CHAPTER 20: HUMMED WITH HEAT...

Keiser should have known.

With Muzio’s sluggish body, there was no dodging a literal princess flung like a catapult straight at them.

His instincts flared anyway. In the space of a breath, he’d already mapped the plan in his head---the pivot of his foot, the twist of his waist, the snap of his hand catching her by the scruff of her cloak. He would use her momentum against her, hurl her back toward the incoming beasts---where she would be ready, blades flashing, to tear them apart.

That was what he would have done.

With his body.

But Muzio’s wasn’t his.

The second his heel struck dirt, reality slammed him harder than any beast could.

’Shit---that’s a bad step.’

The ground dragged under him like tar.

’Why’s this body so slow? I should’ve been clear already---’

No time.

Heat roared inside him. Fire licked his veins, unbidden, choking him before he could tame it.

And then---steel flashed.

The princess flung one of her short blades backwards---straight in the direction of Keiser and Lenko, the same path her body was hurtling toward.

The weapon cut through the air with a shrill whistle, faster than she was falling, and struck the ground only a few paces between them. Keiser, still caught mid-dodge, barely registered the blur of steel. Lenko froze in place, his arms tightening protectively around his satchel.

And then she moved.

Mid-flight, the princess twisted her body with almost unnatural precision.

Just as Keiser thought she was about to crash into them, her hand shot out and seized the hilt of the planted blade. With a sharp, ringing pull, she dragged the weapon through the soil, the edge gouging deep into the earth. The ground split with a tearing hiss, sparks and dirt spraying, as the sheer force of the drag bled away her momentum.

Instead of slamming into Keiser and Lenko or barreling through the trees behind them, her momentum shuddered to a halt.

She landed in a crouch, half-kneeling in the churned-up dirt, her blade still vibrating from the impact. She had stopped only a few steps behind them, perfectly positioned in the narrow space between Keiser, frozen wide-eyed, and Lenko, who clutched his satchel with wild bewilderment, his mouth working soundlessly.

For a heartbeat, the forest seemed to pause with them, as though stunned by what it had just witnessed.

"That was---!"

"You’re insane---!"

Lenko and Keiser blurted at the same time, their voices colliding in disbelief. But the princess didn’t even spare them a glance. Her gaze was locked on the surge beyond the treeline---the roiling mass of beasts spilling forward like a tide.

Without hesitation, she shoved something into Lenko’s hands. "Get back to those people. Lead them to the village. That cave will draw the beast straight to them. If they stay, they’ll all be slaughtered."

Lenko looked down and nearly dropped what she’d given him. It was the same strange rock she’d used before---the one that had become the ears of the fox statue standing guard outside the underground settlement.

"What---?" His voice cracked with panic. "The village? Are you sure? What about the---"

His words were cut short by the hiss of steel. One of her unsheathed short swords left her hand in a blur, soaring past them. It skewered a beast that had broken through the treeline, pinning it mid-step. A burst of purple fire consumed the creature where it stood, leaving nothing but smoke and the acrid stench of burning fur.

"Do you think the cave will hold them now? The ward is gone." The princess seized him by the collar of his cloak and hauled him close. Her eyes blazed.

"Gone. That means nothing keeps them from this route anymore. Their herd has returned to the path it was driven from, and with fresh bait waiting unprotected, where do you think they’ll go?" She shook him once, hard, making the satchel thump against his side.

"I used to cut down stragglers. Ones that slipped loose. This---" she shoved him back with a snarl, "---this is the herd itself."

Lenko stumbled, clutching the rock, his face pale.

She turned then, and her gaze snapped onto Keiser. He barely had time to flinch before the sword she had thrown a moment ago snapped back into her grip as though yanked by invisible strings. Its blade hummed with heat.

"And you," she said, pointing the edge toward him, voice low and sharp as steel, "you’d better fight with that strange sigils of yours."

Then she was gone---charging forward into the oncoming swarm, blades flashing, purple fire already igniting the nearest beasts.

Lenko’s eyes darted between Keiser and the treeline.

Keiser could see the hesitation etched across Lenko’s face---the sharp breaths, the stiffness in his jaw. The boy kept glancing back, over and over, toward the direction where they came from.

Toward the people. The families huddled in chambers. The children he’d laughed with, dance with. The elders he had cooked for, served, listened to. Their faces flickered behind Lenko’s eyes like a plea he couldn’t silence.

Keiser let out a long, unsteady breath. "Tch." He tore the bandages from his hands.

"Muzio?" Lenko’s head snapped toward him, confusion slicing through the panic.

But Keiser wasn’t listening. His gaze fell to his bare hands, flexing them open and closed. The skin was raw, crosshatched with half-healed welts. The sigils there still burned, angry and scabbed, but no longer with the biting agony they once held. The heat was bearable now---a pain he could endure.

Keiser’s eyes sharpened. He reached out and seized Lenko’s arm.

"Wait---what are you---"

With the back of his hand, Keiser pressed hard against Lenko’s forearm.

