Another assassin threw himself at the Lord of the Scarlet Veil, but he didn’t stand a chance. Tentacles erupted from the blood-soaked floor, shredding the man apart in a grisly spray of crimson.

  But the attack had done its job.

  As the Lord turned, his focus momentarily shifted, Alistair struck.

  Lifedrinker screamed through the air, a streak of dark energy, and the blade sank deep into the Lord’s abdomen. The impact was brutal, the cursed weapon drinking greedily as black veins began to spread outward from the wound.

  “No!” Liliana screamed.

  She was too late. Alistair smiled, that sick, twisted smile of his, savoring the moment.

  Liliana sent a giant blood tentacle lashing out, moving faster than a whip, slamming into Alistair with enough force to send him flying through the air. He hit the balcony above with a bone-rattling crash, the stone cracking beneath the impact.

  “Father!” Liliana screamed, rushing to his side.

  Kale cut down another assassin, his chest heaving. “We have to get out of here! There are too many. We won’t last!”

  The Lord coughed, blood dripping from his mouth. The rot from Lifedrinker’s wound was spreading, black veins crawling from the gash. But even now, even like this, he kept his composure. His blood magic surged, halting the rot, keeping it from consuming him, but he couldn’t heal it. Not this time.

  “We’ll never make it out,” Liliana said, her voice trembling, eyes darting toward the waves of assassins still pressing in. Blood magic flew across the hall like a storm, the walls shuddering under the pressure. “There’s no way...”

  “I’ll stay behind,” Kale said, his voice firm. “I’ll stall them as long as I can.”

  Liliana turned to him, eyes blazing. “Don’t be stupid! They’ll kill you!”

  “If I don’t do this, we’re all dead. You know it.”

  Another wave of blood spears rained down on them, Kale dodging, his feet slipping on the bloody floor. He slashed through an assassin’s chest, a desperate, wild move, but the blade found its mark. Still, it wasn’t enough. They were being overwhelmed.

  Liliana ripped another assassin apart with her magic, her mind racing. They were running out of options. “Fine,” she said through clenched teeth, “but I’m staying too.”

  “No,” her father’s voice cut through, sharp and commanding. He staggered to his feet, eyes grim but resolute. “I will stay.”

  “Father, no—” Liliana’s voice broke, but the Lord’s gaze was steady.

  “You must escape, Liliana.” His words were heavy, final.

  “Rika,” Liliana turned to her, “go with him. Protect him at all costs.”

  Rika, battered and bloodied but still defiant, shook her head. “No. I’m not leaving you here to die.”

  “Rika, please,” Liliana’s voice was a raw plea, tears threatening to spill over. “If they take him, we lose everything. You’re the strongest of us, you’re the only one who can protect him.”

  Rika hesitated, torn, her eyes flicking between Liliana and her father. The temple shook with the force of another blood magic blast, bodies flying through the air as blood rained down in thick, heavy splatters,. They were running out of time.

  The Lord winced, the rot tried to creep further into his body, but he kept it at bay, fighting with every last ounce of his strength. He looked at Rika, his voice hoarse. “Fine... fine. But Liliana...”

  He met his daughter’s eyes, and for a brief moment, the chaos around them faded.

  “I was always proud of you.”

  Tears welled in Liliana’s eyes, but there was no time to cry. She nodded, her throat tight, as her father and Rika began their retreat, slipping through the blood-soaked carnage, heading toward the temple’s rear.

  The moment they disappeared, Liliana’s face hardened. There was no room for grief now. Only survival.

  She and Kale fought side by side, cutting through the sea of assassins, blood magic whipping through the air. Liliana boiled the blood of any assassin that came too close, their bodies exploding in brutal bursts. Kale was a whirlwind of blades, summoning swords with a flick of his wrist, cutting down enemies even as he slipped and stumbled on the treacherous, blood-slick floor.

  “Think we’re gonna make it out of this?” Kale grunted, slashing an assassin across the face.

  Liliana didn’t answer. Her mind was on her father, on the escape, on the ever-growing tide of enemies threatening to drown them.

