THE SUNLESS HEIR

CHAPTER SEVEN: CRIMSON AND GOLD

The northern armory loomed against the side of a jagged mountain, a fortress of black stone half-swallowed by the blizzard. The heavy iron doors were blown outward from the inside.

They did not sneak in. Kaelen knew better. Blood-Weavers could sense the heartbeat of a mouse from a mile away; stealth was a fool’s errand. Instead, Kaelen walked through the shattered gates, his shadow-magic cascading from his shoulders like an ink-black tidal wave, devouring the meager light of the torches. Elian flanked him, his hands igniting with a blinding, volatile fire that turned the falling snow into hissing steam before it could even touch them.

The courtyard was waiting for them. From the high battlements, a figure draped in crimson robes looked down. He didn't speak. He simply raised a pale, gaunt hand.

The blood of the fallen garrison, pooled and frozen across the stone, suddenly liquefied. It violently defied gravity, twisting into razor-sharp, crystalline spears of crimson ice that rained down upon them. Kaelen moved faster than humanly possible. His shadows erupted upward, forming a massive, hardened dome that absorbed the lethal barrage. The impacts sounded like a hundred warhammers striking an anvil. Kaelen grunted, the kinetic force traveling straight down his spine.

"Elian, the wall!" Kaelen roared, holding the shadow-dome steady.

Elian didn't hesitate. He planted his boots into the stone, drew back his burning fists, and unleashed a catastrophic shockwave of sheer thermal energy. The golden blast tore through the courtyard, instantly boiling the blood-spears into harmless red mist and striking the battlements with the force of a meteor. The stone wall shattered, bringing the Blood-Weaver crashing down into the courtyard in a landslide of rubble.

But the enemy was not dead. The Blood-Weaver rose, his robes scorched, and lashed out with a desperate, concentrated whip of crimson magic. It bypassed the falling debris and struck Kaelen squarely in the chest, sinking through the gaps in his obsidian armor.

Kaelen stumbled, a sickening, agonizing cold gripping his heart as his life force was violently ripped outward.