The scream tore through the night like glass shattering.
Elena's heart hammered as she stumbled out of the chapel, Kael right at her side. The town below was unrecognizable. Shadows, blacker than midnight, writhed across the streets like rivers of ink. They slithered up lampposts, wrapped around rooftops, and spilled into doorways. Lights flickered and died wherever the darkness touched.
People fled in panic—neighbors she recognized, faces she had passed a hundred times in daylight. Their terror was raw, unfiltered, echoing in the air.
"Kael," Elena breathed, her stomach turning. "They can see it. They see the shadows."
"They weren't meant to, not yet," Kael said grimly, scanning the chaos. His eyes glowed faintly, the silver of his power sparking in the night. "The entity has forced its hand. The veil is breaking faster than I thought."
A child's cry rang out from the nearest street. Without thinking, Elena bolted toward it. Kael swore under his breath but followed, his long strides catching up easily.
They rounded the corner and found a small boy crouched against a wall, clutching his stuffed rabbit as shadows crept toward him. Elena's instincts overrode her fear. She dropped to her knees, throwing her hands out.
"Stay back!" she shouted. Power flared from her chest—wild, unpolished—but it surged into the air like a burst of sunlight. The shadows hissed, retreating just far enough for her to scoop the boy into her arms.
He clung to her desperately, face buried against her shoulder. "Make it stop," he sobbed.
Her throat tightened. "I will. I promise."
Behind her, Kael raised his hand, shadows coiling obediently around his arm. With a flick, he lashed them out like a whip, cutting down the advancing wraiths that had started to take form. The street shuddered with each strike, cracks spiderwebbing in the pavement.
"Go!" Kael barked. "Get him to safety—I'll hold them here!"
Elena wanted to argue, but the boy's trembling body pressed into her chest silenced her. She ran, sprinting toward the cluster of neighbors who had gathered at the far end of the street.
"Elena!" a voice shouted.
She froze. Anna.
Her childhood friend was standing there, eyes wide in shock. "What's happening? What are you doing?!"
Elena's blood ran cold. She had no time to explain, no way to hide. Anna's gaze dropped to her hands—still faintly glowing with the light that had repelled the shadows.
"Elena…" Anna whispered, half in awe, half in fear.
Elena opened her mouth, but the words stuck in her throat. Behind her, Kael fought like a storm given flesh, his shadows twisting and striking with lethal precision. The contrast was stark—Elena, glowing with light, and Kael, cloaked in darkness. To anyone watching, it would look like something out of a nightmare and a miracle colliding.
The boy squirmed in her arms, and Elena snapped out of her daze. She thrust him into Anna's care. "Take him! Get everyone inside—lock the doors, close the windows. Don't let the shadows in!"
Anna hesitated, fear flickering across her face, but she nodded, pulling the boy close. Elena turned back to Kael, heart pounding.
The shadows were multiplying. For every wraith he cut down, two more seemed to slither from the cracks in the air.
"Kael!" Elena shouted, rushing back to him.
He glanced at her, sweat beading his brow. "You should have stayed back."
"And let you face this alone? Not happening." She raised her hands again, light bursting from her palms. It wasn't controlled—it never was—but when it struck the nearest wraith, the creature dissolved in a scream of smoke and fire.
Kael's mouth twitched, not quite a smile, but close. "Then don't hold back."
They fought side by side, light and shadow weaving together in a dance neither had rehearsed but both somehow knew. Her wild bursts of energy scorched through the masses, while his precise strikes carved a path through the chaos. Where her light faltered, his shadow shielded. Where his shadow wavered, her light cut through.
But the longer they fought, the heavier the air grew. Elena felt it—an oppressive weight pressing down on her chest, like invisible hands trying to crush her ribs.
The whispers returned, louder than ever.
See them scatter. See them fear you. You are not their savior—you are their curse.
Elena stumbled, clutching her head. The wraith she'd been aiming for lunged, claws outstretched. Kael intercepted, his blade of shadow slicing it clean in two.
"Elena!" His voice was sharp, commanding. "Stay with me!"
She forced herself upright, teeth gritted. The whispers clawed at her, but she held onto the only anchor she had—Kael's voice, Kael's presence, the steady rhythm of his power thrumming against hers.
The wraiths screamed in unison, as though commanded by one will. They surged forward, forming a wave of black that threatened to swallow the street whole.
Kael's face hardened. "This ends now."
He seized Elena's hand, pulling her close. The sudden contact jolted her, but she felt the intent in his grip—resolve, not hesitation.
"Focus," he said, voice low, urgent. "Don't fight me. Match me."
Her heart stuttered. She nodded.
The power between them surged, stronger than in the chapel, fiercer, wilder. Light and shadow collided, not in opposition but in resonance, creating a sphere of swirling energy that wrapped around them both. The wraiths hesitated, shrieking as the force expanded.
Elena's chest burned with the effort. "It's too much—"
"Trust me," Kael said, his eyes locked onto hers.
She did.
Together, they unleashed it.
The sphere burst outward in a shockwave, blasting through the street. Wraiths disintegrated in a chorus of screams, shadows shredded into nothingness. The lampposts flickered back to life, and the suffocating weight lifted.
Silence fell.
Elena swayed, breathless. Kael caught her before she could collapse, his arm steady around her waist. Their faces were close again, too close, and the adrenaline still thrummed in her veins.
She could see it in his eyes—the vulnerability he never let anyone else glimpse. The longing he tried to bury beneath resolve.
Her lips parted, but the sound of running footsteps broke the moment.
"Elena!" Anna's voice again, closer this time. She came running down the street, the boy still clutched in her arms. Her gaze flicked between Elena and Kael, her face pale. "What—what was that? What are you?"
Elena's chest tightened. She had no answer that would make sense.
Kael's expression was unreadable, but his hand lingered at her side, steadying her. "This is only the beginning," he murmured, almost too soft for anyone else to hear.
Above them, the sky rippled—faint cracks spreading like a broken mirror. Shadows writhed at the edges, eager, waiting.
The entity's voice slithered through Elena's mind, chilling and triumphant.
You can fight the dark, little light… but can you fight when your world turns against you?
Elena shivered. She knew then that the battle wasn't just against the shadows anymore. It would be against fear, against mistrust, against the people she loved who might see her not as a savior but as a threat.
And the war had only just begun.