Chapter 25

A broad, sinewy chest loomed over me, and the tendons and muscles of two hairless hind legs crushed the surrounding earth beneath massive paws. Its claws were as sharp as daggers outstretched above my head. I froze, my blood putrefying in my veins as it opened its wolfish mouth to growl. Oily brown fur pricked up along its spine. Then it pounced.

I squeezed my eyes, waiting for the impact that never came.

An arrow whizzed past me, brushing my cheek, then striking through the beast's chest. It roared in agony, howling and clawing at its wound. I kicked at its hind legs, pressing into the cool soil beneath me.

Arcturas lunged for the creature, her claws scratching at its brown skin. Distracted with my wolf's attack, the beast fell to its knees, swiping its long, muscular arms at her as she bit into its fleshy neck. A vicious roar poured from its open mouth. Hot, sour breath thawed the frosted night air like a dense smoke.

It gripped Arcturas by the abdomen and flung her into the lake. She sunk below the surface. I watched as the beast pounced onto the shallow shoreline after her. Arcturas struggled to stay afloat in the depths further from shore. Each press of her paws hit the surface with a plunk. Whining and yelping, she sunk back beneath the depths, only to burst back into the air, wriggling frantically.

My feet barely touched the ground as I sprinted into the shallows and dove to her aid. A trail of murky silver leaked from the beast's wound, like an oil sheen on the water's surface. I leapt for its back. With my full weight wrapped around its neck, we disappeared into the liquid darkness beneath us.

My grip around its monstrous frame slipped with each desperate lurch for air. I hoped that my attack had bought my wolf some time. My hold wouldn't last much longer. Splinters of wiry fur scraped the tender skin of my cheek as I lost my grip and slid down his back.

No light transmitted beneath the water. The sounds of struggle were muffled, as if there was cotton stuffed into my ears. I took a leap of faith into zero visibility and sped away from the black mass. Arms outstretched I searched for Arcturas, pleading to the gods that she was unharmed. The tether between us still pulsed. It emulated from my core like a second heartbeat.

Just as my lungs reached their bursting point, I hit the surface, gasping for air. All was quiet. The lake, once violently rippling, was silent and still. There was nothing as I scanned the shoreline for the beast or my wolf. I was utterly alone. Or so it felt.

I started for the lakeside, confused and frantic. Maybe higher ground would give me a better vantage point to locate Arcturas. My ankle pricked against splintered fur as I continued to swim, pumping my legs as fast as my muscles would allow.

Before I realized what was happening, claws pierced the bony flesh of my foot. I was thrown into the air. The beast resurfaced, dangling me like a rag doll.

"Elpis!" Aryx called, flying to the water's edge. His arrow was knocked and ready to fly. Before he could find his aim, the beast stretched his arm and hurled me into the air. I skimmed across the surface and crumpled onto the shoreline. The sheer force of the impact stole breath from my lungs. Aryx sprinted to my side, the point of his arrowhead never leaving the beast's chest.

"Find Arcturas. She's still in the water," I wheezed, cradling my right side. Bullets of pain shot through my body and red stained the edges of my vision.

He dropped his bow and dove into the lake, paddling faster than a shark chasing its prey. My vision blurred. The pain was taking over.

I was dying. This was the slow sink into oblivion, I was sure of it.

My eyelids were heavy, too heavy. I fought to keep them open as I stabilized myself against the sandy ground. Roars of battle, both man and beast, echoed in the night air. Get up, Elpis. Get up, Polaris whispered in my ear.

"I can't," I cried, my voice a mere murmur in the moonlight.

Get up, Elpis. You need to get up.

I tried again, once more pushing against the sand. My elbows gave out under the crackle of agony on my ribcage. I'd broken a rib, maybe two. Maybe all of them. My abdomen felt swollen, too full of fluid that I prayed wasn't blood.

She needs you. He needs you. Get up.

A wolf whined in the distance, yipping at the crunch of bone. My body fought against me with every attempt to move. Another whine, a man's cry, two splashes.

I took a deep breath, focusing inwards. She needed me. He needed me, too.

The tingles were faint. I took another long inhale. One more time, lungs expanded, that's it. As the tingles grew stronger, the pain subsided. Bubbling up from my toes, to my knees, to my chest. Shards of bone mended themselves back together, blood receded back into veins.

With fists clenched, I rose on shaky feet. Long strands of hair hung over my face as I straightened my spine and let my demons take over.

