Chapter 3: The Ruthless Hunter

Leif reached over his shoulder. His fingers found the familiar stock of the Morvain Mk-IV. The weapon had been in his family for three generations. Its barrel was cold-forged Dragonsteel, etched with runes that glowed faintly beneath the Red Moon. The scope was enchanted crystalline glass—capable of seeing through dragonfire, through smoke, through lies.

He pulled the rifle free. The weight settled into his palms like an old friend. Or an old curse. The Dragonbane rounds were already loaded. Seven of them. Each tipped with crystallized wyvern venom, capable of piercing dragon scales like paper.

'One shot to slow them. Two to ground them. Three to end them. Never hesitate. Hesitation gets you killed.'

Leif's jaw tightened. 'I won't hesitate.'

But something was wrong. The dragon's flight wasn't steady. It climbed sharply... then suddenly dipped. One wing folded awkwardly before spreading again. It wasn't flying. It was struggling.

Then the dragon opened its jaws. Fire erupted toward the forest below. Onyx reared violently. Leif pulled hard on the reins, steering the stallion around the growing inferno.

And then— The dragon abruptly stopped. Instead of diving toward Oakhaven... it twisted sharply away. Toward the sea.

Leif's brow furrowed. Oakhaven was directly beneath it. One sweep of dragon fire... and hundreds would die. Yet it abandoned the village. His mind betrayed him.

"Please... leave."

"I only wanted you to live"

He tightened his jaw."No."

It was a trick. A predator luring him away from witnesses. Nothing more.

He raised the Morvain Mk-IV. The stock settled against his shoulder. The crystalline scope found the dragon's silhouette. His finger found the trigger.

'One shot. Just one.'

He drew a breath. Held it. The dragon continued to fly.

Every instinct of it wanted to burned any living things. But the little concious of Ravynned tried to take control.

If she fly east... Oakhaven survives. If she go north... Palace soldiers will follow. The sea. The sea is the only place to survive without killing anyone.

She forced the dragon to shifted the direction toward the sea. Farther. Farther from civilization. His finger trembled on the trigger guard. Not from exhaustion. From hesitation.

Her face flashed before him. The frightened woman chained to the tower floor. The warmth of her lips. The desperate look in her eyes. The way she had grabbed his jacket and pulled him down—

'Stop.' For one impossible heartbeat... he lowered the rifle.

Then another memory crashed through his thoughts.

His mother screaming. Fire swallowing their home. Ash falling like snow. Her body crumpling beneath the flames. His jaw tightened.

'She burned the village. She killed my mother. She's a monster.'

'But she didn't burn Oakhaven.'

The thought was traitorous. It slithered through his defenses. He shook his head violently.

"Trick," he whispered to himself. "She's trying to confuse you."

'Then why is she running away?'

'Because she's weak.'

'Then why didn't she kill you in the tower?'

He clenched his eyes shut. The voices inside his head were fighting each other.

"SHUT UP!" His voice echoed across the sea cliff.

He opened his eyes. The dragon was still flying away. Farther. Farther. If he waited any longer, she would escape entirely.

Hatred won. He raised the rifle again. The scope found her massive form.

He took a breathe. Then steadied his hand. His hand squeezed hard around the riffle. His finger tightened.

'No—'

'YES—'

The Morvain Mk-IV bucked against his shoulder. The Dragonbane round screamed through the night. It struck the dragon's right wing.

A cry tore across the sky. The sound hit Leif's chest like a physical blow. His fingers opened instinctively, as though he could catch the sound and pull it back. Agony exploded beneath his ribs. His whole body lurched over the saddle.

'What— Again?' He pressed his palm against his sternum.

High above the forest... The Dragonbane round ripped through the dragon's wing. The dragon roared inside Ravynne's skull. Her golden eyes burned with fury. Its head snapped toward the forest where Leif chased her below.

'Kill him! He WANTS to kill us.'

'I know.'

'Then why do you protect him?'

Ravynne's human heart screamed beneath the dragon's rage. She could still feel his lips on hers. The warmth. The impossible moment when she had felt whole.

'Because... he's my mate.'

'OUR mate. STUPID GIRL!'

The dragon lunged. Ravynne's claws tore through the air. Leif's scent filled her nostrils—teakwood and blood and something that made her body ache.

