The creature Elara had expected to find was gone. Instead, as she pushed through the final veil of mist, she found a young man collapsed against the base of a jagged rock. He looked human, yet there was an undeniable edge to his beauty—a sharpness that felt dangerous. His hair was as dark as a starless night, and even in his unconscious state, his jaw was set in a defiant line.
But it was the blood that chilled Elara's marrow. It wasn't red like hers; it was a deep, shimmering violet, pulsing with a faint, rhythmic glow. This was no ordinary injury. This was a manifestation of the Demon Clan's power. He didn't have wings, but as Elara knelt beside him, she saw black, vine-like markings creeping up his neck, retreating and advancing like shadows under his skin.
"Who are you?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
The whispers in her mind, usually a soft hum, were now a frantic warning. Danger. Power. Death. Yet, beneath the warnings, there was that faint, agonizing plea she had felt before.
Her fingers brushed against the fabric of his tunic—it was made of a material unknown to her village, cold to the touch and woven with silver threads. As she reached for her bag of herbs, the man's eyes suddenly snapped open.
They weren't human. They were a piercing, electric gold, the pupils slitted like a predator's. Before she could scream, a hand like iron clamped around her wrist. Despite his wounds, his grip was terrifyingly strong.
"A human?" he rasped, his voice sounding like grinding stones. A flicker of dark energy danced around his fingertips, singing the grass beneath them. "Kill me now, or I will ensure your village burns for what they've done."
Elara stared into those golden eyes, her heart hammering. "I'm not here to kill you," she said, her voice regaining a fragment of its strength. "I'm a healer. And if you don't let me stop that bleeding, you won't live long enough to burn anything."
The man's gaze searched hers, looking for a lie. Slowly, the dark energy around his hand faded, and his grip loosened as he succumbed back into the darkness of unconsciousness.