The Longing

Chapter 58

The horizon filled with galant armor as the King and Queen showed up with an army of their own, vastly larger than what was originally shown.

The sky seemed to darken under the sheer weight of their numbers, a sea of shining metal and sharp spears stretching across the valley.

Even worse, they hadn't come alone.

They dragged Van, Sen, and Kris out with them in heavy iron chains, using them as living shields and threatening their safety for Katie's absolute surrender.

It was a cruel, impossible choice.

Katie realized just now.

Everything is going wrong.

If Katie surrendered, she would face immediate execution and die. If she refused to give herself up, everyone close to her would be slaughtered on the spot.

"It is finally time for you to fall, Katie." The King lets out a laugh manically, the Queen who wore no armor stood beside him, sharing the mischief between them.

"What is the meaning of this?" Titus growls.

"Why, my dearest creature. It is only right for us to finish this if my men is unable to even hurt a single strand of her hair."

The Queen sneers in anger, her eyes glowing yellow, disgust behind those orbs. With one swipe of the Queen's hand, her puppets wasted no time in attacking whatever was left of their legion.

Katie stood motionless at the center of it all, unable to decide what she would do.

But before Katie could even process the despair of the trap, the ground began to shake beneath her feet.

Titus and Lennox completely disrupted the process when they suddenly sent their armies to attack the royal forces from both sides.

A deafening roar went up from the men and wolf warriors as they charged straight into the silver lines, turning the neat execution ground into absolute chaos.

But were they enough?

The crown has brought hundreds of soldiers, yet Titus and Lennox's men are stretched thin after fighting each other.

It doesn't help that Katie's squad is human and half of them are either injured severely, or dead.

But the sheer, overwhelming volume of the royal army quickly became too much to handle.

Surrounded on all sides, Lennox and Titus's men found themselves severely outnumbered, backed into a corner as the silver armor squeezed the life out of their formations.

Katie watched it all.

Her men going down.

Werewolves attacking each other.

Silver armor tearing through fur.

Spears and swords clashing.

Claws and guns colliding.

She couldn't move.

She couldn't speak.

She didn't see it coming.

But just as the tide was turning entirely against them, and the Alphas were preparing to shout the order to retreat, the very air grew heavy with an ancient, suffocating alliance.

Mythical creatures came rushing onto the battlefield from the surrounding wilderness, fighting fiercely for Katie and against the crown.

Above the din of clashing metal, a haunting, ethereal melody began to echo through the valley.

The mermaids' voices cut through the fog, their enchanted songs twisting into the minds of the royal wolves, dazing them, manipulating their thoughts, and driving them into a state of helpless vulnerability as the rebel forces used the distraction to strike them down.

Simultaneously, the earth trembled as the shapeshifters, led by Samar, came barging in from behind the crown's army. Caught completely off guard by the brutal flank attack, the royal vanguard fractured into panic.

"Did you really need to tie her up like this?" I shake my head in disbelief when I saw how they were holding Samar.

She was bound to cuffs, but those cuffs were hanging from the ceiling, her body lifelessly dangling. She spoke no words when I came in, she didn't even bother to lift her head to acknowledge who entered.

She was held in a cell that reeked of piss and blood, her bed had no cushion in it, and there is no sign of a toilet anywhere.

How bad is she for them to treat her like this?

I mean, she did try to kill me.

"It's neccessary. She's a sly fox, no arm nor legs of her should be free. We're not taking that risk." It was Derek's brother who said that.

I ignored him and found a chair at the corner, I grabbed it and placed it in front of Samar's cell. As I sat, only then did she finally lift her head and connect her eyes with mine.

As soon as it did, her chaffed lips lifted into a smirk, I finally notice her eyes sparkling in amusement. Mine reflected confusion.

"What's funny?"

She shakes her head. "I killed you. I saw the light leave your eyes but yet..." She paused, looking around then back at me, leaning in however far she can and whispered so only I could hear it.

"Yet you're breathing like a bitch."