'KILL HIM!'

'NO!'

'He shot us!'

'He doesn't understand!'

'Then make him understand!'

'I CAN'T!'

The dragon's wings snapped open. Her body lurched toward the sea.

'We're leaving.'

'Coward.'

'I'm saving him.'

'He will hunt you. He will shoot you. He will watch you die.'

'Then I will die watching him live.'

The dragon wrenched its body sideways, muscles screaming against Ravynne's will. To kill. To burn the hunter alive.

'No!'

Ravynne fought with everything she had left.

'Not him. Not anyone!'

The dragon's enormous body shuddered beneath the struggle. It wrenched itself away from the village once more. Away from the hunter. Away from the only man who could silence the fire inside her.

'The farther I fly from Oakhaven... the fewer civilians die. The sea has no villages. If I lose control... only I die.'

Below, racing through the dark forest, Leif chambered another round. The rifle's bolt slid home with a cold metallic click.

'Don't.' His finger refused to move.

His finger trembled. The Morvain Mk-IV felt heavier now. As though the weapon itself was protesting.

His mother's scream followed. "LEIF!"

The dragon's voice joined them. "Please... run..."

His finger tightened.

'Choose.'

'Mother.'

'Woman.'

'Monster.'

'Mate.'

'KILL HER.'

'SAVE HER.'

For one impossible heartbeat... he wished it would miss. Then— the rifle bucked. The second Dragonbane round pierced the opposite wing.

The instant the round struck... agony exploded inside his skull. The world tilted. His heartbeat slammed against his ribs. His vision blurred.

The dragon stalled. Its wings faltered. Its massive body hung suspended for one impossible heartbeat. Then it fell. As it plummeted toward the sea, its golden eyes met his across the impossible distance. Not with rage. With sorrow.

A single tear caught the moonlight. And for one impossible heartbeat... the dragon disappeared. It wasn't a monster falling into the water. It was her.

The woman who had smiled when he kissed her. The woman who had begged him to run. The woman who had said: "I'm not what you think."

He had spent fourteen years trying to kill the dragon. He had never imagined it would feel like killing her.

Then the sea swallowed everything. Silence followed.

Leif searched the cliffs until the eastern sky began to brighten. He climbed over jagged rocks. Scanned every crashing wave. Walked the shoreline until his boots were soaked with seawater.

'She's gone.'

'Good.'

'Then why are you still looking?'

He kept searching. But nothing. No body. No blood. No dragon. Only the endless ocean.

"It sank..." His voice sounded strangely empty.

After fourteen years... it was finally over. He should have felt victorious. Instead... there was only silence inside him.

He mounted Onyx once more. The ride toward Oakhaven was slow. The first rays of dawn painted the horizon gold, but Leif barely noticed.

Every mile away from the sea made the strange ache inside his chest grow deeper. It no longer felt like pain. It felt like something had been ripped away.

He shifted uneasily in the saddle. His breathing became shallow. His fingers tightened around the reins before suddenly going numb. The warmth from the tower was gone. Completely. Like someone had walked away.

'No. Come back.'

His chest grew cold. Colder than the ocean. Colder than death. 'Why did that thought even exist?'

The Morvain Mk-IV hung across his back. Heavy and accusing. He remembered her final words. The voice that had cut through the dragon's roar.

"Live..."

His vision blurred. The trees around him swayed. His heartbeat echoed loudly inside his ears. Each breath became harder than the last.

His entire body felt strangely weak, as though every ounce of strength was draining from his bones. He had survived worse wounds. He had marched for days without food. He had hunted monsters through blizzards. So why... couldn't he stay upright?

Onyx slowed, sensing his master's condition. Leif tried to straighten himself. His arms refused to obey. The reins slipped through his fingers.

He reached for his chest. The warmth from the tower was gone. Only an emptiness remained. For reasons he couldn't understand... it terrified him.

His body swayed sideways. Then gravity won. He hit the ground with a heavy thud. The impact barely registered. Onyx circled back, neighing frantically beside him. The last thing he remembered... wasn't Mother's face.

It was hers. The woman who had kissed him in the tower. Smiling through tears.

"Thank you..."

Then darkness. The Morvain Mk-IV lay beside him in the dirt. Its runes had stopped glowing.

Somewhere beyond the endless sea... something answered.