The Nightbeast came through the fog like a living avalanche.
Branches snapped as its massive frame forced its way between the trees, fog boiling around it as if afraid to touch its skin. Its eyes burned a molten red, fixed not on Liora,but on the boy beside her.
On Kael.
Liora didn't realize she'd screamed until her throat burned.
"Run!" Kael shouted, wrenching himself free from her grip. He staggered forward instead, claws digging into the earth as if he were anchoring himself against something far worse than the beast charging toward them.
The Nightbeast roared, a sound so deep it rattled Liora's teeth. It lunged.
Kael moved.
Not away.
Toward it.
"Kael, no,!" Liora reached for him, fingers grazing air as he blurred past her.
He slammed into the Nightbeast mid-charge. The impact echoed through the forest like thunder, throwing Liora backward. She hit the ground hard, the lantern shattering beside her as flame sputtered and died.
Darkness swallowed everything.
She scrambled to her knees, heart pounding, blinking furiously as her eyes adjusted. Shapes clashed ahead of her two massive forms locked together in a brutal tangle of claws and teeth.
Kael wasn't fully human anymore.
His body twisted unnaturally as he fought, spine arching, shoulders broadening as black veins crawled beneath his skin. His right eye burned gold, blazing brighter with every strike he landed. Claws tore through bark and flesh alike.
And still,
He was losing.
The Nightbeast dwarfed him. It slammed Kael into a tree hard enough to splinter the trunk, then raked its claws across his side. Kael screamed, blood spraying across the roots.
At the same time, the Nightbeast flinched.
It howled, jerking back as if struck by an invisible blade.
Liora froze.
Both of them were bleeding.
No,
Not bleeding.
Mirroring.
Kael dragged himself upright panting eyes wild. "It hurts when I hurt," he rasped. "I can feel it."
The Nightbeast snarled, pacing now, its movements oddly cautious,as if it, too, had realized the truth.
They were linked.
Liora's breath came fast and shallow. Then stop fighting it!
Kael laughed, harsh and broken. You think it'll let me?
The Nightbeast lunged again.
Kael met it head-on.
They collided in a blur of motion, claws clashing, bodies crashing through undergrowth.
Kael moved faster now, strength surging through him in violent waves, but each surge ripped another piece of him away. His jaw elongated briefly, teeth sharpening before snapping back into human shape.
He screamed again,half pain, half fury.
Liora forced herself to stand, legs shaking violently. She grabbed a fallen branch, gripping it like a weapon though she knew it would do nothing.
"Kael!" she cried. Look at me!
For a split second, his human eye flicked toward her.
The Nightbeast seized the opening.
Its tail lashed out, striking Kael across the ribs and sending him crashing into the dirt at Liora's feet. He skidded to a stop, coughing blood, body convulsing as the transformation surged out of control.
"Kael!" She dropped beside him, ignoring the beast advancing slowly now, savoring the hunt.
His chest heaved. The black mark beneath his torn shirt spread outward, lines branching like cracks through stone. His claws lengthened again, tearing into the soil as he struggled to breathe.
"Don't," He gasped. Don't touch me.
She touched him anyway.
Her hands cupped his face, slick with blood and sweat. "Stay with me," she whispered fiercely. Please.
His body shuddered.
The gold in his eye flickered.
The transformation slowed.
The Nightbeast froze.
Its head tilted, confused, nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air between them.
Liora felt it then,a pressure in her chest, heavy and strange, like something unseen tightening a thread around her heart. Fear pulsed through her, but beneath it… something else.
Recognition.
The Nightbeast snarled and lunged again.
Kael roared.
He surged upward with inhuman strength, slamming into the creature and driving it back several steps. Blood poured from both of them now, wounds opening and reopening in terrible symmetry.
Liora staggered back, watching in horror as they moved too similar too synchronized. Every strike Kael made,
the beast mirrored. Every blow he took, it reflected.
"They're the same," she whispered. They're,
"Connected," Kael grunted, slamming his claws into the Nightbeast's shoulder.
The beast shrieked,and Kael screamed with it as his own shoulder split open.
He fell again, hard.
The Nightbeast loomed over him, jaws opening wide.
Liora didn't think.
She screamed his name.
KAEL!
The sound tore from her chest, raw and desperate.
Kael's entire body seized.
The Nightbeast froze mid-strike, its jaws snapping shut inches from Kael's throat.
The forest went deathly quiet.
Kael gasped, eyes wide, staring up at her in shock. You, He swallowed. You shouldn't be able to do that.
The Nightbeast recoiled, pacing now, confused and enraged, its roars fractured and uneven.
Liora's heart hammered violently. Why? What did I do?
Kael shook his head slowly. I don't know.
The fog churned violently as the Nightbeast let out a furious howl and retreated several paces, melting back into the mist like a living shadow.
Silence followed.
Kael collapsed fully body going slack.
"Kael!" Liora caught him as he slumped forward, dragging him away from the blood-soaked clearing. She didn't stop until her lungs burned and her arms trembled with exhaustion.
She lowered him beneath a dense cluster of roots, shielding them from view.
Only then did she realize she was shaking uncontrollably.
Kael lay half-conscious, breath shallow, skin burning beneath her hands. The black mark on his chest pulsed faintly, then dimmed, shrinking back as if retreating.
You saved me,he whispered hoarsely.
She shook her head. I didn't do anything.
"You did," he insisted weakly. It listens to you.
Her stomach twisted. That's not possible.
Nothing about this is possible.
She swallowed hard. You said it hears your name.
Kael closed his eyes. "Names carry intent. Fear. Identity." His fingers twitched weakly. When you said it… the link tightened.
And when I touched you?
He hesitated. It loosened.
Liora stared at him, dread creeping into her bones.
What are you?she whispered.
Kael's mouth curved into a bitter smile. Cursed.
A branch snapped nearby.
Kael stiffened instantly. It's not gone.
Liora's breath caught. What do we do?
Kael opened his eyes, fear naked in them now, stripped of all monstrous fury. If it finds us again… I won't be able to stop myself next time.
The fog thickened once more.
Footsteps echoed,light deliberate human.
A voice cut through the mist, calm and cold.
"Step away from him."
An arrow slammed into the ground inches from Liora's knee.
She looked up.
A woman stood at the edge of the fog, bow drawn, eyes locked on Kael with lethal focus.
Behind her, an older man watched quietly, studying Kael with unsettling interest.
The woman didn't lower her weapon.
"That thing," she said flatly, "needs to die."