I chuckled, though there was no humor in it. "Tell me something I don't know."

"I'm mourning my sudden lack of competence," she rasped, her voice dry as sandpaper but dripping with venom.

She tried to shift, the chains clinking harshly against the concrete ceiling.

"Though seeing you look so miserable is a decent consolation prize. What do you want, Katie? Did you come to gloat, or are you just lonely?"

I sat up. "I came to offer you a deal."

Samar laughed.

"A deal? From you? You're sitting on the safe side of the bars, but you look just as trapped as I am. Let me guess: You're going against someone who's stronger than you are."

"This is not what we're here for, Katie." Darren took a step, but I sent him a glare which made him stop.

This is giving me a headache.

I could see the resistance behind his face but I don't care. He offered to come with me, and I'm not about to hide the reason why I'm down here without Titus' permission.

"If Titus had his way, he is going to execute you by the end of the week, I don't have much time." I said, leaning forward, resting my elbows on my knees.

"I need you to fight for me when the time comes."

She blinked, her smirk widening into something genuinely wicked. "You want me, the person who just killed you, be one of your bodyguards? You're more desperate than you look."

"I don't need a bodyguard, I need a weapon," I corrected, keeping my voice deadpan.

"And you happen to be a very sharp, very angry one. I scratch your back, get you out of these cuffs, and when it happens, you help me burn the place to the ground."

I'm not even sure if this is a good idea at this point.

"And what's to stop me from slitting your throat the second my hands are free?" she whispered, leaning into the chain's tension, her eyes gleaming. "You're a tempting target, Katie. It's almost a hobby at this point."

Fair.

"Because if you kill me, you'll never make it out of this place alive. You need me, my clearance, and my distraction," I said, meeting her gaze without flinching.

"Besides, think of how much more satisfying it will be to kill me after you help me. You get your revenge, you get your freedom, and then, if you're feeling lucky, you can try to finish the job on me."

She can try.

Samar stared at me, the amusement slowly fading into a calculating, cold stare. She looked at the chains, then back at my face, scanning for any sign of weakness.

She's my only chance at winning this fight. Without her people and her, I'm not sure if we can catch them off guard.

Right now, I'm just hoping that this hardheaded woman will agree for a more chance of victory.

"You really are a bitch, aren't you?" she murmured, though there was a hint of begrudging respect in her tone.

"I learned from the best," I replied, standing up and pushing the chair back to the corner. "Do we have a deal, or should I leave you here to rot in your own filth?"

She let her head fall back against her arms, a low, dangerous purr escaping her throat. "Get me out of these cuffs, Katie. And start running the second you do."

"I'll take that as a yes."

The King and Queen stood at the back of the line in shock, panic, and pure terror.

No sign of visions.

No warnings.

Nothing but pure, treacherous malice from the very monsters they left behind to crumble.

Not even the Queen herself could foresee creatures of different worlds gathering once again to fight a common enemy.

"What is this?!" she shrieked. Her mind scrambled, utterly paralyzed by the sudden betrayal.

Relief washed over Katie the moment she spotted Samar. Even buried in the chaos, a mischievous smirk played on Samar's face as she ruthlessly fought her way through a pack of wolves.

Katie caught her eye and gave a sharp nod of approval. Samar returned the nod before plunging back into the fray, turning just in time to clash with a fresh wave of royal guards sent her way.

Terrified of losing their leverage in the sudden brawl, the King and Queen cowered away, pulling Van, Sen, and Kris back into the crowd with them to hide their collateral damage and keep them out of reach. Royal guards came with them, running behind them to protect their crown.

But they weren't fast enough.

She saw it.

Katie didn't waste a single heartbeat. She charged into the fray, fighting her way through the thick crowd of soldiers.

Faster.

She said.

What is all that training for if you can't reach your sister?

She insults.

Run, Katie.

A voice murmurs.

