The staircase beneath House Ordan shook behind us.
A section of the ceiling collapsed before the last guard could close the study door. Dust rolled through the room, followed by a wave of hot air from the ruined passage.
Lady Maera’s guards dragged the desk across the entrance.
"Will that hold?" Lyra asked.
"No," Maera said. "But it may slow them down."
Below the estate, something struck the stone hard enough to rattle the windows.
Kaelen leaned against the wall, one hand pressed to his ribs. Blood had soaked through the bandage Seris had tied around him. He looked at it, then tightened the cloth without complaint.
"You’re bleeding again," Seris said.
"I noticed."
"That was not an invitation to ignore it."
Kaelen pushed away from the wall. His face had lost some color, but his sword hand remained steady.
"We leave now," I said.
Maera spread the old map across the table. The hidden road beneath Blackmere ran under the noble district before reaching the city wall. Three marks had been drawn along it in faded red ink.
"The first gate opens into the old cistern," she said. "The second is beneath the cathedral’s eastern transept. The third reaches the road outside the walls."
"Which one did the Red Abbot use?" Seris asked.
Maera looked at the red glow under the floorboards.
"The second."
"Then he wants us to follow," Kaelen said.
"Probably," I replied.
He glanced at me. "You say that like it does not matter."
"It matters. It simply does not change where we need to go."
Before anyone could answer, a horn sounded outside the estate.
The royal army had arrived.
Maera folded the map and gave it to Lyra. "Go. I will keep the soldiers away from the lower entrance."
"You will be arrested," Kaelen said.
"I own a house in this city. They will call it an investigation before they call it treason."
"And if they stop pretending?"
Maera looked toward me. "Then make sure they regret waiting."
She pulled a lever beneath the table.
The floor opened beside the wall.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
Seris went first. Lyra followed. Kaelen paused at the edge, looking back toward the blocked study door.
"You should come with us," he said.
Maera gave him a tired smile. "I am not the one who ran into a cathedral full of soldiers."
"You also did not have much choice."
"Neither did you."
That answer stayed with him as he entered the passage.
I went last.
The staircase closed above my head, cutting off the sound of the horns. For a few seconds, there was only the scrape of our boots and Kaelen’s uneven breathing.
The passage below was older than the estate. The walls were carved with the Draven crest, though someone had tried to break every symbol with a hammer. Blood-red lines ran through the stone like roots.
Kaelen noticed them.
"The church did this?"
"They used the old channels to move the Heart’s energy," Seris said. "The lines were already here."
"Who built them?"
Seris kept walking.
"Your family."
Kaelen looked at me.
I had no answer that would make the situation better, so I kept moving.
A noise came from ahead.
Metal against stone.
Then a voice called through the dark.
"Stop where you are."
Torches flared along the walls.
Eight church knights blocked the passage. Their armor was marked with the same red channels we had seen in the cathedral. Behind them stood a man in a black half-cloak, his face hidden beneath a silver mask.
Kaelen drew his sword.
The masked man pointed at him.
"Kaelen Rook. By order of the Crown and the Holy Church, you are to stand aside."
Kaelen stepped forward. "You are beneath a noble estate with armed men and stolen blood essence. You do not get to speak for the law."
The man’s gaze shifted to Veyr.
"Lord Veyr Draven, surrender the ring and the girl. The others may live."
Lyra raised her bow.
Kaelen’s sword moved in front of her before she could fire.
"You should choose better terms."
The masked man lifted two fingers.
The knights attacked.
The first charge filled the narrow passage. Kaelen met it head-on, turning the first sword aside and striking the knight’s throat with the pommel. The man stumbled, and Kaelen drove his shoulder into him, throwing both of them against the wall.
Lyra fired past Kaelen’s back.
Her arrow struck the eye slit of a second knight.
Seris pressed her palm to the floor. Blood rose from the cuts on her fingers and spread into thin cords. They wrapped around two sets of ankles, pulling the knights off balance.
I moved through the opening.
A knight swung at my head. I stepped inside the attack and drove my elbow into his chest. His armor absorbed the blow, but the red channel beneath it flashed.
I used Cinder Vein.
The first burst cracked the plate beneath his ribs.
The second broke the channel.
The third burst would have finished him, but another sword forced me to turn.
The masked man had entered the fight.
His blade was narrow and bright, coated in a pale substance that burned where it touched my sword. He attacked without wasted movement, aiming for joints and tendons.
I blocked the first cut.
The second sliced my sleeve.
The third stopped against the ring.
Red light jumped between us.
The masked man pulled back.
"Give it to me."
"I just met you."
His sword came again.
I caught his wrist and struck his mask with my forehead. The metal cracked. He staggered, and Kaelen reached him before I could.
Kaelen’s sword stopped at the man’s throat.
"Call them off."
The masked man breathed hard behind the broken silver.
"You still think this is a choice."
The floor shook.
A red pulse traveled through the walls and struck Kaelen in the chest.
He froze.
