Ashen tore through the night sky.Wind screamed past his ears, cloak snapping violently behind him as the city shrank below. Fires still burned where he’d left them, small angry stars scattered across stone and slate.He didn’t look back.He couldn’t.The pull inside him grew stronger with every heartbeat.Lumi was waking.Too soon.Ashen bared his teeth and pushed harder, fire flaring beneath his feet as he cut through the darkness like a falling star.The estate rose ahead.Tall.Silent.Too close for comfort.“Move,” he growled, more to himself than the world.He angled sharply, diving.The window came up fast.Ashen smashed through it in a burst of glass and cold air and hit the floor hard, rolling once before slamming into the side of the bed.He lay there for a second, chest heaving.Then forced himself upright.No time.He climbed onto the bed and lay flat, staring at the ceiling as dawn’s first light began to creep through the broken window.A controlled breath in.Another out

Corvin opened his eyes slowly.The room was dark. Still.Then he saw a shape standing over his bed.Grinning.Corvin jolted upright with a sharp inhale, hand already reaching for the dagger beneath his pillow.“Scott!” he hissed. “What the hell is wrong with you?”Scott didn’t move.Didn’t stop smiling.“Many things,” he said cheerfully. “But who’s counting?”Corvin scrubbed a hand down his face and groaned.“Is it time already? I thought we agreed we’d go tomorrow.”“Time waits for no one,” Scott replied. “Let’s move.”Corvin swung his legs out of bed, already awake now. He grabbed a jacket from the chair, shrugged it on, and tightened the straps around his forearms.“Alright,” he muttered. “Let’s go.”They slipped into the corridor like shadows.The mansion slept, but never deeply. The faint hum of wards lingered in the air, a soft pressure against the skin.Scott led the way.They moved when the light flickered.Paused when footsteps echoed.A pair of hunters passed at the far end

The engine hummed softly as the car rolled through the iron gates of the Blackwell estate.Corvin sat in the passenger seat, elbow resting against the window, eyes fixed on the road ahead. Scott drove one-handed, relaxed, as if they were heading out on a casual errand rather than into unknown territory.The city thinned the further they went.Stone buildings gave way to squat houses with patched roofs. Paved roads cracked into gravel, then into packed dirt. Streetlamps became scarce, replaced by oil lanterns hanging outside shops and homes.“This place looks like it got forgotten by time,” Scott muttered.Corvin didn’t reply.He was watching.The village appeared suddenly, clustered low and wide like it was afraid to rise too high. People moved through the streets unhurriedly. Children ran barefoot. Women chatted near doorways. Men leaned against walls, laughing softly.Life, uninterrupted.Too normal.They parked near the edge of the village and stepped out.The air smelled of earth

The night had fully claimed the village.Lanternlight flickered weakly, struggling against shadows that felt thicker now, heavier, as if the dark itself was watching. The streets were almost empty. Windows were shuttered. Doors locked tight.Somewhere ahead, something moved.Corvin slowed to a stop and closed his eyes.Scott halted beside him. “You sense it?”Corvin didn’t answer.He inhaled slowly, pushing everything else aside—the smell of damp stone, the echo of distant footsteps, the low hum of fear still lingering in the air. He reached outward, not with his eyes, but with something deeper.There.A wrongness.A presence that didn’t belong.Corvin’s eyes snapped open.He took off running.Scott cursed under his breath and followed.They cut through narrow streets and sharp turns, boots pounding against stone. The village blurred past them—fences, doorways, darkened alleys slipping by like frames in a reel.Corvin skidded to a halt.An alley stretched ahead of them, narrow and cra

Night pressed in thick as Scott’s body hit the ground.Pain flared in every joint, every muscle. Dust choked the air.Three demons loomed over him, teeth bared, claws glinting. They walked slowly and deliberately towards him, prepared to end the fight.One picked him up by the leg and threw him. Another demon caught him mid air and slammed him into the floor. He didn’t groan. Didn’t complain. Just tried to crawl away but they didn’t let him.As he was crawling whilst lying flat on the floor, the tallest of the demons grabbed his head and shoved it into the floor, creating a crater.The demon kicked him, sending him flying backwards.Scott blinked, wiped blood from his lip.And laughed.Slow at first. Soft. Then a low, rolling chuckle that twisted into something darker.The demons froze. Eyes narrowed. Snarls faltered.“What…?” one hissed.Scott pushed himself upright, shaking off the grit, straightening slowly. He stretched.His wounds stitched themselves closed. Cuts vanished. Bruise