Chapter 61
Once again, the Noskari vanished the moment they seemed to have taken enough. Alaric was grateful for it. Everyone needed rest, water, healers.
One moment he had been fighting beside his father’s guards, and the next the creatures dissolved into shadow and slipped into the night.
The screams stopped. The tearing stopped.
Only silence remained, broken by ragged breathing.
Alaric searched frantically for Heidara, but there were too many wolves, too many bodies moving through the dark, so he pushed toward the manor instead.
The harsh, bone-deep sounds of shifting rose around him, the wolves returning to their human forms. Most simply sank naked onto the ground, too exhausted to do more than breathe, but Alaric kept searching for her, already tearing off his waistcoat to cover her when he found her.
Relief nearly stole the strength from his legs when her eyes caught his and she ran to him.
“You’re alive,” she breathed, throwing herself into his arms. “Thank goodness. I was so worried.”
Alaric could not answer at first. He only searched her body for wounds, hands trembling as he looked her over.
She touched his cheek. “I’m not hurt.”
Only then did he pull her close, holding her as tightly as he dared. He kissed the top of her head again and again, breathing her in, grounding himself in the simple fact that she was alive.
“Alaric.” Heidara pulled back just enough to look at him. “Are you all right?”
Physically, he was. A few scratches. A few bruises. Nothing that mattered. But the rest of him felt hollowed out, and he hated how terrified he was to step into that manor and face whatever waited inside. All he could do was exhale into her hair.
“I’m better now that you’re here with me.”
“Yes, I am here with you,” she whispered, squeezing him once before stepping back. “But we need to go inside. They’ll need help.”
Alaric looked toward the manor and saw Holden carrying Aurelia’s bare body toward the entrance, where Cillian waited with the pack healer. He nodded, took Heidara’s hand, and followed them inside.
He was not sure how many minutes had passed since the fight ended, but the burning pile of bodies on Duskwood grass told him it had been long enough.
Thankfully, the guests were gone, and the trees surrounding the estate would hide the blazing pyre from view.
It was the only way to rid the land of the Noskari for good, to leave nothing behind for that darkness to cling to or spread from.
Everyone who could rest was resting. Everyone who needed tending had been seen to.
But Evelyne sat curled in the corner of the dining room, shaking, her body healing while the rest of her seemed utterly broken.
Two Oathroot wolves stayed close at her side, but Alaric remembered how she had been after Lord Aron was murdered during the Cindermoor attack.
Then, as now, only one person had known how to reach her.
Kaldrek.
Where was the alpha?
He looked around, suddenly frantic, but everyone was occupied. Some cleaned blood from the floors while others comforted wolves too shaken to stand. Holden was with Aurelia, and Evelyne was too lost in grief to know anything beyond it.
But Kaldrek would have been at his mate’s side the moment the darkness retreated.
He would have—
Alaric’s stomach dropped.
Had Heidara warned him? Had she warned any of them about what he had told her before the attack?
“Holden!” Alaric called.
Holden looked up.
“Where is Kaldrek?”
At the sound of his name, Evelyne’s head lifted, and within seconds she was on her feet.
“I don’t know his every movement,” Holden said, frowning. “I’d assume he’s helping somewhere.”
Evelyne went still, her expression turning inward as if she were reaching through the bond. A moment later, worry sharpened her face. “He’s not answering me.” She moved toward them. “Do you think he’s in trouble?”
Alaric’s stomach twisted. “I think we need to get him the hell away from the Solwyn Tree. Now.”
Heidara’s eyes widened. “I’m so sorry. He told me to come straight to the estate. I never had a chance to warn—”
Alaric shook his head. This was not her fault.
Holden stared at him, then at Heidara, confusion knitting his brow.
“Now, Holden.”
“Evelyne,” Holden said, turning to her, “you need to stay here and rest. You are not in any state to endure more tonight, and I have no idea why Alaric is panicking, but he’s right about one thing. I should go find Kaldrek.”
“Absolutely not,” Evelyne snapped. “I’m coming with you to find my mate.”
“I’m second-in-command, and I’m telling you that you’re needed here.” Holden nodded toward the Oathroot wolves scattered throughout the manor. “Your sister needs you. Your mother needs you. Your family home needs you after this.”
“Holden, no. Please.” Evelyne’s eyes shone with fresh tears. “I’m fine. I need to go.”
Holden’s voice dipped into something tender. “Kaldrek would never forgive me if I let you come and something happened to you. So please, stay.”
“I agree with Holden,” Alaric said gently. “You’re needed here, Ev. And if Kaldrek were in immediate danger, you would feel it, would you not?”
Evelyne looked down. “Yes.”
“Then let us go.”
For a moment, she said nothing. Then she nodded, though every part of her looked as if it cost her.
“Fine. I’ll stay. But take your strongest with you. I will never forgive myself if my mate is hurt and I’m not there.”
Holden’s gaze flicked toward Aurelia. “And I would never forgive myself if mine was hurt in my absence.” A flicker of understanding passed between them.
Alaric’s attention snapped to him, but there was no time to ask what he meant.
“I’ll keep her safe,” Evelyne said quietly.
“Thank you.”
“Go,” Alaric urged. “And please, do everything in your power to stop him from summoning from the tree.”
Holden’s expression darkened with confusion. “What?”
“Just listen to me, please?”
After a tense beat, Holden nodded. “Fine. I’m going.”
He set off with several of Ironwolf’s strongest, Heidara among them. Alaric watched them disappear into the night, unable to shake the cold certainty settling in his chest that they were already too late.