The storm had not followed them, yet the air still trembled as if it feared what they carried.
Kael walked ahead, cloak torn, his hand pressed to the mark that would not stop burning. The forest they had found themselves in was nothing like the Vale. Its silence was heavier, its trees old and watchful, the ground veined with red moss that pulsed faintly like living veins.
Behind him, Rayne moved with measured caution. Every step sounded too loud. The runes on her dagger whispered faint light, responding to something unseen.
"How far from the Vale are we?" She asked quietly.
Kael glanced towards the dim horizon. "Far enough to be hunted, not fare enough to be safe."
He heard her breath catch, the faintest tremor of exhaustion. They had not rested since the Vale vanished, since the pulse between them had shattered everything they thought they knew about curses and bloodlines.
The bond still throbbed between them, invisible but tangible, a rhythm that matched his heartbeat no matter how hard he tried to ignore it.
Rayne knelt near a patch of moss, touching it lightly. The red glow flared beneath her fingers, reacting to her powers, then dimmed again. "The earth remembers blood here," she murmured. "Old blood."
Kael's gaze drifted toward the north. "Varathis lies beyond those ridges. My father will know we've crossed the border by now."
"Then we keep moving," she said.
He wanted to agree. But the sound came first, deep, distant, deliberate. A horn.
Then another.
The horns of the Hunt
Kael froze. "They shouldn't be this close," he said under his breath.
Rayne's hand moved closer to her dagger, the blade's runes flaring once, faintly echoing the mark on Kael's chest. "Unless they were already waiting."
The truth hit him like a blow. The timing. The precision. The way the Vale vanished only for the hunters to appear at once.
A shadow passed across his memory, a face hidden behind a crimson visor, watching hm as he entered the Vale. The spy his father had sent.
The horn sounded again, nearer now, the echoes crawling through the forest like smoke.
Kael's jaw tightened. "He knows," he said flatly. "He knows I entered the Vale."
"And about me," Rayne added, her voice steady even as the light around her began to shimmer with restrained fire.
Leaves shook. Horses thundered. The Hunt had found them.
Kael drew Veindrinker, its edge glinting dark red. The scent of blood and ash filled the air as the first riders broke through the treeline, black-armored, their spears tipped with the moonlight.
Rayne stepped to his side, her blade's runes flaring brighter, the glow mirrored faintly in Kael's mark.
The bond pulsed again.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Always."
They moved as one
Steel met flame.
And as the hunters fell upon them, the forest remembered their names.
The forest burned in streaks of gold and crimson.
Kael moved like instinct, sword flashing in perfect rhythm with the sweep of Rayne's dagger. The hunters pressed in, blades gleaming, horses shrieking as the ground itself seemed to rebel against the chaos.
Every time their strikes aligned, the world answered.
Fire twisted around steel. Shadows clung to light. The pulse between them deepened until it was no longer something they could ignore. It was alive, threading through every breath, every heartbeat.
Rayne's flames caught the lead rider's cloak, sending him spiraling into the trees. Kael caught another mid-swing, parrying, then shoving his blade through the man's chest. But instead of retreating, the next line of hunters surged forward.
"Fall back!" Rayne shouted, eyes darting toward the ridge. "We can't fight them all!"
"We're not running," Kael said, though his voice was rough, his control thinning. The mark on his neck glowed faintly, spreading a shadow under his skin that crept towards his jaw.
Rayne saw it. "Kael..."
"Later," he cut in, driving Veindrinker through another rider. The blade drank, the wound darkened, and a shiver rolled through him.
Not pain. Hunger.
The metallic scent of blood thickened the air. He blinked, and for an instant, his vision split. Everything around him a heartbeat, a sound, a pulse. The bond pulled at him, feeding, urging.
Rayne's voice broke through. "Kael!!"
He turned, too sharply, and caught the gleam of a spear arcing toward her. HIs body moved before thought could form. The strike meant for her buried deep into his side.
Rayne's flames exploded outward, incinerating the rider who threw the spear. Her power roared uncontrollably, shaking the branches overhead. She reached Kael just as he staggered to his knees, hand clutching his wound.
The moment she touched him, the bond flared.
Light and shadow burst between them, his blood answering her flame, her magic feeding his strength. The glow from her dagger's runes merged with the crimson burning under his skin.
"Kael," she whispered, eyes wide, "your eyes..."
He looked up at her, and for the first time, they glowed faint red, the color of fire reflected on blood.
The mark pulsed once, hard, then dimmed again.
Rayne's throat tightened. "You're changing."
"Not yet," he said through his clenched teeth, forcing himself to his feet. "Not if I can help it."
The hunters regrouped below, forming another charge. Kael lifted his sword. Rayne raised her dagger. Together, they stood in the fading light, two halves of something ancient and awakening, a power born of blood and flame.
The forest waited to see which would consume the other first.
The next wave came harder.
The new riders wore darker armor, their helms etched with the runes that burned red through the rain. These were not scouts, they were the Court's chosen. Malrik's finest.
Kael met them head-on. Veindrinker struck like lightning, each swing guided by instinct older than memory. Beside him, Rayne's flames twisted around her blade, their rhythm so perfect it seemed rehearsed by something beyond them both.