  But they fought. And they would keep fighting until their bodies gave out.

  ***

  The temple floor was littered with bodies—piles of assassins, twisted in death, their blood mingling with the rivers that already coated every inch of the ground. The chaotic surge of battle had slowed, the once endless wave of assassins now a trickle, their numbers dwindling with every brutal kill.

  Kale’s chest heaved, his arms aching, blood soaking his clothes—some of it his, most of it theirs. His blades felt heavy in his hands, and every step was a challenge, his boots sliding in the gore that covered the temple floor.

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  Maybe we’re going to make it.

  The thought flickered in his mind, hopeful and desperate all at once. The flow of assassins had finally slowed. He and Liliana stood back to back, still fighting, but there was something... different now. Less pressure, fewer enemies.

  Liliana was breathing hard, but her blood tendrils still lashed out with deadly precision, ripping the last few assassins apart. Her face was pale, exhausted, but she wasn’t slowing down. Not yet. They’d come this far, and she wasn’t about to stop.

  “We... might... just... make it,” Kale muttered between breaths, barely able to hear his own words over the pounding in his ears.

  Liliana didn’t respond. She was too focused on the handful of assassins still circling them, waiting for an opening that would never come.

  One more assassin fell, then another. The tide was breaking. Hope flickered in the back of Kale’s mind.

  Just as he allowed himself to believe it, Alistair reappeared.

  He stepped out from the shadows of the balcony, his dark robes drenched in blood, his twisted grin as sharp as ever. In his hand, Lifedrinker gleamed, the cursed blade humming with dark, insatiable hunger.

  “My, my, what a mess you’ve made,” Alistair drawled. “Can’t leave you alone for two seconds.”

  Kale’s heart dropped into his stomach. The pain, the exhaustion, everything they’d fought for—it all felt like it crumbled under the weight of Alistair’s gaze.

  Liliana turned to face him. “Alistair.”

  He grinned, licking his lips like a predator about to feast. “You didn’t think I’d let you off that easily, did you?”

  Kale swallowed, his mouth dry. They were exhausted, barely holding on, and Alistair didn’t even look winded. If anything, he looked stronger—Lifedrinker pulsed in his grip, as if feeding on the blood that soaked the temple.

  “I have to hand it to you,” Alistair said. “You’ve put up more of a fight than I expected. But it ends here.”

  Kale could feel the exhaustion in his bones, in his blood. He wasn’t sure how much more he had left in him.

  Alistair stepped forward. “Let’s finish this.”

  Kale swung his blade with what little strength he had left, cutting down an assassin with a wild slash.

  Another level gained. “You have evolved. You are now an Ascendant Bladeweaver,” a voice whispered, but there was no time to dwell on the words, or what they meant.

  His arms felt like lead, his breath ragged. Another assassin charged at him from the side, but he managed to parry just in time, driving Mistress into the man’s gut with a grunt of effort. Blood sprayed, coating Kale’s arms as the body fell into the ever growing pool beneath them.

  He could barely think straight—the exhaustion was like a weight on his shoulders, slowing every movement. Liliana was faring no better, her blood magic still lashing out, but the movements were sluggish. She was burning through everything she had left, and it was clear neither of them could keep this up much longer.

  But Alistair wasn’t letting up.

  He moved with the confidence of a predator. Every step he took was the ticking of a clock counting down, and the blood on the floor seemed to follow him, feeding the cursed blade’s insatiable hunger

  Kale cut down another assassin, but his foot slipped on the slick floor. He crashed to the ground with a wet thud, his sword falling from his grip. The wind knocked out of him.

  “Shit.”

  He tried to scramble to his feet, but the blood made it impossible. He slipped again, hands scrabbling uselessly. His heart pounded in his chest as he looked up, just in time to see Alistair bearing down on him, Lifedrinker raised high.

  Time seemed to slow.

