Chapter 48
Leo
My wrists burned—searing, insistent. The star mark pulsed like a heartbeat I couldn’t ignore, dragging me toward the docks like a hook in my soul.
Behind me, Slade and Thorne kept pace, their footfalls steady despite the chaos still echoing behind us. Maddie was limp in my arms, her blood soaking into my shirt, her breath faint against my collarbone.
“It’s Phoenix,” Thorne said, low and grim. “He’s feels weak.”
“Fuck,” Slade muttered, pushing harder.
I adjusted my grip on Maddie and kept running. The buildings blurred as we tore through the wreckage—burned-out stalls, shattered stone, ash hanging thick in the air.
The battle had set alight several buildings around the south side and the blaze had spread across the city like a virus, consuming the ruins of Varrowmere. The sky was orange and thick with smoke.
I didn’t know if Phoenix was dying.
I just knew if we didn’t move faster, we’d all be too late.
Somewhere ahead, I heard the creak of wood and the splash of water.
“What… what’s going on?” Maddie croaked.
“Welcome back,” I said with a breathless grin, ducking behind a corner. I put her down and we listened to the approaching hoard.
Ahead, just off a small wooden jetty sat a weathered old fishing boat. I could see someone on board in the deep darkness, fiddling with ropes. I could sense Phoenix even closer now.
Thundering hooves pounded across the ground, making the docks rattle. The wharf wasn’t far, but the space was exposed.
I caught movement ahead—two figures dragging a body between them.
Elira.
I’d know that silhouette anywhere.
She spotted me and waved, urgent. Then pointed to the boat.
“There she is!” I yelled.
“Run!” Thorne barked beside me.
The sentinels swarmed at our backs like wasps on the attack.
He surged ahead, cutting through smoke and shadow like a blade. Slade kept to the rear, deflecting spears and blades that screamed down toward us. His arms flashed with metal, each strike buying us seconds.
I kept Maddie close, one arm braced around her.
She wasn’t unconscious anymore.
Her eyes were open—blazing. Rage twisted her bruised face as she lifted her hand and sent a surge of vines bursting from the wooden jetty. They wrapped around the lead Sentinels, dragging them down with a shriek of cracking timber.
“That’s my girl,” I grinned, giving her a shove. “Run to the boat!”
Maddie staggered free of me, then broke into a limping sprint, clumsy but determined.
I walked backward, body between Maddie and the storm, watching the darkness swallow the docks. If it came to it, I’d be the last thing standing in its way.
**
Elira
It was a wave of red.
The Sentinels just kept coming—more and more—a flood of armour and blades crashing across the dock. And at the edge of it all, Vasquez sat astride his horse, watching like he was some godsdamn king surveying a battlefield he already owned.
Leo, Slade and Thorne were all running our way, but the Sentinels were right on their heels.
“They’re not going to make it,” I whispered, breath caught in my throat.
Then I moved.
I ran off the boat, sprinting down the ramp as the wind tore at my cloak. My feet hit the dock and I threw my shadows forward—a roaring surge of black tendrils that split the air like a thunderclap.
The force of my magic slammed into the frontline, hurling Sentinels back like debris tossed by a storm.
Maddie ran past me, her steps uneven, blood on her cheek. She paused—just for a heartbeat—like she was about to turn back.
I threw my shadows forward and shoved her toward the boat.
“Don’t stop!” I shouted.
The dock was a war zone. The boat sat behind us—tethered and waiting—but the space between here and safety had become a killing field.
To the east, Leo was a storm of golden fur and fury, ripping through Sentinels who dared get close. Slade held the western flank, blades spinning in brutal, efficient arcs, shielding the wounded and forcing a corridor back toward the ramp.
My shadows lashed out in every direction, anchoring us, shielding us—but they were thin now. Frantic. Stretching too far.
We were holding. Just. But it wasn’t going to last.
“Elira! Get back here!” Jasper yelled from the deck, panic sharp in his voice.
Then Thorne was at my side—sudden, silent. A wall of presence. He moved like ice and shadow, blades already drawn, power radiating off him in cold pulses.
