Chapter 25 The Hunt Begins
The horn sounded again closer this time, its low, metallic wail slithering through the ruined tower like a warning from the bones of the earth itself. Lyra’s pulse quickened but her hands steadied. She rose to her feet, ignoring the lingering tremor in her muscles, and scanned the shadows beyond the broken doorway.
“They’re sweeping the ridge,” Rhian whispered, peeking through the shattered window. “Three riders at least. Maybe five.”
“Six,” Mira corrected quietly. The spell-light in her pupils flickered. “And one of them is a thaumaturge. I can feel the distortion.”
Thalen coughed, gripping his side. “We can’t outrun them.”
“No,” Lyra said, her voice unnervingly calm. “We move deeper into the woods. They won’t follow too far without reinforcements.”
Rhian snorted. “You don’t know Inquisition units, apparently. They’d march into a dragon’s throat if the Empress ordered it.”
Mira tightened the straps on her satchel. “Rhian’s right. But we can lose them if we’re smart.”
Lyra nodded. “Then we need to move. Now.”
The group slipped out the back of the tower, keeping low as they entered the blackened forest beyond. The trees—old sentinel pines leaned crookedly, their trunks twisted by the magical shockwave she’d triggered at the Spire. Ash drifted from the branches like unnatural snow.
Lyra felt Aurenyx curl inside her, coiled and alert.
They hunt you. They smell your awakening.
I know, she thought back. But I won’t let you take control.
Aurenyx hummed a sound that felt like pressure behind her ribs.
I do not need control to protect what is mine.
Lyra pushed the dragon’s voice aside. She needed clarity. Not pressure. Not power. Not the twisted mix of rage and destiny Aurenyx kept whispering to her.
The group moved quickly, Rhian leading with her bow up, Mira shielding Thalen as he staggered behind them. Lyra took the rear, senses stretched thin like pulled wire. Every snapped twig, every shift of wind felt like a threat.
Then
Footsteps.
Not theirs.
Close.
Lyra gestured sharply. Rhian froze, motionless. Mira eased Thalen behind a tree, hand raised to cast. Lyra listened.
The footsteps weren’t heavy. They weren’t armored.
But they were fast.
Too fast.
A figure darted through the darkness between the trees, barely visible a blur of dark robes and glinting steel.
An Inquisition scout.
Lyra reacted before thought could catch up. Her hand shot out, power flaring, but Rhian was faster. An arrow sliced past Lyra’s cheek, embedding itself in the scout’s shoulder.
He crumpled to his knees with a strangled cry.
“Kill him,” Mira hissed.
“No,” Lyra snapped. “We question him.”
Mira’s eyes flashed. “Lyra”
“He’s alive. And I need answers.”
They approached the fallen scout cautiously. He was young no older than Lyra and fear flickered in his eyes as she knelt in front of him.
“Why are you here?” Lyra asked softly.
He spat blood. “Orders.”
“From who?”
He swallowed hard. “The Empress herself. She felt the surge. She sent us to confirm” His gaze flickered to Lyra’s glowing eyes. “ that the bloodline wasn’t a myth.”
Lyra’s breath stilled.
Mira’s grip tightened on her spell.
Rhian whispered, “You have to move. Others are coming.”
Lyra leaned closer to the scout. “Listen to me. If you stay here, you’ll die. Your unit will be slaughtered. The Empress doesn’t protect her soldiers she uses them.”
His eyes widened. “She… she told us the one we sought was dangerous. That we were to report your location and stall you at any cost.”
Lyra felt her stomach twist. “Stall us? Not capture?”
He shook his head, trembling. “No. She said capturing you was pointless. That you’re too far gone already.”
Mira muttered, “She wants you dead.”
The scout winced. “She wants you erased.”
The forest rustled. Voices. Approaching.
Lyra stood. “Run. Go. Don’t look back.”
He stared at her like she was something impossible something wrong.
Then he ran.
Rhian spun on her. “You let him go?”
“Better him carrying fear than a corpse carrying nothing,” Lyra said.
Mira frowned. “I hope you didn’t just doom us.”
“Move,” Lyra ordered.
They sprinted deeper into the forest.
The ground sloped downward, roots twisting beneath their boots, the air growing colder as they neared the Shadowfen marsh. Fog pooled low, creeping between the trees in pale tendrils. Rhian hissed, “Don’t step in anything that glows. Shadowfen spores burn through skin.”
Lyra nodded, guiding Thalen through the thickening mist.
But the forest was no longer quiet.
Footsteps many this time echoed behind them.