The riders pressed in from every side. Spears shattered against Kael's steel; arrows turned to ash before Rayne's fire. When they moved together, the very ground seemed to breathe with them.
Still, Kael felt it again. That pull under his skin, a rush too strong to be called strength. His sight sharpened. His pulse slowed. He could hear every drop of blood spilling, every heartbeat around him. The hunger whispered.
He gritted his teeth. Not now.
A rider's strike nearly caught his shoulder. Kael parried, twisted, and brought Veindrinker through the man's chest. The blade drank deep. The world bled red for a heartbeat, and Kael changed. His grip felt wrong, too strong, the weapon almost alive in his hands.
Rayne saw it. "Kael stop..."
He cut her off, shaking his head, eyes already scanning the clearing. "No time. We end this fast."
Before she could answer, he leapt, pulling the dying rider from his saddle and mounting the horse in one motion. The beast reared, snorting smoke. Kael yanked the reins toward the northern trail.
"Rayne...Now!!"
She hesitated. The horse bore the sigil of the cursed Hunt, and for a flicker she saw it, how the beast obeyed him too easily. "That's not possible," she whispered.
"Do you trust me?" he called, already turning the animal towards her.
Her jaw clenched. "I am starting to wonder." But she vaulted up behind him all the same.
The moment she touched him, the horse screamed and lunged forward, hooves tearing through mud and fire. The forest blurred into streaks of red and green. Horns howled behind them, too many.
Kael guided the reins, Rayne twisting to strike at the riders giving chase. She sent gouts of fire behind them, each blast lighting the trees like a burning cathedral. Kael swung back with one hand, cutting down a pursuer who drew too near. Their balance was impossible, yet perfect.
"Left!" Rayne shouted.
He obeyed without question, pulling the horse into a hard turn that sent two riders crashing into the rocks. Rayne ignited the fallen spears, creating a wall of flame behind them.
The chase narrowed to three.
Kael waited for the perfect bend, then turned sharply, drawing Veindrinker across the throat of the lead pursuer. It happened too fast, like everyone else was in slow motion, while he moved in real time.
The move was a blur, but Rayne caught the movement. How? She didn't know. Even as their horse stumbled from the sheer force of the movement.
Seeing their fall, the last two riders giving chase broke formation, and that was all Rayne needed. Her dagger spun from her hand, glowing gold, piercing one rider's helm.
The final hunter charged. Kael let him. Then, just before impact, he and Rayne moved together. His blade cutting low, her fame arcing high, the rider dissolved into ash mid-strike.
The forest fell still. Only the echoes of hooves from the fleeing horses and the hiss of rain remained.
They slowed, breath mingling, heart still thundering.
Rayne spoke first. "They won't stop util we're both dead."
Kael nodded once, gaze fixed ahead. "Then we keep running."
The horns fell silent. Only the hiss of dying flame and the ragged pul if breath remained.
Kael wiped the edge of his blade against the grass. The steel steamed where the blood touched, a dark soke curling upward like breath from something alive.
Rayne stood beside him, the glow fading from her dagger. Her eyes searched the trees, but the hunters were gone, scattered or dead. The forest itself seemed to recoil from them now.
"They'll send more," she said quietly.
"They'll never stop." Kael replied. His voice was lower than before, threaded with something new. Power. Hunger.
She turned toward him, catching the faint shimmer still crawling beneath his skin. The mark on his neck had darkened, pulsing like a second heart.
"How long have you been feeling it?" she asked.
He hesitated. "Since the Vale. Maybe before."
"And you said nothing?"
"I didn't know what it was." His tone sharpened. "You think I want this?"
The silence that followed was sharp as glass. Only their bond spoke, an echo of his heartbeat thrumming through her chest.
Rayne stepped closer, hand half-raised as if to touch him, then stopped herself. "Your father sent them," she said. "He knows what you're becoming."
Kael met her gaze. "No. He's afraid of what I'm becoming."
The air shifted, cold wind threading through burnt leaves. He looked north, where the land rose into shadowed peaks. "We can't go to Varathis yet. Not until I know what this is."
Rayne shook her head. "If you don't go, he'll send every hunter in the realm."
"And if I do, I'll walk straight into his hand."
The argument died when the ground shuddered, a faint tremor beneath their feet. The moss spit open, glowing red, and from the earth rose a single black feather, longer than a bade, glinting like metal.
Rayne crouched near it. "This isn't from the Hunt."
"No," Kael said, unease tightening his chest. "This is older."
The feather turned to ash in her hand.
And from somewhere deep in the forest, a sound answered. A low, inhuman cry that didn't belong to any beast of this world.
Rayne looked to Kael, the firelight flickering against her face. "Whatever's hunting us now.... isn't from your father."
Kael's jaw set. "Then we move before it finds us."
She nodded once. But as she turned, her dagger's runes flared again, bright enough to paint her hand in gold.
He saw it too. The same light mirrored faintly beneath his skin.
Neither spoke.
The bond pulsed once, more like a warning.
And somewhere in the forest of Ashovar, something ancient stirred to its call.