Chapter 42
Gregory
William pranced around the circular table, his boots thudding against the floorboards.
He marched past the bare stone walls, ignoring the shadows stretching across the room as the afternoon bled into evening.
This chamber was the manor’s war room, stripped of the pompous vanity William usually displayed.
There were no velvet drapes here, no gilded portraits to watch us.
Only cold stone and the iron torches sputtering in the corners.
Their weak orange glow struggled to push back the darkness.
The map of Valoren lay spread out between us, its corners weighed down by candle holders.
Genevieve sat flanked by the other two council members, though the beta men appeared far less composed than the matriarch.
Cedric, the High Cleric, tugged at the hem of his white vestments.
Those same hands usually infused our boundary stones with Celeste’s holy magic, but now they only wrinkled the pristine linen into a mess.
Even Xavier had lost his usual rigid authority.
The Magistrate was unshakeable when it came to arguments, and only a week ago, he had stood in this very room, fearless while shouting at me for almost scorching the village.
Now, his hollow eyes fixed on the map, he likely realized his dusty ledgers offered no defense against the Empire.
Adam stood beside him, arms braced on the wood, while Evan stayed close to my side.
At the far end of the room, half-swallowed by the shadows near the oak entrance, Harren remained stiffly in place.
Nicolai loomed over him, arms wrapped around the guard’s waist from behind in a possessive embrace.
The wolf rested his chin near Harren’s shoulder, bored purple eyes surveying the proceedings.
We needed their presence here. Harren and the wolf were the only ones who had seen the Empire’s portal open.
Moreover, allowing Nicolai to roam freely was madness.
The village was close to panic, and the wolf remained furious about how his mate was treated in the square.
Surprisingly, he hadn’t argued when I ordered him to come.
The unhinged bastard seemed satisfied just to stand there, holding Harren and ignoring everyone else.
My focus snapped back to the round table, landing between Cedric and Genevieve.
Alaric.
Suspicion prickled the skin at the base of my neck.
The healer sat rigid in his chair, hands folded on the table, saying nothing.
He’d been silent since the meeting began, his face an unreadable mask.
After his outburst in the square, I’d expected him to rage against me or the presence of Nicolai.
But even though the healer despised me—he had made that clear enough—he still claimed to love this village.
And deep down, despite his venom in the square, I didn’t think he truly hated Evan.
“… strike while they hesitate.” William stopped moving and jabbed a finger at the inked lines. “We trap them between the border of the Mossfen wards and the mountains. A pincer movement.”
“That is suicide,” Adam said, his delivery grave and hard. “Even if we are strong, we are few. If we fight them at the border, we bring the battle to the villagers’ doorsteps. One missed spell, one breached line, and they burn our homes.”
“We cannot fight them alone,” Elder Cedric spoke up.
He clasped his hands on the table, glancing between William and Adam.
“We should seek help from the Valoren King. This matter is far beyond what we can hold in our hands.” He focused nervously on me.
“Apologies, Dragon Lord. It is not that we do not appreciate you, but—”
“The King is two weeks away,” Adam interjected.
Cedric pressed his lips into a thin line, silencing whatever excuse he was about to make.
While Adam had saved me from the rest of the cleric’s tirade, the silence remained heavy in the chamber.
We all knew why Cedric hesitated. I was still not a full dragon.
I had not passed the Test of Wills and walked the fulcrum between the twin goddesses.
Until I did, I was just a man with a beast inside him, not the god-like protector my father had been.
“A messenger would take days to reach the capital,” Adam continued. “And an army would take another week to march here. We don’t have weeks. We might not even have hours.”
He hunched his frame, pressing his weight down as he traced the jagged line of the mountains with a calloused finger. “They possess a Conduit. They could open a rift in the middle of the village square right now while we argue. We are praying to the Mother Goddess that it doesn’t happen.”
Evan tensed beside me. The threat of a portal opening in our midst was a nightmare we had all considered, but for him, the stakes were heavier.
If the Conduit was his mother, she was close, but she might as well be on the Empire’s lands.
To save her, to even reach her, we would have to slaughter an entire army first.
A sudden chill ended the heat of the argument instantly, and my gaze snapped to the floor. Darkness slithered over my boots, pooling around the legs of the table like spilled ink.
Silence fell over the council.
The urge to kill flared hot and fast. I shoved Evan behind me, putting my body between him and the threat. I bared my teeth as fangs forced their way down, lethal and ready. My hands flexed, fingernails hardening into curved obsidian claws.
“What are you doing, runt?” I snarled.