  Kale’s eyes widened, dread twisting in his gut as Alistair’s smile grew, wicked and triumphant. There was no time, no way for him to block, no escape. The blade was coming down, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

  “NO!” Liliana’s scream echoed through the temple, raw and desperate. She saw the blade, saw the end coming for Kale. Without thinking, without hesitation, she surged forward, her body dissolving into a crimson mist as she bloodformed, moving faster than she ever had before.

  Kale’s world narrowed. All he saw was Lifedrinker descending.

  Liliana reformed, solid and whole, right in front of him. Right between him and the blade.

  The blade came down.

  Liliana’s head jerked violently as Lifedrinker plunged into her, the cursed blade drinking deep. She gasped, blood spilling from her lips.

  For a moment, there was silence.

  “No... no,” Kale breathed, his voice a strangled whisper.

  Alistair wrenched the blade free, and Liliana fell to the ground, lifeless.

  Kale’s world shattered.

  The world around him fell away. It was just him and Liliana, her head in a pool of blood, her eyes wide but empty, her face frozen in shock. He couldn’t breathe. His chest heaved, but no air came. His heart felt like it was being torn apart, ripped in half like the bodies littering the temple floor.

  “Liliana,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “No...”

  But she didn’t move. Couldn’t move. She was gone.

  Kale’s hands trembled as he reached for her, but they slipped in the blood. His vision blurred. His mind couldn’t process what had just happened. She was there, always there, strong and fierce, full of fire. And now... now she was gone. Just like that.

  Alistair laughed, a shrill, cruel sound.

  “Well, wasn’t that touching,” he sneered, wiping Liliana’s blood from Lifedrinker with slow, deliberate movements. “Sacrificing herself for you, of all people. Pathetic, really.”

  Kale’s breath hitched, his body frozen in place. He couldn’t look at Alistair. Couldn’t tear his eyes away from Liliana.

  “That was always her problem, wasn’t it?” Alistair continued, circling Kale like a wolf, his voice mocking, taunting. “Too soft. Too sentimental. Thinking she could save everyone.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “And in the end, what did it get her? Lying dead in a puddle of blood.”

  Kale’s chest tightened. He felt something inside him break, shattered into a million pieces.

  Alistair knelt down beside Liliana, his fingers brushing the blood on her face, his eyes full of twisted amusement. “She always did have too much faith in people, didn’t she? Believing that someone like you could actually protect her.”

  Kale’s hands balled into fists, shaking with rage, with grief, but his body wouldn’t move. He couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.

  Alistair stood again, a smirk curling at the edges of his lips. “But now, look at you. What are you going to do? Cry over her? Scream her name like a pathetic child? Is that how you’re going to honor her sacrifice?”

  Kale’s vision blurred. Tears burned at the corners of his eyes, hot and stinging, but they wouldn’t fall. His throat tightened, a raw, aching pain rising in his chest. Every word Alistair spoke felt like another knife twisting in his gut.

  “Look at her,” Alistair hissed, pointing at Liliana’s still form. “That’s your fault. You failed her. You couldn’t protect her. You let her die.”

  Kale’s heart shattered. His body trembled, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t fight.

  “You’re nothing without her,” Alistair spat. “She was the strong one. You? You’re just a coward hiding behind her power. And now you have nothing.”

  Kale choked on his breath, his mind screaming, breaking under the weight of Alistair’s words. He had failed. Failed her. Liliana, his friend, his everything, gone. Because of him.

  Alistair crouched beside him, whispering in his ear. “She’s dead. She’s not coming back. And you’re going to die alone.”

  Kale’s hands shook, tears finally spilling down his face, mixing with the blood on the floor. His heart felt like it was being torn apart, ripped out of his chest. The pain was unbearable, suffocating. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

  “Cry all you want,” Alistair said, standing again. “It won’t change anything. She’s gone. And you’re next.”

  But Kale didn’t hear him. He couldn’t hear anything past the deafening roar of grief in his ears, the sound of his own broken heart.

  Liliana lay before him, lifeless. His fault. All his fault.

  Kale sobbed. There was nothing left. No hope. No fight. Only pain. Only Liliana’s blood-stained head and the aching emptiness where his heart used to be.