Bloodbound Under the Black Banner

CHAPTER FOURTEEN What It Asks in Return

POV: Astridr

I have torn men apart with my hands.

I have watched cities burn and felt nothing.

But watching her break is unbearable.

She is on her knees in the centre of the square, blood streaming from her nose and ears, eyes unfocused as the mark at her throat burns like a star dragged too close to the earth. The thing beneath the village speaks through the cracks, its voice a chorus layered with promises.

Rest. Relief. An end.

Lies shaped like mercy.

I kill anything that comes near her. Villagers. Creatures. Shadows wearing skin. My claws are slick with blood, my arms aching, but it doesn’t matter. None of it matters if she answers that voice.

She looks up at me.

And gods help me — she looks human.

“If I let it in,” she whispers, barely audible over the screaming earth, “this ends.”

I grab her face, forcing her to see me. “It ends you.”

Her breath shudders. “How long can I keep saying no?”

I don’t answer.

Because I know the truth carved into bone and blood alike.

The seal was never meant to last forever. It was meant to buy time. And time has finally come to collect its debt.

The ground splits wider.

Something ancient exhales in anticipation.

And I realise that loving her may mean watching the world choose to break her anyway.