The old cathedral loomed like a scar against the night.
Aira stood across the street from it, rain-soaked hood pulled low, heart hammering so violently she was certain it could be heard over the wind. Midnight had arrived with cruel precision. The city around her felt muted, as if sound itself feared crossing into this place.
The cathedral had been abandoned for decades, its spires cracked, its stained-glass windows shattered long ago. Ivy crawled up its stone walls like grasping fingers, and the massive wooden doors hung slightly ajar, creaking softly as the wind pushed against them.
This was madness.
Every rational thought screamed at her to turn around, to go home, to pretend the last twenty-four hours had never happened. But the mark beneath her skin pulsed with heat, tugging her forward with undeniable insistence.
You're already in it.
Raven's words echoed in her mind.
Aira crossed the street.
Each step felt heavier than the last, as though the air thickened the closer she got. When she reached the cathedral doors, she hesitated only a second before pushing them open.
They groaned in protest.
Inside, darkness swallowed her whole.
The smell hit her first, dust, damp stone, and something metallic beneath it all. Moonlight filtered through broken windows high above, casting fractured patterns across the cracked marble floor. Rows of ruined pews stretched toward the altar, splintered and rotting, like ribs of a dead beast.
Aira's footsteps echoed too loudly.
"Raven?" she called.
Her voice sounded small, fragile.
Silence answered.
She took another step forward.
The temperature dropped sharply.
Her breath fogged, and goosebumps raced across her arms. The mark on her wrist flared, heat blooming beneath her skin.
"You came."
The voice emerged from the shadows near the altar.
Aira spun around.
Raven stepped into the moonlight, his dark coat brushing against the stone floor. Shadows clung to him unnaturally, curling at his feet like living things. His crimson eyes glowed faintly, sharp and alert, scanning her as though searching for wounds she couldn't see.
"You shouldn't have," he said.
Her pulse spiked. "You told me to."
His jaw tightened. "I told you what would happen if you did."
"Then explain," she shot back, fear hardening into anger. "Explain why my skin is burning, why I see things that aren't there, why you know my name like it's carved into your bones."
Raven stared at her for a long moment, conflict etched deep into his face.
Then he turned away.
"Because you are bound to me," he said quietly. "And I prayed you never would be."
The words hit her like a blow.
"Bound?" Aira laughed shakily. "I've never even met you before last night."
"That's where you're wrong."
He faced her again, eyes darkened with something dangerously close to grief. "We have met. Just not in this lifetime."
Her breath caught. "What does that even mean?"
Raven took a slow step toward her.
With every inch of distance he closed, the air between them seemed to hum, charged, alive. The mark on her wrist pulsed violently now, heat spreading up her arm and into her chest.
"Centuries ago," he said, voice low, "this world was ruled by covenants, pacts forged between blood and shadow. Humans and creatures like me existed in balance, bound by ancient vows sealed in places like this."
He gestured around the cathedral.
"This was once sacred ground," he continued. "A place where promises were sworn with blood."
Aira swallowed hard. "And me?"
"You were the keeper," Raven said.
Her heart stuttered. "The… what?"
"The one born with the ability to anchor those covenants," he said. "To bind darkness without being consumed by it."
Aira shook her head. "No. That's impossible."
"You said the same thing then."
Something in his voice fractured her resolve.
Before she could step back, Raven reached out, not to grab her, but to hover his hand inches from her wrist.
"May I?" he asked.
The question startled her.
Slowly, trembling, she nodded.
His fingers brushed her skin.
The world dissolved.
Aira gasped as images flooded her mind, this same cathedral, whole and radiant, candles burning bright as stars. She saw herself standing at the altar in a white gown stained red at the wrists, Raven kneeling before her, chains of shadow wrapped around his body.
I bind you, her voice echoed through the vision. Not as prisoner, but as guardian.
Raven looked up at her in the memory, eyes filled not with menace but devotion.
The vision shattered.
Aira stumbled back, breathless.
"That was… me," she whispered.
Raven closed his eyes briefly. "Yes."
Her chest tightened painfully. "And you?"
"I was the blade," he said. "The darkness meant to protect humanity from itself."
Fear coiled in her stomach. "What went wrong?"
Raven's eyes snapped open.
"Love," he said.
The single word rang through the cathedral like a curse.
"We broke the covenant," he continued. "You chose me over the order. Over the balance. And when the elders discovered it, they slaughtered everyone who stood with you."
Aira's vision blurred. "Including me?"
"Yes."
Silence fell heavy between them.
"So why am I alive now?" she asked.
"Because bonds like ours do not die," Raven said. "They wait."
A low growl echoed through the cathedral.
Raven stiffened.
"They're here," he muttered.
"Who?" Aira asked, panic flaring.
Before he could answer, the shadows at the edges of the cathedral twisted violently, peeling away from the walls and pooling into grotesque forms—humanoid, elongated, eyes glowing a sickly white.
Aira's scream tore from her throat.
Raven moved instantly, stepping in front of her as darkness surged around him like armor.
"Stay behind me," he ordered.
The creatures hissed, their voices scraping against stone.
"Keeper," one of them crooned. "You have awakened."
Raven's eyes burned crimson. "Touch her and I will tear this world apart."
Aira's fear morphed into something else, power.
The mark on her wrist blazed, symbols erupting across her skin in glowing crimson spirals. Heat surged through her veins, not painful, right.
Instinct took over.
"Raven," she said, voice steady despite the chaos. "I think… I think I remember."
He glanced back at her, shock flashing across his face.
The shadows lunged.
And for the first time, Aira didn't run.
She stepped forward, into her destiny, into the darkness that had always been hers, into the love that once ended the world and now threatened to do so again.
The cathedral shook.
And the covenant began to awaken.