Chapter 3 — The Hunter and the Hunted

Ashley

The air felt heavier than usual as Ashley stepped into the clearing near the edge of the Silver Forest. Her nerves were already raw, frayed by the earlier exchange with Caleb and the lingering echo of the Shadow Beast’s cryptic voice hounding her, whispering truths she didn’t want to face. The sunlight, fractured through the silver-gray canopy, painted jagged, shifting patterns on the mossy ground, as though the forest were alive and restless.

Her fingers ghosted over the faint heat of the sigil beneath her hoodie. It pulsed faintly, persistent and intrusive, a constant reminder of the bond she never asked for. But this time, it wasn’t the only thing setting her on edge. A cold prickle ran along her spine, sharp and precise as a blade. Someone—or something—was watching.

“You can stop skulking around,” she called out, her voice steadier than the trembling in her hands. “I know you’re there.”

A deliberate, measured tread broke the silence, and a figure stepped from the shadows. He was tall and lean, his dark jacket blending into the forest’s gloom. His face—sharp lines, scruff, and pale gray eyes—carried a calm intensity that made her stomach twist. The way he moved, calculated and deliberate, screamed predator. A hunter.

Ashley clenched her fists. “Who the hell are you?”

The man tilted his head, studying her like she was an anomaly he couldn’t quite place. His voice, low and sharp as a blade’s edge, cut through the tension. “Elias.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s all you’re getting for now.” His gaze dropped briefly to her chest. She noticed the faint tightening of his jaw as his eyes lingered where the sigil pulsed beneath her hoodie. “You shouldn’t be out here.”

She crossed her arms, forcing down the unease building in her stomach. “That’s funny, coming from the guy lurking around the same creepy forest. What’s your excuse?”

Elias’s gaze flicked toward the trees behind her, scanning the shadows with a wariness that put her even more on edge. When his focus returned to her, his expression darkened.

“What did you do?”

The accusation in his voice was like a slap. She straightened, defensive. “Excuse me?”

“The sigil,” Elias said flatly, motioning toward her chest. “You’re marked. You don’t just stumble into something like that. What did you do?”

The heat from the sigil intensified under his scrutiny, spreading through her chest in unsettling waves. The Beast stirred at the edge of her mind, its presence curling through her thoughts like black smoke.

*Amusing, isn’t it?* it murmured, low and sardonic.

“I didn’t do anything,” she snapped, shaking off the intrusion. Her voice rose, more out of frustration than confidence. “I was attacked, okay? I didn’t ask for this.”

Elias’s expression didn’t soften. If anything, it hardened, his hand tightening on the hilt of a blade strapped to his hip. “Attacked by what?”

Ashley hesitated. Ember-like eyes in the dark. Shadowy tendrils dragging her down. The searing, white-hot pain that carved the sigil into her chest.

“It was... something from the forest,” she said finally, quieter now, reluctant even to admit the memory aloud. “I didn’t stick around to ask.”

Elias exhaled sharply, and his lips pressed into a thin line. “And now it’s inside you.”

The bluntness of his words hit like a punch, and her hand instinctively pressed against the sigil, as though she could shield herself from the truth. “It’s not inside me,” she shot back, but the tremor in her voice betrayed her.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that,” Elias muttered. He stepped closer, and she resisted the urge to retreat. “Listen to me. That thing—the Shadow Beast—it’s not done with you. You’re its vessel now, whether you like it or not. And if you don’t deal with it, the next time it shows up, you won’t come back as you.”

His words scratched against her deepest fears, but Ashley forced herself to hold steady. “And what, you’re here to deal with it? To deal with me?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, his pale eyes studied her, calculating. Weighing something. The silence stretched until finally, he said, “I’ve been tracking the Beast for years. It’s my job to stop it. And right now, you’re standing between me and it.”

Her stomach twisted. “Stop it how?”

Elias didn’t answer. His hand shifted slightly toward his blade, and she felt the ground drop out from under her.

“You’re kidding,” she said, her voice sharp with disbelief. “You think you can just—what? Kill me? Like that’ll fix everything?”

“If it comes to that,” Elias said evenly, “it’s better than letting it loose.”

Rage sparked in her chest, hot and uncontrollable. “You don’t even know me,” she snapped. “You don’t know what I’m dealing with, what I’ve been through. And you think you can just decide—”

He moved faster than she expected. In a blur, his blade was drawn and hovering near her throat. Ashley froze, her breath locking in her chest.

“Whatever you think you’re dealing with,” he said, his voice a low, dangerous growl, “it’s nothing compared to what that thing will do if it takes over. You don’t understand what you’re carrying.”

The sigil flared violently, heat radiating through her chest and into her veins. Her vision swam. The Beast stirred more forcefully, its voice curling through her mind with dark amusement.

*Show him, my vessel. Let him see what power truly means.*

“No,” she whispered through gritted teeth, forcing her hands into fists. She shoved the voice back, swallowing hard against the surge of power clawing at her control.

Elias must have noticed the shift in her expression. His grip tightened on his blade. “You feel it, don’t you? The strength. The hunger. It’s already starting.”

Ashley’s anger boiled over. With a sudden move, she shoved his arm aside and stepped back, her breath coming in ragged gasps. “Back off,” she snapped, her voice trembling with fury. “I’m not some monster you can just put down.”

Elias didn’t flinch, his pale eyes fixed on her like she was prey. “Prove it.”

The challenge hung between them, heavy and cutting.

For a long moment, Ashley didn’t know what to say. The sigil burned against her skin, the Beast’s presence thrumming in her veins, and for the first time, she wondered if Elias was right. How long could she fight this thing? How long before it consumed her?

But then she thought of Caleb’s face, his stubborn trust in her. Her father’s quiet strength. Marisol’s laughter.

She wasn’t going to lose herself to this. Not for them. Not for anyone.

“I’m not like you,” she said finally, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. “I’m not giving up. Not on myself, and not on them.”

Elias stared at her, unreadable, and then, with a quiet sigh, he sheathed his blade. “We’ll see,” he said, his tone carefully neutral.

Before Ashley could respond, a faint rustling in the trees behind them seized both their attention. Elias’s posture shifted in an instant, his hand back on his weapon.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered sharply.

Ashley bristled at the tone but said nothing. The rustling grew louder, closer, the forest seeming to hold its breath. Her chest tightened as the sigil pulsed harder, the glow faintly visible through her hoodie.

When the shadows parted, a pair of ember-like eyes emerged, locking on to her. The creature was sleek, wolf-like, its body trailing tendrils of shadow like smoke.

Elias stepped forward, blade glinting faintly. “Stay back,” he hissed.

The creature didn’t move, its gaze fixed on Ashley as though it recognized her.

*They are drawn to you, my vessel. You cannot escape what you are.*

Ashley clenched her fists, her jaw tightening. “I’m not your vessel,” she muttered under her breath. “Not now. Not ever.”

The wolf-creature snarled, its body coiling like a spring. When it lunged, Ashley didn’t think. She moved, faster and stronger than she should have been, meeting its charge head-on.

Her fist connected with its form, and a surge of energy rippled through her, the sigil burning like fire.

For the first time, fear gave way to something else entirely.

She felt powerful.