Chapter Forty-Three – Flames in the Blood, Shadows in the Bone

The wind howled like a wounded beast outside the stone chamber, and the fire in the hearth flickered as though it, too, feared what was coming.

Raina stood with her hand pressed to the old runes carved into the wall symbols of a time when her kind had ruled, when Huntresses were feared, not hunted. The silver etchings pulsed faintly under her touch, reacting to her bloodline. Her mark once a whisper across her skin now flared down her arms in glowing script. And it burned.

Lucien paced behind her, his steps heavy with frustration and fear. "The visions haven't stopped, have they?"

She didn't look at him. "They've only gotten worse."

He stopped. "Tell me."

Raina turned slowly, her eyes not just silver anymore but veined with white fire. "I see her. The first Huntress. Every time I close my eyes. She's not just showing me the past anymore… she's trying to control the present."

Lucien's jaw tightened. "Is she trying to take over?"

Raina hesitated. "No. She's trying to merge."

Outside, the sky cracked open with lightning jagged veins tearing across the heavens.

Lucien stepped closer. "And what do you want?"

Raina's voice was a whisper, but it cut like a blade. "I want to survive this. But not at the cost of becoming someone I don't recognize."

Before Lucien could speak, the chamber door slammed open.

Maeva entered, breathless, her armor coated in ash and blood. "We have a problem. A big one."

Lucien's eyes narrowed. "What now?"

Maeva didn't flinch. "The last stronghold the Shrine of Vessara has fallen. The Bloodbound army breached it at dawn. We received word from the last Seer minutes ago… and then her flame went out."

Raina straightened. "The Shrine was sacred. No one was supposed to find it."

Maeva's expression twisted. "They didn't find it. Someone led them there."

Lucien stepped forward. "A traitor?"

"Worse." Maeva swallowed. "A Hollowed. One of ours turned. And not just any soldier. It was Calem."

Raina froze. Calem had been her second-in-command during the eastern raids. Trusted. Loyal. Her voice dropped. "Are you sure?"

Maeva nodded. "He bore the mark of the Shadow Sigil."

Lucien growled low. "So the Hollowed are rising again."

Maeva didn't respond. She didn't have to.

The silence between them thickened like fog until Elias appeared at the chamber threshold, his cloak still damp from the storm. "There's more. I found something in the ruins of the shrine."

He stepped forward, unwrapping a cloth bundle. Inside was a shard of obsidian etched with red veins, still pulsing faintly. The energy radiating from it made the torches sputter.

"It's part of the Binding Stone," Elias said. "But it's been corrupted."

Lucien hissed. "They're trying to reconstruct it."

Raina touched the shard and flinched back instantly. Visions flooded her mind shadows rising from the earth, cloaked in blood, chanting in a language she didn't understand. Bones burning. Children screaming. And beneath it all, a crown forged in moonlight.

She gasped. "They're preparing a ritual. One that could sever the bloodline forever."

Maeva stared at her. "The Huntress line?"

Raina nodded. "They're not just trying to win the war. They want to erase the past."

Lucien clenched his fists. "Then we strike first."

"No." Raina's voice was sharp. "If we attack now, we'll walk into another trap. We need to find the other shards. All of them. Before they do."

Elias stepped forward. "I know where the next one is."

All eyes turned to him.

"In the Vale of Echoes."

Maeva swore under her breath. "That place is cursed."

"Everything we do is cursed," Elias replied. "But it's also sacred ground. If they reach it first, they'll awaken the blood spirits buried there."

Raina nodded. "Then we move at dawn."

The ride to the Vale was steeped in silence and snowfall. The sky bled grey. Shadows curled at the edges of the trees, and not a single bird dared to sing. As they approached the ravine that marked the entrance to the Vale, the wind grew sharp, whispering in forgotten tongues.

Raina led the way, cloak billowing like a flame behind her. Lucien flanked her right, sword drawn, eyes constantly scanning. Maeva and Elias followed closely, casting protective sigils as they walked.

When they reached the clearing, the earth seemed to groan beneath their feet.

The Vale of Echoes wasn't a place. It was a memory carved into land a valley of broken altars, shattered relics, and moonstone shards humming with forgotten power.

And standing in the center, as if waiting for them, was a figure cloaked in silver and black.

Calem.

But he was no longer the man Raina remembered. His eyes were dark voids. His mouth was stitched shut with runes. And his chest bore a bleeding mark the Shadow Sigil glowing like a wound.

Lucien moved first, but Raina stopped him. "He's not alive. Not truly."

Calem raised his hand. From the ground rose dozens of figures former warriors, reanimated by blood magic. Some wore familiar armor. Some bore Raina's old sigil.

"They're forcing our dead to fight us," Maeva whispered.

Raina's blade shimmered. "Then let them remember who they serve."

She moved like a storm graceful, brutal, divine. Her blade danced through shadow and flesh alike. Lucien shifted mid-stride, his beast form roaring into the fray. Maeva cast blinding light from her palms, shattering illusions. Elias summoned barriers to hold the tide.

But Calem didn't move. He stood perfectly still, watching Raina with empty eyes.

She cut her way to him, blood dripping from her fingers, magic flaring down her spine. "Why?" she whispered. "Why betray us?"

Calem didn't speak. Couldn't.

But a voice echoed from him not his, but hers.

The first Huntress.

"This is the cost of silence. Of forgetting. Of mercy."

Raina trembled. "You're controlling him?"

"I'm reminding you."

Suddenly, Calem's hands lifted, and he drove a blade into his own chest.

The mark vanished.

So did he.

Raina fell to her knees, gasping. "What was that?"

Elias helped her up. "A warning."

Maeva's voice was grim. "The next shard will be protected by worse."

Lucien stepped beside Raina, his arm wrapping around her waist. "We move faster. Harder. No more mercy."

Raina nodded.

But inside her, something shifted. The first Huntress was no longer a whisper. She was a scream.

And she was waking up.