Chapter 74

Ahowl pitched from my throat that was echoed by the pack in my stead, and the moon peered down at me from the dawn sky, like an adoring lover taking the front row before my stage. Of course she had come to watch, my steady, constant adorer who had patiently awaited this moment of reckoning. She would keep my Wolves well stocked with magic so long as we kept running beneath her mighty glow. The mate mark behind my ear tingled in recognition of her and all she'd offered me, and I prayed she would protect Caleb in this fight, to watch over him before me on this field of judgement.

The howls of Rosalie's pack carried from the far side of our army, answering our call. My paws thundered across the earth, my front claws fitted with the Phoenix fire gauntlets, so sharp they tore through the ground like paper.

I stole one glance back, sensing eyes on me and spotted Caleb up on the hill behind our ranks where he was stationed for his own purpose, his armour glinting, reflecting the colours of the rising sun. His head turned, our gazes meeting, those piercing navy blue eyes owning my soul and every fibre of my flesh with that look.

Time slowed, as it always did for us, bending so unnaturally to offer us longer stretches of reality together. It might be our last, this fleeting glance that was fuelled with so much love it almost broke my heart to think this might be the end of us. But I'd made a promise that would span across the universe, no matter where our souls ended up today. Our time was always. Past, present, future. We would find one another on this bloody battlefield once again with victories written into the stars, or else in the arms of death, failure branding us forevermore. Either way, our return to one another was as inevitable as the sun's return at dawn.

As the army coursed forward behind me, I was forced to turn my eyes from Caleb, the moment shattering as quickly as it had come, but that lasting view of him was imprinted on my mind forever, etched in stone.

Lionel's front line was made up of Nymphs, their terrible rattles ripping the air apart. I'd lost sight of Geraldine, too many Fae between us, but her legion was ahead of ours and with a collision that shook the ground beneath me, I heard our army colliding with Lionel's full force.

As the unit of Fae that Geraldine was leading drove into them like a single blade, tearing through their bodies with tooth and sword and magic, a cry of confusion went up from the enemy ranks. For our magic wasn't affected by the Nymphs' rattles any longer, the Nox flower potion working wonders on our warriors.

I barked my joy, taking heart in our first win, but then I trained my eyes on the swarming army ahead just as the flying Orders clashed above us with shrieks and roars. My friends were up there, to my sides, behind me, and a snarl peeled my lips back, my focus sharpening as I swore on all I was to protect them. To be the best soldier I could be and reap justice from the bones of my foes in penance for all they'd done, and all they still sought to do.

This was our last stand, and though our army was half the size of Lionel's, we had ten times the savagery and the burn of fiery rebellion in our hearts. We had been branded lesser, dismissed as rogues and devils, but here on this very ground, we'd prove our mettle, so even if death came to lead us from this world today, we would go with our names blazing in flashing lights, our memories scorched into the minds of our adversaries, never to be forgotten.

I released a howl then leapt at the oncoming line of Nymphs, slamming into a ten-foot beast and ripping my claws down his chest. My gauntlets ignited, Phoenix flames sparking and killing the Nymph in one strike.

He fell dead beneath me, and my paws hit his body, surprise filling me when it didn't turn to ash. I used him as a springboard to leap toward my next opponent, unable to spare another thought to my prey.

My jaws locked tight around another Nymph's throat and my mother barked as she swept past me, her russet fur catching my eye before she took down a Nymph with monstrous brutality. No longer did these creatures turn to dust upon death, that truth surely to do with the cleansing of the shadows, and their bodies continued to pile up as our army collided with them in droves, heading deeper into Lionel's ranks.

My fur was already wet with blood, and I led my pack further into the fray, the tumultuous clash of war making my ears ring. I finished off two more Nymphs then slammed into a line of Fae with hatred twisting their features.

Magic blasted my side, scalding fire, and whips of vines that tried to hold me down. My heart leapt, my paws scrabbling in the dirt, scratching against fallen bodies, breaking bones, the crush of Fae closing in on me.

My pulse thundered, knowing that this was where the real battle started. No more joy filled my chest; it was a bid for survival now as the scent of churning dirt and spilling blood reached my nose.

My teeth sank into the neck of a woman casting vines, making her release me as she screamed her death. The stench of singed flesh and fur made me certain I was burned badly on my flank, but I couldn't feel the pain through the adrenaline.

I was a wild thing, biting every enemy that came at me, tearing claws through soft bellies and spilling blood like rain. My pack was closing in around me, reforming our group, protecting me, and I barked and snapped at their heels, telling them plainly I desired no such thing. Athena and Grayson were close on my left, their tails swishing together as they took down two Fae in unison, their twin bond so keen in this moment, it was like they could hear each other's thoughts.

I broke through Frank and Alice ahead of me, my teeth latching around the throat of a man with his hands raised to cast. Ice pierced my shoulder through a gap in my armour before I bit deep enough to kill him, and I snarled as I tossed his body away like a ragdoll, charging on and knocking down two more of Lionel's soldiers.

But they kept coming, like ants over a hill, they never stopped coming. So many of them, it was like drowning in pitch, the light of the sun lost to the manic flurry of winged Orders above, the tint of fire in the air, the fog of smoke, the scent of it all clogging my lungs.

This oppressive crush of bodies, both dead and alive, was almost enough to stir up a panic in me. The terror that I might never see Caleb again, or Darius, or Max. My family. All of them. They were here in this gruesome, bloody fight, and the odds were, we wouldn't make it out of this alive.

I slammed into another Fae, my teeth ripping into warm skin, screams making my ears ring, and I held onto the reason I was here, fighting with all the fury of my heart. The only thing that was ever worth bleeding for. Love. And no pit of death, or stench of battle could touch the fearsome, unstoppable force of that.