**Chapter 22 — Blood and Confessions**
The attack came at dusk, when the violet mist turned thick and choking.
Liora and Cairis had just left the sanctuary ruins when Nyxara's scouts struck — six demons moving like shadows, silent until the moment their blades sang through the air.
The first strike caught Cairis across the shoulder. Black blood sprayed across the leaves. He roared, spinning with lethal grace, claws ripping through the attacker's throat in a wet, violent arc.
Liora barely had time to scream before another scout lunged at her. She threw her hands forward on instinct. Shadows erupted from her fingertips, sharper and darker than ever before. They wrapped around the demon's legs and yanked him off balance. The creature hit the ground hard.
Cairis finished him with a brutal downward slash that split his chest open.
"Stay behind me!" he snarled, but Liora was already moving.
