Chapter seven: He knows who I am

Freya's pov 

I didn’t hear him coming. I felt him.

The air warped. It turned bold, heavy like every breath I took had to twark its way through a storm. My heart picked up a race, thundering against my ribs as the scent of steel and smoke curled into my lungs. I knew that smell. Even after all these years. Even after I'd buried the memory of it, deep like a corpse beneath my skin.

Kade.

I spin around, already reaching for the surge of power accelerating in my veins, but it thrashed wildly, like it was waking up from a long deep sleep. No—like it was trying to protect me from him.

He stood just before the clearing, the moonlight gleaming across his face. That smile… gods, that damned smile hadn’t changed.

“Hello, Freya.” His voice was low, smooth, and terrifyingly calm. “You’ve grown into it nicely.”

“What the are you doing here?” I smacked, fighting to grip my balance as my power tightened inside me. “How did you find me?”

“hmmm,You make it sound like I was haunting you,” he said, stepping closer. “I wasn’t. I was haunting what’s in you.”

The ground trembled. My fingertips sparked with a golden glow as vines ripped through the soil at my feet, reacting to my rising panic. The trees around us creaked, branches bending toward me like they wanted to shield me from him.

Finnick groaned behind me, still bleeding from the fight with Kade’s shadows. I wanted to run to him. To make sure he was still alive. But I barely make a move. Kade's presence was a harbour, pulling the truth out of the shadows and into the gleaming light.

He thrust forth then tilted his head, examining and lurking around me like a predator circling wounded prey.

“ I guess you don’t even know why, do you?” His voice softened, and somehow that made it worse. “Why the forest bends to your will. Why your power burns like wildfire when you’re angry. It’s not the Ents, Freya. It never was.”

My stomach flipped. I wanted to scream at him to shut up. But I couldn’t stop listening.

“You’re the last of them,” Kade said. “The Nightfang Clan.”

The words hit me like a blow to my chest. My knees almost unstable. “That’s a lie. The Night fangs were wiped out during the Ash War—my mother told me they were extinct.”

He smirked. “She lied.”

The wind yowled through the trees, scattering dead dry leaves across the clearing like dust. My chest hardened. The ancient power inside me twisted violently, suddenly more awake than ever. It wasn’t Ent power at all.

“I killed the rest,” Kade continued, as casually as if he were reading a grocery list. “Your family. Your bloodline. Every last one.”

My power exploded.

I don’t remember willing it. I just remember feeling it—white-hot fury, grief, betrayal, and something ancient that had been caged inside me for too long. Vines surged upward, wrapping around Kade’s legs like serpents. The trees groaned as bark split open and roots lunged toward him.

But he didn’t move. He let it happen.

And then he grinned.

“Good,” he whispered, his eyes glowing obsidian. “Let it out.”

Finnick coughed behind me, struggling to sit up. “Freya—he wants you to lose control. Don’t—!”

But it was too late.

My scream tore through the forest like thunder as energy blasted out from my core. I felt everything all at once—fire and shadows, earth and sky. The vines obeyed me. The trees moved with me. I wasn’t fighting them—I was them.

And Kade laughed.

In the middle of the burning chaos, he tore pieces of the vines like they were paper and lunged at me. I almost dodged, but his blade slit through my side, sliding hot pain into my skin.

I stumbled back imidiately, clutching my ribs, blood sprouting through my shirt. Kade stood before me now, his smile gone.

“You don’t even know who you are,” he said, his voice darker, very rough now. “The Night fangs weren’t just power-wielders. They were gods among mortals. That power in you? It can tear worlds apart.”

He crouched, inches from my face. “And I’m going to take it.”

Finnick’s roar shattered the air. I turned just in time to see him hurl a blade straight at Kade’s throat. It sliced past his cheek, drawing blood. Kade hissed, spinning toward Finnick like a beast unleashed.

“Run!” Finnick shouted. “Freya, run!”

But I couldn’t. Not without him.

Kade raised his hand, dark energy swirling in his palm. I threw up a wall of roots just in time, but the blast hit like a hammer, knocking me clear off my feet. I crashed into a tree, pain blooming through my back.

Everything was spinning. Blood in my mouth. Fire in my chest. My vision swam.

But I heard Finnick scream. And then silence.

“Kade!” I roared,drawing myself to my feet, power surging furiously again. My hands gleamed brighter than ever before silver and gold interlocking, pulsing like a heartbeat.

His gaze widened. Just a flicker of something—fear?

He vanished in a blink.

I collapsed beside Finnick. He was still breathing, barely. His chest rose in shallow jerks, blood pooling under him.

“Stay with me please,” I whispered, pressing my palms to the wound, trying to control the power into healing. “ finnick! Don’t you dare leave me.”

His eyes fluttered. “You… have to find it.”

“Find what?”

He coughed, blood staining his lips. “The Nightfang relic… hidden in the ruins… it’s the key to everything.”

“What ruins? Finnick—” My voice cracked. I shook him, but his head lolled to the side.

He was out cold.

I looked up, the forest eerily still now. Kade was gone. But he’d be back.

And now I knew the truth.

I wasn’t just a girl with borrowed fierce power.

I was the last Nightfang.

And the hunt had only just begun.