Titus stayed right by her side the whole time. His massive frame cutting a bloody path through the enemy lines and keeping her guarded from rogue blades, his own army and Katie's tagging along.

Swords and guns clashed, bodies fell all around them until Katie finally spotted the royal couple heading to their kingdom and ending up inside the throne room, their blades pointed directly at her sister's throat and Katie's friends.

"Step back!" the King barked, pressing his blade deeper against Sen's neck.

Everyone froze.

Katie lowered her weapon slightly, her heart hammering against her ribs, but Titus stepped up beside her, a wall of pure defiance.

The Queen's regal face twisted with bitter hatred as she looked at Katie.

"Look at what you've done. You've brought chaos to our gates. You will ruin everything, Katie. Every plan I have spent centuries weaving, everything that was normal and orderly for the wolves, you are tearing it apart piece by piece."

"Your 'normal' is built on chains and slaughter," Katie spat back, her knuckles turning white around her blade. "If a crown can only sit on a throne of corpses, then it deserves to be broken."

"You arrogant little fool," the King sneered, his grip tightening on his sword. "You think this is just a petty pack rebellion? Your very presence here has started a war big enough to make even the oldest, most ancient creatures in the deep stop and watch. They are fighting back because of you."

"I don't see nothing wrong with that." Katie sends a haunting smirk in their direction.

"It's wrong because I tore that bond a long time ago!" The King roars in frustration.

"I did everything I could to rise up to this throne. I let my father waste away because he was too weak."

Katie's brows furrowed in confusion.

"I sent those monsterous creatures to their deaths because they were too proud, too arrogant. They fought your kind because you humans kept disrupting our lives."

The King chuckles miserably, his blade pressing further into Sen's skin.

"I gave them an in, I gave them the opportunity to act out their fantasies so this Goddess forsaken war could end. Yet you bought that very same war back here."

"Those creatures abandoned my kind because of my decision and I have never been grateful. They were the one's who stopped me from getting what I wanted, what I needed."

"So I got rid of them."

"You're a piece of shit." I spat.

"Blah! The past is past, nothing can change it now. But the future?"

His blade cuts through Sen's skin, as her eyes reflect panic and fear. Katie froze in alert, her bones ready to explode just to reach her friend and save her from harm.

"I don't wait for miracles, Katie. I make them."

The Queen raised her blade, preparing to slice into Kris's throat to end it all, but then Kris created an absolute miracle.

Remembering the brutal, close-quarters combat move Katie had taught her before going back to her military missions, Kris acted in a flash.

She dropped her weight, slammed her elbow hard into the Queen's ribs, broke her own bindings, and kicked the King squarely in the knee.

The sudden explosion of martial arts saved her own life and the lives of their friends as she shoved Van and Sen out of harm's way.

They managed to break free from the King and Queen's clutches, running toward safety, but now Katie had to fight both royals at once.

Titus immediately made his presence known by sending a loud, ear-piercing growl across the room that literally shook the whole area and paralyzed the nearby guards with fear.

While Kris, Van, and Sen tried to recover their wits and catch their breath, Lennox caught up with them and stood firmly in front of them, raising his weapons in case something amiss happened while they were vulnerable.

Their armies began to clash with one another, armor and claws, swords and daggers.

Then, Titus and Katie fought with the King and Queen in a flurry of sparks and steel.

While they were fighting, the Queen managed to lock blades with Katie, leaning in to hiss a cruel insult directly into her face.

"You will never know who you are, Katie," the Queen whispered venomously, her breath hot against Katie's cheek. "Because you're nothing but a speck of dust beneath our feet."

The harsh words struck a hidden, traumatic nerve deep within Katie's psyche. Suddenly, a torrent of violent, screaming flashbacks played in Katie's head, completely catching her off guard.

She froze in confusion, her vision blurring as memories that weren't hers tore through her mind.

The Queen instantly seized the opening.

Lunging forward with a malicious smile, the Queen's sword drove straight through Katie's chest.

As the blade pierced flesh and Katie fell to her knees, the battlefield seemed to fracture.

