The trap shattered beneath her like splintered glass no sparks, nor light show, just a sudden release. Jasmine staggered forward, nearly falling as sensation returned to her legs in a rush.
She caught herself, knees wobbling.
"Are you good?" Draven called, breath tight as he shoved another ghoul off with his elbow and slashed its throat in one fluid motion.
"Define good!" she yelled, fumbling for the short blade strapped to her thigh.
The nearest ghoul lunged.
She swung wildly.
Steel met flesh, not deep enough though just enough to make the thing recoil with a shriek. It slashed back, claws grazing her arm. Pain flared sharp and immediate. Jasmine hissed through her teeth,she twisted and drove her knee into its chest with everything she had. It stumbled back.
"Okay," she muttered to herself, panting. " That hurts."
Another ghoul rushed her.
She ducked too late, it clipped her shoulder but she managed to slash across its leg, sending it toppling. She kicked it hard in the face for good measure, then scrambled backward.
Draven's voice cut through the chaos. "Keep them off your sides.....they're stupid, but they swarm fast!"
"Thanks for the combat tutorial now!" Jasmine snapped.
He didn't answer, he too busy dragging his blade through the gut of one ghoul while elbowing another across the jaw. His movements were tighter now and less smooth he was getting tired.
Jasmine looked around four more, maybe five. All circling like they were deciding who would get her first.
Her arms were shaking. Her blade was slick with black rot. Her lungs burned.
She gritted her teeth.
"I didn't walk into the land of the dead to die like this," she growled under her breath.
The nearest ghoul hissed.
She didn't wait this time. She rushed it.
The blade struck low and messy, off-center but it hit. The ghoul shrieked. She slammed her shoulder into its chest to knock it back, then swung again. It collapsed.
"Not bad," Draven muttered, suddenly at her side. "You fight like a drunk kitchen maid, but hey still breathing."
"Bite me," she shot back, breathless, blood on her cheek.
Another came from the left.
Draven blocked it. Jasmine stabbed it.
They moved like that ugly, chaotic, desperate. But they moved together.
Until, finally, the last ghoul fell.
The clearing went still again. The silence that followed was thick. Almost accusing.
Jasmine stood there, panting hard, legs trembling.
Draven wiped the blade across his coat, eyes scanning the treeline.
"You alright?" he asked.
She nodded once, then winced. "I think I bruised everything."
"You only got scratched," he said. "Ghouls leave worse."
"Yeah? Well, I don't like ghouls," she muttered, flicking blood off her blade.
"Good," he said, smirking faintly. "Means you're not one of them."
Jasmine gave a dry laugh, then looked down at the dead.
"We need to keep moving," Draven said, voice low but urgent. "They don't stay dead for long."
He yanked his sword from the last ghoul's chest with black liquid dripping from it, he gave it a sharp flick. The blue flames licking along the blade dimmed, receding like a breath being drawn back. In the next blink, the weapon shimmered and shrank, metal folding in on itself until all that remained was a thin, silver ring coiled neatly around his finger.
He flexed his hand once, then turned away like it was nothing.
Jasmine stared for a beat.
"It beautiful she murmured"
She didn't ask what kind of forge birthed a sword like that, part of her didn't want to know. Instead, she adjusted the strap of her bag across her chest and kept moving, keeping just a step behind Draven. The path ahead was barely a path at all. The fog thickened as they went deeper into Ghulvale, curling low against the ruined ground.
Draven came to a stop near what looked like the crumbling remains of an altar. Bits of broken offerings still clung to the stone ashes of herbs, scorched feathers, something that looked far too close to human teeth.
"Map," he said, extending a gloved hand, he had given her to keep earlier.
Jasmine blinked. "What happens next'?"
"We summon the portal to Ghulvale." He flexed his fingers impatiently. "Unless you'd like to make camp with the bones?"
She dug the map out from inside her coat, smoothing it open against her arm. The paper had absorbed the moisture in the air, edges curling slightly, but the markings were still clear: a tangle of ancient sigils, half-legible names, and sketched ruins sprawled across a jagged topography. The map didn't move or shift…
"There," Draven said, pointing to a series of etched concentric circles labeled The Holloway. "That's where we're headed."
