บททั้งหมดของ The Witch's Demon Mate: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

The forest thickened around them, mist curling like living smoke. The air was heavy—wet with moss and memory—and every step seemed to echo louder than it should have. Aria’s wrist burned where the sigil pulsed, heat rippling through her veins like a heartbeat out of sync with her own. Kael’s presence brushed against her mind, steady and familiar, the tether of their bond pulling her from panic before it could take root.“The Hunters aren’t far behind,” Kael murmured, voice low but edged with tension. His eyes, faintly aglow, cut through the gloom. “But… something else is moving. Larger. Older.”Aria’s pulse spiked. “Something worse than them?”Kael’s jaw tightened, fire flickering across his skin in small, controlled bursts. “The coven didn’t just send Hunters.” He paused, glancing toward the east where the trees bent unnaturally, as if something enormous had brushed through. “They unleashed Reavers.”The word landed like a curse, and even the air seemed to recoil from it.Reavers—the

The ruins came alive around them.What had looked like a crumbled tower revealed itself as the skeletal remains of a watch-spire, its stones humming faintly with warding runes. The air was thick with dust and old power. Kael moved first, pressing his palm to one of the runes; the glow dimmed, allowing them entry.Inside, the world was silent except for their footsteps. Cracked walls bore the marks of claw and flame. A makeshift campfire still smoldered in the corner.“Someone’s been here,” Aria whispered.“Recently,” Kael confirmed. He crouched near the ashes, eyes narrowing. “Not Covenant. The scent’s wrong. More like… exile blood.”“Meaning?”“Meaning whoever they were, they ran from both sides.”Aria’s throat tightened. “Like us.”Before Kael could answer, a distant howl rolled across the valley. Not the Reaver—something sharper, human yet not. The Covenant’s Hunters. Too close.Kael straightened, every sense alive. “They’ve picked up our trail.”“We can’t keep running,” Aria said,

The mountain’s spine split open before them.A scar of obsidian stone and molten light cut through the ridge, pulsing like a living heartbeat. The air itself shimmered, thick with power and the stench of sulfur and ozone. Aria could barely breathe; the energy clawed at her lungs, burning away every mortal trace left in her blood.“This is it,” Kael said quietly, voice rasped from battle and smoke. His hand still trembled as he touched the black stone. The fire beneath his skin flared in response, drawn to it like a moth to flame. “The Gate of Ash and Light.”Aria stepped beside him, awe and dread twisting in her gut. “It’s alive.”He nodded once. “The first Gate ever forged — before demons were sealed, before humans learned to fear magic. It connects all realms. Life, death… and everything between.”The Gate loomed higher than the cliffs surrounding it, carved with runes that shifted as she stared. Each symbol felt familiar, whispering across her mind in voices that weren’t hers. Her

The mountain screamed.A raw, grinding roar echoed through the crumbling peaks as stone split open and rivers of light gushed out like molten veins. Aria stumbled through the wreckage, half-carrying Kael’s weight against her shoulder. Every breath tasted of smoke and metal; every step was a fight against the quake rippling through the ground.“Kael—stay with me,” she hissed, voice trembling with strain.He staggered beside her, pale fire flickering beneath his skin. His breath came shallow, body trembling from the Gate’s corruption. “Can’t… hold it back,” he rasped, light spilling from between his teeth like blood.“Then don’t. Just move.”Behind them, the Gate convulsed one last time and burst—a column of white fire tearing into the sky. The shockwave hurled them forward. Aria slammed into the ground, pain flaring down her ribs. Stones rained from above, trees snapping like brittle glass.She forced herself up, grabbing Kael’s arm. He tried to rise, failed, then braced his hand on th

The wind carried ash across the dead ridge, turning the morning sun into a smear of copper and smoke. The last of the Null Hounds had been reduced to drifting soot, their essence burned out in the wake of Kael and Aria’s combined magic.Selene stood in the ruin where they’d fallen, her cloak whispering around her boots. The air was still charged from the blast—fire residue tangled with shadow, their energies interwoven in a way that made the soldiers around her uneasy.“Report,” she said.A junior Inquisitor stepped forward, bowing his head. “The hounds failed to contain them, High Inquisitor. They crossed the western forest line. We estimate they’re heading toward the Iron Ravine.”Selene’s expression didn’t flicker. She bent low, touching the charred ground where Kael’s flame had struck deepest. The blackened soil still pulsed faintly—alive, resonant with the bond.“They’re learning to fight together,” she murmured. “Faster than I expected.”A taller figure stepped from the mist—an