The night clung to me like a shroud, every breath sharp with cold and dread. For a moment I thought I'd imagined it—that the hunter's shadow wasn't real, that the paranoia was just the city gnawing at my nerves. But then he stepped out of the dark.
Kael.
I wanted to collapse into relief, to believe the ache in my chest had finally found its answer. But the expression on his face froze me in place. It wasn't the Kael who had pulled me through ambushes, who had spoken like survival was a shared burden. This Kael was different—calm, precise, eyes gleaming with something closer to hunger than kinship.
, voice low and steady, as if we weren't surrounded by ruin and danger but sitting across a table, sharing secrets.
The sound of his boots rang hollow against the broken pavement as he came closer. The smile that touched his lips wasn't comfort. It was calculation.
"Why?" The word scraped from my throat before I could stop it
Kael's gaze swept over me like a blade measuring its cut. "Because you're valuable. You've survived things you shouldn't have. You've seen things no one was meant to see. That makes you dangerous—and useful." He paused, tilting his head. "But usefulness has a price. And I intend to collect."
The chill that ran through me was worse than any blade pressed to my skin. My mind reeled, trying to stitch together the Kael I had trusted with this stranger before me. The one who had fought beside me… now speaking like my life was a commodity.
"You're… you're one of them?" I whispered.
He laughed softly, almost kindly. "One of them? No. I'd never bow to the council's leash. But I've learned their rules well enough to twist them. Everyone in this city is for sale, Lysandra. You just haven't realized your worth yet."
My dagger felt suddenly too light in my hand. My instincts screamed to run, but his stance—relaxed, confident—told me he'd anticipated that thought already. He wasn't here to chase me anymore. He was here to break me where I stood.
And yet, somewhere beneath the sting of betrayal, anger began to rise. Not a hot, reckless anger, but a quiet one, sharp enough to steady my shaking.
"You think I'll let you sell me?" I asked.
Kael's smile deepened, though his eyes remained cold. "You think you have a choice?"
The silence between us thickened, heavy as the night itself. I forced myself to breathe, to draw strength from the rhythm. One inhale. One exhale. Wanted me to crumble before him.
But if survival had taught me anything, it was this: when cornered, you don't freeze. You sharpen.
I lifted my chin. "If I'm worth so much to you, then you should know—I don't come cheap."
Just slightly. But enough.
Kael's smirk flickered at the edge, like a candle straining against a draft. saw the... old him—wounded, wary, the man who had once bled beside me. But the moment passed, swallowed by the A cold gleam shone in his eyes.
"That's the spirit," he murmured, stepping closer. "I chose you because you are different from the others."You don't break easily." His voice was almost a whisper, but it carried like iron through the ruined street."Even iron can bend.
I shifted my weight, every muscle tight. The dagger in my grip felt steadier now, as if my resolve had flowed into its hilt. He wanted me afraid. He wanted me cornered. Instead, I let the silence stretch, allowing him to hear my breathing slow to something measured and deliberate.
"Maybe," I said, the word tasting like smoke. "But you've forgotten something."
Kael's brow arched, a flash of curiosity flickering across his sharp features. "And what's that?"
"That iron cuts just as deep when it's in your hand."
His eyes narrowed, but the smirk didn't leave his face. "You'd draw on me, here?"
I took a step forward—not back, not sideways, forward—until the city's broken light caught the edge of my blade. " calm. "You taught me how. Maybe you thought you were making me stronger for you. But all you did was make me stronger."
For the first time since he'd stepped out of the dark, Kael hesitated—just a fraction, just the crack behind the mask.
"You always were stubborn," he said softly. "Maybe that's why I…" He cut himself off, jaw tightening. "No matter. Stubborn or not, you're coming with me."
I tightened my grip on the dagger, feeling its point align with the rhythm of my heartbeat. "You will need to work for it."
The city's wind howled through the ruins like a warning. Kael straightened, his hand brushing the hilt of his own blade, but he didn't draw it yet. We stood there, the space between us electric, the night itself holding its breath.
After a long time, for the first time, I didn't feel hunted. I felt ready
Kael's fingers curled tighter around his blade, the faint scrape of steel against leather echoing in the silence. The night seemed to shrink around us, every broken wall and shattered window watching, waiting.
Then he moved.
Fast—faster than memory had prepared me for. His blade flashed in the half-light, a clean arc meant not to test me, but to end me. I twisted, the edge kissing my shoulder as I threw myself sideways, the sting sharp but shallow. Pain flared, but it kept me awake, alive.
The dagger in my hand snapped forward on instinct. Kael deflected it with the flat of his sword, sparks biting the dark. His strength rattled through my bones, but I didn't let go.
"Good," he hissed, pressing harder, forcing me back step by step. "You've learned."
And ducked low, slashing for his leg. He jerked back, too quick to wound, but not quick enough to hide the way his balance shifted.
We circled each other on the broken pavement, every breath ragged, every muscle tight as wire. His smile had vanished, replaced with something colder—focus, pure and lethal.
This wasn't training. This wasn't survival side by side. This was Kael, the hunter.
He lunged again, and this time I met him head-on, blades clashing so hard the sound cracked through the street like thunder. For a moment, our eyes locked over the crossing steel—his burning with command, mine lit with defiance.
"You won't win," he said through gritted teeth.
I pushed back, every ounce of fury and betrayal boiling into strength. "Then you'll have to kill me trying."
With a sudden burst, I shoved him off balance and darted sideways into the ruins. Stone dust clouded the air as I pressed myself against the wall, heartbeat pounding like a war drum. His footsteps followed, steady, certain.
The hunter still thought I was prey.
But prey had teeth.