All Chapters of He Betrayed Me For A Human: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The fire’s scent grew stronger the closer we came to the river valley.Ash clung to our cloaks, dampened by mist that refused to lift. Even the air felt scorched—tainted with the memory of something burning too long, too deep.Cassian moved ahead, blades drawn, his silhouette a blur through the smoke. Dareth followed behind me, limping slightly but refusing to slow down. The forest that had once whispered now held its breath, as though it feared what waited below.Julian murmured, "The wards around this place are gone. I can’t feel any of them anymore.""Then we make our own," I said.Riven, walking a few paces ahead, didn’t answer. His hand hovered near his sword, but his focus wasn’t on the ground—it was on the horizon, where a faint orange glow bled through the fog.When we reached the ridge, the valley opened before us.What used to be a river was now a scar of blackened earth. The water had boiled away, leaving behind cracked mud that pulsed faintly with gold veins—like veins ben

The forest never slept.Even now—under a bruised sky and a moon half-swallowed by clouds—it pulsed with restless life. Every leaf, every breath of wind seemed to whisper my name. The scent of silverfire clung to everything, sharp and cold, turning the air itself into a warning."She’s close," Cassian murmured beside me. His hand brushed the hilt of his blade, knuckles white. "The trail’s fresher than last night.""I know." My voice came out lower than I meant, rough as gravel. "Keep your formation tight. Don’t lose sight of the ridge."Dareth gave a sharp nod from behind me, signaling the wolves to move. We advanced through the undergrowth, quiet but for the faint creak of armor and the occasional crack of a branch beneath our boots.The night had swallowed the world whole, and all that was left was breath, heartbeat, and the lingering tremor of something hunting us from the dark.Julian moved closer, his usual calm cracked by unease. "The scent—" He paused, nostrils flaring. "It’s wr

The voice didn’t stop when the wind did.It slid through the silence, low and layered—like a thousand whispers speaking in unison through a single throat. My pulse stumbled. Every instinct I had screamed to run, but my feet stayed rooted to the ashen ground."Riven," I breathed. "You hear that?"He lifted his head, eyes narrowing. "That’s not her."Julian swallowed hard. "No. That’s older."The air shifted. The smell of iron and rain rolled in—not from the storm above, but from something moving beneath the soil.The forest exhaled again, but this time it wasn’t wind. It was breath.The ground shuddered beneath us, splitting in a jagged line that cut straight through the clearing. From the fissure, silver mist poured out, dense and cold. The kind that clung to skin like oil.Cassian cursed, backing away. "It’s not over. The Veil’s reopening."Julian’s hands sparked as he tried to form a ward, but the mist lashed upward like tendrils, wrapping around his wrists. He screamed, the glow in

The night refused to end.Hours passed, yet the darkness stayed—heavy and alive, pulsing with a rhythm that wasn’t the moon’s. It was the Veil’s heartbeat now, faint but growing stronger with every breath I took.The air above Duskwind shimmered like thin glass. Even from the tower, I could see the faint distortions rippling across the wards. They weren’t meant to hold against something like this. None of us were.Cassian’s voice came through the comm-link rune at my wrist, curt and controlled despite the chaos beneath."North perimeter’s holding. East watch reports movement again, not rogues this time. The shapes are wrong.""Wrong how?""They don’t cast shadows."I tightened my grip on the railing. The mist below the ridge writhed, silver and black merging like smoke and bone. The Veilborn were learning—adapting. Each time they pushed against the wards, they became more tangible.Julian approached quietly from behind, his robes torn, his fingers inked with sigils that pulsed faintly.

The silence was heavier than the battle.It pressed against the ruins of Duskwind like fog—thick, unmoving, soaked in the scent of ash and blood. The Veil’s light had vanished hours ago, but its echo still lingered, a faint shimmer across the treeline where the world had almost torn itself apart.I sat among the wreckage, my hands still glowing faintly beneath the blood.The mark on my wrist pulsed, slow but steady, like something half-asleep beneath my skin.Riven knelt beside me, his breathing ragged. The silver in his eyes was gone, replaced by a storm-gray exhaustion that made him look almost human again."How long has it been?" I asked quietly.He glanced toward the horizon. The sky was paling—the first hint of dawn trying to crawl past the smoke."Three hours since the Veil closed," he said. "Maybe four. Hard to tell. Time… doesn’t move right after something like that."I nodded absently. The ground beneath us still vibrated, faintly, as if remembering the tremor of what had com