Chapter 9: Blood Bonds
Kaela woke to screams.
They tore through the veil of her dreams like jagged claws, ripping her from darkness into the stench of burning ash and fresh blood. Her body snapped upright, magic surging unbidden to her fingertips. For a heartbeat, she didn't know where she was. Then her eyes found the firelight red, wrong, laced with something foul and the silhouettes looming beyond the flame.
Figures cloaked in tattered black. Red runes tattooed over their skin. Eyes glowing green in the dark.
The Dread Coven.
Her people.
Her curse.
Kaela's blood went cold.
"By the Ancients..." she whispered.
The nearest figure turned toward her, his voice low and cruel. "Ashblade. The traitor lives."
"Kaela!" Seralyn's shout pierced the chaos, and then the clang of steel followed she was already in motion, sabers drawn, parrying a blow meant for Kaela's head.
Kaela scrambled to her feet, barely raising a ward in time to deflect a bolt of corrupted shadow. The blast cracked against her shield, sending her stumbling back. Her heart raced as she took in the scene half a dozen Dread Coven witches circled them, weapons gleaming, spells charged, hunger in their eyes.
"You stole from us," one hissed. "That fragment belongs to the Coven. You owe the blood."
"I owe nothing!" Kaela snarled, shadowfire erupting from her hands.
Seralyn spun beside her, cutting through an attacker with precise grace, blood arcing into the sand. "Who the hell are these freaks?!"
Kaela didn't look at her. "My past."
"Of course it is," Seralyn growled, parrying two blades at once.
The battle erupted into chaos.
Shadow and steel. Blood and spellfire. The clash of blades and the scream of broken magic. Kaela and Seralyn moved together, backs brushing, their movements instinctively paired. Kaela deflected a lightning chain meant for Seralyn. Seralyn skewered a warlock trying to take Kaela from behind.
It felt like dancing through death.
Kaela's fingers trembled as she summoned an incinerating glyph. "We can't win this. They'll just keep coming."
Seralyn grunted as she disarmed an enemy. "Then we kill enough to make them think twice."
A spell exploded behind them, hurling both women into the cracked earth.
Kaela gasped as pain seared her ribs. Blood spilled from her temple. Her vision spun.
A warlock stood over her now, blade raised.
Kaela couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
Then the blade stopped.
Seralyn's saber drove clean through his spine.
He collapsed beside Kaela, twitching.
"Get up," Seralyn hissed. She offered a hand.
Kaela took it.
Together, they rose.
They fought like wolves driven to a cliff no room to retreat, no one left to call for aid. In the end, it was Seralyn's blade that cut through the Coven leader's throat, and Kaela's flames that melted the final glyph-stone they had anchored into the ground.
It was only then that the battle truly ended.
---
The night air reeked of sulfur and blood.
Kaela and Seralyn sat against the charred wall of an old watchtower, breathing heavily. Their cloaks were in tatters, bodies smeared with ash and cuts that glowed faintly in the aftermath of corrupted magic.
Kaela let her head rest against the stone, her voice hoarse. "That wasn't just an ambush. That was a blood retrieval."
Seralyn frowned. "Meaning?"
"They weren't trying to kill us. Not entirely. They wanted the fragment and my blood to reactivate the Veil Gate."
Seralyn's jaw clenched. "The Veil Gate… the one under the Old Throne?"
Kaela nodded. "They think it will give them access to the ancient realms. But they're wrong. That gate… it opens to something else."
Seralyn didn't ask what. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.
A soft wind picked up, blowing ash across their boots.
"I hate this place," Seralyn muttered.
Kaela chuckled, winced, and held her side. "Good to know you're still dramatic even while bleeding out."
"I'm not bleeding out. Just… leaking pride."
Kaela turned, slowly, to face her. "Thank you. For saving me."
Seralyn looked uncomfortable. "I was just returning the favor."
"No," Kaela said, voice softer now. "You could have left me. They were my enemies. Not yours."
"They are now."
A silence settled between them, no longer awkward, but heavy with things unsaid.
Seralyn dug through her satchel and brought out a silver flask. "Elven healing liquor. You'll hate it."
Kaela took a sip. Coughed. Gagged. "Goddess, what is that? Molten pinecones?"
Seralyn smirked. "Tradition."
They tended to each other's wounds, their movements more tender than necessary. Kaela's fingers lingered when wrapping Seralyn's arm. Seralyn's thumb brushed over Kaela's cheek longer than it needed to.
Then it happened.
Their hands touched.
And in that moment
The sigils on their wrists blazed with light.
Kaela gasped. Seralyn flinched.
The markings once dormant now pulsed with shared energy. Threaded with glowing veins of silver and violet. One symbol. Two bodies.
Kaela stared. "What the "
Seralyn's voice was hushed. "It's syncing."
The fragments pulsed in response, and in the space between them, something shifted.
Power.
Bond.
Fate.
Neither said anything for a long time.
Kaela looked down at her hand, now glowing faintly with the sigil's light. "This bond… it's not just magic. It's choosing us."
Seralyn nodded slowly. "Or it's warning us."
Kaela tilted her head. "Warning us?"
"That the next time we face our enemies " Seralyn looked into the fire, eyes distant. " it won't be because they want to stop the end. It's because they want to survive it at any cost."
They sat in silence as the sigils gradually dimmed, but a warmth lingered unspoken, unsettling, undeniable.
They were no longer just allies of necessity.
Something deeper bound them now.
Something neither of them fully understood… yet.