What Lurks Beneath

Vael ran.

The ruins blurred past him, jagged walls and broken stone swallowing the dying light. Lira moved ahead, fast and silent, her bow gripped tight.

Behind them, the cold returned.

A pressure slid into the world like smoke under a door—familiar now. Wrong.

Faster.The crown's voice curled through his thoughts.Or you'll be devoured.

A screech echoed from behind. Deep. Guttural. Not human.

Then—they came.

Twisted things that might've once been people. Skin like burned parchment. Limbs too long. Faces barely formed. Hollow eyes burned with pale fire.

Lira spun. "Three."

Vael stopped beside her. His breath fogged. The shadows were already moving around his arm.

Take them.They are yours.

The first Wraithbound lunged. Vael shifted left, faster than instinct. His blade tore through its chest.

It didn't fall.

The flesh pulled shut—smoke rising from the wound.

Lira's arrow struck the second one in the head. It didn't flinch. "They're not dying."

The third leapt.

Vael raised his hand. No time to think. Shadows burst from his fingers like spears, slamming into the creature mid-air. It shrieked—louder than before.

And then Vael saw it.

A memory, maybe.A soldier, clutching a sword.Terror.Then black.

The Wraithbound shattered into ash.

Silence.

Even Lira paused. "What the hell did you just do?"

Vael didn't answer.

The hunger was still there. Stronger now. Gnawing at him.

The two remaining Wraithbound hesitated.

They could feel it.The crown.Him.

But hunger always wins.

They rushed forward.

Vael moved. Shadows danced from his blade—one fell before it touched him. The other turned to run—

Lira's arrow took it down clean.

Silence again.

The ruins settled into stillness.

Vael stood in the dust, chest rising and falling. The whispers quieted, but not gone. Never gone.

Lira watched him. "That wasn't normal."

Vael met her gaze. "None of this is."

She didn't argue.

Just turned away. "There's a place ahead. We'll rest."

Vael followed.

But the hunger didn't fade.

The crown hadn't just helped him kill.

It had fed.

And the worst part—

Some part of him had enjoyed it.