Kael's world was one of fire and blood.
Agony pulsed from his side, the wound deep and searing, but he wouldn't quit.
He was panting as he ran; his legs felt like lead.
The heat of the blasts licking behind him, smoke curling in his lungs.
Selene ran alongside him, darting through the collapsing ruins as her body shifted in and out of his line of sight, everything a blur of speed and accuracy around them.
The final echoing crash of the collapse of the archive chamber shook the ground and rained darkness and death of embers and rubble into the sky.
Kael didn't look back.
Dain was gone. Mined under rock and flame.
Yet as he fled the wreckage of Shadowborne Estate, doubt tinged the corners of his mind.
Was it truly over? Had Dain, the brother who had survived each of the impossible trials, each of the assassination attempts, each of the betrayals, really died with such ease?
No.
Dain was a monster.
And monsters did not die in darkness.
They waited.
They watched.
They came back.
Kael set his jaw, pushing the thought away.
If Dain had survived, they would finish this another day.
All that mattered now was escape.
They fled into the outer courtyard as another explosion shook the mountain.
A tower collapsed, triggering a firestorm of debris to tumble into the valley below.
The castle, which had housed generations of assassins, was literally crumbling around itself.
Kael slowed, glancing back at the devastation.
He had lived his life inside those walls. Trained there. Killed there. Became a weapon there.
And now, it was gone.
A part of him felt… hollow.
Not regret. Never that. But the weight of finality.
Selene grabbed his arm.
"We need to move. Now."
He lingered, took one last look at the inferno, then nodded.
And then they vanished into the night.
With the blaze subsumed in a glittering rage, they crescendoed with the wind in their hair.
Kael tripped, just managing to stop himself from falling flat on the ground. His vision swam, the blood loss catching up with him.
Selene swore under her breath and seized his arm, hauling him to his feet.
"You're bleeding out."
"I've had worse," Kael said through gritted teeth, but the words came out weaker than he would have liked.
Selene eyed him darkly. "Not when I'm around."
She yanked him toward a tangle of trees, half-dragging him as his strength faltered.
They huddled in the hollow of an old oak tree, the roots curling out like skeletal hands.
Gently, Selene set Kael against the gnarled, grained wood, kneeling next to him and retrieving a flask from her belt.
"This will hurt," she warned.
Kael snorted.
"Everything already hurts."
Selene didn't waste time.
She dumped the liquid on his wound, and fire blazed through his body.
Kael bit his tongue to suppress a howl, gripping the dirt with desperate fingers.
"Hold still," she said, working fast, her hands familiar and steady.
Kael stared at her face cut, resolute, in the pale light from the moon, piercing between the punchy trees. He had grown up in the company of killers, but Selene… well, she was something else.
Something as dangerous but with a stronger purpose than mere survival.
When she was done, she leaned back, her arms draped over her knees.
"You'll live," she said, eyes on him carefully.
Kael forced a breath.
"Disappointed?"
Selene smirked.
"Not yet."
Silence stretched between them, the only sound the faraway crackle of the dying estate. Kael closed his eyes, fatigue settling in his bones.
He had done it.
He had annihilated the Shadowborne legacy.
And yet…
Something was wrong.
A sharp, nagging sensation pulled in his gut.
A feeling he couldn't shake.
Selene noticed.
"What is it? "
Kael opened his eyes.
The fire in the distance was reflected in them, but that wasn't what turned his blood to ice.
"It was too easy," he said under his breath.
Selene frowned.
"What?"
He swallowed hard.
"Dain. He… let me win."
Selene stiffened.
"That's impossible. He tried to kill you."
Kael felt his mind racing as he shook his head.
"No. Dain never 'tries.' If he wanted to kill me, I would be dead."
The last one… he could have killed me. But he didn't."
Selene's expression darkened.
"So you're saying he wanted this to happen? "
Kael breathed out, fingers closing in a bloodied grip against his tunic.
"Dain isn't just a warrior. He's a strategist. He doesn't gamble foolishly.
"He doesn't do anything without reason.
He addressed Selene, his voice low and grim.
"He allowed us to burn Shadowborne Estate."
Selene froze; recognition clearly spread across her face.
"But why? "
Kael pulled himself erect, every muscle screaming in rebellion.
His mind cleared now, adrenaline slicing through the fog of pain.
"THE archive," he said, throat dry. "
He let us destroy it.
Let us wipe out all records, all contracts, and all names.
"It wasn't only the Shadowborne's blades that were powerful; it was their secrets."
Selene's breath hitched.
"You know he wanted to restart."
Kael nodded. "With no traces and no bindings, the remaining assassins are now free agents.
No loyalty to the past.
No debts to old masters. If Dain lived… he'd build the Shadowborne back stronger than before."
A dense silence settled between them.
Then something from far inside the forest let loose a low whistle that pierced the night.
Kael's blood went cold.
Selene sprang to her feet, daggers in hand. "We need to move."
But it was too late.
Darkness moved amid the trees. Figures stepped forward, wearing dark armor and seams glinting like wolves' eyes in the dark.
These were no ordinary mercenaries.
They were assassins. Shadowborne assassins.
Kael tightened his grip around his blade. Now, his worst fear had just come true.
Dain hadn't died.
He had adapted.
The shadows breathed a voice he knew, smooth as silk and cold as death.
"Well, well, little brother."
Kael's stomach twisted.
Dain stepped forward into the moonlight, his armor still dappled with blood and soot, but his smirk was as wicked as ever.
Unscathed.
"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you? "
Kael's heart pounded.
The fire had ruined the past.
But the future … belonged to Dain.
And now Kael had just given him what he wanted.
Dain smiled, his head cocked. "Do we want to finish what we started? "
The assassins closed in.
Kael raised his blade.