DOCTOR WHO? : THE SHADOWBORN HEIR

CHAPTER 3 — THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Rain hammered the marsh like it was trying to drown the entire borderland. Mud clung to Jake’s boots as he backed away from the hooded woman, breath ragged and misting in the cold night air.

He lifted his hands defensively. “Stay back.”

She didn’t move.

Her pale eyes glowed faintly beneath her hood, reflecting every flicker of lightning. “Jake,” she said calmly, “running won’t change what you are.”

“I’m not Shadowborn,” he snapped. “I’m a healer. A normal healer.”

“You saw life threads,” she replied. “You touched the shadow coils. You commanded them. That is not normal.”

Jake’s heart pounded painfully. “It’s a hallucination. A breakdown. Stress. Anything else.”

She tilted her head. “Then why did the shadows obey you?”

“I don’t know!” Jake shouted, louder than he intended. “I don’t know what’s happening to me!”

The woman stepped closer. Jake stepped back. She stopped exactly where he wanted her to. “Jake… the kingdom has been hunting your bloodline for two decades. Do you truly think what you experienced tonight was coincidence?”

Jake forced a shaky laugh. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re wrong. Shadowborn died out before I was even born.”

“Most of them,” she corrected. “Not all.”

Jake clenched his fists. “You’re lying.”

Lightning cracked across the sky, illuminating her face, pale, sharp, unreadable. She reached inside her coat.

Jake flinched hard. “Don’t”

She pulled out a metal badge. Black. Circular. Engraved with an eclipse symbol. “I am Lyra,” she said. “Last Watcher of the Shadowborn Order.”

Jake stared at the badge, pulse thundering in his ears. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Lyra lowered her hood. “It means,” she said quietly, “I’m here because you lived long enough for your blood to awaken.”

Jake took another step back. “Why me?”

“Because,” Lyra said, “you’re the last heir.”

Jake choked on a breath. “That’s impossible.”

Lyra’s gaze didn’t waver. “Your father was Shadowborn.”

Jake’s stomach dropped. “My father died when I was a child.”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “Killed by the crown.”

Jake froze like ice had been poured down his spine. “No,” he whispered. “My father died of fever.”

“That is what they told your mother,” Lyra said. “And what they told you. But it wasn’t fever.”

Jake shook his head violently. “Stop talking.”

“The king’s men hunted him,” Lyra continued. “They found him. They struck him down because he would not surrender you.”

“That’s not true!”

“You were born with Shadowborn blood,” Lyra said, voice softening. “Your father hid you. Your mother hid you. But your power can’t stay buried forever.”

Jake’s hands trembled uncontrollably. “Why me? Why my blood? Why did the shadows call me Heir?”

“Because only the true heir can awaken the relics,” Lyra said. “And relics”

She pointed at his hands. “respond to you.”

Jake stared at the faint black mist around his fingers, panic rising like a tide he couldn’t stop. He whispered, “This can’t be happening.”

Lyra stepped closer. “It already is.”

Jake stumbled backward. “Why did you come? What do you want from me?”

“I came,” Lyra said calmly, “to offer you a choice.”

Jake’s breath hitched. “What choice?”

“Learn what you are,” she said, “or die for not knowing.”

Jake’s chest tightened. “Is that a threat?”

“It’s a warning,” Lyra replied. “Commander Rask will not let you live after what he saw. The capital will kill you the moment they hear you awakened shadow.”

Jake swallowed hard. “I don’t want to awaken anything.”

“You don’t have a choice,” she said gently. “The shadows have already chosen you.”

Jake felt cold shoot through his veins. He dropped to sit on a broken stump, head in his hands. “I don’t want this.”

Lyra’s voice softened. “I know.”

“No, you don’t,” Jake muttered. “My life was already falling apart. My wife left, her family destroyed my reputation, the kingdom exiled me here, and now you’re telling me I’m some sort of walking curse?”

“You are not a curse,” Lyra said.

Jake laughed bitterly. “Tell that to Rask.”

Lyra crouched to meet his eye level. Her voice dropped lower. “Jake… do you truly think they exiled you for incompetence?” Jake froze.