Mana sparked from the contact, sizzling through flesh. The sigils carved themselves in an instant---not drawn, but branded, carved by fire and blood. The smell of burning skin choked the air as red lines seared into Lenko’s flesh, curling into runes that pulsed with faint light.

"Agh---!" Lenko hissed, doubling over as the burn flared deep, more than skin-deep, as if it were marking his bone. His eyes flew wide, wild with both pain and shock, and for a heartbeat he looked up---not at Keiser.

Muzio.

That was the face he saw in Lenko’s eyes. The presence staring back at him was heavier, younger, more deliberate.

Keiser---or Muzio---shoved him, breaking the connection. The sigil on Lenko’s arm smoldered faintly, still glowing.

"Go." Keiser’s voice was flat, final, almost cruel in its command. "Save them, Lenko."

"Follow this!"

They heard Yona’s voice cutting through the din, her hand outstretched from the ridge.

From her direction, the swarm of pyre bugs spilled out once more---a river of glimmering tiny embers, wings humming in unison like a burning chant. Their light wove into a trail across the ground, a living torch-path leading toward safety.

Lenko’s eyes flicked to them, then to Keiser. His jaw clenched.

"Don’t argue too much, and actually help others instead of---"

"Just go already!" Keiser and Yona roared in unison, their words colliding into him.

Lenko’s legs finally obeyed. He ran, clutching his satchel tight, the branded rune on his arm pulsing like a second heartbeat that seemed to push him forward, faster, further.

Keiser watched him go---just for a moment, just long enough for doubt to catch in his chest. That moment nearly cost him.

A violent tug yanked him sideways. His boots skidded against the earth as a hand locked tight around his arm. The princess.

A shuddering impact shook the ground where he had stood. Splinters exploded as tree trunks cracked, roots tore free, soil lifted like water. Through the smoke of crushed bark, it emerged.

A Cervus.

Its eyes glowed a furious red, veins of light spiderwebbing across its face. Its antlers twisted unnaturally, not the proud crown of a stag, but jagged, knotted spires that seemed to grow in every direction at once. Each prong throbbed with a sickly aura, and when it thrashed, the air snapped sharp as breaking bone.

The beast’s head jerked with an erratic violence, smashing trees aside in its path, tearing roots free as though they were nothing. Its breath steamed hot and acrid, stinking of decay, every exhale rattling like a furnace starved of air.

The princess shoved Keiser further back, her blade flashing as she positioned herself between him and the beast. "Eyes open, prince." she hissed, and the Cervus bellowed, lowering its jagged rack as it barreled straight for them.

Immediately, the princess swung him behind her, forcing Keiser to stumble as she raised her sword to meet the charge. Steel screeched against antler, sparks snapping as it clash. She hissed over her shoulder.

"Why are you just gawking around?"

Keiser’s brows knit. He knew she was right---he wasn’t moving, wasn’t fighting. Not yet.

His body lagged behind his mind. He looked down at the back of his hand. Blood still dripping from the split skin, sluggishly, and beneath it the sigil burned like a coal pressed into flesh.

Red. Alive. Active.

His chest tightened. He glanced in the direction Lenko had vanished, pyre bugs still lingering in the air like scattered sunlight, guiding the boy deeper into the woods.

A sudden clang jolted him back. The princess let out a furious huff, her short blade returning to her grasp in a clean arc. Without hesitation, she drove it into the Cervus that bore down on her. The blade slid between its ribs, and for a heartbeat the world went silent.

Then it shriek.

A piercing scream tore the air apart as purple fire exploded across its hide. The Cervus staggered, its body igniting like soaked parchment, limbs thrashing violently as it tried to escape its own burning.

The princess twisted, using her heel to kick the convulsing beast away, sending it crashing toward another Cervus whose antlers had tangled themselves in an uprooted tree. The impact snapped branches and sent soil spraying. Both beasts writhed together in the wreckage.

Before Keiser could regain his breath, a forceful shove hit his chest---no, not a shove, a kick. He flew back into the trunk of a tree, bark splintering against his spine. His lungs seized as he coughed, clutching at his ribs.

"That was a low blow," he rasped, voice hoarse with pain.

The princess rounded on him, eyes blazing. "Why are you just standing there?" she hissed, every word dripping with fury.

"I’m not..." he wheezed back, his throat raw, his hand tightening over the burning sigil.

She snapped her head away, back to the barn.

Around them, bodies already littered the ground. Beasts she had slain, their corpses still hissing with purple fire. And yet, not all of them were dead.

A few, sensing her strength, had learned. They broke off, slinking past her with blood-hungry eyes, searching for weaker prey deeper in the trees.

"Shit..." she spat, ready to lunge after them---

---but before the creatures could fully break through, the air shuddered. They hit something invisible and were thrown back with a violent crackle of energy, their bodies bouncing against the earth.

A faint shimmering blood streak spread across the ground, revealing runes burning faintly in the dirt.

A ward.

Already marked.

The sigil on the back of Keiser’s hand throbbed in time with the glow.