“You’re here!” I shouted, shadows lashing out to catch a sword mid-swing and flick it wide.
Thorne didn’t flinch.
“I told you I’d protect you,” he said, voice low and steady as his blades spun into motion. He stepped in beside me like he’d never left. “Where’s Phoenix?”
“Injured and out cold. He’s on the boat.” I shot back, sending a sword of shadow out beside me. “But he’ll be ok!”
A flash of relief went through Thorne but resolve chased it away. “Glad to hear it. Now, go. You need to leave.”
“No!” I said, my eyes narrowing.
“Elira, get your ass back to that boat. Now!”
“You need my help!” I snapped, kicking a Sentinel square in the chest.
“No. I need you alive. Now move—before I make you.”
“Asshole,” I muttered, shadows slamming down on another attacker.
I could’ve sworn—just for a second—he grinned.
Ahead, Slade was nearly surrounded. His breath came in ragged bursts, his shoulders low, swords crossing against a dozen incoming strikes. Steel screamed as blades met blades—and then one pushed through.
He staggered.
And my heart dropped.
I didn’t think—just reacted. My shadows shot out, slamming into the swarm around him and blasting them back. Slade broke free, spinning toward me, one hand clamped over his arm.
“Just a scratch!” he called, still standing tall, still burning with defiance.
But I saw the blood.
He turned and kept fighting, blades a blur of motion—but the Sentinels were herding him now, pushing him closer to the boat like wolves circling a cornered lion.
Then they came for me.
Sentinels. A wall of them. And beside them—Shades. Only a few. But enough.
Thorne charged ahead, taking on two at once with cruel precision. Leo was fully shifted, his lion roaring as it ripped sentinels apart.
But one face stopped me cold.
Kyra.
“You’re mine, bitch.” She croaked, her face elongating.
I rolled my eyes. For fucks sake.
Her features twisted with fury as the shift took hold—bones snapping, limbs contorting. Wings erupted from her back, feathers slick and black as oil. Her eagle form surged forward, consuming her human shape like something unholy.
Her scream cracked the air—high, shrill, and wrong. Not human. Not anymore.
She dove straight at me—talons out, gleaming, deadly. Ready to gut me.
I was being attacked from every side.
Sentinels. Shades. Kyra.
My shadows lashed out, stretching thin—fighting on multiple fronts, trying to protect me from too many angles at once.
They weren’t enough.
Not this time.
I threw my shadows like a lasso, snaring her feet mid-flight. Kyra spiralled and crashed, but her momentum carried her straight into me.
She hit hard, knocking the breath from my lungs.
Suddenly, she was on top of me—violent and feral—her long beak snapping and pecking at my chest, tearing ribbons of flesh from my skin.
“Elira!” someone screamed.
A blade sliced through her—clean, brutal—impaling her mid-thorax. Her body twitched once, then went still.
I shoved her off, breath ragged, blood pouring from the wounds she’d left behind.
I looked up, expecting Thorne or Slade—
But it wasn’t.
It was Finn.
He stood there, shaking, a bloodied sword in his hand. His eyes were wide, his face pale, streaked with sweat and tears.
I stumbled back, uncertain. “Finn…”
His face crumpled.
“I’m so sorry, Elle,” he said, voice breaking. “Gods, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “I forgive you. I promise—I forgive you.”
He clutched at me. “You need to run. You need to go. And now.” He pushed me towards the boat.
“Leo—help Slade! I’ll get Elira!” I heard Thorne yell.
The lion roared and charged, barrelling through two Sentinels before bounding toward Slade. He slammed into him from the side, knocking another attacker off balance. Slade staggered, and Leo dropped to his belly just long enough for him to climb onto his back.
Slade clung tight, barely upright, his hand fisted in Leo’s mane.
I turned and grabbed Finn’s hand.
“Come on! Run! Get on the boat!”
From across the chaos, I felt it—Vasquez, cutting his way toward me like death incarnate, his sword black with blood and fire in his eyes.
Thorne was still fighting to reach me—but he wouldn’t get here in time.
