Chapter 37
Leo
Tracking Elira through Varrowmere was like chasing a shadow through smoke.
We had been tracking her for hours. Days. Who knew how long. Time didn’t move normally for me anymore. All I could think about was her.
She was everywhere—and nowhere. I caught traces of her in the air, a whisper of vanilla and honey on the breeze, but it vanished before I could follow. She was always just out of reach.
I’ll find you.
It was hard to believe these streets had once been her home. The alleys were narrow and suffocating, steeped in shadow and soot. Crumbling buildings leaned like they might collapse if you looked at them too hard. This place wasn’t a home. It was a graveyard pretending to be a city.
I thought back to the way she’d wrinkled her nose at Shade Tower—how unimpressed she’d been, how sharp her tongue had been about our clean halls and neat beds.
I understood it better now.
I found the ruins first—what was left of a school. Her scent lingered in the dust. I ran my hand over the bed of ratty blankets where she once slept. Finn wasn’t here either, so that told me all I needed to know.
She’d left us for him. For her friend.
It hurt more than I wanted to admit.
I was running my hands over the blankets, when I heard the noise outside.
A scuffle nearby. I rounded a shattered column just in time to see Slade slam a man into a crumbling wall, stone raining down like ash.
The man crumpled, gasping—and I froze.
“Tom,” I breathed. He was one of mine. A wolf shifter I had trained personally.
His uniform was torn, his eyes wild. He looked up and snarled, “Leo! Vasquez sent me. Why would you cut out your brand?”
His gaze flicked to my shoulder. His hands trembled, grasping at his own body like it was moving without permission.
“I have to kill you!” he gasped, voice strained, every word a battle.
Then he lunged.
Slade was faster—his blade pressed to the man’s throat before he could even rise.
I exhaled, tight and grim. “So, it appears the failsafe’s active.”
“Looks like it,” Slade grunted, holding Tom in place. The shifter was practically weeping.
Tom shook. “I don’t want to. I swear—I didn’t want to follow. But it’s like my blood is burning! It pulls at me. I smelled your scent and—gods—I wanted to rip your throat out.” His voice cracked. “Still do.”
Slade sneered. “Lucky I got to you first.”
“There are more of us,” Tom said quickly. “Shades. They’re here. In the city. They’ve been set loose to find the Shadowmancer.”
A chill went through me. I crouched, met his eyes. “Do you know where she is?”
“There are rumours she’s in the Southside slums. But we are still looking,” Tom said, “please Leo, knock me out or something.” His skin rippled as his body tried to shift. I could see the change under his skin. Hair began to sprout in grey tufts. He moaned in agony as he fought the change.
Slade hit him hard in the side of his head with the hilt of his sword, dropping him cold.
I looked at my fallen brother, feeling sick. Slade quickly trussed him up and dragged him into an alleyway.
Fucking Ashton and his magic.
“We knew this wouldn’t be easy,” Slade murmured to me. I forced a nod. It was still hard to see.
Phoenix met us at the edge of the ruins. “Movement east. Two patrols. We’ve got maybe two minutes.”
We moved fast, ducking through the alleys like ghosts. The air was thick with tension—every shadow a threat, every boot fall behind us a trigger. The Shades were close. We could feel it. That sick, crawling awareness—the kind you only get when your own kind is hunting you.
Slade found the grate first, half-buried under rubble. “This leads under the Pit,” he said grimly.
“The Pit?” I asked, already dreading the answer.
He nodded once. “Mother Ashford’s personal playground.” The bitterness in his voice stopped me cold.
“Who the fuck is Mother Ashford?”
Slade’s face darkened, his jaw tightening. “The one who marked Elira’s back.”
Fury spiked, hot and lethal, flooding me like poison. I didn’t raise my voice—I didn’t need to.
“Well,” I said, almost casually, “she’s fucking dead then.”
Slade flashed me a vicious smile. “Hell yes she is. And we’ll make it hurt.”
The sound of boots on stone snapped our attention to the streets above—Shades and sentinels running, hunting. We ducked into cover, pressed tight to the shadows, hearts pounding like war drums.
When we get out of this place, I thought, I’m taking Elle somewhere quiet. Somewhere with clean air. Maybe the mountains. Anywhere but this gods-damned pit of a city.
We dropped into the tunnels one by one, the air instantly thick and sour. Faint roars filtered from above—the sound of teeth meeting bone. We moved beneath the arena floor, ducking low behind crates as light filtered through rusted bars.
“We wait,” Phoenix said. “Let them pass.”
The soldiers were loud and jeering. They weren’t sentinels, they were grunts. I could hear them talking. Worse, I could hear them laughing.
“She didn’t flinch,” one said. “Shadows everywhere. You should’ve seen Kree’s face. I think he fucking pissed himself!”
“Mother got a good one with her! Already made me a couple of hundred quid!”
“I heard she keeps her in the dungeons. Could be anywhere, but she won’t leave that little friend of hers. Fucking women, haw haw!”
“Mother’s smart to keep her close,” another replied, low and smug. “Says she’s worth more than the whole damn city.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Elira,” I breathed. She was here!
Phoenix’s hand clamped around my wrist. “Leo, don’t—”
Too late. I moved.
The first guard barely had time to gasp before I drove him into the wall. The second turned—and caught my fist in his jaw. They hit the ground hard.
Slade and Phoenix caught up seconds later as I dragged them into a storage room, slamming the door behind us.
“Where is she?” I demanded, hauling the guard up by his collar. He was an ugly sonofabitch. His nose looked too big for his old, scarred face and his eyes were black. He sneered at me and spat blood in my face.
“Wrong move motherfucker,” my knee slammed into his ribs. My knee cracked into his ribs, hard enough to hear something give. “Try again.”
“Who?” he wheezed, blood painting his grin. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The girl. The shadowmancer.”
“No clue,” he coughed. “Think you’ve got the wrong guy.”
I rolled my eyes. “I know it’s hard to stay focused when your brain’s made of dogshit, but I really need you to try, friend. Think hard. Can you do that for me?”
“Fuck you, friend.”
I sighed. “Alright. Plan B.”
I extended my hand, letting the claws grow long and black, glinting in the low light. Then I drove one into his shoulder, fast and deep.
He screamed—high and raw, all the bravado gone.
“Feeling more talkative yet?” I demanded. “Tell me where she is!”
He wheezed, grinning through his pain. “There are a lot of girls here. They all scream the same.”
My vision blurred with red. I jabbed my claws in deeper. The guard shrieked.
Slade grabbed my arm. “Focus,” he snapped. “Kill him now and he’s useless to us.”
Phoenix had the second man pinned under his boot, flames licking up his palms. The glow lit the guard’s face—and the panic blooming there.
“The shadowmancer,” Phoenix said, voice like ice wrapped in fire. “Where is she?”
The guard started to shake, eyes wide with pain and fear. “Okay! Okay! She’s in a cage—beneath the Pit! That’s where they keep her! Just let me go, you assholes!”
Footsteps echoed behind us—fast, closing in.
Too late.
I shoved my claws deep and slit the bastard’s throat. He hit the ground with a wet, unsatisfying thud.
“Leo!” Phoenix shouted.
“I’m going after her!”
“No! Don’t do it! We need to go!”
I spun and bolted, rage and desperation tearing through me like wildfire. Behind me, guards burst into the corridor, drawn by the screams.
I didn’t stop. I fought. I slashed.
But there were too many of them.
One came up behind me and smashed me hard in the head.
I blacked out.