As a special gift for all my readers there will be 10 chapter releases on Sundays ☺️☺️
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The morning came cold and gray.
A thin mist crept between the trees, curling like smoke. Kael stirred beneath his cloak, muscles stiff from sleeping on stone and root. Beside him, Ash was already up — ears perked, body tense.
Riven stood at the tree line, one arm pressed to her side. She hadn't said a word since the moss salve was applied. But she hadn't thrown it off either.
Progress.
Kael rubbed sleep from his eyes and joined her.
She didn't turn to face him. "We're being watched."
His gut tightened. "How many?"
Riven didn't blink. "Three. Maybe four. Light-footed. Raiders."
"Clan?"
She gave a slow, grim nod. "Varkh."
Kael had only heard rumors — flesh-binders, bone-charmers, slavers. Outland clans that stitched power from what they carved off their prey. Human, beast… or mage.
"Do they know we're here?"
"They will soon." Riven pointed toward the east ridge. "They drive you toward their traps. Always the same pattern. Scare. Corner. Bleed. Then harvest."
Kael's fingers curled around the bone-hilt dagger he'd taken from a dead beast days before. "We can run."
"We won't make it far with me limping," Riven said, her tone dry. "And I'm not dragging you into the trees just so we both die slower."
Kael hesitated.
Then: "We don't run."
Riven looked at him.
No sarcasm. No protest.
Just approval.
"Good," she said.
They moved fast — not to flee, but to prepare.
Riven rigged a set of bone-snares across the narrow ravine edge. Kael stacked stones laced with mosslight to blind anyone who approached from the dark side. Ash marked the perimeter with shallow claw lines and piss to throw off scent trails.
Kael knelt over the sigil moss again.
His blood was needed.
But this time… not just his.
As the sun began to climb, they heard the whistles.
Three sharp chirps, echoed low in the trees. Then footsteps. Then silence.
"They're flanking," Riven whispered.
Kael nodded.
And waited.
The first came from the west — crouched low, blade hooked, face painted in soot and animal blood. He never saw Ash coming.
A blur of fur and fang, green fire in its eyes, and the man's scream was cut short with a wet snap.
The second fell into the snare, legs flailing as the bone-line yanked him into the air. Riven was on him in an instant, her knife flashing like a striking serpent — one cut to the thigh, a second to the throat.
The third—
He got to Kael.
And he was fast.
Kael ducked the first swing — barely — and rolled. The raider lunged, jagged blade raised.
Kael didn't think.
He reached inside. Not for the elements. Not for the Circle's logic.
He reached for the root of himself.
Lifebind.
He drove his bleeding hand into the earth.
Whispered a word he didn't know.
The vines answered.
They exploded from the forest floor — not green and soft, but black and thorned, pulsing with ancient hunger. They coiled around the raider's limbs, cutting deep.
The man screamed — a wild, inhuman sound — as the vines burrowed into his flesh and fed.
Kael staggered back.
His head rang like a bell. His arm felt like it was being drained. His breath hitched.
But the vines obeyed.
The raider fell still, his body already withering, veins blackened.
Riven was beside Kael in a moment, grabbing his shoulder.
"Did they hit you?"
He shook his head.
"I bound the forest."
She stared at the corpse. At the thorns still twitching. Then at his arm — where the rune had grown again, now reaching halfway to his elbow.
"I thought you said you were Circle-born."
"I was."
"That's not Circle magic."
"No."
Riven studied him for a long moment.
Then—without warning—she pressed her palm to his cheek.
Her hand was rough. Calloused. Warm.
"You didn't hesitate," she said softly.
"You didn't either."
Their eyes locked.
And something passed between them — not heat, not yet. But weight. Shared gravity. A thread woven through blood and fire.
She pulled her hand back, cleared her throat.
"We should move. More will come."
Kael nodded. But his heartbeat was still tangled with hers.
And Ash, watching from the shadows, flicked his tail.