Chapter 108: Into the Deathland

The howling wind of the north was not made for the living.

As Serena stepped across the jagged border that separated Elias’s territory from the lands long-forgotten, the air shifted. It was thicker here. Heavier. Every breath she took felt like she was inhaling memory, grief, and forgotten blood.

“We’re being watched,” Zara murmured, her sword drawn. “I can feel it.”

“You’re not wrong,” Theron muttered from behind them, arrow notched and ready.

Elias walked beside Serena, his eyes constantly scanning. “We stay tight. No straying from formation. No hero moves.”

Serena smirked slightly. “That includes you, Alpha.”

His lips twitched. “Don’t tempt me.”

Their group of twenty elite warriors moved in synchronized silence—each one chosen for their unflinching loyalty to the cause, to Elias, and now to Serena. The night crept closer, pressing in like a slow, heavy tide. The trees were no longer green but bone-white, bark brittle like ash, branches curling like claws toward the sky.

As they pushed forward, the forest seemed to tighten around them, the trail thinning until it felt like a noose. No birds. No animals. Only the unsettling creak of unseen limbs and the rustle of something just beyond their vision.

“Are we close?” Elias asked quietly.

Serena closed her eyes. The energy here was wrong—chaotic and wild, like a beast caged too long. She could feel it clawing at her magic, testing the edges of her restraint.

“Yes,” she whispered. “We’re almost there. The heart of this place... it’s beating. And it’s waiting for us.”

Suddenly, the ground cracked.

The lead scout, Garrick, cried out—but his scream was cut short as the earth swallowed him whole.

“Trap!” Zara shouted.

Chaos exploded.

From the trees, shadow wraiths emerged—twisted, eyeless forms with jagged limbs and teeth like obsidian shards. They swarmed, silent as death.

Serena raised her hands, her palms bursting with radiant light. Golden flames erupted, lighting up the woods like a second sun. The wraiths hissed and recoiled—but didn’t die.

“They don’t stay dead!” someone screamed.

“They feed on your fear!” Serena yelled. “Focus! They’re illusions—but they can hurt you if you let them!”

Elias shifted mid-run, fur bristling, fangs bared. He tore into the shadows with brutal precision. Theron loosed arrow after arrow, each one finding its mark even when it seemed impossible. Zara moved like wind and steel, cutting through the swarm.

But they were surrounded.

Serena dropped to her knees, slamming her hands into the ground. The magic flared, pulsing from her in waves. White-gold energy burst outward, searing the illusions and pushing the darkness back.

Then—silence.

Ash floated in the air like snow.

Elias returned to his human form, blood streaked across his chest and neck. “You alright?”

Serena nodded slowly, though her magic trembled inside her like a waking dragon. “They’re learning. That was coordinated.”

Theron knelt beside the spot where Garrick had disappeared. “Gone. No scent. No trace.”

Elias clenched his jaw. “Mark the spot. We’ll come back—if we can.”

Serena’s breath caught as the trees thinned ahead, revealing a narrow pass of obsidian rock—and beyond it, a fortress unlike any she’d seen before.

Jagged, angular towers spiraled toward the sky, built from stone blacker than pitch. Shadowy figures patrolled the ramparts. The gates were invisible, hidden within the stone like a mouth waiting to open.

And above it all—etched into the tallest spire—was a symbol that sent a bolt of ice through her heart.

Her mother’s crest.

Serena stumbled.

Elias caught her by the elbow. “What is it?”

She lifted her hand, pointing with a shaking finger. “That… that mark. That’s not just dark magic.”

Theron stepped closer, squinting. “Looks ancient. Royal.”

“It’s my mother’s,” Serena said. “Before she died, she used to wear it on her pendant.”

Zara’s brow furrowed. “I thought your mother was executed by the council.”

“She was,” Serena said softly. “I saw her body. I buried her ashes myself.”

A terrible thought bloomed in her chest.

What if her mother hadn’t died?

What if she had been taken?

“Serena,” Elias said, his voice low and urgent. “If that fortress belongs to whoever took your mother—”

“Then I’m going in,” she said. “Tonight. I’m not waiting.”

Elias looked like he wanted to argue, but he only nodded. “Then we go in together.”

She reached for his hand, gripping it tightly. “We end this. One way or another.”

And as the moon rose behind them, casting a silver light across the cursed forest, they stepped forward—toward the place where blood, truth, and destiny waited in the shadows.