Chapter 28
DION
We all skidded to a halt, blood drenching our fur and the taste of Lady Skol’s guardsmen still on our teeth. We’d come to the gates of Lassig only to be stopped by what we’d seen.
The carcasses of fifty wolves hung by their necks across the walls. They’d been flayed and eaten, stripped of flesh and dignity. But there was no doubt, it was Marcus and all the other Whiteclaws. He himself hung front and center.
Howls of anger and pain went up. My own the loudest.
I didn’t care what Melania had said, that the prophecies were wrong, I was going to kill Lady Skol, not Feyra.
I leaped at the enormous wooden gates, climbing the vertical wooden slabs and then the walls themselves with my claws digging in. The wolves alongside me did the same. The guards at the top were taken by surprise before their quick deaths.
Cut the wolves down, I called. We will bury them later!
I leaped down from the wall onto the path towards the city and was sprinting as the first drops of rain began to fall. The full moon that had been shining when we were at Moondaj had been covered by clouds.
I felt in my fur that they were unnatural. Magical. From sorcery. That it was Lady Skol’s doing.
I seethed, foam fell from my mouth in a lather. The wolves beside me bristled with the same anger.
What are we doing? Locke asked.
I am going after Lady Skol. You may do as you wish! But do not harm citizens, they are not guilty for surviving under tyranny.
They should be though! Locke spat. They’ve allowed us to suffer.
Leading is not about causing suffering, it is about giving opportunity, I said. The words echoed up from the depths of my mind. If we begin with violence, we are no better than her, I said.
Locke replied, but I didn’t hear it. I was gone. Back to the memory in my mind. I was at the Pools of Prophecy as a young man.
Marcus stood leaning against the wall. I had been in the Pools, trying to hear more of my prophecy.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “If Roman was here, he’d–”
“Do not apologize,” Marcus said. “And Roman would say the same. We cannot force anything upon you, or your path. We can only provide the space to learn.” He stepped towards me and put his arm around my shoulders.
“You will learn as a leader that it’s not about the tyranny of power.
You will have to learn that leading is not about causing suffering.
You do not want to rule by fear. If you do, then you have surely sealed your own death.
You must give opportunity. You must give responsibility to others and allow yourself to lead others.
You cannot do everything. People shouldn’t expect you to.
But if you can govern, and help them to lead themselves?
Then you will never have death haunting your shadows. ”
He paused, staring down into my face. A million things passed behind his eyes, I felt his wolf sense searching. But then he smiled. “But that’s far off. For now, just give yourself the opportunity.”
We came out of the farming fields and were among the squat buildings and merchant stalls.
We bounded onto wagons, roofs, walls, suddenly every wolf was covering the rooftops of the outer city.
The moon returned and we began to shine.
My fur was a blinding beacon. I began to howl, and the rest answered.
The immediate cry of the merls went up, followed by the screeching tune of the Siren Singers, but we were unaffected. The talisman around my neck continued to hum and to stop the music.
We ran on with the fury of every wolf having ever been born boiling in our veins.
We came to the Inner City walls and cleared the guards' look outs, breaking through the wooden gates themselves that closed off the working class.
Guards fell before us in ease. Blood flowed through the streets and were washed away with the rains.
The merls descended but never rose. The smell of copper continued to increase in the air.
People ran screaming, surprise was on every face we saw.
Wolves in Lassig. But we were unstoppable. We were–
An explosion went off far above us at the great castle. Green and expanding, shining brighter and brighter.
Feyra! I called.
A second, much bigger, explosion went off above.
I felt the pain of Feyra. My lung feeling as if it were deflating.
I stumbled as I finished the trail that wound up the slopes that led to the castle and its many turrets. I stopped in front of the moat, the gate was up and it was quickly filling with the rains.
A roar echoed in the night.
I roared in reply and jumped the moat, landing vertically on the wall and beginning to clamber upwards. The rain fell and the lighting snapped even with the moon pulling downwards into my talisman. Every wolf howled behind me.
But now I was alone. I was on the scent of death. I had to protect my mate.
I climbed the sheer walls with my claws ripping chunks of stone from the walls. Great slabs fell and crashed below, guards screamed and fell as my claws ripped flesh from bone and voices from throats. Anybody that came face to face with me either died or fled.
Dion! Called Feyra. I skidded to a halt. The highest tower!
I growled and changed direction, away from the room that had exploded. I could barely see the far off tower through the rain, but it was there. I bounded across roofs and leaped the climbing heights. The rain became heavier and the tiles more slick, but I gripped harder and ran on.
My heart exploded in pain! I scrambled to hold on and stop, I was sliding towards a roof edge… I almost fell…
I ripped into the tiles and ground to a halt. My heart was still burning with agony. I howled, falling to my stomach. The pain was excruciating.
Feyra!
But there was no reply. I should have a connection this close…
No, no, no, no!
I was seething with the pain now. Pain for all the deaths that had been caused by Lady Skol. All the deaths that had been caused by these damn prophecies and pointless wars. I pulled myself up and backed up. I had to save her. I needed my mate. I couldn’t lose her now. Not now.
