chapter 5 : blades in the dark

Kael moved before thought, his sword a flash of steel in the firelight.

The first assassin came at him low, aiming for his ribs. Kael twisted, dodging the blade by inches, and brought his sword down in a brutal arc. Steel met flesh. The man collapsed, blood spilling onto the earth.

Another lunged from the right. Kael pivoted, slamming his elbow into the attacker's face before driving his sword clean through the assassin's chest.

The forest exploded into chaos.

More figures surged from the shadows—silent, efficient, trained killers. They had not come to fight. They had come to eliminate.

Kael's instincts burned. He had fought in wars, but this was different. These assassins were not ordinary soldiers. Their movements were too precise, their strikes too calculated.

This was a hunt.

Behind him, Seraphine moved like a shadow. She did not wield a sword, but when an assassin lunged at her, she whispered a word under her breath—and the air itself seemed to bend.

The man stumbled mid-strike, his limbs seizing as if held by invisible chains.

Kael didn't hesitate. He drove his blade through the assassin's throat.

Seraphine turned to him, her golden eyes unreadable. "We need to move."

Kael wiped his sword on the cloak of a fallen attacker. "Who sent them?"

Seraphine didn't answer.

But she didn't need to. There were few who would send killers into the night. Fewer still who would dare target him.

Kael's gaze dropped to the emblem stitched onto the cloak of one of the fallen. A symbol he recognized. 

Kael's blood ran cold.

The emblem stitched onto the assassin's cloak—a serpent coiled around a blade—was unmistakable.

The Order of the Crimson Veil.

Kael had fought many enemies in his lifetime, but the Crimson Veil was something else entirely. They did not serve kings. They did not fight for coin. They killed for power, for prophecy, for forces beyond mortal understanding.

If they were here, it meant only one thing.

They knew about Solmara.

Seraphine stepped beside him, her golden eyes flickering with something unreadable. "We need to leave," she said, her voice firm but quiet.

Kael rose to his feet, his grip still tight around his sword. "Why are they after you?"

Seraphine's gaze met his. "They are not after me, Kael. They are after you."

The words settled over him like ice.

The crackling fire cast jagged shadows across the bodies littering the ground. He had spent his life avoiding destiny, carving his own path through blood and steel. But if the Crimson Veil had come for him, it meant the prophecy was no longer just a whispered warning.

It had begun.

Kael exhaled sharply. "If they want me, they'll come again."

Seraphine nodded. "And they won't be alone."

Kael's jaw tightened. He hated prophecies. He hated the idea that fate could control him. But he also knew that men like the Crimson Veil did not stop until their work was done.

He sheathed his sword. "Then we find Solmara before they do."

Seraphine studied him for a long moment, then nodded. "Follow me."

She turned toward the forest, her dark robes blending into the night.

Kael hesitated only a second before stepping into the shadows beside her.

The hunt had begun.