Chapter 5

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The chapel was darker than ever. Moonlight smothered, shadows pooling like tar. She felt it before she saw it—the hunters. Three of them, faceless and armed, stepping through the broken doors with blades drawn, their eyes hollow, their movements sharp.

He was already there. The demon. His wings unfurled, blotting out what little light remained. His laugh echoed against the stone as he stepped forward, claws flexing. “Fools.”

They lunged, and he tore through them as if they were nothing. A single swipe of his talon split one’s chest wide, blood spraying across the altar. Another screamed as fire poured from his mouth into their skin, melting flesh to ash. The third tried to run, but the demon caught him by the neck, lifted him high, and snapped bone with a single squeeze.

The chapel floor was slick with blood. Seraphine’s knees shook, not with fear but with the terrible pull of want. Her body ached for him, even drenched in gore.

But then he turned to her.

“See how fragile they are?” he hissed, stepping closer, dripping red. “And you think you belong to them?” His claws rose, curling under her chin, forcing her gaze up. “No, little one. You are mine.”

Something inside her snapped. She screamed—not in surrender, but in defiance—and her hands burned. White-hot, searing, the way her father once described.

"By blood unbroken, by shadow sworn,

From ash and oath, let steel be born." She recited the words to summon the sword.

And there it was: a sword in her grasp, born of light and shadow twisted together, forged from both bloodlines.

The demon’s eyes widened—then narrowed, glowing hotter. “So the hunter’s child bares her fangs at last.”

With a cry, she swung. The blade cut across his chest, black blood spilling, sizzling where it struck the ground. He staggered, but his laughter shook the walls.

“Yesss,” he growled, circling her like prey and predator all at once. “Strike me. Hate me. Want me. Every swing only binds you tighter.”

Her chest heaved, sword trembling in her hands. She slashed again and again, sparks flying where steel met claw, her pulse screaming with fear and desire, each strike pulling her deeper into the bond she thought she was severing.