My girlfriend is trapped in my superpower

Selene

The night air clung heavy with mist, the kind that made the lantern flames waver and the dogs in the alleys whine. Our village always seemed too quiet, even when people spoke. Perhaps it was me. Perhaps it was the shadows that bent whenever I walked by, curling along my ankles like smoke.

They called me Selene in hushed voices, though sometimes I wondered if that name belonged to me at all, or if it was just the one they used to soften their fear.

I moved through the market square, empty now, save for the merchants covering their stalls and the tired guards leaning on their spears. Everyone watched me without watching. Their eyes slid away, lips pressed tight. They were afraid of me, yes—but they needed me too.

The shadows whispered secrets no one else could hear. When the monsters roamed too close, I could draw the veil and hush entire streets, plunge homes into silence so deep that even a beast's snarl could not penetrate it. That was my gift. My curse.

And yet, in this silence, I always felt the same hollow ache. Something missing. Someone missing.

For years, we had searched—the elders, my mentors, even me. A name whispered like a prayer: the lost heir. A boy born of the same bloodline as me, carrying the flames instead of the silence. A brother.

I had never seen him. Never touched his hand. But every time I looked into the fire, I thought I saw him. Every time the wind carried news of villages burning, of monsters driven back by fire, I wondered if it was him.

And tonight, the whispers had returned.

A traveling merchant swore he had seen a boy not far from here, wielding fire so fierce it turned the night into day. He said the flames bent like something unnatural, something forbidden. The others scoffed, called him drunk.

I knew better.

As I passed the old temple, I paused. The shadows leaned in, curling against the stone as if they too were listening.

If it was true… if the boy truly lived… then I would find him. I had to. Not for me, but for all of us. For our people, hunted, cursed, forced to the edges of the world.

And maybe, just maybe, for myself—for the brother I had never known, whose absence had shaped every silence of my life.

The path wound me toward the old shrine, half-buried in moss and stone. No one came here anymore. The villagers said it was cursed—that the ancestors had sealed something here that should never be touched again.

I pushed the door open anyway. The air inside was thick, as if the shadows themselves had weight.

On the wall, carved in fading runes, was the story I had heard since childhood. But reading it here, alone, made the words pulse with truth:

The Blood of the Voidflames was born from fire and silence. One to burn, one to conceal. Together they guarded the Seal of Ashes, the prison of the Devourers.

I traced the words with my fingers.

But when greed overcame them, the clan fractured. Fire turned on shadow, shadow turned on flame, and the seal weakened. To save what little remained, the Queen of Flames bound her children with chains of blood—an oath that only one heir could carry the key to break or mend the seal.

The shadows around me quivered. The runes beneath my fingertips burned cold.

We had always known it wasn't just power we carried. It was a burden. A curse. A responsibility no one wanted. If the seal was broken wrongly, if the heir fell into the wrong hands…

The Devourers would return. Not one, but all of them. My throat tightened. I remembered my mother's words, whispered when I was small:

"Beware the heir of fire, Selene. If he falters, the world burns."

The villagers thought it was just a tale to frighten children. But I knew better. I had felt the pull of the shadows since birth. I had heard the whispers of the imprisoned things beyond the veil.

And now… now the rumors spoke of him. The boy who carried the fire. My brother. The only one who could unseal—or safeguard—the bloodline's power. But what if he was weak? What if he trusted the wrong people?

What if the shadows were right, and he was destined not to save us… but to awaken something far worse?

I closed my eyes, the silence pressing heavy against me. Somewhere, out there, Kael lived. And the world was already whispering his name.

I knelt before the old shrine, dust curling beneath my knees. The carvings seemed to hum, as though the stone itself carried the voices of the dead.

And then, as I stared at the worn words, memory surged—unbidden, sharp as a knife.

I was little again, maybe no more than six, curled beneath my mother's cloak by the fire. The storm had been loud that night, shaking the rafters of our small home. I had buried my face in her side, but she had held me close and whispered things I did not yet understand.

"Selene," she said, her voice low and urgent, not the soft lull of a bedtime story. "You must always remember: we are not like them. Our blood is different. It carries weight."

I had frowned, my small fingers tugging at her sleeve. "Because of the shadows, Mama?"

She smiled, sad and distant, brushing my hair back. "Yes. You carry the veil, Selene. You are shadow-born, as I was. But there is another… a fire-born. Without him, the seal cannot hold."

I had pouted. "Why can't I be both? Why can't I protect you?"

Her hand stilled. For the first time, I saw fear in her eyes. "Because only he can awaken the bloodline fully. You may guard, you may shield, but the flames must rise with the shadows. Without him, our clan will wither. And if he falls…" Her voice broke, and she tightened her arms around me. "If he falls, everything we've sealed will rise again."

I hadn't understood then. I thought she was just afraid of monsters under the bed. I didn't know she meant monsters far older, far hungrier.

But now, standing in the shrine, her words coiled around me like chains.

I whispered into the silence, my breath fogging the air:

"Is it you, Kael? Are you the one Mama spoke of?"

The shadows flickered, as though answering.

And for the first time in years, I felt truly afraid.