The library was dead silent after the banshee’s cry faded, the broken windows groaning under the weight of the storm outside. Eden’s knife glimmered faintly in her hand, her chest heaving as she stared down the pale, smiling librarian.
“You don’t belong here,” he said softly, almost kindly. “Hunters come, hunters die. You think you’re different?”
Eden smirked, though her pulse was thundering. “I don’t think. I know.”
The smile dropped. With a sudden burst of speed, he lunged. His hand closed around her throat with inhuman strength, slamming her into the bookshelf. Wood cracked. Dust exploded into the air. Eden jammed the knife upward, catching his ribs, but he barely flinched.
His other hand whipped forward—something cold, sharp, wrong—a blade of bone that he plunged straight into Eden’s stomach.
Her breath hitched. Pain tore through her like fire. The knife slipped from her fingers as blood filled her mouth.
The librarian leaned close, whispering in her ear. “Another foolish hunter who thought they could change Hollow’s End.”
He twisted the bone blade. Eden gasped, her vision swimming, her knees buckling as he dropped her limp body to the floor.
“You’ll feed her well,” he said, standing over her, brushing dust from his jacket. “And no one will ever know you were here.”
Her vision darkened. The world bled to black. The last thing she heard was his footsteps retreating into the fog-drenched silence.
The Resurrection
But death didn’t take her.
At first, there was nothing. A void, endless and still. Then a pull, dragging her upward, back into her broken body.
Her lungs spasmed, sucking in air. The pain should have been unbearable, but it wasn’t. The wound sizzled, seared shut from the inside out as flesh knitted together unnaturally fast. Her blood retracted, crawling back into her veins.
Eden’s eyes snapped open.
One glowed bright and burning, angelic blue-white, light spilling into the shadows.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡECH47bh5Sc
The other flared with a red-gold fire, demonic and ancient.
Two forces at war, bound in one vessel.
Her breaths came ragged but steady. She sat up slowly, her movements deliberate, controlled, as though death itself had no claim on her.
The Librarian’s Fear
The librarian returned to gloat, dragging her knife in his hand. He stopped dead when he saw her standing again, bloodless, unbroken.
His face twisted, all calm arrogance gone, replaced by horror. “No… no, that’s not possible.”
Eden tilted her head, stepping out of the shadows, her mismatched eyes locking on him. The angelic one gleamed like dawn breaking; the demonic one burned like embers.
He stumbled back, muttering frantic words under his breath, trying to summon a ward, a spell, something. But his hands shook.
“What… what are you?” he whispered.
Eden smirked, rolling her shoulders as if shaking off death was just another inconvenience. “Complicated.”
Her voice rang deeper this time, layered—part human grit, part something celestial, part something hellbound.
The librarian’s face blanched. “Abomination,” he hissed, though his voice wavered. “You’re not supposed to exist.”
“Yeah,” Eden said, stalking forward, knife back in her hand. “And yet… here I am.”
She lunged. This time, her blade found purchase, sinking into his chest with a flash of white and red light. He shrieked as smoke poured from the wound, his body convulsing violently.
Eden leaned close, her mismatched eyes burning into his. “Tell your coven—your tricks don’t work on me.”
With a final scream, the librarian collapsed into ash at her feet, leaving only silence.
Aftermath
Eden wiped her blade clean on her jacket, her breathing steady now, the glow in her eyes dimming back to their usual human shade. She looked down at where the blade had pierced her stomach—only the faintest scar remained, a reminder of something she never asked for but could never outrun.
She sighed, sliding the knife back into her belt. “Complicated,” she repeated under her breath, as if trying to convince herself it was an answer.
From somewhere deep in the woods, the banshee wailed again—louder this time, free of command, a cry of both rage and plea.
And Eden knew the coven would come next.
But now… they had every reason to be afraid.
End of Chapter Three
ns216.73.216.174da2
and then Add to home screen.