Elissa didn’t remember when they touched the ground. It had happened too fast—like a flash of lightning in the dead of night. Her legs trembled, but Rafael’s cold hand held her firmly.

— Get used to it, princess, — he said with a smirk, letting go of her.

Elissa straightened herself and looked around. They were in one of the darkest corners of the city, an alley where even the moonlight seemed afraid to reach. The air was thick, heavy with the scent of damp stone, decay, and something metallic… blood?

— Where are we? — she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

— A place where darkness lives, — Rafael answered quietly. — You wanted to see it, princess, and now you have your chance.

Before she could ask anything else, he vanished. Simply melted into the shadows, leaving her alone.

Elissa clenched her teeth. It would be foolish to be afraid now—she had agreed to this journey herself. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, following the vampire’s shadow.

They moved through narrow streets where only the faint glow of candles peeked through cracks in old windows. There were no guards here, no palace luxury—only dark figures watching her from beneath their hoods.

— They fear you, — she murmured, catching up to Rafael.

— Not fear, — he glanced at her. — Curiosity.

Their gazes burned into Elissa’s back, but she forced herself not to show unease.

— What is this place?

— The border, — he said calmly. — Between the world you know and the one people try to forget.

A strange chill ran down her spine again.

But before she could question him further, church bells rang in the distance.

Rafael stopped abruptly.

Elissa recognized that sound. The bells of Saint Archangel’s Church—the very one she visited every morning.

— You don’t like that sound? — she asked with a slight smile.

Rafael looked at her. A flicker of irritation… or was it unease?

— The one ringing the bell, — he murmured, — knows we’re here.

Before Elissa could respond, footsteps echoed behind them. Slow. Confident.

She turned.

A figure in a long black robe emerged from the shadows. He was tall, composed, his eyes reflecting that same cold light she had grown used to seeing every morning.

— Pastor Gabriel… — she exhaled.

He hadn’t changed—calm, as always. Yet now, in the night’s darkness, his presence felt far more ominous.

— Princess, — his voice was soft, yet there was steel beneath it. — I had hoped you wouldn’t wander into such places.

Rafael smirked.

— You always show up at the worst moments, pastor.

Elissa glanced between them. Tension hung in the air, thick and unspoken.

— You… know each other? — she asked, a strange sense of foreboding rising inside her.

Gabriel looked at Rafael, then at her.

— Far better than you think, princess.

The darkness closed in around them.