⚔️ Ashes of the Crown
Chapter 5 – The Price of Blood (Kael's POV)
The crypt echoed with steel.
Kael's blade met the first halberd mid-swing, sending a bone-jarring shock up his arm. The Blood Hound behind it snarled beneath his mask—then fell as Kael twisted, ducked, and drove steel into his thigh, then throat. He didn't wait for the corpse to hit the stone.
"Behind you!" Seris cried.
He pivoted just in time—second Hound, twin daggers. Fast. Too fast.
This one's Enhanced.
The tincture boiled in their veins. Sight like a hawk, reflexes like lightning. That's what made them monsters—tools built for a throne too cowardly to kill with its own hands.
Kael took a cut to the shoulder to get in close. Slashed through the mask. The Hound choked, fell backward into the dark, and didn't rise.
Blood was already pooling under Kael's boots.
There were four left. No—five.
Maybe six.
He didn't count again. No point.
He turned to Seris. "Stay behind me."
"I can help."
"I said stay behind me!"
A scream caught in her throat—but she obeyed.
They pressed deeper into the crypt, Kael carving a bloody trail through centuries-old stone. He moved like smoke, like instinct, like fury. The walls around them narrowed, funneling the Blood Hounds two at a time.
Still, they kept coming.
And he—was slowing.
The slash on his shoulder bled worse than he'd realized. He stumbled. A mistake. One of the Hounds saw, rushed in—
Seris screamed.
A blur of silver flew past Kael's head—a rusted ceremonial dagger she'd grabbed from a crypt wall. It embedded itself in the attacker's neck. He gurgled. Dropped.
Kael stared at her.
"I told you I could help," she panted, eyes wide with terror.
She had no idea what she'd just done. No training. No aim. Just instinct.
But it had worked.
He wanted to say something—anything—but the next wave came too fast.
And that's when the shadow in him stirred.
> No… not here… not again…
But it was already bleeding through his vision. The thing they'd buried inside him. The final technique the old master gave him. One he used only once—and paid for with five years in exile.
Shadowstep.
The world tilted.
Time slowed.
Every motion burned like flame against ice—but the Blood Hounds moved like they were caught in honey. Kael danced through them, every strike fatal. One to the spine. Another to the throat. He didn't feel his blade. He was the blade.
And when it ended…
Silence.
Only Seris breathing.
Only blood dripping.
And the cold stone beneath his knees.
She ran to him. "Kael!"
"I'm fine," he lied. His hands shook.
She didn't believe him—but she helped him up.
"We have to keep moving," she whispered. "They'll send more."
He nodded. "There's a passage deeper in. Leads to the Bone Archives."
"Archives?"
"Where they kept what they feared too much to destroy."
And then the walls themselves hummed.
Seris swayed. Clutched her head.
A voice—not hers—whispered from somewhere ancient:
"Daughter of ash… blood remembers."
Kael caught her as she nearly collapsed. Her eyes were wide. Glowing faintly.
Something had awakened.
And it knew her name.
---
🔥 End of Chapter 5