Chapter Three: Shadows of the Oath
883 Words
Sera’s breath hitched as the pack of Ferals surged forward, snarling like the wild storm they were born from. The air exploded with the clash of moonsteel blades and primal fury.
Kael moved like a shadow, swift and merciless, cutting down the first wave with practiced precision. Riven was at his side, a silent predator. But Sera stood frozen for a moment, heart pounding — the silver oath burning beneath her skin like wildfire.
*This is it,* she thought. *No more running.*
She gripped the moonsteel blade tighter, muscles coiling, and stepped into the fray.
The fight was chaos. Teeth met steel. Howls echoed. The ground turned slick with blood — some her own, some theirs.
But with every strike, Sera felt the mark deepen its hold. Her body surged with power she barely understood. A silver light blazed along her arms, and suddenly, her movements were faster, stronger, more precise.
A Feral lunged — she dodged, twisted, and with a fierce cry, struck its throat. It crumpled to the earth.
The others hesitated, sensing the change.
Behind the battle, Caelum watched, his violet eyes gleaming like stars, silent and inscrutable.
As the last Feral fell, silence crashed over the clearing. The Highbloods, once so poised, now looked on in awe and fear.
Kael approached Sera, wiping blood from his cheek. “You’re not just the key, Sera. You’re the lockbreaker.”
Sera’s heart was wild. “Then what now?”
Before Kael could answer, a sharp whistle cut through the air. From the shadows emerged a figure, cloaked and masked, moving with deadly grace.
“Traitors,” the figure hissed. “You all play your parts in this farce.”
The figure pulled back their hood.
Sera gasped.
It was someone she never expected to see again.
The masked figure’s eyes glinted with cold fury as the hood fell back, revealing the sharp features of Liora—Sera’s childhood friend turned rival, now a rogue with secrets as dark as the Hollow’s deepest caves.
“Sera,” Liora said, voice edged with bitterness. “You think you’ve found your place. But the truth is… you belong to no one.”
Kael stepped forward, tense. “What do you want, Liora?”
Her gaze flicked to Caelum, then back to Sera. “I’m here to warn you. The Council’s reach is deeper than you know. They’ve planted seeds of betrayal among us all.”
Sera’s mind reeled. The web was wider, darker.
Liora continued, “There’s a faction within the Council—those who want to use you to seize power, to rewrite the Oath in their favor. They’ll stop at nothing.”
“And you?” Sera asked, “Where do you stand?”
Liora’s eyes softened for a moment. “With survival. And with you—if you’ll have me.”
The Hollow held its breath.
Sera knew the path ahead was tangled with alliances and deceptions.
But the fight for the Silver Oath had just become a war for trust.
Sera stared at Liora, the whirlwind of memories crashing inside her—childhood laughter, whispered secrets, and then the cold rift that tore them apart. Could she trust her now? Or was this just another thread in the Hollow’s tapestry of lies?
“Why come now?” Sera asked, voice low. “Why risk everything?”
Liora’s eyes hardened. “Because they’ve already marked me for death. I have nothing left to lose.”
Kael’s hand rested on the hilt of his blade. “We don’t have time for doubts.”
“Then let’s settle it,” Liora said, drawing a dagger that shimmered with a faint, unnatural light.
The tension snapped as shadows exploded into motion—hidden assassins lunged from the trees, blades flashing.
Sera barely had time to react.
Kael and Riven moved with deadly precision, cutting down attackers with brutal efficiency.
But one blade grazed Sera’s arm, burning with a poison she recognized from the darkest parts of the Hollow’s past.
She staggered, fury igniting within.
“This war… it’s bigger than any of us,” she hissed, eyes blazing.
Liora nodded, grim. “Then we fight. Together.”
The clearing erupted into chaos once more—blades clashing, spells igniting, and the fierce howl of war echoing through the ancient woods.
Sera felt the mark burn hotter than ever. Power surged through her veins, the silver light bursting from her chest like a beacon.
She raised her blade, meeting the shadowed assassin’s strike with a force that sent sparks flying.
But then, a voice whispered in her mind—soft, familiar, yet haunting.
*“The oath is broken. The bloodline must be sealed.”*
Sera froze.
The voice wasn’t hers.
It was *Alina’s*—her mother’s.
A shiver ran down her spine.
She realized with a start that the true enemy might not be the Council, nor the Ferals, nor the assassins.
It was something far older. Something buried deep within her blood.
Kael shouted, pulling her back as a massive figure charged from the trees—a monstrous wolf, eyes blazing with unnatural fire.
Sera barely dodged.
The creature’s growl shook
the earth.
It was coming for her.
For the Silver Oath.
For the Hollow.
And the war had only just begun.
- Writer
