Darkness.
It wasn't the peaceful kind. The kind that came with sleep or the gentle embrace of night.
This darkness was suffocating, thick like tar, wrapping around Sienna's body and pulling her under. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe. Panic surged through her, but even that felt distant, like it belonged to someone else.
Was she dead?
No.
There was something inside her, a pulse of heat in her chest, growing stronger by the second. It burned, spread through her veins like wildfire, licking at her skin from the inside out. It didn't hurt, it awakened.
Then, a voice.
Low. Rough. Desperate.
"Sienna!"
The name sliced through the void, shattering the silence.
Kael.
Her eyes snapped open.
Reality crashed over her like a tidal wave, the scent of blood, the sting of raw energy vibrating through her skin. Her ears rang with the echoes of a battle she hadn't finished.
And then, there it was.
The creature.
It loomed over her, its hollow eyes drilling into her, something almost… expectant in its gaze. It knew. It sensed it, just like she did.
She wasn't the same.
Fear had chained her for too long, held her captive, made her small. But that chain had broken, shattered into dust.
Sienna moved.
One second, she was kneeling on the cold, bloodstained ground. The next, she was rising, her entire body humming with raw power. Her breath came slow and steady. Her fingers twitched, nails elongating into lethal claws. Strength coiled beneath her skin, waiting to be unleashed.
The creature hissed, its blackened teeth gleaming in the flickering torchlight.
And then it lunged.
Sienna didn't flinch.
She met it halfway.
They collided with bone-crushing force, the impact shaking the very ground beneath them. Claws slashed, teeth snapped, the scent of burning flesh and blood thickened the air. The creature snarled, but she was faster, her movements instinctive, flawless.
Kael cursed behind her. "Sienna.."
But she wasn't listening.
Everything inside her screamed to fight. To win.
She ducked just as the creature's clawed hand swiped through the air where her head had been, the force alone splitting stone behind her. Without thinking, she twisted, using its own momentum against it, grabbing the creature mid-lunge and slamming it into the ground. The earth cracked beneath the impact.
It let out a guttural screech, writhing.
Sienna didn't stop.
She pounced, her claws raking across its chest, slicing through the rotting flesh like it was nothing. The creature convulsed, black ichor spilling onto the ground. For the first time, it was afraid.
But then… it laughed.
A sound like dry bones snapping, a grating, hollow noise that made her skin crawl.
Sienna froze.
The creature's twisted body reset itself, bones snapping back into place. It rose again, slower this time, its sunken eyes burning with something terrifying.
Recognition.
"You..." Its voice was a rasp, something ancient and wrong. "You are not meant to be."
A chill ran down her spine.
Kael stepped beside her, his blade gripped tight, his expression unreadable. "Sienna, we have to.."
Boom.
The ground trembled. A deafening explosion rocked the stronghold, shaking the very walls around them. Dust and debris rained down from above.
Aldric.
Sienna's stomach lurched.
The sound had come from deeper inside, where Aldric had gone.
"No," she whispered.
Kael grabbed her wrist. "We need to move."
But Sienna yanked free, her pulse roaring in her ears.
She couldn't leave.
Not when Aldric had stayed behind to buy them time. Not when everything in her gut screamed that something wasn't right.
The creature still stood, watching, waiting, amused. It knew she wouldn't run.
Her hands clenched into fists.
I am not running.
Kael swore under his breath, sensing the shift in her stance. "Sienna, don't do this.."
But she was already moving.
She sprinted toward the fire, toward the wreckage, toward whatever lay ahead.
She didn't know what awaited her.
But she knew this wasn't over.
Not even close.