Chapter Thirty-Five – The Return of the First Huntress

The storm had passed, but the silence it left behind was heavier than the screams.

The battleground, now soaked in moonlight and blood, was strewn with shattered steel, scorched banners, and the broken remnants of a world teetering between salvation and damnation. Raina stood at the edge of the ruins, her eyes scanning the horizon where the final wave had once thundered. Her blade, still slick with shadow-blood, hung low in her grip. Her breath came in shallow bursts.

But inside her… something was awakening.

Lucien approached quietly behind her, his footfalls barely stirring the ash. "It's done," he said, voice low, reverent.

She shook her head. "No. Something's coming. I can feel her."

He didn't ask who. He knew. They both did.

The First Huntress.

The ancient power that once slept beneath Raina's soul was no longer dormant it was stretching, testing the edges of its prison, cracking the walls of her mind with every pulse of moonlit magic. Her mark had grown again, now stretching to her collarbone, blooming like a crown of fire and blood.

Behind them, Maeva limped from the shadows, her robes torn, her skin marked with sigils that glowed faintly. "The villagers are safe. The gates held for now. But that thing inside her... it's almost here, isn't it?"

Raina nodded. "She's been waiting."

Lucien stepped closer, cupping Raina's cheek. "Then let her come. You're stronger now."

But Raina's eyes shimmered with fear. "I don't know if that's a good thing."

The council gathered beneath the shattered dome of the war room what remained of the resistance's leadership, all eyes on Raina as she stood at the center, the flame from her skin casting long shadows across ancient maps and broken plans.

Elias spoke first. "What exactly are we facing?"

Raina didn't blink. "The woman who started all this. The one who made the first pact with the moon. She was betrayed, cursed… buried in me."

"And now?" Maeva asked.

"She wants out."

Whispers filled the room like smoke. Fear. Awe. Doubt.

"She's not a ghost," Raina continued. "She's not a memory. She's a soul. And she's trying to overwrite mine."

Lucien crossed his arms. "Then we bind her. Trap her again."

"No," Raina said. "This time… I have to face her. And I have to win."

The room fell silent.

Maeva nodded. "Then we'll prepare the rite."

Night came fast.

Raina stood in the ruins of the temple, the same place where the veil first shattered, the same stones that had once bled during the Pact of Eclipse. The wind howled. The stars blinked out one by one. And then the air split.

She fell to her knees as pain carved through her. Her mark ignited. Her eyes burned.

And then she was no longer alone.

Before her stood the First Huntress her double, cloaked in silver flame, her face older, colder, crueler. Her voice was the sound of war drums and broken hearts. "You finally let me in."

Raina staggered upright, face pale but defiant. "You're not me."

"Oh, but I am," the First Huntress whispered. "I'm the part of you that's tired of mercy. Of losing. Of love making you weak."

"You were never love," Raina spat. "You were revenge."

The First Huntress smiled. "And revenge keeps us alive."

They circled each other across the altar, two moons orbiting a dying sun.

"You're powerful now," the First Huntress said. "But you'll never be enough. Not until you let go of them."

"I'll never let go of Lucien."

"Then you'll fall."

And she struck.

The battle was not fought with blades, but with memory.

Each attack from the First Huntress cracked open another past life visions of Raina in different times, different forms, different deaths. She saw herself dying in a field of gold. She saw Lucien burning in her arms. She saw kingdoms rise and crumble beneath her feet.

"You keep failing," the First Huntress sneered. "Lifetime after lifetime, you lose him. Let me take over. I'll keep him safe."

"No!" Raina screamed. "You only want control."

"Then fight me."

They collided light against fire, soul against soul.

Raina screamed as the energy surged through her. Her body convulsed, her mark flaring white-hot. She fell again and again, and rose bleeding every time.

Until Lucien's voice broke through the storm.

"Raina! I'm here!"

She turned.

The First Huntress roared. "He weakens you!"

"No," Raina whispered, her voice shaking with tears and fury. "He grounds me."

And then she did something the First Huntress never expected.

She embraced her.

The silver flame swallowed them both.

Raina's arms wrapped around the First Huntress's body not as an enemy, but as a sister, a piece of herself long lost to pain. The fire burned… and then it began to heal.

"I forgive you," Raina said.

The First Huntress screamed once more and vanished into light.

Raina collapsed.

Lucien caught her.

The mark on her body shimmered and faded into a single star over her heart. Her eyes opened pure moonlight now, calm and whole.

"I'm still me," she whispered.

He held her close. "You came back."

"I never left."

At sunrise, the temple lit up in soft white light.

Raina walked forward, no longer glowing but radiant.

Maeva bowed. Elias lowered his weapon. Lucien kissed her knuckles.

"What now?" he asked.

Raina looked out over the mountains, where a new dawn broke over broken lands ready to be rebuilt.

"Now," she said softly, "we rise."