“I’m going to help him!” I said, already pulling away.
But Finn caught my wrist.
His grip wasn’t rough. Just... final.
“No,” he said, breath catching. “You need to go.”
“Finn—”
His eyes were full of something I didn’t want to see.
“I crossed a line,” he whispered. “This is the only thing I can do to make it right.”
He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead—long, lingering, gentle in a way that shattered me. Like he already knew it was goodbye. “I love you,” he whispered.
Then he shoved me hard—
And ran.
Straight for Vasquez.
His sword was raised high, like he could still change everything in one final, desperate rush.
“Finn, NO!” I screamed, my voice ripping through the chaos, through the blood in my throat, through the air that had already started to die around me.
But he’d always been fast. Faster than me.
As Vasquez raised his blade, aiming for my heart and Finn leapt between us.
The sword struck.
Time cracked.
I didn’t hear the impact. Only the silence that followed.
Everything else—screams, steel, the sea—all of it vanished beneath the sound of nothing.
For a moment, Finn just stood there. Still.
Like maybe he’d outrun it.
Like maybe he’d live.
And then—
His arms went slack.
He swayed once, like a tree whose roots had finally given out. Then he folded to the ground.
Collapsed.
Gone.
The world shattered. My heart shattered.
My knees hit the dirt with a sound I didn’t hear.
My shadows erupted—screaming, shrieking, tearing through Sentinels like something feral and grieving.
I heard the crunch of bone. The snap of magic. The world coming apart.
But I couldn’t see it.
All I saw was him.
Finn.
On the ground.
Not moving, not breathing.
My hands shook as I crawled to him. My fingers curled into his shirt—he was still warm. But the warmth was already fading.
No no no no—please—gods, no—
My hands shook as I reached for him.
“Finn?...” I choked. “Please - no…Finn....”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t move.
He was dead.
He was dead.
Black spots obscured my vision. I felt very far away.
Across from me, Vasquez stepped forward, sword still slick with blood, a sneer carved into his face like something eternal.
As he walked, he toed aside a fallen body with casual disdain—like it was nothing more than trash in his path. Then, without breaking stride, he wiped the blade clean on his coat.
I didn’t flinch. I just held Finn.
The world around us—noise, pain, purpose—was gone.
It was like the colour had bled from everything.
“It’s over,” Vasquez said, voice thick with mockery. “You’ve lost. Time to go, dear.”
I was hollow.
Empty.
The boy I grew up with, the only thing I’d ever had, was gone. My hands pressed to his chest like I could hold him here—but there was no heartbeat.
There were no second chances this time. There was no coming back from this.
I bowed my head. My shadows fell. The world was still.
I didn’t care anymore.
I was ready to take the blade.
Then—Thorne was there.
He threw himself between us, blades drawn, stance wide, shielding me with his entire body.
Before I could speak, dark tethers of magic slipped into my mind—familiar and impossibly gentle.
Get to the boat.
Behind me, voices were screaming—Jasper, Leo, maybe even Maddie—but I couldn’t hear them.
I couldn’t think.
My mind was gone. And my body began to move—because Thorne had made me.
Because he had used the last of his power… to save me.
And I realized—too late—what he planned to do.
He wasn’t just stalling. He was staying behind to die.
“No,” I whispered, the word breaking against the wind. “No—”
The compulsion broke. I spun back around.
“Thorne!” I screamed, trying to turn back.
Strong arms wrapped around me, iron-tight, dragging me away.
I fought. I clawed. Kicked. Bit. Shadows surged from me in a storm of panic—but it didn’t matter.
Leo’s arms held firm. “I’m sorry, Elle,” he said against my ear, voice shaking. “I’m so damn sorry.”
He was pulling me onto the boat, hauling me away from the dock as it began to drift.
“Thorne!” I screamed again, wild, broken, drowning in it.
But he never turned.
He was already facing Vasquez.
Already bracing for the end.
And I—
I couldn’t stop it.
I didn’t scream words anymore. Just sound. Just pain. Just noise that tore my throat raw and meant nothing, because he was still back there.
Thorne was still back there.