Sienna Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 5 of 11

Sienna stood in the alley beside the forge and watched the fog roll in from the north. The lanterns burned steady across the square, throwing light against the darkness. She'd checked the barricades twice already. The trap was set. Now she had to wait. She pressed her back against the cold stone and tried not to think about the campfire. But waiting had never been something she could do empty. The memory came anyway — her squad gathered around the flames three years ago, the night before they first tracked the beast into the woods. Garrett had been sharpening his sword. Lissa had been laughing at something stupid he'd said. And Sienna had been wearing the locket her sister gave her before she left home, the one with the sword and shield etched on the front. She'd taken it off the morning after the attack and hadn't put it back on since. It sat in her pack now, wrapped in cloth she never opened. She touched the scar through her coat and felt it burn cold instead of hot. The memory wasn't finished. She could see Garrett's face in the firelight, could hear Lissa's voice saying her name like it meant something other than duty. They'd trusted her to bring them back. She'd promised them the beast wouldn't take anyone else. And then it had taken all of them, and she'd survived because she'd been standing three feet to the left when the fog came down. Three feet. That was the difference between dead and alive, between the woman who laughed too loud and the one who couldn't picture morning. The fog thickened across the square, and Sienna opened her eyes. The memorial wall stood two streets over, their names carved in stone she visited every week but never touched. She'd told herself their deaths would mean something when the beast was gone. But standing here now, waiting for it to come, she understood the lie she'd been carrying. The beast wouldn't give her back the locket or the laughter or the three feet that separated her from the grave. Killing it wouldn't make her the person she'd been. It would just mean she'd survived again. And that truth settled into her bones like frost, changing nothing and everything at once.