The Sanctum of the Blood-Eyed God
The summoning room reeked of copper and ash.
Seven figures stood in a circle, cloaked in bone-white robes. Their eyes were sewn shut. Their tongues had been removed. They had no names—only numbers carved into the flesh of their throats.
These were the Hunters—the holy assassins of the Church of Light.
The High Priest knelt before them, whispering in the tongue of the gods long buried. His blood dripped into the circle, feeding the glyphs drawn in ash.
Then the command was given—without words.
Retrieve the vessel. Kill the knight.
The Hunters bowed as one.
They would not rest until the girl with the mark was caged—or dead.
---
Selene
The pain had subsided—but something worse had taken its place: a hum.
Inside her. Beneath her skin. Like magic trying to remember how to breathe.
She sat cross-legged in her cell, Kael watching her from the shadows like a warden who didn't entirely want to be one.
"I can feel it now," she said softly. "Like a heartbeat that's not mine."
Kael gave a slight nod. "It isn't. Not yet. But it's waking."
"What is it?"
Kael hesitated, then knelt before her. He never touched her—but this was the closest he'd come.
"Long ago," he said, "your bloodline made a pact with a dying god. They sealed its power into a chosen line of women, to pass through generations until one would be strong enough to contain it fully."
Selene's throat tightened. "Why?"
"To rewrite the laws of life and death," Kael said. "To become gods themselves."
She shook her head. "That's not who I am."
Kael's eyes flared. "It's exactly who you are. And if you don't control it soon, it will control you."
As if summoned by his words, pain lanced through her skull.
Visions bloomed behind her eyes.
A throne of veins. A crown of flame. A man with Kael's face, chained to a pillar, screaming her name as blood poured from his eyes.
She gasped—collapsing into his arms.
Kael caught her.
For a moment, neither moved.
"You're remembering," he said.
Tears streaked her cheeks. "I don't want to."
"You don't have a choice."
---
Elsewhere
The Hunters moved without sound across the Blackwood. They never slept. Never spoke.
They had already found the old temple. Already scented the blood magic left behind.
The lead Hunter knelt by a broken root where Kael's presence had touched the soil.
He licked the ground.
And smiled.