He looked up, hopeful.
“Where is the girl?” I asked.
“The… girl?”
“The hunter. The one they brought across the border.Where is she?”
They all looked at each other.
Useless silence.
“Where is she?!”
Nothing.
No answer. Just empty eyes and fear.
I smiled coldly.
“Then you’re of no use to me.”
Before any of them could beg, the shadows answered me.
I didn’t lift a finger. They screamed — briefly — before darkness swallowed them whole.
When it cleared, there was only ash.
I turned. Yuna and Minji were staring at me. Neither of them looked away, not even as the last flicker of flame died from the stones.
“I’m not sorry,” I said, my voice low.
“They would’ve slowed us down. And I won’t let anything —anything— keep me from her.”
Minji swallowed.
“We know.”
Yuna nodded once, her eyes glassy.
“Just… don’t forget you’re not alone.”
I held their gazes a beat longer. Then I turned toward the shadows, the scent of her blood burning brighter in my veins.
“Come,” I said. “The real traitors won’t beg.”
And with that, we pressed deeper into the realm where gods once knelt.
--------???--------
The trail was cold.
Not in temperature — the demon realm never truly cooled — but in energy. The bond between me and Seori still pulsed, but faintly now. Distant. Flickering like a dying ember.
She was slipping away.
“We’re close,” I said, leading Minji and Yuna through the winding, jagged cliff path. “Her blood was here. Recently.”
Minji flinched but said nothing. Yuna, sharp as ever, narrowed her eyes and lifted her head — fae senses twitching. And then, from somewhere below —voices.
