CHAPTER 25: BROTHERS IN FIRE AND SHADOW

Kaelen’s POV

The creak of his bedroom door woke Kaelen. At first, he thought nothing of it...maybe Echo slipping back in from prowling the gardens, like he always did when the moon was high. But the sound didn’t match. Too heavy. Too deliberate.Too human.He sat up slowly, every instinct alert, the pale light of the moon stretching long shadows across the floor. His senses reached out...searching the Aether currents the way a hunter feels the wind. What came back made his chest tighten.The life-thread approaching him wasn’t unfamiliar. It burned hot, sharp, a presence he had grown up beside. But now it was twisted, smothered in darkness that made Kaelen’s stomach knot."Hello, brother."Lyren’s voice.Kaelen swung his legs off the bed, bare feet touching cold stone. "Lyren?" His voice was hushed, uncertain. "What are you doing here? It’s past midnight."Lyren stepped forward into the moonlight, a flicker of fire dancing in his palm. The flames painted his face in restless orange, shadows sliding across sharp cheekbones and eyes that glowed far too bright."I couldn’t sleep," Lyren said softly. The calm in his tone felt wrong, stretched too thin. "I kept thinking about you. About us. About how everything changed the moment you came back."The fire grew, spilling restless light across the room. And Kaelen saw it then...the warmth that used to live in his brother’s golden eyes was gone. Replaced with something frayed. Unstable. Mad."I don’t want to fight you," Kaelen whispered, raising his hands."Neither do I," Lyren murmured. His calm cracked, just a fraction. "I want you dead. Your head mounted on Valerius’s walls for your heresy."The fireball left his hand before Kaelen even breathed. A shrieking comet of flame, aimed for his chest. He rolled across the bed, hitting the floor hard as the blast slammed into stone, scorching black scars where he’d been standing."Lyren, stop!" Kaelen shouted, crouched low, heart hammering. "I’m your brother!""You’re nothing but a pretender!" Lyren’s voice ripped through the air. Another sphere of flame whirled toward him, brighter, angrier. "A fraud with stolen power, trying to take what’s mine!"This time Kaelen met it. His senses caught the threads of Aether twined through Lyren’s spell, and with a twist of will he unraveled them mid-flight. The fire fizzled into harmless sparks, drifting down like dying stars.Lyren’s eyes widened. "How dare you?""I don’t want to hurt you," Kaelen said, retreating toward the window. Around him, the Aether thickened, stirring like a storm waiting for its master’s command.Lyren’s lips curled into a snarl. "Too bad. Because I want to hurt you very much."He flung both hands up, fire exploding outward until he glowed like a miniature sun. The heat blistered the air, furniture smoldering under the intensity. He lashed forward with a whip of flame that cracked against the wall, inches from Kaelen’s face.Kaelen’s breath came sharp. He had no choice anymore. Words wouldn’t save Lyren from himself.He opened himself fully to the Aether. The rush nearly knocked him off his feet. Threads of silver light bled through the edges of his vision...everything living in the room glowing with quiet vitality. Wood, stone, the tiny life of insects hidden in corners. All of it pulsed together, one vast heartbeat.He borrowed it. Not taking, not stealing...just weaving it, shaping it.Another torrent of fire screamed toward him. Kaelen lifted his hand, bracing. The flames slammed into an invisible barrier and broke apart, scattering harmlessly like waves against a cliff.Lyren froze, disbelief cracking through his rage. "Impossible...""You’ve always chased destruction," Kaelen said, sadness weighing down his words. The silver light spun and twisted in the air around him, delicate spirals dancing like starlight. "But magic isn’t just force. It’s balance. It’s harmony."His woven threads reached out, quiet and patient, dissolving every spell Lyren tried to summon before it could even breathe."No!" Lyren roared. He abandoned control, letting fury consume him. Fire engulfed him entirely, until he was little more than a burning silhouette. The heat forced the walls to groan, wood to catch, stone to crack. He hurled himself forward, fists ablaze, reckless as wildfire.Kaelen moved as light as smoke, twisting through the air. He arced over his brother’s head and landed with a soft thud behind him."Stop this madness!" The command ripped from Kaelen’s throat, raw and edged with something older than himself. The air quivered with it.But Lyren didn’t hear. Or couldn’t. He gathered every last ember of his power, every ounce of fury, until the flames around him burned white-hot, warping the air. His final attack ripped free, a roaring wave of fire so fierce it cracked stone like glass.Kaelen reached deeper than ever before. Past fear. Past pain. Past his own body. He let himself fall into the Aether entirely, touching everything...the house, the gardens, the city stretching beyond. It was too much, vast and infinite, a flood that threatened to tear his mind apart. But he held on. Shaped it. Bent it to his will.Silver light exploded outward in a dome, life-force spun into a radiant shield. Lyren’s inferno smashed into it...and vanished. Not absorbed. Not blocked. Changed. Fire became warmth, light fractured into harmless motes that drifted like embers in the wind.Lyren staggered back. For the first time, his fury cracked into fear. "What...what are you?"Before Kaelen could answer, the door slammed open.Lord Valerius. His nightrobe hastily tied, his face lined with shock and fury. His gaze swept the wrecked room, his sons...one burning with rage, the other wrapped in silver light."Enough!" His voice thundered. "Both of you...stop this!""Father!" Lyren gasped, wild-eyed. He pointed at Kaelen, his hand shaking. "Do you see him now? Do you see what he is? An abomination in our house!""Lyren!" Lord Valerius’s voice cut like a blade. "Stand down!""After everything? After all I’ve given? You choose him over me?" Lyren’s voice cracked, betrayal dripping like poison."I’m trying to stop you from destroying each other," their father snapped.But the words didn’t land. Couldn’t.Something in Lyren broke. He screamed, raw and guttural, and flung his final flame...not at Kaelen. At his father.For one stretched heartbeat, time slowed. Kaelen saw the fire arcing, saw his father’s expression shift from shock to grim resolve. There was no time for shields. No time for words. Only a choice.Lord Valerius lunged...not away, but forward. Toward Kaelen. Arms outstretched as if his body alone could shield his son.The flames hit him square in the chest.The sound he made...Kaelen would carry it forever. A scream that tore through the marrow of his bones. And then...the silence that followed, heavier than death.The smell of burning flesh filled the room.And Kaelen knew, even before his father collapsed, that nothing would ever be the same again.