whole, not flesh and blood, but it was mine. Mine.
A laugh broke from my throat—half sob, half disbelief.
Kael thrashed within the haze, snarling curses I could barely hear. “You think this makes you strong?” His voice cracked, muffled, struggling. “You are nothing but a shadow thief! You’ll drown in your own power!”
But the tremor in his voice betrayed him. He was afraid.
Afraid of me.
I stepped forward, smoke swirling with every movement. My blade glowed faintly with the haze wrapped around it, sharper, stronger than before. Each step brought me closer to the thrashing outline of Kael.
And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t the one being hunted.
“I am not your shadow,” I said into the smoke, my voice steady, resonant. “I am smoke. I am storm. And you cannot chain me anymore.”
The smoke tightened, striking him like whips, driving him to his knees. His roar shook the ground, but I didn’t falter.
Every memory of what he had taken from me burned like kindling—every scar, every loss, every shackle. And with each heartbeat, the smoke gave it back.
Strength. Freedom. Even the hand I sacrificed for my people.
But beneath the fury, another feeling rose—terror.
Because if this power could create, what else could it do? How far could it reach? What if Kael was right—that I could drown in it, become the very thing I swore to fight against?
My chest tightened as doubt clawed through the adrenaline. I’d seen what unchecked power could do. I’d seen Adrian twist his shadows into horrors. What if I wasn’t any different?
‘Control it, Tarria.’ I heard Lexy’s voice in my mind, echoing from every lesson, every moment she believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. ‘You are stronger than what they think.’
I drew a breath—ragged, smoky, but mine.
And I tightened my grip.
Kael fell forward, the smoke dragging him down. His outline flickered, blurred. For the first time, he seemed less than invincible, less than the monster who haunted me recently.
He seemed breakable.
The battlefield around me shifted. I felt the heat of Lexy’s fire flare brighter, the clash of CJ’s blade ringing clearer. Even Adrian’s shadows pulsed with unease, faltering under the pressure. The tide was turning.
Because of me.
I swallowed hard, my gaze locked on Kael. My hand—my smoke hand—tightened on the hilt of my blade, the edges glowing faintly in the haze.
“Time you learned,” I whispered, my voice low, dangerous even to my own ears.
The smoke surged with me, flowing down my arm like a river unleashed. It shot forward, striking Kael full force, wrapping his chest, his arms, his throat. He choked, staggered, his blade clattering against the ground.
The sight froze me—because for the first time, Kael looked less like a predator and more like prey.
The smoke didn’t just strike him. It consumed him.
The ground shook with the impact.
And the world held its breath as my power took hold.
Around us, the battle slowed. I felt it even through the haze—warriors faltering mid-strike, heads turning toward the storm I had unleashed. I heard gasps, some sharp with fear, others with awe. Even Lexy’s flame dimmed for a heartbeat, as if the phoenix itself paused to witness what I had become.
My knees trembled, though not from weakness. It was too much—too vast, too overwhelming. The smoke wrapped me as much as it did him, tethering us together in a dance neither of us could control. My chest rose and fell in ragged bursts, the weight of it pressing against every part of me.
For a heartbeat, I feared the whispers Kael had planted in me long ago: You are nothing. You are mine. You are shadow.
But as his form buckled within the haze, another truth rang louder.
No. I am more. I am free.
I clenched my smoke-hand, willing it to hold, willing myself not to lose grip.
This was not Kael’s gift. It was not Adrian’s legacy.
It was mine.
And tonight, the battlefield would know it.
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