Fire licked at Elara's cloak as she rolled behind a rain barrel. The explosion had scattered the hunters, but the demon remained - its spined back arched like a starving wolf's as it circled Kaelan.
"Rhyse!" The lead hunter's voice cut through the smoke. "Stand down!"
Kaelan wiped blackened blood from his mouth. His sword arm trembled, the demonic veins now creeping past his elbow. "You brought a Ravener into a civilian village, Dain."
Elara's breath caught. *Ravener* - the Church's name for the failed experiments, the ones they never admitted to creating.
The hunter Dain bared teeth in something too sharp to be a smile. "Father Vael said you'd resist extraction." He flicked his fingers. "Subdue him."
Two hunters lunged.
Kaelan moved like water over stone. His blade took the first hunter's hand at the wrist, severed fingers still twitching around a dagger hilt. The second got a pommel to the throat.
The Ravener struck in the chaos.
Talons ripped through Kaelan's back. He went down hard, his blood spattering the frost like ink on parchment. The demon's maw unhinged, needle-teeth gleaming -
Elara acted without thinking.
Her curse surged through the rainwater puddles, turning them to acid where the demon stepped. It howled as its flesh sizzled, giving her just enough time to drag Kaelan behind the smithy's anvil.
"Why?" he gasped, blood bubbling at his lips.
She pressed a hand to the worst wound. "Because I need answers."
Her magic poured into him - and this time, she didn't pull away when the curse followed.
Kaelan arched off the ground, veins turning black as his pupils swallowed the gold. His hand clamped around her wrist hard enough to bruise. "Stop—"
The smithy wall exploded.
The Ravener staggered through the debris, half its face melted away. Behind it, Dain reloaded a crossbow with gloved hands.
"Last chance, Rhyse." The bolt gleamed with something oily. "The witch dies now, or you both die slow."
Kaelan's breath came in ragged gulps. His eyes met Elara's - and she saw the calculation there. The moment he weighed her life against whatever the Church promised him.
Then he moved.
His sword took Dain's crossbow hand at the wrist. The severed limb hit the ground still clutching the weapon.
The remaining hunters froze.
Kaelan swayed on his feet, his voice raw. "Tell Vael I'm done taking orders from graverobbers."
The Ravener shrieked.
Elara grabbed Kaelan's arm. "We need to go. Now."
They fled as the demon turned against its masters.