Then the horn sounded again, closer, so close it vibrated through Lyra’s chest.
Rhian cursed. “They’re in formation.”
“They’re hunting,” Mira breathed.
Aurenyx hissed inside her.
Run. Faster. They cannot catch what does not bow.
“Lyra, this way!” Rhian whispered sharply.
They slipped down into a narrow ravine, the walls steep enough to hide them from sight. The ravine’s floor was damp and covered in luminous lichen. Mira grimaced. “We shouldn’t stay here long. Spore concentration is too high.”
Lyra opened her mouth to speak
When a voice echoed from above.
Cold. Commanding.
“Inquisition Unit Twelve. Form the cordon.”
Lyra’s blood froze.
She knew that voice.
Kael.
Rhian’s face went sheet-white. “He brought them here.”
“No,” Lyra whispered. “He wouldn’t.”
But even as she said it, she didn’t believe it.
Kael’s voice rang clear across the ravine.
“She is close. I can feel the imprint.”
Mira clenched her fists. “He’s tracking you. He’s tracking your magic.”
Thalen, pale but conscious, rasped, “Then we cut the bond. We sever it. We”
“We can’t,” Lyra said. “Not without killing him. Or me. Or both.”
Aurenyx stirred, cold and furious.
Let me silence him. Let me burn the traitor.
Lyra shut her eyes tight, fighting the surge.
Rhian grabbed her shoulder. “Lyra. He’s coming. We need a plan now.”
Kael’s boots crunched against gravel above them.
“Spread out. She’s wounded. She won’t have gotten far.”
Wounded.
Lyra felt heat curl in her chest. She wasn’t wounded anymore. Not in the way Kael thought.
But she was something worse.
Mira whispered, “If they drop into this ravine we’re trapped.”
“We won’t let that happen,” Lyra said.
Thalen coughed a dark laugh. “Brave. But how exactly?”
Lyra looked up at the ravine wall.
A plan formed dangerous, reckless, but their only chance.
“We climb,” she said.
Rhian blinked. “Climb? With Thalen half-dead?”
“I’m not half-dead,” Thalen muttered. “More like… two-thirds.”
“We climb,” Lyra repeated. “But not straight up. We use the fissure.”
A crack in the ravine wall extended up into the darkness like a jagged wound—narrow, steep, and nearly invisible unless you were searching for it.
Rhian groaned. “That thing’s barely the width of my shoulders.”
“Which means the Inquisition won’t expect us to use it,” Lyra countered.
The horn sounded again.
Closer.
Kael’s voice:
“They’re below us. I know it.”
“Go,” Lyra said. “Now.”
Rhian slung Thalen’s arm over her shoulder. Mira grabbed her satchel. Lyra brought up the rear.
They scrambled into the fissure.
The walls pressed tight around them, the air thin, the climb brutal. Rhian pulled Thalen upward step by step. Mira whispered warding spells under her breath. Lyra kept glancing back, heart hammering.
Halfway up, she heard them.
Boots hitting the ravine floor.
Kael’s voice, sharp and furious:
“They were here. Less than a minute ago.”
Rhian whispered, “Hurry hurry”
Lyra climbed faster, fingers slipping on the damp stone, breath burning. Behind her
“Check the fissure,” Kael ordered.
Lyra’s heart slammed against her ribs.
A torch flared below, casting light into the crack.
Shadows shifted.
A soldier began climbing after them.
Rhian cursed under her breath. “We’re exposed.”
Mira hissed, “Lyra ”
“I know,” Lyra said, voice shaking. “Keep going.”
The soldier climbed fast too fast.
Lyra reached deep, calling to the magic inside her.
Aurenyx surged instantly.
Yes. Let me end him. Let me burn the path clean.
Lyra’s chest tightened. “No killing.”
Then you will fall.
She ignored him.
Instead, she summoned a burst of heat not fire, but raw force and slammed it down the fissure like a hammer.
The soldier was thrown off the wall, screaming as he fell.
A chorus of shouts erupted below.
Kael roared, “LYRA!”
Her heart lurched.
He sounded furious. Betrayed. Desperate.
She didn’t look back.
They reached the top of the fissure and collapsed into the underbrush. Mira gasped for breath. Rhian checke
d Thalen. Lyra forced herself upright.
Below them, Kael shouted orders, the Inquisition’s boots pounding as they regrouped.
Rhian whispered, “Lyra… they almost had us.”
“No,” Lyra said softly.
Her eyes glowed with Aurenyx’s emberlight.
“They haven’t even started.”