Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
“I think you would’ve burned either way,” he said. “But maybe not alone.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
He looked at me then-really looked.
“You carry it differently now,” he said. “Not like a gift. Like a scar.”
“Maybe it’s both.”
He nodded, thoughtful.
“Are you sure you’re whole?” he asked, softly.
I didn’t answer right away.
I turned back toward the stars.
“No,” I whispered. “But I’m still trying to be.”
And beside me, Maximus stayed quiet.
But he didn’t leave.
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*Jiselle*
The trees were too quiet.
Even the wind had stopped whispering through the leaves, as if the forest itself had gone breathless. I crouched beneath a twisted pine, fingers pressed into damp moss, pulse pounding too loudly in my ears. I was supposed to be focused-eyes sharp, energy measured. This was just a scouting run. A foraging mission. No magic. No flare Nothing to light me up.
But the silence told me otherwise.
Eva stepped quietly beside me, her braid tucked into her cloak, her hands wrapped around a small gathering pouch. She didn’t speak. Neither did Ethan, who flanked my other side, his body a wall between me and the unseen. He was always positioned that way now. Like I needed protecting from the world-or like the world needed protecting from me.
I hated that I didn’t know which one was true.
Ethan raised a hand. Paused.
The moment hung heavy.
Then he moved forward again.
We hadn’t taken more than ten steps when the first arrow came.
It hissed through the air and sank into a tree inches from Eva’s head. She hit the ground on instinct. I reacted before thought caught up-my hand rising, flame sparking along my fingers.
“No!” Ethan snapped, grabbing my wrist. “Not here!”
But it was too late.
The fire blinked to life at my fingertips-not the white-hot flame from the gate, but the steady gold that had lived in my veins since I was a child. It didn’t surge. It waited.
Shouts echoed from the tree line.
Figures moved-three, maybe four. Rogues. Not Kael’s, but wild, splintered, desperate. Ethan drew his blade. Eva flanked right, cutting toward cover.
And me?
I stood there.
Successfully unlocked!
The fire humming beneath my skin my eyes. Too calm.
Too ready.
I raised my hands to defend us-
And everything went dark.
I woke to silence.
And ash.
Smoke clung to my hair. My tongue tasted like metal. My ears rang, and for a moment, I couldn’t feel my legs. Then it all came back in a rush-heat, light, screaming.
I was on my knees.
The clearing we’d entered had been torn open like a wound. Two of the trees were on fire-smoldering quietly. The air sizzled, and in the center of it all…
A body.
Melted into the stone.
Not burned. Not charred.
Liquified.
My breath caught.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no-“
Ethan appeared beside me, his chest heaving. Blood slicked down his arm-shallow cuts, not fatal, but enough to break me in half.
He was looking at me differently.
Not in anger.
In fear.
“Is Eva-?” I rasped.
“She’s fine,” he said quietly. “A little shaken. Nothing touched her.”
I followed his gaze to the body again.
One of the rogues. Or what was left of him.
“He tried to flank,” Ethan said. “You turned. Your hands lit up and then-“
He didn’t finish.
He didn’t have to.
I gripped the edge of a fallen tree, forcing myself upright.
And then I heard it.
Not outside.
Inside.
A voice like velvet dragged across flame.
You asked for protection. I answered.
I stumbled back, hand pressed to my chest.
Ethan caught my arm, steadying me, but I barely felt him.
I could still hear her.
The voice.
The other.
She hadn’t left.
I had never been alone.
“Jiselle,” Ethan said sharply. “Talk to me. What happened?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“You blacked out.”
“I-” My breath hitched. “I felt something.”
His grip tightened. “Not you?”
“No,” I whispered. “And yes. It’s hard to explain.”
Eva appeared, walking slowly from the edge of the woods. Her face was pale. Eyes wide.
She didn’t speak until she was right beside us.
Then she said, “I felt her too.”
The words hit me like a second blow.
“You-what?”
“Just a flicker,” Eva said. “But it wasn’t you. It was old. Heavy. Like someone else cracked your ribs and reached through.”
Ethan looked between us, rage and worry tangling across his face. “You said the flame was gone. That you let it go.”
“I thought I did.”
He exhaled hard. Then turned and punched a tree.
It cracked.
But didn’t fall.
Neither did he.
And somehow, that hurt more than if he’d screamed.
–
We buried what was left of the rogue with hands wrapped in cloth.
Even Maximus helped, though he didn’t speak. He kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye-not accusation, but wariness. And something else.
Regret, maybe.
Or recognition.
That night, back at camp, I couldn’t sleep.
Nathaniel sat watch just beyond the firelight. His silhouette was sharp, still. If he knew anything had happened, he hadn’t said it.
I hadn’t told him.
Not yet.
Instead, I drifted along the edge of the trees, circling the camp until I found the only person who wouldn’t demand an answer.
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