The War Begins

The first battle between humans and the supernatural was swift and brutal.

The human kingdoms, in their desperation, had assembled an army of knights, mercenaries, and priests wielding relics of old—silver blades, iron-bound tomes, and weapons laced with spells meant to bind creatures of the night.

But they had underestimated their enemy.

Elizabeth stood at the edge of the battlefield, overlooking the human stronghold of Valmere. Torches flickered along the fortress walls, and banners of the old kingdom rippled in the wind. The humans thought they could reclaim control, that they could rebuild the walls the Veil had provided.

They were wrong.

At her command, the night itself moved. Werewolves prowled in the shadows, waiting for her signal. Vampires stood like statues of death, their hunger barely restrained. The witches, their magic no longer bound, wove spells into the air, their chants twisting the wind into a chorus of whispers.

Elizabeth lifted her hand. "Leave no chains unbroken."

The attack began.

The werewolves struck first, leaping over the fortress walls, claws tearing through metal and flesh alike. The vampires followed, slipping through the defenses like wraiths, their fangs finding the throats of soldiers too slow to react. Spells crackled through the air as witches unraveled the holy wards meant to keep them out.

Elizabeth moved with purpose, her power sweeping across the battlefield like a living force. The Bloodbound Veil burned in her grasp, its pages no longer just a book of knowledge—but a weapon. Every spell, every secret within its pages was hers to command.

The humans fought desperately, but their screams filled the night.

This was not a war they could win.

And yet, something gnawed at Elizabeth's mind. The humans had been waiting for this fight. They had prepared.

Why?

As the battle raged on, Elizabeth sensed something wrong. The humans weren't just defending Valmere—they were protecting something.

She cut through the battlefield, the fragments of the shattered Veil pulsing like a beacon inside her chest, drawing her forward.

At the heart of the fortress, buried beneath layers of enchanted iron, she found it.

A sealed chamber.

With a whispered spell, the doors shattered.

Inside, the truth lay waiting.

Tattered scrolls, ancient records, and blood-stained sigils covered the stone walls. The air was thick with old magic, magic Elizabeth recognized—the same magic that bound her bloodline.

And at the center of the room, encased in iron and silver, was a relic she had only seen in her nightmares.

A blade.

It was carved with the sigil of her family crest, but twisted—corrupted. Chains wrapped around its hilt, inscribed with the same runes from the Bloodbound Veil.

Elias' voice broke through her shock. "Elizabeth… look at this."

She turned to see him holding an old, crumbling letter. The Ravenscroft seal was still intact, but the ink had faded with time.

With shaking hands, she took it and read:

To the Lords of the Covenant,

The Ravenscroft line has grown weak. Thomas Ravenscroft has uncovered the truth of the Veil and seeks to undo the work of our ancestors. He must be dealt with before the girl comes of age.

The blood bond remains the only way to keep the creatures at bay. If it is broken, the balance will be lost.

We cannot let them take back what was stolen from them.

Signed,

The Order of the Hunters

Elizabeth's blood ran cold.

Her father hadn't died in the war.

He had been murdered by humans.

Because he had uncovered the truth—the Veil was never about protecting humanity. It had been forged to enslave supernatural beings. And when Thomas Ravenscroft had tried to reveal this, when he had tried to break the cycle, they had killed him and forced his family into servitude.

Elizabeth's hands trembled as she looked at the blade again. It wasn't just a weapon. It was the key to the blood bond—a symbol of the chains her family had been forced to bear for generations.

Elias exhaled sharply beside her. "This… this is why they fought so hard to keep the Veil intact. They were never its guardians. They were its masters."

Rage, pure and unfiltered, burned through Elizabeth's veins.

The humans had lied.

They had always lied.

She turned back to Elias, her voice deadly calm. "We end this. All of it."

Elias hesitated. "Elizabeth… if we destroy the hunters, there's no going back."

Her silver eyes burned. "Then we go forward."

She took the cursed blade in her hands and shattered the chains that bound it. A surge of raw, ancient power erupted from the weapon, and Elizabeth felt it—every supernatural being that had ever suffered, every life stolen in the name of human control.

The war was no longer about dominance.

It was about justice.

And she would burn the world to see it done.

Elizabeth stood before the surviving lords of the human kingdoms, the shattered blade in her grasp.

They knelt before her, broken, defeated.

The war had been swift. The hunters—the ones who had enforced the Veil, who had built an empire on the suffering of creatures they deemed unworthy—had been the first to fall. Without them, the human kingdoms crumbled.

Now, they knelt before her.

The girl they had once ignored. The girl whose family they had betrayed.

The Bloodbound Queen.

One of the lords, an aging man with hollow eyes, dared to speak. "Please… there must be another way."

Elizabeth studied him for a long moment. She could feel their fear, their desperation. The same way supernatural creatures had once feared them.

The temptation to end them all was great.

But then, she heard another voice. One she had not heard in years.

Her father's voice.

"You are more than your rage, Beth."

Her fingers tightened around the blade.

Then, slowly, she let it fall to the ground. The clang of steel against stone echoed through the ruined throne room.

She stepped forward, her gaze sweeping over the defeated lords.

"There will be no more hunters," she said. "No more Veil. No more chains." Her voice was cold, absolute. "You will live under the rule of the night. You will learn what it means to survive."

She turned, her cloak billowing behind her as she walked away from the broken rulers of humanity.

Elias watched her carefully. "What now?"

Elizabeth's eyes burned silver.

"Now, we rebuild."

And as the new world rose from the ashes of the old, one truth remained.

The age of humans was over.

And the age of the Bloodbound Queen had begun.