Lyra continued. “Healers commit worse mistakes and get reassigned, not exiled. Your wife’s family didn’t disgrace you. They disposed of you. They wanted you far from the capital. Far from the truth.”

Jake’s breath stuttered. “Why?”

Lyra looked him dead in the eye. “Because if the people learned a Shadowborn heir still lived, every noble dynasty would burn.”

Jake’s head spun. “I’m nobody. I’m not heir to anything.”

Lyra stood slowly. “You’re heir to a bloodline that saw sickness the way gods see storms.”

Jake shook his head stubbornly. “No. I’m just a healer.”

“You’re more.”

“I don’t want to be.”

Lyra sighed softly. “Want has nothing to do with it.”

Jake rose slowly, trembling. “Fine. Then answer me this: if what you’re saying is true… why did my powers just wake up now? I’m twenty-four. Why didn’t they appear earlier?”

“Because the Shadowborn awakening requires a trigger,” Lyra said. “Trauma. Betrayal. Near-death. Something that forces the shadows inside you to choose survival.”

Jake swallowed. “My exile.”

Lyra nodded. “Your wife’s family humiliated you. Tossed you aside. Sent you to die. That pain woke what you are.”

Jake flinched, remembering the look in his ex-wife’s eyes as she threw his ring at him. Lyra watched him closely. “They feared you. They still do.”

Jake set his jaw. “Then I should go back and”

“No,” Lyra cut in sharply. “If you go back now, you’ll die.”

Jake stopped cold. Lyra pointed toward the fortress lights in the distance. “Your immediate threat is behind you. Rask will chain you the moment you step inside.”

Jake felt a sting of betrayal in his chest. “He thinks I’m a monster.”

“He thinks you’re unpredictable,” Lyra corrected. “And for now… you are.”

Jake exhaled shakily. “What do I do?”

Lyra extended one hand. “Come with me.”

Jake stared at it like it was a blade pointed at his throat. “Where would you take me?”

“A safe place,” Lyra said.

Jake snorted. “There is no safe place in the borderlands.”

“There is one,” Lyra replied. “A hidden refuge. A place built for training Shadowborn heirs.”

Jake stared.

Lyra continued, “We can teach you to control your vision. Your abilities. Your shadows. Teach you not to fear them.”

Jake’s voice shook. “And if I say no?”

Lyra lowered her hand. “Then the kingdom will find you,” she said quietly. “And they will erase you like they erased the rest of your bloodline.”

Jake’s legs felt weak. “Why should I trust you?”

“You shouldn’t,” Lyra said simply. “Trust is earned. I’m not here for your trust, I’m here for your survival.”

Jake looked at the fortress again. Rask wanted him chained. Rask wanted him restrained. Rask wanted him gone. Jake whispered, “If I leave with you… I’m abandoning the soldiers who need me.”

“No,” Lyra replied. “You’re preserving yourself so you can return for them later.”

Jake turned back to her slowly. “Return as what?”

Lyra’s voice was barely above a whisper. “As the Shadowborn heir you were meant to be.”

Jake’s heart hammered. Lightning flashed. Rain surged. He looked at Lyra’s outstretched hand again. The shadows around his fingers curled forward, drawn to hers like magnets.

Jake clenched his jaw. “If I go with you… you teach me to turn this off? To stop it?”

Lyra shook her head. “No. I teach you to command it.”

Jake hesitated one last heartbeat. Then he took her hand. The shadows pulsed violently. Lyra didn’t flinch. “Good,” she said. “Your life depends on what happens next.”

Jake swallowed hard. “Where are we going?”

Lyra stepped into the marshing darkness, pulling him with her. “Into the borderland ruins,” she said. “Where the truth about your bloodline waits.”

Jake felt cold wind lash across his face. “Why there?” he asked.

Lyra’s grip tightened. “Because,” she said, “your enemies already know you awakened.”

Jake’s blood iced. “And they’re coming to finish what they started twenty-four years ago.”

Jake froze. “What, who’s coming?”

Lyra turned her head, eyes glowing with warning. “Hunters,” she whispered. “Shadowborn hunters.”

Thunder roared as if answering her. Jake’s heart dropped into his stomach. And the night swallowed them both.