The Mark of Binding
The ruin trembles beneath my feet.
Kaelen's grip is firm, almost searing, as he pulls me toward the jagged archway leading out of the chamber. The crimson glow from the seal spills across the stone walls, pulsing in time with my racing heartbeat.
I barely manage to keep my footing as I stumble after him. "What do you mean, they'll come for me first? Who's they?"
"Not now," Kaelen says, his tone sharp, final.
Something moves in the shadows.
I don't mean Kaelen. I mean something else—something wrong.
We reach the corridor beyond the seal chamber just as a sound rolls through the ruins. It's not human. A low, guttural snarl scrapes across the air like claws over stone.
Kaelen curses under his breath.
"What was that?" I whisper.
His answer is as cold as it is clipped. "Hunters."
We move fast, my boots slipping on loose stones as I try to keep pace. Every instinct screams at me to pull free, to run anywhere else, but something tells me this man—the stranger with silver eyes—is the only thing keeping me alive right now.
The corridor narrows. The snarl grows louder, closer.
Kaelen halts suddenly, spinning toward me. "Your hand," he orders.
"What—"
"Show me where you touched the seal."
I hold it up instinctively. My palm glows faintly, red lines spiraling toward my wrist like veins of light.
Kaelen mutters something in a language I don't know, then presses his fingers against my skin. Heat flares between us—sharp, almost burning—but I don't pull away. I can't. My body won't let me.
"What are you doing?" I ask, voice trembling.
"Binding you," he says, gaze flicking toward the dark hallway behind me. "To keep the hunters from sensing your fear."
"My fear?"
"They feed on it."
Before I can respond, the corridor erupts in movement. Shadows twist, splitting from the walls like living things—dark, distorted figures crawling along the stone.
My scream dies in my throat.
Kaelen steps in front of me, silver eyes flaring brighter. With his free hand, he draws a blade—long, dark, etched with runes that glow faintly blue.
The hunters hiss, soundless mouths opening too wide.
Kaelen lowers his stance, voice low, dangerous.
"Stay behind me. And no matter what happens—don't run."
The first hunter lunges.
Kaelen moves faster.
Steel arcs through the air, and the thing dissolves in a burst of smoke and light. Another comes, then another, but Kaelen doesn't falter. Each strike is precise, brutal, silent save for the whisper of steel and the low hum of power.
But there are too many.
One slips past him—slithering toward me with impossible speed. I stumble back, pressing against the cold stone wall, the glow in my hand flaring as if in warning.
The hunter hesitates.
Then it shrieks, dissolving before it can reach me.
Kaelen glances back, silver eyes narrowing on my glowing palm. "Good. The bond's working."
"The what?"
But he doesn't answer. He just takes my wrist again, pulling me forward. "We have to move before more come. The seal woke them—and they won't stop until they drag you to the dark."