Kris watched the steel pass through her sister's chest, and a guttural scream of absolute agony tore from her throat.

It was a raw, shattering sound of pure heartbreak that echoed over the clashing swords.

At the same exact moment, Titus went completely feral. Seeing Katie struck down, he unleashed the loudest, scariest roar they had ever heard, sound born of pure, unadulterated rage and grief that shook the very earth and forced warriors on both sides to cover their ears in terror.

Just behind them, Lennox gasped as Katie dropped to her knees, his own voice joining the chaos as he roared out in sheer panic, desperation gripping his chest as he witnessed the girl collapse.

Katie's world went totally black as her knees buckled. But as she fell, something incredible happened deep inside her.

"What's happening to me?" She whispers into the dark.

"Katie." I looked up, spotting a woman in white.

"Who are you?"

"I am you."

"What? How?"

"I'm a part of you, Katie. I've been dormant for far too long. I protected you while you slept, protected you however I could. But the sword was too close to your heart and now, I'm here to fight for you."

"I still don't understand," Katie pleaded, reaching out, but her limbs felt like lead. "What do you mean you're me? What am I?"

The woman in white only offered a serene, tragic smile. "You will understand. Soon. For now, rest. Let me handle the pain."

"Wait! Don't go! Who are you?!" Katie screamed, but the darkness rushed back in, swallowing her whole.

Catalina woke up.

Inside, the stone floor covered in blood, Katie's lifeless body suddenly stiffened. The royal soldiers standing over her stepped back, weapons lowered in brief confusion as a low, suffocating pressure filled the air.

The Queen began to gloat, letting out a sharp laugh, but her victory was incredibly short-lived.

When her eyes snapped open, the frantic, terrified gaze of Katie was entirely gone. In her place was a cold, calculating abyss, unblinking and predatory.

A sharp, dangerous smile curved her lips as she stood up, brushing the dirt off her clothes with slow, terrifying elegance. She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers as if testing a new pair of gloves.

Catalina stood back up like nothing had happened at all. She grabbed the sharp blade of the sword with her bare hands and pulled it out of her own chest with absolutely no effort, showing no sign of pain and not even offering a single wince.

She tossed the weapon aside, radiating a power so dense and terrifying that it made even the King and Titus stop their fight mid-swing.

The Queen stumbled backward, her face turning entirely pale. "Y-you..." she stammered, her voice shaking as she pointed a trembling finger. "Who are you?"

Catalina let out a dark, soft chuckle, tilting her head with an ancient, dangerous grace. "Katie isn't here right now," she explained calmly, her voice echoing with an unnatural, layered resonance.

"For all these years, I barely held the light. I let her have control, because she deserved to live a normal life. I hid away quietly in the dark corners of her mind... until you crossed the wrong line."

"I am the ghost you created," she whispered, a lethal smile twisting her lips. "And I've come to collect what's mine."

Across the blood-stained field, Lennox noticed the sudden change of smells in the wind.

The wind had shifted.

The scent of ash, iron, and sweat vanished, replaced instantly by a sharp, unforgettable fragrance. A distinct, ancient scent that he hadn't smelled in an eternity.

It was the scent of his long-lost daughter.

Standing there completely dumbfounded, his weapons slipping from his fingers and clattering into the dirt, he could only whisper, "It can't be..."

The Queen swallowed hard, trying to summon her royal authority, but it cracked under the weight of Catalina's gaze.

"Guards!" she shrieked, her voice echoing frantically. "Kill her! Kill it! Protect the crown!"

The guards turned their heads towards the woman, driven by their crown's command and anger for the attack on their land, they followed her.

A dozen royal soldiers lunged forward, spears leveled and swords raised high.

Catalina didn't even flinch. As the first spear thrust toward her, she stepped inside the guard's reach with blinding, impossible speed.

Her hand snapped out, breaking the soldier's wrist with a sickening crack, and she wrenched the spear from his grip in one seamless motion.

