RAVENNA

Part 18

**Fight scene ahead**

if you guys, like the story do vote it. that small "star" motivate us. If i don't get the desired votes, i afraid i have to stop writing. :( 

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Splinters rained down, embers rose in a startled swirl—and from above, the night came flooding in. Where once there had been shelter, there was now only the open sky: black, cold, and starless, like a lidless eye staring down. The wind screamed through the torn roof, and with it came the 

Unseen—six in total—Duskborns

For one breathless moment, the room froze. They were humanoid only by cruel design, mockeries of flesh and instinct. Half of them moved like men, the other half like beasts, but all with purpose.

Hunting.

Then came the scream. Victoria. She bolted upright, staring at the creature nearest her. It tilted its head slowly—like a curious child Its face—no, its mask—was eerily human: the serene visage of a middle-aged woman, but frozen in a grotesque, glassy calm. Behind it, something darker squirmed beneath the translucent skin, like a worm. other one had scaled skin.

"Duskborn!" Marcus's voice cut through the chaos.

One Duskborn lunged forward, crossing the space in a heartbeat. It crashed through Sebastian's freshly traced wards as if they were smoke. He barely dodged aside, grabbing Ali and pulling him back as the floorboards cracked beneath the thing's weight.

Eirene threw up a pulse of defensive magic—shimmering like heat over stone—but the Duskborn recoiled just before impact, hissing as if burned. Another bounded along the wall like a spider, claws punching into the wood, ignoring gravity altogether.

Hamid swung the iron poker from the fireplace, catching one across the ribs. It screamed—not in pain, but something stranger: joy, perhaps. Hunger.

Nieve held Ali to her chest, eyes wide, as another Duskborn landed just feet away from them. Its skin shimmered, mimicking her voice. Her own voice. It smiled at her.

"Mumma," it rasped. "You left me. You left me." She couldn't breathe. She couldn't blink. Hamid—bloodied but alive—reappeared through the jagged wall, gasping. "There's a slope behind the hut—downhill to the stream! If we make it—!"

Sebastian grabbed Nieve with one hand and shoved Ali toward her. "Window—south wall—MOVE!"

They burst from the hut into the cold air, stumbling over roots and snow. Nieve clamped onto Ali's hand, dragging him along as they scrambled toward the slope.

A snarl split the forest—followed by the thud-thud-thud of claws against bark. She was coming. Silk—once human—now nothing but a spider-thing in a girl's skin—skittered down the tree sideways, eyes locked on them.

Ali tripped. Nieve dropped to grab him—

Sebastian didn't think. He flung out an arm.

"Glacier Veil—rise!"

Snow surged upward in a spiral. Water spilled from the frost-soaked ground, called by sheer will and panic. It curved like a cresting wave, edges hardening into ice, forming a shimmering half-liquid wall.

Silk hit it at full speed.

The Veil caught her—froze solid just as her claws touched it—and sent her skidding sideways with a wet, furious shriek.

The barrier cracked, splinters of ice cascading, but it held.

Ali blinked up at Sebastian, chest heaving. He pressed a trembling hand to his heart, then gave a small, shaky thumbs-up. Sebastian hauled him up with a grunt. "Yeah, yeah. Save the compliments. Just keep your feet under you—I'm running out of dramatic entrances.

They scrambled downhill, lungs burning, until Marcus spotted a jut of snow-crusted rock.

"Here!" he hissed, waving them down. The seven of them collapsed behind the mound, huddling tight against the stone. Frost bit through their clothes. No one dared speak. Above, the forest groaned with silence—then the faint scratch of claws, moving slowly among the trees.

Sebastian kept a hand on Ali's shoulder, feeling the boy's shivers. Hamid pressed a bloody sleeve to his side. Victoria crouched low, one hand white-knuckled around her mound, while Eirwene scanned the shadows with sharp eyes.

Nieve leaned back against the trunk of a dead tree, forcing her breath quiet. And then—A voice. Clear, soft, right by her ear, "Hey." Her eyes widened. She snapped her head toward Sebastian and shot him a glare, finger to her lips. "keep quiet" she whispered, his brows furrowed. "I didn't say anything."

"Yes, you did. I heard—" she hissed, then froze as the voice came again.

"Come with me." The others shifted uneasily at her sudden stop. Marcus whispered, "What's wrong?"

But Nieve wasn't looking at them anymore. Her gaze had fixed on the dead tree.

From its withered branches, a figure emerged—slender, cloaked in curling green leaves, eyes wide and bright as dew. A spirit. Innocent, fragile... and impossibly out of place in the frozen dark. It reached out a hand of woven vine and leaf. "This way. I can take you where she cannot follow."

Nieve's pulse hammered, but some instinct told her not to fear. She stood slowly, ignoring the startled looks from the others.

"lets go that way," she whispered firmly. Sebastian grabbed her wrist. "Nieve—what are you doing?"

"Trust me," she said, eyes flicking between him, Marcus, and the others. "Please. Just trust me."

One by one, they hesitated—uncertain, tense—but rose to follow her into the snow. None of them saw the spirit that led the way.