But she seems so faint…
I bounded for the last roof before the high tower. I came to the edge I’d almost fallen off of and leaped…
I crashed into the wall and dug my claws in. I climbed the stones, the pain driving further into my body and gut. I felt the pain ebb away as I gained each yard higher. I hoped that didn’t mean that she was dying.
The moon returned and the talisman began to shine. My fur glowed brighter, the feelings of every dead wolf and person rose in me. My wolf grew and I was ripping bricks away as I sprinted up the wall.
I was going to kill Lady Skol dead. I was going to end her once and for all. My blood raged and I took one final leap, clearing the top and landing in safety on the platform.
I saw Feyra’s body.
No! Feyra! My heart exploded. I wanted to collapse–
A ball of lightning struck my chest.
I flinched.
I scanned around the large platform and saw Lady Skol readying another energy ball to throw. She spun her hands, building a bigger ball. I stalked her.
My mate was dead. There was no point to life anymore other than to kill the only woman who needed killing.
Lady Skol threw the energy ball and it exploded in my fur.
But I didn’t flinch. She stared in horror. I would never flinch again. All I had to do was end this damn war.
Lady Skol threw another ball. Fear was growing on her face. She stumbled backwards and realized she was at the edge.
She brought her hands wide and snapped them together, I felt millions of wires wrap around me, but it was nothing compared to my power. I stalked on and they broke. She tried other spells but nothing could break through. Nothing could stop me.
My heart took in the form of Feyra, dead, on the ground. I became more determined to kill her.
Lady Skol, with fear rippling across her face, brought her hands up, pulling down the power of lightning into her hands. The power swelled in her hands, twin balls, growing… growing… I walked without fear.
I leaped as she brought her hands down to throw them at me. The balls flew at me and the talisman absorbed them.
I snatched her by her throat, crushing it in my paw before she could utter a single word. I squeezed as tight as I could. Until all the bones cracked and turned to dust. Until I saw the life ebbing from her eyes. Then I turned and threw her across the platform and off into the darkness.
I ran to Feyra.
I shifted back into my human form. I took her in my arms. “Oh no, Feyra! No, no, no,” I said, squeezing her against my body. “I can’t lose you. I can’t. I can’t.” I felt for her heartbeat, even with the knife sticking out of her heart. Even with…
The locket! Queen Diora…
I heard the voice of Melania. The dreamworld.
I placed my shaking hands on Feyra’s temples. Maybe she wasn’t fully dead? Maybe she hadn’t fully left our realm?
But I felt nothing.
There was no brain wave.
No wolf sense.
Nothing…
I screamed at the storm above, roaring until my lungs burned. Then, pulling down more moonlight into the talisman, I held her head and pressed all of my power into her. But nothing happened. I snatched the locket up and pushed everything into her via her medallion.
But she remained gone.
Dead.
I began to cry. The power wasn’t enough.
The talisman wasn’t enough. Being the alpha of prophecy wasn’t enough.
Being her fated mate wasn’t enough. I held her, my tears mingling with the rain, and kissed her.
I pressed my lips against her cold ones and hoped beyond hope that a part of her deep inside could feel it.
I pulled away.
I’d killed Lady Skol, but at what cost?
I held onto Feyra, crying into her chest. This wasn’t how it was meant to end. This wasn’t how–
My dream! I was the man in the dream. I was the man above the bloodied and pale Feyra. But the knife hadn’t been in her chest!
I took the knife out and lay it next to her. I hugged her again, then channeled my surge into her. I tried the wolf sense. I pressed my lips against hers and gave her all of my power. All of my love.
And I felt a brainwave.
A heartbeat.
Dion…
Lightning struck and my hair rose. I felt a presence behind me and turned just in time to hear the hiss of Lady Skol, in her reptilian form, lunging at me with a sword. She flew through the air with wings like that of her hideous beasts.
I clapped the sword with two hands and stopped it pressing into my chest, the point digging in my flesh.
Lady Skol’s face of victory was now surprise. I turned back, Feyra was propped up on her arm. I turned back to Lady Skol. Her lip was twitching. Her tongue beginning to flicker inconsistently.
A knife had blossomed in her chest. The knife that had killed Feyra was now killing her.
She hissed, but the hiss lost its power.
She tried to stand and collapsed to her knees.
Her wings fluttered and turned to ash. Her skin turned black and she began to fade into nothingness too, drifting into the wind and disappearing in the rain.
“But I’m immortal…”
Then she was gone.
Dead.
The screeches of thousands of merls and Singers went up. All of them dying at the same time as they lost their leader. Howls joined the air. I heard the wolves celebrating.
But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the woman before me.
I pulled her tight and hugged her. Minutes passed, hours, the sun rose and then set and seasons changed. Eternity passed and yet no time did at all. She was in my arms, her heart as strong as ever.
She wasn’t dead. “I love you,” I said. “I love you. I never want to lose you again.” I pulled away. “Promise me?”
Feyra smiled. “I love you too. But is that a promise like the one you did to me?” She winked.
I hugged her.
You can promise whatever you want, and I will to you, I said in wolf sense. But I love you now and forever more, my fated mate.