Using the blunt end of the shaft, she drove it into the second guard's throat, sending him to the floor choking for air.

The third soldier swung his silver sword, but Catalina parried the heavy blade effortlessly, spun on her heel, and delivered a brutal kick to his chest that shattered his breastplate and sent him crashing into the ground.

It wasn't magic, no.

It was pure, terrifyingly flawless martial precision. The kind of lethal combat skill and strength that Katie had never possessed.

"You think a golden crown makes you a god?" Catalina mocks, her voice dropping into a low, chilling register that cut through the noise of the chamber. She tossed the stolen spear aside, letting it clatter against the stone.

"You are nothing but a coward hiding behind your walls of armies and you still fail to remember who I am."

Titus and Lennox continued fighting the others, Lennox protecting Katie's sister and friends yet he couldn't take her eyes off the woman who's standing below the stairs of the throne, yet she looked bigger than everyone around the room, stronger.

The way she moved, the brutal elegance of her posture; it was unmistakable.

"I was trained to destroy those walls."

She was exactly like him.

"Catalina..." he breathed out, the name tearing from his throat like a word he had long forbidden himself from speaking.

At the sound of his voice, Catalina's head snapped toward him. She tilted her head, her intense gaze locking onto the battered warrior approaching her. There was no recognition in her eyes; only a cold, sharp curiosity.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice entirely flat. "And how do you know that name?"

Why does she feel like crying?

Lennox froze, his heart shattering at the total lack of warmth in her expression.

She didn't know him.

She couldn't know him.

She had been taken before she was even old enough to speak.

Before he could find his voice, Catalina turned her attention back to the Queen, who was now backing away on her hands and knees, completely stripped of her dignity.

"Don't interrupt me, old man," Catalina commanded, her tone returning to a frigid, absolute authority as she drew a dagger from her belt.

"The woman who put that sword in my chest is still alive and breathing. Now, I'm here to take the very air she breathes."

The Queen scrambled backward, her manicured nails digging into the floor as she reached the stone steps of her throne.

"Stay back! Someone kill this bitch!" she screamed, her voice cracking with a terror she had never known.

Two more high-ranking royal guards, the Queen's personal shield-bearers, stepped into the gap.

They were massive men, heavily armored, moving in tandem with shields raised and heavy swords drawn.

Catalina didn't hesitate. She closed the distance before they could establish their wall.

The guard on the left unleashed a savage, wide horizontal slash aimed at her neck. Catalina dropped beneath the whistling steel with terrifying fluid grace.

Before the guard could pull his blade back to parry, she launched herself upward from the crouch, driving her knee violently into the visor of his helmet.

Capitalizing on his forward momentum, she stepped onto the buried mace, launched herself upward, and drove her knee violently into the visor of his helmet. The metal caved, and the giant toppled backward like a felled tree.

As she landed, the second guard brought his massive shield crashing down toward her. Catalina dropped low, sweeping her leg across his ankles. The heavy armor worked against him; he lost his balance, stumbling forward.

Before he could recover, Catalina grabbed the rim of his own shield, using his weight and leverage to twist his arm completely out of its socket. With a sickening pop, the guard collapsed, howling in agony.

She didn't even look back at them. She simply kept walking, her breathing steady, her eyes locked entirely on the Queen.

Catalina climbed the steps, standing directly over the weeping monarch. She raised her dagger, the cold steel catching the dim light of the battlefield, a lethal smile playing on her lips.

"Let's see if royalty bleeds any differently than the rest of us."

But before she could plunge the blade down, a desperate roar cut through the chaos behind her.

Across the clearing, Titus lost his footing, his grip slipping as the King brutally broke free from their clash.

Blinded by rage, the King spun and locked his eyes on Catalina.

He ran towards them, his heavy broadsword raised, driving a lethal thrust directly toward her torso.

Alerted by the rushing boots, Catalina whipped around to counter the strike, but as her eyes locked onto his face, the air left her lungs.