His sword lowered by an inch.
Kaelen’s face tightened.
"Move," I said.
He did not.
A thin red line appeared beneath the bandage at his ribs.
Seris looked at it and swore under her breath.
"What?" I asked.
"The Heart fragment."
Kaelen staggered backward. His hand went to the wound.
During the explosion in the cathedral, a piece of the shattered Heart had entered his body. The church channels beneath the passage had awakened it.
The masked man smiled.
"Finally."
Kaelen’s back arched.
The red line spread from his ribs across his chest and up his neck. His eyes remained open, but the color in them began to fade beneath a dull crimson glow.
"Kaelen," Lyra said.
He looked at her.
For one second, he was himself.
"Get back."
Then his arm moved.
His sword cut through the masked man’s throat.
The church officer fell without a sound.
Kaelen stared at the blood on his blade.
"I did not—"
His body turned toward Lyra.
She raised her bow, but Kaelen was already moving.
I intercepted him before he reached her.
His sword crashed against mine with enough force to numb my fingers.
"Kaelen!"
He drove me backward.
The man in front of me still had Kaelen’s face, but his movements had changed. There was no hesitation now. No defensive rhythm. Every strike came at the fastest route to my throat.
I blocked high and kicked his knee.
He barely reacted.
The red lines beneath his skin brightened, strengthening his body with every pulse from the walls.
Kaelen swung again.
I ducked beneath the blade and struck his stomach. He caught my wrist and threw me into the wall.
Stone cracked behind my shoulders.
Lyra fired.
Kaelen turned and caught the arrow between two fingers.
He looked at her.
"Run," I said.
She did not move.
"He is still in there."
"I know."
"Then do something!"
Kaelen charged her.
I forced myself away from the wall and released Whitefire Lance.
White fire formed along my arm and shot across the passage.
Kaelen raised his sword.
The lance struck him in the chest.
The blast threw him into the far wall. His armor burned away, and the red lines across his body flared like cracks in glass.
He dropped to one knee.
For a moment, the red light vanished from his eyes.
"Veyr," he said.
His voice was rough and afraid.
I stepped toward him.
"What do I do?"
He looked at Lyra, then at the sword in his hand.
"Do not let it use me again."
The red light returned.
Kaelen lunged.
This time, I knew I could not stop him without killing him.
I still hesitated.
He used that hesitation to cut across my side.
Pain opened beneath my ribs.
He raised his sword for another strike.
Seris shouted something, but the passage had become a blur of red light and ringing metal.
I caught his blade with both hands.
Kaelen’s face was inches from mine. His teeth were clenched, and tears of pain ran from the corners of his eyes.
"Do it," he whispered.
"I can pull the fragment out."
"You do not know that."
"I can try."
"You tried once."
His strength pushed me down.
The red mark had reached his jaw.
"If you leave me alive," he said, forcing the words out, "I will kill her next."
Lyra stood behind me with another arrow drawn, unable to release it.
Kaelen looked at her.
"Do it."
The thing inside him snarled through his mouth.
His sword broke free.
I moved before he could strike.
Whitefire gathered in my palm.
Kaelen’s sword came down.
I drove the lance through his chest.
The white flame burned through armor, bone, and the red core lodged beneath his ribs.
Kaelen’s body jerked.
The crimson light exploded from his back and shattered against the wall.
His sword slipped from his hand.
I caught him before he hit the floor.
The passage went quiet.
Kaelen’s blood ran over my gloves.
His eyes had returned to their normal color.
"You’re alive," I said.
He tried to laugh, but only blood came out.
"Not for long."
Seris dropped beside us and pressed her fingers against the wound.
"The fragment is gone," she said.
"Can you heal him?"
She did not answer immediately.
That was enough.
Kaelen gripped my coat.
"I thought you hated me."
"I barely know you."
"That is worse."
His grip weakened.
I pressed my hand against the wound, though the heat had already left his body.
Kaelen’s eyes moved toward Lyra.
"Keep her safe."
"I do not take orders from dead men."
His mouth twitched.
Then he stopped breathing.
Lyra lowered her bow.
She did not cry. She walked to him, knelt beside his body, and touched his shoulder as if waiting for him to correct the situation.
He did not.
Seris examined the blackened wound in his chest.
"The Heart fragment was destroyed," she said quietly. "But it left something behind."
A thin red line pulsed beneath Kaelen’s skin.
Once.
Then again.
I stared at it.
The system opened before my eyes.
> Predator’s Claim condition detected.
> Target status: dead.
> Foreign core fragment: active.
> Claim unavailable.
The message faded.
Behind us, more church soldiers entered the passage.
Their armor glowed red.
Lyra stood and picked up Kaelen’s sword.
"What do we do now?"
I looked at Kaelen’s body.
The line beneath his skin pulsed a third time.
I had killed the hero to stop the thing inside him.
If that thing was still alive, then killing him had only been the first step.
"Now," I said, lifting my sword, "we make sure the church does not get him back."