With dagger in hand, I stepped into the lake. Rather than toes touching the rocky bottom, they floated on the surface. With each step, the glow of the borealis rippled across the lake. Starlight fizzled out, leaving an unending stretch of night.

I charged for the beast, tearing into its flesh with my blade. A guttural scream escaped my lips as I sunk through its muscle tissue, straight into its bone.

Snap.

It flailed beneath me, but my grip was too strong to escape this time. Retracting the dagger, I dove on to its back, wrapping my thighs around its neck to block its airway. It flung me back and forth, blinded by the black night I created.

Squeezing my knees further together, I plunged the blade through its skull, piercing grey brain matter until the tip protruded from the beast's opposite temple.

With one final jerk, it exhaled its last breath and sank into the disturbed water below.

A small, black mass of fur floated limply beside me, its thick tail rocking with the motion of the waves. Throwing my wolf over my shoulder, we made our way to shore.

A faint heartbeat knocked against my palm. She was alive. I placed her back on solid ground and smoothed back her ruffled fur. A tear streamed down my face, landing silently on the crown of her head.

"Elpis! Are you hurt?" Aryx sprinted from the shallows, his bow knocked and loaded for another attack.

"I don't think so, but she is." I stroked Arcturas's head, watching as warmth returned to her fragile body. Her muscles twitched and contracted, as if healing their internal wounds.

She let out a soft grumble, stretching her mended legs.

"Shh, you're safe. Don't move now. You need to heal," I whispered, running my palm down the length of her spine. She whimpered against my touch and opened an eye. The knot in my stomach unwinded as I watched life return to her body.

Aryx dropped his bow and rushed to embrace me, wrapping himself around my shaking body. The tingles receded with his touch, and twinkles of light returned to the sky.

"I'm sorry, Elpis. I'm so sorry," he whispered.

The carcass of the creature lapped against the shore, still warm and steaming. Its silver blood muddied the surrounding waters.

"I thought she was dead." Letting down those fortress walls I'd built up, I clung to him, safe in the warmth of his broad frame. He wiped the tears from my cheek and clasped my jaw between his hands. Our eyes met as he tipped my chin up.

The electricity between us hummed from somewhere deep within our souls.

"You- you saved us. We were dead, had you not followed," I sobbed.

"No," he whispered, brushing his thumb against my lips. "It was I who was saved."

His damp cotton tunic sculpted the deadly curves of his chest. Droplets dripped from his soaked head, creating streamlines across the black tattoos.

I didn't want to be strong anymore, to be silent and cavalier. The dams holding back all the fear and sadness and pain I'd built cracked and crumbled. His eyes were somber as he watched me fall apart.

Those weren't the eyes of the god who betrayed me, the cruel prince who I despised.

They were the eyes of a man who feared. A man who loved with every piece of himself. The man who accepted every shadow, every broken part of me.

Those were Rune's eyes.

All traces of my resentment faded away in this moment. The candid, glorious man standing before me only brought peace to my warring head. My lips found his in a fever of need.

I craved the feel of his skin against mine, the burning pulse between us. We tangled ourselves in one another. His fingers laced themselves into my hair. My hands trembled as I unbuttoned his tunic. He pulled the cotton over his head and threw it to the ground beside us. Amber moonlight washed against the tattoos that traced his collarbone down across the center of his chest.

I ran my fingers down each ink line. What stories did they hold? What pieces of Aryx's past did they represent? I wanted everything, all of it. The gruesome details of his battles, the darkness that lurked behind those light eyes, the pain he inflicted and the pain he tried to heal.

Lost in the feel of my skin, Aryx pulled the corner of my tunic down across my shoulder, gentle kisses trailing behind the scrape of the fabric as it fell to my elbow.

"What you do to me…" Aryx whispered, through ragged breaths, "you strange, perfect creature."

He watched, eyes glazed with lust, as I shrugged out of my tunic,exposing pale skin to the chill autumn air. Standing before him, fully bare, fully vulnerable, I didn't hesitate this time.

We wrapped ourselves together, his hands cold against the perk of my breast as he led us to the earthen floor. As he pressed into me, I ignited and the flame of pleasure intensified until I felt as if I'd explode right there beneath him.

"Aryx," I whispered, feeling my body stretch around him, "promise me that this is real."

Through a breathy groan, he lowered his lips to my ear, my muscles contracting as he drove himself further into me.

"It always was," he growled, shattering me into waves of bliss. The cries of my spiral sent him, too, over that edge, our bodies and minds connecting in the deepest, most fundamental way .