The King's royal features dissolved, shifting and warping right before her eyes. The crown faded, replaced by a jagged helm, and the face beneath it rippled into a cruel, unforgettable sneer.

It was him.

The exact same soldier who had plunged a blade into her chest when she was nothing but a mere child.

The man who had tried to murder her.

The man who ruined her life.

The man who lured her with candy, only to kill her in cold blood.

The man who dressed as a human for an innocent facade.

That man is the King himself.

She twisted her body, trying to evade the incoming steel, but the King's thrust was already too deep.

The broadsword tore through her side, the heavy blade biting deep into her torso and into the stone. A sharp gasp escaped her lips, the metallic taste of blood instantly coating her tongue.

It's as if seeing the face who looked down on her while trying to end her life, had began to drain her of strength once more.

The King let out a harsh, rasping laugh, his grip on the hilt tightening as he pinned her against the stone.

His features continued to ripple, shifting violently between the regal face of the monarch and the scarred, cruel face of the soldier who had attempted to murder Katie.

"Look at you," the King hissed, blood dripping from his lips as he stared down at Catalina.

"Bleeding out on the steps of a throne you think you can claim. And for what? For who?"

He spat the word, his eyes flicking past her to where Lennox was brutally cutting through the final line of royal guards at the base of the dais. Pure, unadulterated malice contorted the King's shifting face, his voice dropping into a venomous snarled cadence.

"You think he's your savior? That pathetic rogue bastard?" The King chuckled, a sound like grinding stones. "He thinks he's a self-made king of rats, but he is my own father's blood."

What is he saying? Cathalina thought.

Her fingers dug deeper into the blade, her breath hitching, but she didn't break eye contact as the King leaned in closer, desperate to pour his hatred into her before she died.

"His mother... she was a seer," the King growled, his eyes darkening with a decades-old fury.

"My father loved that woman. He trusted her blindly. For years, the royal treasuries drained, our resources vanishing into thin air, and my father never suspected her. Not once. He thought she was managing the realm, but the treacherous bitch was secretly feeding the very rogues at our borders."

"And do you know why?" He twisted the sword in Catalina's side, his knuckles turning white.

"Because she bore my father his true firstborn son. An heir. But she saw the boy's future. She saw that if he stayed in this court, he would die by my father's own hand."

Catalina screamed in pure agony, the pain unbearable even for her.

"She called him too soft for this world, too weak to survive his own bloodline. So she hid him. She bartered my father's empire to buy the protection of filth, trading our kingdom's lifeblood just to keep her precious whelp breathing in the dirt."

A manic, hateful smile stretched across the King's face.

"When my father finally discovered what she had done, how she had bled his kingdom dry to hide his own heir from him; he choked the life out of her himself," he whispered, his eyes wide and unblinking.

"Then he took my mother to his bed to breed a son who was actually worth the crown. But the first Queen took Lennox's location to her grave, so he killed her two daughters."

Catalina tries to fight, but the sword was too deep, her strength dwindling.

"My father died never finding him, and it took me decades to piece together the truth. Decades to realize that the 'Rogue King' rising in the shadows was the very brother who ruined our family's wealth before I was even born."

The King glanced back down at Lennox, who was looking at them in desperation and anger, seeing his brother trying to end his own daughter.

"He thinks he's fighting a tyrant," the King sneered, turning his eyes back to Catalina, his dagger hand drawing back.

"But he's just a coward's son, running from a fate his mother died to outrun. And now, I'm going to make him watch you die, just like his mother died for him."

The King lifted his free hand, grabbing a lone dagger attached to his waist, big enough for Cathalina to notice immediately, but she couldn't move.

Before his blade could fall a second time, a crushing grip locked onto his wrist. The sudden force dragged him away from Catalina's bleeding form, hurling him backward until he stumbled heavily against the stone at the base of the dais.

A low, animalistic growl tore from Titus's chest, his eyes wide with a sudden, vicious recognition.

"You."