Jasmine frowned. "Why? You think the shard's there?"
"No. But it a clear sign it could be there, it the most dangerous place in Ghulvale." He looked at her, expression unreadable. Activate the portal"
Jasmine stared at him like he'd truly lost every last shred of his mind. Which, honestly, wouldn't surprise her. Not with Draven.
A portal? She was supposed to activate a portal she knew nothing about? Had never seen, never touched, never even heard of until now?
She blinked. Once. Twice. Still, the stupid idea hung in the air like a bad smell.
"Tell me you're joking," she said slowly, voice laced with disbelief and just the tiniest edge of panic. Her brows knit together, eyes narrowing, practically begging him to crack a smile and say just kidding.
But he didn't.
"Damn serious," Draven replied casually too casually like he was asking her to tie her boots, not open some ancient unknown death gate.
Jasmine opened her mouth, closed it again, then took a shaky step back from the eerie altar
This man was actually insane.
"Look," Jasmine snapped, her voice rising with heat, "if this is something Morvain said, forget it. I am not about to be sacrificed to whatever cursed thing you're trying to wake up."
She didn't even care that her tone was sharp. She was done. Her chest rose and fell, breaths short, furious.
Draven didn't even flinch. He just turned slightly, crouching by the altar, already brushing off dust and debris with one hand.
"No one's sacrificing you, Jasmine," he said evenly, though his eyes stayed on the slab of ancient stone. "I just need you to touch the altar after I finish the marking from the map."
Her brow arched sharply, lips curling into a skeptical half-snarl. That was it? Touch the altar? Like that made any godsdamned sense.
"That's it? You want me to touch it?" Her arms crossed over her chest, expression flat. "Why don't you do it yourself then?"
He looked up at her, his mouth pulling into that annoyingly smug half-smile of his. "I would if I could. But my name's been traded, remember? I'm basically out of the page." His voice stayed calm, but there was a sharpness to it now, urgency buried under the sarcasm. "Look, we don't have the luxury of arguing. The ghouls will awake again soon, and I promise you, you do not want to face them twice."
Jasmine hesitated. Her jaw clenched as she glanced back over her shoulder, the distant wind howling low like a growl. Her muscles ached, her legs barely carrying her. And Draven was right about one thing if those creatures rose again, she wouldn't survive it.
She sucked in a breath and glared at him. "Fine. But make it fast."
Draven nodded once, then turned back to the altar. With quick, practiced fingers, he began drawing the runes from the map, each glowing stroke etching itself into the stone with a dull blue light. The air thickened, the ground beneath them vibrating ever so slightly with restrained energy.
Jasmine stepped closer, every part of her screaming not to. She flexed her fingers, staring at the carved markings like they might bite her.
As the last rune seared itself into the altar, a hum began to rise. Jasmine took a hesitant step forward, her pulse quickening. The markings shimmered faintly, like dew catching moonlight.
"This is a bad idea," she muttered under her breath.
Draven glanced at her over his shoulder, the blue glow of the runes dancing across his face. "You've already agreed. Just touch it."
Jasmine's fingers hovered an inch above the stone.
It pulsed.
A sharp, rhythmic beat like a second heartbeat struck her palm before she even made contact. Her breath hitched, but she didn't pull back.
She pressed her hand down.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then everything exploded.
The runes blazed a blinding blue-white, surging up her arm like liquid fire. Jasmine screamed not in pain, not quite but in shock, like her soul was being yanked through her bones. Her feet left the ground as the energy flared, and the altar cracked splitting open as light spill through.
A pulse shot out in every direction.
Draven shouted something she couldn't hear before it slammed into him too. His body was lifted and hurled backward, colliding with the earth in a tumble of limbs and dust.
Jasmine's vision fractured white, black, blue then all at once went dark.
She hit the ground with a hard thud. Her ears rang. Her body felt like someone had pulled her from the inside out and left the pieces slightly misaligned.
And then—
Stillness.