Chapter Thirty-Three – The Huntress Reborn

The dawn had broken, but the sky refused to turn blue.

It hung gray and heavy above the scorched earth, as if even the heavens mourned what was to come.

Raina stood alone at the cliff's edge, her cloak billowing like smoke around her. From this height, she could see everything the ravaged battlefield behind them, the final gate ahead, and the gathering storm crawling over the horizon like a monster with a thousand arms.

But she wasn't the same woman who had bled beneath these skies before.

Something inside her had changed.

She was no longer just the last Huntress.

She was the first. The last. And everything in between.

A voice behind her Lucien's cut through her thoughts.

"They've moved into position. Maeva says we have until nightfall before the coven finishes the final spell."

Raina didn't turn around. Her fingers traced the hilt of her blade, pulsing softly with the mark's power.

"They think the seal will protect them," she murmured. "But they've forgotten what it was forged from. The first Huntress didn't just defend it. She bled into it. And that blood calls to me."

Lucien stepped beside her, his gaze fixed on the distant spires of the coven's final stronghold. "What if they know that? What if they want you to come?"

She looked at him now, eyes glowing faintly white.

"Then they're about to regret it.

The war council was silent, save for the low humming of arcane runes flickering across the chamber floor.

Elias traced a map with his fingertip. "There's an underground path beneath the Keep. Forgotten by most. But if Raina enters through there, we can flank the coven's circle before the binding ritual completes."

Maeva leaned over the table. "And if it's a trap?"

"Then I spring it," Raina said calmly.

Lucien's fist clenched on the table. "You're not walking into their stronghold alone."

"She won't be alone," Elias said. "I'm going with her."

"No," Maeva added. "We all are."

Raina shook her head. "This final strike is blood-bound. Only those with a direct link to the mark can withstand the veil. If you follow, you'll burn."

Lucien stared at her, jaw flexing.

"So what you're just going to walk into hell while we stand and wait?"

Raina stepped closer. "I'm going to end this. I'm going to tear the curse out by its roots. And if I fall... you'll know it wasn't in vain."

Lucien grabbed her hand.

"You better not fall."

She gave a broken smile. "I don't plan to.

The entrance to the old passage was carved in forgotten stone half-buried beneath twisted roots and clawed by time. Raina crouched before it, fingers glowing as she whispered the unlocking phrase in an ancient tongue only her blood remembered.

The rocks shifted.

The earth groaned.

And the passage opened.

Darkness yawned below.

Elias followed closely behind as they descended, torches flickering, the only light in a tunnel built for secrets and sacrifice. The air smelled of blood and ash and something older betrayal, perhaps.

"You okay?" Elias asked, voice low.

"I can feel them," Raina said. "Every Huntress who died before me. Every bond that was broken. Their voices fill this place like dust."

He didn't ask if she was scared.

He knew better.

They emerged into a wide chamber beneath the Keep.

Pillars rose like fangs. In the center, a dais pulsed with magic pure and poisonous. Around it, cloaked figures chanted in tongues laced with cruelty.

And on the altar…

Lucien.

Bound. Bleeding. Eyes closed.

"No," Raina gasped, her scream caught in her throat.

Elias grabbed her shoulder. "It's another trap. An illusion."

But the bond her bond screamed back.

It was him.

Alive. Fading.

Raina didn't wait. She ran.

The coven turned, voices rising in alarm.

"Stop her!"

But she was faster.

She was fury wrapped in flesh.

She tore through spells like silk. Slashed through shadows like air. Her blade sang, and the runes on her arms blazed like wildfire.

She reached the altar and dropped beside him.

"Lucien," she sobbed, cradling his face. "I'm here."

His eyes fluttered open. "You always are."

Then the chamber shook.

From the shadows emerged Aeris.

No longer flesh. No longer smoke.

She was something in between a fusion of every corrupted soul the coven had ever twisted.

"This is your end, Huntress," she hissed. "You came to save him. And you brought your bloodline with you. The final seal will break through you."

Aeris lifted her hand. The chamber bled light. The altar cracked.

Raina stood.

And screamed.

Not in pain but in defiance.

The mark erupted across her skin. The veil split open.

Behind her, the spirits of past Huntresses poured forth phantoms with blades, glowing eyes, and mournful hymns. They encircled her, lending their essence, their final breath.

Raina's voice rose above the chaos.

"You think breaking me will break the world?"

She raised her sword.

"I am the world you tried to shatter."

And she lunged.

Aeris met her with a wall of flame. They collided in a storm of light and death. Elias dragged Lucien to safety as the chamber crumbled around them.

Magic ripped through stone and soul alike.

Aeris howled, her form distorting, breaking.

"You cannot kill me! I am the flame!"

Raina screamed back.

"Then burn with me!"

Their blades met one last time.

And everything went white.

When the light faded, the chamber was in ruins.

Lucien crawled to her side, bloody and gasping.

Raina lay still, smoke rising from her chest, her mark faded to a dull ember.

He pulled her into his arms.

"Raina, please don't you dare leave me."

Her lips twitched.

Then she whispered, "Still here."

He broke. And held her like the sun might never rise again.

Outside, the sky broke open.

The final veil dissolved.

And somewhere in the distance, a phoenix cried.

Not in sorrow.

But in rebirth.