Adam and William shifted their weight. They feigned readiness for a fight, but the acrid scent of fear spiked off them.
Nicolai didn’t even lift his head from his mate’s neck. “Do not be foolish,” the wolf said. “Look at the map, failed Dragon Lord.”
I held his gaze a second longer, then turned to the tabletop.
A single tendril of shadow rose from the wood, resembling a solid finger of smoke. It tapped a specific point on the parchment. “They are there,” Nicolai stated.
“How are you certain?” I demanded.
“I left a shadow behind.” A cruel grin pulled at his lips.
“It has been watching the scarred bitch. They haven’t moved all day, as if they are waiting for something or someone.
” He shrugged, the movement loose and unbothered.
“I also did you the favor of feeding on some of their Inquisitors. You do not need to thank me.”
Xavier and Cedric went rigid, their eyes fixed on the wolf in horror. Genevieve didn’t flinch. She cleared her throat and brought the tip of her cane down against the wood. The floorboards groaned beneath us.
“That is not a wise thing to say in front of your mate, child.” She kept her stare fixed on him, refusing to back down.
Harren shrank back against the wolf’s chest, trying to make himself smaller. “It is okay, Elder.”
Nicolai cocked his head to the side, his purple eyes locking on the old beta. “Apologies, babushka.”
Genevieve offered him a soft smile. It held no warmth, only the amused contempt of a woman who had seen things much scarier than a wolf runt.
Adam bent low over the map, bringing his face close to the smoking shadow. “That is the grassland valley,” he said, his chest rising and falling. “Less than a day’s march. Close enough to strike without the portal if they choose.”
William moved closer, his finger tracing a line across the parchment that bypassed the main road. “We can cut them off here. Ambush them from the rear,” he said. “They will be expecting us to meet them head-on at the border, shield against shield. They won’t watch their backs.”
Alaric finally spoke. “Then we position ourselves here.” He tapped a jagged contour on the map. “The eastern ridge. It gives us the high ground. They’ll be watching the road from Mossfen, not the cliffs above. We can trap them in the choke point.”
“I can jump us there,” Evan blurted out.
He stepped out from behind me, ignoring my arm as he moved toward the council table. “We can cut them off before they have the chance to come here.”
“No,” I snapped, slicing the air with my hand. “That is not an option here, Evan, and you know it. They want you. I will not put you in more harm.”
“But I will be with you,” he argued. “I can jump everyone to the valley. We search for Mom together—you fight them off while I try to find her. Once I have her, I jump us both back to Mossfen immediately.” He paused, then added, “I can infuse crystals with my portal magic. Everyone carries one. If things go wrong, crush it, and it’ll pull you back here. ”
I opened my mouth to shut him down again, but he turned his head, locking eyes with Adam. “You know it is the fastest option,” Evan said to him.
Adam shifted on his feet, rubbing the back of his neck.
He resembled a man caught between a wall and a sword.
He didn’t answer immediately. He couldn’t.
Because as much as I hated it, and as much as my blood boiled at the thought of serving Evan up to the Empire on a silver platter, we all knew he was right. It was the fastest option.
“Gregory.” Genevieve didn’t raise her voice, but it carried the weight of old stone. “The Mother Goddess does not weave threads only for us to cut them short out of fear. Your mate is not a possession to be hoarded behind walls but a partner chosen to walk through the fire with you.”
I slammed my fist into the oak.
The oak groaned, a hairline fracture spiderwebbing out from beneath my knuckles.
Smoke curled from my nostrils, hot and bitter, as I stared at the map.
I knew it could work. I also knew exactly how fast it could go wrong.
One delay, one arrow, one second too slow, and I would lose him.
I couldn’t bear to see him die again. This time, there would be no magic or miracle to bring him back.
Yet leaving him alone without me was no safer.
Evan wrapped his fingers around my clenched fist, his touch cool against my burning skin.
Gently, he lifted my hand, bringing my knuckles up to rest against his cheek.
His nose was pink, and a soft flush stained his skin.
He leaned into the roughness of my hand, offering a lopsided smile while his eyes held mine.
“Please,” he whispered. “The Evan before me… This is what he would have done. This is what he wanted. I need to do this for him too. I need to save his mom.” He kissed my knuckles.
“You said this place is jagged. That it is dangerous. But this is my world now. I choose to be here. Even if it is broken, it is still a beautiful world.”
My focus remained on him, the fight draining out of me in a long, ragged release that felt like an eternity.
I turned to the others, revealing the monster beneath the skin.
“If something happens to him… If he does not come back to me whole… nothing will be left in my path. And that includes everyone in this room.”