Kael woke up with a mouthful of dirt and a headache louder than Tafara's jokes.
His body felt like it had been chewed up, spat out, then chewed again — and honestly, that was probably close to the truth.
"Welcome back, Lion King," Tafara grinned from a tree stump nearby, one leg bandaged, the other dangling. "You tried to eat us. Again."
Kael groaned, rolling onto his side. "I didn't mean to."
"That's what all demon-possessed guys say," Ranga added, balancing a spear on one finger, his shirt scorched and hanging in tatters. "But hey, we're still alive, so we're counting it as a win."
Nyeredzi was sitting a little apart, her spirit eyes half-closed, fingers tracing invisible shapes in the air. Whatever she saw, she wasn't sharing.
Dendera sat beside Kael, arms crossed. "You lost control. The Bvuri are inside you now."
Kael's stomach turned. He already knew — he could feel it.
That dark whisper under his skin. The thing that wasn't him, but somehow knew his name, his memories, his fears.
"They didn't break through," Dendera continued. "Not completely. Because of her."
Her.
Kael sat up fast. "The girl."
"Moon Eyes?" Tafara grinned. "Yeah, she saved our butts. Walked in like some forest goddess, fired a couple arrows, bossed you around like you were a naughty puppy, then disappeared."
"She's not human," Nyeredzi said quietly, her spirit voice overlapping her real one. "Not fully."
Kael swallowed. "She said I'm not the key."
"That's… good?" Ranga offered.
"She said I'm the door," Kael corrected.
Silence.
Even Tafara didn't joke this time.
Dendera took a deep breath. "Alright. Let's lay out what we know — before we all lose our minds."
"One," Tafara held up a finger. "We're the Bloodbound Circle — best squad Murenga ever produced."
"Debatable," Ranga muttered.
"Two," Tafara ignored him, "the Bvuri — ancient evil shadow things — were supposed to be sealed away forever."
"Three," Dendera added, "they're waking up because of Kael."
Kael ran a hand through his white hair. "Lucky me."
"Four," Nyeredzi's voice drifted, half here, half somewhere else, "the girl — Liora — she knew about us. About Kael. She's been watching."
Kael's skin prickled. That silver gaze, the way she moved, the way her arrows cut through the Bvuri like they were made of mist. She wasn't just some random hunter.
"She knew what I was becoming before I did," Kael muttered. "She called me the door. What does that even mean?"
Nyeredzi's spirit hands moved faster, shapes forming — a door, a key, a circle with five symbols.
"Our ancestors sealed the Bvuri," Nyeredzi whispered. "Using five totems — Lion, Hyena, Owl, Baboon, Elephant. Us."
"Great," Tafara said. "We're living locks. Love that for us."
"But they couldn't destroy the Bvuri completely," Nyeredzi continued. "So they trapped them… behind a door."
Kael's stomach dropped.
"Oh," Ranga muttered. "Oh no."
"You're the door," Dendera said grimly. "That means—"
"They can only fully return if they pass through me," Kael finished, cold sweat breaking out down his back.
"Okay, okay," Tafara stood, pacing. "If Kael's the door, who's the key? Because you can't open a door without a key."
No one answered.
Until Nyeredzi's voice — soft, distant.
"Liora."
Kael blinked. "What?"
"The Bvuri touched her too," Nyeredzi said, spirit light flickering in her half-blind eyes. "But they didn't take her. They marked her."
"She's the key," Kael whispered.
Which meant —
"If the Bvuri take her," Dendera said, "they can use her to unlock you."
"And if they unlock me," Kael's voice dropped, "they all come back."
The silence this time was heavy enough to crush bones.
A low rumble echoed through the ground — not far away.
"Please tell me that's your stomach," Tafara said.
The earth shuddered, cracking along the edges of their camp.
It wasn't Kael this time.
It was something else.
Nyeredzi's spirit hands twisted into something jagged and wrong.
"They're hunting her," she whispered. "The Bvuri."
Kael stood, his legs still shaking. "If they get her—"
"They get you," Dendera finished.
Tafara sighed, flipping his daggers into his hands. "Guess we're not going back to camp."
Ranga spun his spears, flames reigniting. "After all this, we might as well be heroes."
Kael stared into the trees, where the rumble had come from. Somewhere out there, Liora was running — and the Bvuri were closing in.
He wasn't sure if they wanted to kill her… or use her.
Either way, he wasn't going to let them win.
"Bloodbound," Kael said, voice low but certain. "We move."
They vanished into the trees — five totems, one prophecy, and no clear way out.
End of Chapter Three