Chapter 74 - He's Alive
Athena didn't know how long she had been fighting Kael.
Seconds.
Minutes.
Time felt broken.
All she could see was smoke.
All she could hear was the echo of the blast that had swallowed Silas whole.
Then-
A shout from the courtyard.
"Over here!"
Athena's head snapped toward the sound.
Through the drifting gray haze, she saw them.
Two wolves.
Dragging something between them.
Her heart slammed into her ribs so hard she thought she might collapse.
She tore free of Kael's grip before he could stop her and ran.
She didn't feel the stone under her feet.
Didn't feel the dust burning her eyes.
She only saw him.
Silas.
His body limp between the wolves as they carried him through the gates.
His skin burned.
Blackened in places where mage fire had struck him directly.
His chest barely rising.
Athena's breath shattered in her lungs.
"No... no, no..."
They laid him down on the stone floor just inside the gates.
Athena dropped beside him so hard her knees hit painfully.
She didn't notice.
Her hands hovered over him, afraid to touch, afraid he would fall apart beneath her fingers.
"Silas," she whispered.
No response.
Elara was already there, kneeling on the other side.
Her hands moved quickly, checking wounds, checking pulse.
Athena's vision blurred with tears.
"Silas, please," she begged, her voice breaking.
She touched his face gently.
It was too hot.
Too still.
Elara's expression shifted from urgency to something far worse.
Confusion.
"He's not healing," Elara said.
The words felt like a blade sliding into Athena's chest.
Wolves healed.
They always healed.
But he wasn't.
Her breathing turned ragged.
She pressed her forehead to his.
"Please," she whispered.
Her hands began to shake as she cupped his face.
She felt something rising inside her.
Not fear.
Not panic.
Something deeper.
Something older.
A desperate need that tore through her chest like a scream.
"You can't leave me," she cried.
Tears fell onto his burned skin.
"I just found you. You can't leave me."
Her hands slid down to his chest, pressing there like she could force his heart to keep beating.
Her vision went white at the edges.
Her whole body trembling.
And deep inside her-
Something cracked.