THE MARK OF THE STARBORN

Sephora Fantasy

Eighteen-year-old Aella Rowan never thought her life would matter to anyone outside her small village. She spent her days helping customers in her aunt’s herb shop, organizing shelves, grinding herbs for teas, and doing her best to make people feel better. She wasn’t a hero, a fighter, or someone with an important destiny. She was just Aella — calm, patient, and ordinary.But everything changes the night a strange light descends from the sky and stops right in front of her. Before she has time to react, the light touches her skin and leaves behind a glowing mark that she can’t remove, explain, or hide.In that moment, Aella’s peaceful life is gone.A few minutes later, a horse appears from the fog. Its rider is a young man armed with a sword, tired from travel, and focused on her like he’s been searching for her for years. His name is Kael Thorne, and he instantly recognizes the mark on her skin — a symbol connected to an ancient power that many believed had disappeared forever.Aella doesn’t trust him at first. Why would she? She doesn’t know anything about magic or symbols or strange destinies. She’s never left her village. She has no experience with danger or enemies or anything outside her normal routines. She helps people choose herbs for headaches. She cleans counters. She talks politely to strangers.So why would she be the one chosen by anything magical?Kael doesn’t have a full explanation either, and that makes the situation worse. All he knows is that Aella’s mark makes her important — and a target. The moment he sees her, he insists she isn’t safe anymore. Someone out there is looking for the person with the mark, and they’re not looking to help her.Aella has two choices:Stay in her village and hope nothing comes for her, or leave with a stranger who knows more about her situation than she does.Neither option feels comfortable. But when the mark on her skin warms suddenly — like it’s responding to something unseen — Aella realizes she might not have a choice at all.Kael promises to protect her, but he doesn’t hide the truth: he can’t guarantee what will happen next. He knows parts of the legend surrounding the mark, but not all of it. He knows she has a role to play, but not what that role is. He knows the darkness rising in the world is connected to her, but he doesn’t know how.He only knows she needs to leave. Now.Aella doesn’t want to abandon her aunt, her customers, or her familiar routine… yet something deep inside her tells her this moment was always coming. Maybe she wasn’t meant to stay in her small village forever. Maybe the strange things she sometimes felt — moments of warmth in her palms, sudden instincts, a sense of something watching her — were all signs she ignored.Or maybe it’s all just a mistake.Maybe the mark chose the wrong person.As she travels with Kael, Aella realizes that he’s not as calm as he pretends to be. He watches the shadows too closely. He never fully relaxes. He checks the road behind them almost as often as the road ahead. And he never sleeps deeply. Something in his past weighs on him, and it’s connected to why he was searching for the mark.But whenever she asks about it, he changes the subject.Their journey is full of small dangers, quiet warnings, and unanswered questions. Sometimes the mark glows when Aella touches certain objects. Sometimes she senses something approaching before Kael does. Sometimes she hears whispers in the wind that no one else hears. And sometimes she wonders if the star didn’t just mark her — maybe it changed her.The world outside her village is bigger than she imagined. There are creatures she never knew existed, places she never thought she’d see, and magic she didn’t realize still remained. And the more she learns, the more she realizes that her life was never as simple as she believed.Kael stays close, training her slowly, guiding her through things she doesn’t understand, and standing between her and anything that tries to get near her. He’s serious, careful, and oddly protective — not because he thinks she’s weak, but because he knows exactly what could happen if she’s caught.There’s a reason people want the mark.A reason Kael refuses to leave her side.A reason Aella keeps feeling like something is following them.The danger isn’t just coming.It’s already here.Aella doesn’t know who she’s supposed to become, what the mark wants from her, or why she was chosen. She only knows that her life is no longer ordinary, and the stranger who found her might be the only person who can help her survive what’s coming next.As her connection to Kael grows and the mystery around her mark deepens, Aella begins to understand one thing: the star didn’t choose her by accident.And the real story hasn’t even started yet.

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