The Covenant Hall pulsed like a living heart.
Torches flared as Mara stepped forward, blood dripping from her claws onto the ancient stone. The bodies behind her were still warm. The air reeked of fear now-not hers. The Blood Moon poured through the open dome above, bathing the chamber in crimson light as the Covenant leaders rose from their thrones.
Seven of them.
Clad in obsidian robes, faces carved with age and cruelty, they watched her with fascination instead of fear. That infuriated her more than the chains ever had.
"You should be kneeling," the High Elder said, his voice smooth as poison. "You were created to serve the balance."
Mara laughed-a sharp, broken sound. "You murdered my family. You slaughtered my clan. You tortured me."
She bared her blood-stained teeth.
"And now you want obedience?"
The sigils carved into the floor ignited, binding magic surging upward like invisible hands. Pain slammed into her body, forcing her to one knee. She screamed-but she did not bow.
Lucien shouted her name from the shadows, fighting against guards restraining him.
The High Elder stepped closer. "You are a mistake. A hybrid abomination. Your blood is ours."
Something snapped inside her.
Mara slammed her palms against the floor. The moon answered.
Power exploded outward-wild, ancient, unstoppable. The sigils shattered. Stone cracked. Two elders were thrown back, screaming as their bodies slammed into pillars. One didn't rise.
Mara stood slowly, eyes blazing gold and red. "You made me," she said, voice layered with something not entirely human. "So I decide what I become."
She moved.
Fast. Merciless. Purposeful.
She tore through them-claws ripping, bones breaking, blood spraying the sacred walls they had hidden behind for centuries. One elder begged. Another tried to flee.
None succeeded.
The High Elder staggered back, terror finally cracking his composure. "You'll doom us all!"
Mara seized him by the throat and lifted him effortlessly. "You already did."
She ended him.
Silence fell.
The Covenant lay in ruins. Bodies. Fire. Blood.
Mara stood at the center of it all, shaking, breathing hard, her humanity trembling on the edge. Lucien rushed to her side, gripping her shoulders.
"It's over," he said softly.
She looked at her hands-still red. Still powerful.
"No," she whispered, staring up at the Blood Moon. "It's just begun."
Far above, the moon darkened further-eclipsed by a shadow that shouldn't exist.
Something ancient had awakened.
And it was watching her.
