Chapter 92 – Ashes in the Alley

Steel clashed against shadow. The bounty hunters closed in, their silver-forged weapons cutting arcs through the night air. Each strike hummed with wards designed to pierce forbidden magic.

Kael’s instincts screamed to unleash it all—to drown the street in black fire. But Aria’s voice cut through the frenzy.

“Not here. Not in front of them. If they see too much, the city itself will burn us alive!”

She was right. Belief was already bending, sharpening against him. If he unleashed fully, he wouldn’t just kill hunters—he’d brand himself as the monster they claimed.

So Kael moved differently.

Shadows coiled tight around his wrists, forming blades no eye could fully follow. He struck only when certain—deflecting a knife here, snapping a chain there, leaving attackers disarmed but breathing.

Whispers rose in the fleeing crowd. Did you see that? He doesn’t even kill… but the shadows obey him.

The fear twisted sharper. Not a mindless beast. Something worse. Something in control.

A hunter lunged with a spear of burning runes. Kael sidestepped, shadows pulling Aria with him into a narrow alley. The spear slammed into the wall, stone exploding.

“Coward!” the hunter roared.

But Kael only looked back once, eyes glinting with something colder than rage.

“Run while you can. I don’t chase insects.”

The hunters froze—not from wounds, but from the weight of his words.

Then Kael and Aria vanished into the maze of alleys, swallowed by the night.

On a rooftop above, another figure watched. Cloaked. Silent. A familiar blade glinting at his hip.

Serin.

His lips curved into a thin smile. “You’re learning restraint, Kael. That makes you dangerous.”