The Awakened Shadow

Chapter 8: The Blood in His Veins

Kain didn’t remember drifting into sleep.

He only remembered the sound of Aria’s voice saying “Your father wasn’t the only one they were hunting.”

Those words chased him into dreams filled with fire, silver chains, and the echo of a man calling his name.

When his eyes finally opened, the room was dim, lit only by the soft pulse of the crystal lantern. Dawn hadn’t fully arrived yet. The world was quiet.

Too quiet.

Then he felt it  someone watching him.

Kain jerked upright.

Aria sat beside the bedside shelf, curled into a small stool, her cloak draped around her shoulders. Her hair framed her face in soft, shadowy curls, her eyes fixed on him with an unreadable expression. Not fear. Not relief. Something heavier.

Something she was hiding.

Their eyes met.

“Did I talk in my sleep?” Kain rasped.

Aria shook her head slowly. “No. But you… kept reaching out. Like you were trying to hold on to something.”

Kain swallowed. “I don’t remember dreaming.”

“You did.” Her voice thinned, barely a whisper. “You said a name.”

He stiffened. “Whose?”

She exhaled.

“Your father’s.”

The room felt suddenly too small. Too warm. Too tight. Kain looked away, gripping the edge of the blanket until his knuckles whitened.

Aria rose from the stool. She didn’t come closer. She didn’t step back. She simply stood there, watching him with an expression that made him feel exposed in a way battle wounds never had.

“Kain… I need you to listen to me without anger. Without fear. And without shutting down.”

“That bad?” he muttered.

“Worse.”

He forced his breathing to steady. “Then tell me.”

Aria hesitated. She looked like someone standing on the edge of a cliff  knowing once the words fell, nothing would ever be the same again.

“Kain,” she whispered, “you didn’t nearly die yesterday because of an ordinary attack.”

He waited.

“You collapsed because of your blood.”

“My what?”

Aria moved toward the window. The pale glow of morning lit her face. “Your blood reacted. It’s… changing.”

Kain let out a harsh laugh. “My blood is changing? Aria, that doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes it does.” Her eyes softened with something like sorrow. “Your father carried a dormant lineage in him. A dangerous one. One that the Dominion believed had been wiped out.”

“Lineage,” Kain repeated, the word sharp on his tongue. “What kind of lineage?”

Aria turned to him fully.

“The Dominion called them the Veilbearers.”

Kain frowned. “Never heard of them.”

“You wouldn’t have,” she said. “The Dominion erased all traces of them. Burned their history. Hunted down every child, every mother, every last drop of their blood.”

Kain stared at her, the air draining from his lungs. “So… my father was one of them?”

“Yes.”

Her voice cracked.

“And I think you are too.”

The silence that followed wasn’t silence. Kain’s heartbeat was a pounding thunder in his ears. Veilbearer. It sounded like a myth from a forgotten age, or a dangerous story mothers whispered to scare children.

He shook his head slowly. “This is insane.”

“It’s the truth.”

“How do you even know any of this?”

Aria’s throat bobbed. “Because I was there.”

Kain froze.

There.

Where?

When?

With who?

“What do you mean there?” His voice came out sharper than he intended.

Aria’s hands dropped to her sides. For the first time since he’d met her, Kain saw something break through her calm guilt. Deep, old guilt.

“I was with the task force assigned to hunt your father.”

The room tilted.

Kain felt his chest hollow out. His vision blurred, not from exhaustion, but from the sharp, sudden pain that sliced through him.

“You… hunted him?”

“Kain, listen”

“No,” he snapped, standing abruptly even though his legs trembled. “You knew my father? You were there when they chased him?”

Her voice broke. “Yes.”

He stared at her this woman who had saved him, protected him, risked everything for him and felt betrayal burning at the edges of his vision.

“Did you kill him?”

The words slipped out before he could stop them.

Aria recoiled like he’d struck her.

“No! Never! Kain, I tried to protect him. I tried”

“Tried?” Kain laughed bitterly. “You’re telling me my father was hunted down like an animal, and now I’m supposed to believe you were the one person trying to save him?”

“Yes,” she said fiercely. “Because he saved me first.”

That silenced him.

Aria stepped forward, her voice trembling. “Your father didn’t trust easily. But he trusted me. He told me things he’d never told anyone else. He knew I would protect you one day if anything happened to him.”

Kain’s breath caught. “He… said that?”

Aria nodded. “And when the Dominion closed in on him, he didn’t run. He made me swear that if they ever found you, I would take you and disappear.”

Kain stared at her. “Why?”

Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Because your bloodline wasn’t dormant. It was sleeping. And he knew one day it would wake.”

Kain sank back onto the bed, shaking. He didn’t know whether to scream or ask a thousand questions at once. But one thing cut through the chaos in his mind.

“You said my blood reacted yesterday. What does that mean?”

“It means,” Aria said slowly, “your abilities might surface sooner than we prepared for.”

“Abilities,” Kain repeated. “Like what?”

Aria crossed her arms tightly. “Veilbearers could walk between the borders of energy and matter. They could see through illusions. Resist Dominion control. Some even manipulated the Veil itself the space between the physical and spiritual realms.”

Kain stared at her.

“This is impossible.”

“Your father thought the same until it started happening to him.”

The words hit him harder than a blade.

Kain opened his mouth to speak but a loud, hollow BOOM shook the cabin.

Aria’s head snapped toward the door.

Kain’s pulse spiked.

“What was that?”

Aria grabbed her blade from the table. “They found us.”

Already?

Already?

Another explosion thundered through the trees, closer this time. Dust rained from the ceiling.

Aria grabbed his wrist.

“We have to move. Now.”

Kain stumbled to his feet, still dizzy. “Aria my blood, my father, the Veil”

“Later,” she hissed. “If they capture you, you won’t live long enough for answers.”

Another blast.

The door shook violently.

Aria moved faster than he’d ever seen her, shoving open the back exit. “Run toward the ravine. Don’t look back.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll buy you time.”

“No!” Kain grabbed her arm. “I’m not leaving you!”

For a moment just a moment her eyes softened in a way that made his chest ache.

“You’re not meant to die yet,” she whispered. “Your blood won’t allow it.”

He opened his mouth to protest

The door blew inward with a deafening crack.

Smoke.

Shadows.

Armored silhouettes.

Dominion Hunters.

Aria shoved him out the back door.

“KAIN, GO!”

He stumbled into the trees as the world erupted behind him.

He ran.

Branches scratched his arms.

His breath burned.

The explosion’s echo chased him through the forest.

But then

Halfway down the ravine trail

His knees buckled.

A burning sensation ripped through his veins like liquid fire.

Kain gasped, collapsing to the ground. His vision blurred with streaks of silver and black. His hands shook violently.

Not again.

Not now.

Not when Aria needed him.

He tried to stand

But the fire in his veins surged, swallowing his breath.

And then

Just before he blacked out

He heard a voice he hadn’t heard since he was a child.

A man’s voice.

Kain… get up.

His father’s voice.