Chapter Three: When Demons Learn to Fear
The wards failed without warning. There was no gradual weakening, no tremor to signal danger only a sudden, concussive crack that tore through the hall like thunder striking stone. The floor shuddered beneath my feet. Dust rained from the ceiling in choking clouds as glowing runes carved into the walls flared once, violently bright, and then fractured.
Black fire bled out of the cracks.
It didn't burn the way ordinary flame did. It crawled, thick and oily, clinging to stone as if it were alive. The air screamed not with sound, but with pressure, a shrill tension that made my teeth ache and my vision blur at the edges.
Rowan was moving before I could process what was happening.
"Positions!" he barked.
The Ashfang pack reacted instantly. What had been a hall full of wary conversation became a battlefield in the span of a heartbeat. Bodies blurred as men and women shifted, bones reshaping with wet, visceral sounds. Fur tore through skin. Claws scraped against stone as wolves took form, massive and bristling, teeth bared.
I backed away instinctively, my heart hammering. The hum beneath my skin flared, sharp and uneasy, like a warning bell struck too hard.
The first rift split open near the eastern wall.
The air tore like fabric, reality peeling back to reveal a void that writhed with darkness. Something clawed its way through, horned and hunched, its skin mottled red and black as if burned from the inside out. It grinned as it emerged, a mouth full of jagged, uneven teeth.
Then another rift opened.
And another.
Demons poured into the hall, their movements jerky and wrong, bodies shifting between shapes that never quite settled. Their eyes gleamed with hunger and something disturbingly close to delight.
Panic rippled through the room not fear exactly, but the heightened awareness of imminent violence. Wolves growled and lunged, colliding with demons in flashes of fur and claw. Stone cracked beneath the force of impact. The smell of blood and sulphur filled the air, thick enough to choke on.
I stood frozen for a heartbeat too long.
One of the demons noticed me.
It was taller than the others, its horns curling back from its skull like twisted branches. Its gaze locked onto mine, and its grin widened.
"There you are," it crooned, its voice slick and invasive, slipping into my mind rather than my ears. "We have been searching for you."
It moved fast far too fast.
Rowan shouted my name, but the sound barely registered as the demon lunged, claws slicing through the air straight for my chest.
Something inside me snapped.
I didn't think.
I didn't plan.
I reached inward.
The power responded instantly, surging up from deep within my blood like a tide answering the moon. Heat flooded my arm, not painful but overwhelming, as though my veins had become conduits for something far greater than myself.
Moonlight erupted from my palm.
It wasn't a beam or a blast. It was a living force white, radiant, and absolute. It roared through the hall with a sound like breaking glass and rushing wind combined, swallowing the demon whole.
There was no scream.
One moment the creature existed; the next, it was gone reduced to drifting ash that scattered across the floor and vanished before it could settle.
Silence slammed into the hall.
The fighting halted abruptly, wolves skidding to a stop, demons recoiling in shock. Every gaze turned toward me.
My arm trembled as the light faded, leaving behind a faint silver glow that slowly sank back beneath my skin. The hum in my blood deepened, steadier now, resonant and heavy.
"Moonfire," someone whispered. I swayed, the remaining demons hissed, their confidence shattering. One retreated toward a rift, eyes wide with a mixture of awe and fury.
"The Covenant awakens," it spat, the words echoing unnaturally as the void began to close.
One by one, the rifts snapped shut, sealing with sharp, echoing cracks. The black fire fizzled out, leaving scorched stone and the acrid stench of burned magic behind.T he hall was silent except for the laboured breathing of the pack, my strength left me all at once.
The world tilted violently, and my knees buckled. I would have hit the floor if Rowan hadn't caught me, his arms locking around me with unyielding strength.
"Easy," he murmured, steady and grounding. I felt his heartbeat beneath my cheek, strong and constant, anchoring me as my own raced erratically.I clutched at his tunic, fingers curling without conscious thought, as the last of the power drained away. Exhaustion crashed over me, heavy and disorienting.
He didn't push me away.
Instead, he tightened his hold just enough to keep me upright. "You are not safe anymore," he said quietly, his voice low and grave, i forced myself to look up at him, meeting those molten-gold eyes. The fire beneath my skin still flickered faintly, a reminder of what I had done what I was capable of.
"Neither are they," I replied.
Something fierce flashed through his gaze.
The pack began to move again, cautiously this time. Wolves shifted back into human form, murmuring to one another as they inspected damage and tended to minor wounds. Several glanced at me with open awe. Others looked afraid.
Rowan guided me to a stone bench, helping me sit. His hand lingered at my elbow a moment longer than necessary before he stepped back.
"What was that?" I demanded, my voice hoarse. "Don't tell me it's nothing."
He exhaled slowly, running a hand through his dark hair.
"That," he said, "was moonfire."The word settled heavily in the air. It belongs to the Covenant, he continued. To the Ashborne line.
I frowned. "Covenant with what?"
"With the moon," he said simply. "And with the boundary between worlds." he met my gaze, unflinching. The Ashborne weren't just shifters, Hayley. They were judges. Executioners. When demons crossed into this realm, the Covenant answered.
A chill ran through me that had nothing to do with the cold. The visions from the night before made terrible sense now silver fire, kneeling wolves, screaming shadows. They thought it was lost," Rowan added. "Extinguished in the old wars.
"But it wasn't," I said quietly.
"No," he agreed. "It was hidden."
The weight of his words pressed down on me, but beneath it, something else stirred a sense of purpose sharp enough to cut through the fear.
Greyfen hadn't tried to bind me out of tradition, they'd tried to control a weapon.I straightened despite the exhaustion. Then the demons came for the wrong person. Rowan studied me for a long moment, something unreadable in his expression.
"I think," he said slowly, "they've just realised that."