SHADOWS OF SOULS (IMMORTAL WORLD)

oath in the dark chapter 5

The hunter’s blade still dripped with black ash.

Kael stood in the woods where the demon had died, his silver eyes catching the faint light of the moon. He should have vanished as he always did, gone before the mortal girl could sense him. But he had lingered. He had watched.

And worse—he had saved her.

The oath burned in his chest. He was not meant to protect her.

He was meant to kill her.

The order had written it in blood long before she was born: “When the Child of Shadow and Soul awakens, strike before she brings ruin.”

Kael closed his eyes. For five thousand years, he had obeyed every command, his sword never faltering. But tonight, as he had watched her tremble in the dark, his blade had chosen a demon’s flesh instead of her throat.

“Kael…”

The voice came from the trees, smooth as silk, sharp as poison.

Kael spun, sword raised. The shadows parted.

A man stepped forward — tall, robed in black, his eyes a pitiless void. Around him the air reeked of ancient magic and rot. His presence was not human, not even mortal. He was one of the first — one of the fallen immortals.

Varos.

Kael’s grip tightened. “I thought you were dead.”

Varos’s lips curved in a smile that held no warmth. “Six thousand years, Kael. Six thousand years since the gates first split. Did you think death could bind me? I am the one who unbound it.”

The forest darkened around him. Trees withered. The ground cracked, leaking shadow.

Kael’s jaw clenched. Memories surged — the war of the gates, when demons poured into the mortal world, when Varos betrayed the immortal realm and turned hunger into a weapon. Kael remembered the night he had sworn his first oath to the Order, his heart carved of fire, his soul chained to the blade.

It had all begun with Varos.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Kael said low. “Not near her.”

Varos laughed, the sound echoing like bones breaking. “Her? The girl? You still play the protector after all these centuries. But your oath was clear. You are her executioner, Kael, not her shadow.”

Kael’s silver eyes narrowed.

Varos leaned close, whispering like smoke. “If she rises, the prophecy will awaken. The souls will march. The immortal gates will break again. You know this.” His smile sharpened. “And you know what she becomes if you let her live.”

Kael’s hand tightened on his sword. His voice was ice. “Stay away from her.”

Varos’s laughter shook the night. “You think you can keep her from me? I touched her fate long before she was born. She is mine, Kael. Mine to awaken… or mine to destroy.”

The shadows swallowed him. The forest returned to silence.

Kael stood alone, his chest burning with a war older than memory.

He looked down at his sword, the steel still trembling as if it knew the truth.

To kill her was duty.

To save her was betrayal.

But to choose at all… would change everything.

Oaths in the Dark (continued)

Selene clutched her basket, walking down the narrow lane toward the storehouse. The evening air was thick, clouds pressing low over the rooftops. She hadn’t told her aunt about the attack in the woods. Who would believe her? Who would believe that she had called light from her own hands?

The mark on her palm still tingled faintly, hidden beneath her sleeve.

As she passed the well, a voice rasped behind her. “Careful, girl. The shadows follow you.”

Selene spun.

A woman leaned against the stones, cloaked in rags. Her hair was tangled, streaked with silver, her eyes sharp and restless. In her hands she held a strip of leather, and on it she had been sketching with chalk — circles, runes, symbols Selene had never seen.

Selene’s chest tightened. They looked like the scratches on her coin.

“Who are you?” Selene asked, her voice small.

The woman tilted her head, grinning with too many teeth. “Just a watcher. Just a whisper. But I see what others cannot.” She jabbed a finger toward Selene’s covered hand. “The mark. You can’t hide it. Not from me.”

Selene stepped back, clutching her basket. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The woman’s laughter was soft, almost kind, yet broken. “Oh, child. You see the dead, don’t you? You hear them in your dreams. The gift, the curse. You’re touched by both light and shadow. That makes you theirs. And his.”

Selene’s throat went dry. “Whose?”

Before the woman could answer, the air shifted.

Cold. Heavy. Wrong.

Selene’s heart dropped. She knew that feeling.

The shadows on the ground stretched, twisting into claws. Smoke rose from the stones. A demon pulled itself free — larger than the last, its body crawling with black fire.

Villagers passed, blind to it. Only Selene and the strange woman saw.

Selene stumbled back, panic clawing her chest. “No… no, not again—”

The woman’s grin vanished. She shoved the leather strip into Selene’s hands. “Run, girl. The dark has scented you now.”

The demon’s red eyes locked onto Selene. It lunged.

Selene’s hand burned hot, the mark glowing under her sleeve. She raised her palm instinctively, words trembling on her lips—

“Rest… go to the light!”

Light flared, striking the demon’s chest. It staggered, shrieking, but did not fall. This one was stronger. Its claw swept through the air, shattering wood and stone, sending Selene crashing to the ground.

Pain jolted her side. Her vision swam. The demon loomed over her, teeth dripping black fire.

Selene gasped. She couldn’t fight it. Not alone.

The mark flared brighter, burning like fire in her blood. She screamed, light bursting from her hand in wild arcs. The demon howled, slamming against the wall, smoke tearing from its form.

But it didn’t die.

It rose again, snarling.

Selene sobbed, the power draining her body, her hand shaking. She couldn’t call the light again. She was too weak.

The demon leapt.

And then—steel split the air.

A blade flashed silver, faster than sight. The demon shrieked, torn apart in one strike. Its body exploded into black ash, scattering in the wind.

Silence.

Selene lay trembling, clutching the strip of leather the woman had given her. She looked up, breath ragged.

The street was empty.

No sign of the cloaked woman.

No sign of the warrior who had saved her.

Only the runes on the strip burned faintly in her hands, alive with secrets.

Selene swallowed hard, her voice a whisper.

“Who… who are you people?”