Chapter 20, The Parting of the Blood
Wren
The world had gone soft at the edges, the reality of the Serpent’s Neck dissolving into a hazy, surreal blur.
Every step I took felt like I was wading through deep water.
Kora had led me into the light, but had left me standing alone in the center of the wash of floodlights.
I felt the weight of every Alpha’s gaze on my skin, colder than the wind coming off the lake.
Alaric stood only a few feet away, his gold eyes reflecting the harsh glare. He raised a hand, and the low chatter of the warriors back by the road died instantly.
“The debt of the lie is settled,” Alaric’s voice boomed, amplified by the natural bowl of the shale beach. “The tithe has been paid in full. By the laws of the Peace, the girl belongs to the Night-Stalkers.”
He turned his head slightly toward the two figures flanking him. “Kora. Lucien. Ensure the perimeter holds. Anyone who breaks the silence of this peace answers to me.”
Kora and Lucien shifted in a single, fluid motion, two massive shadows of brass and white fur surging forward to claim the center of the Neck.
I stared at them, the King’s shadows. Their presence anchored the reality that I was no longer under High-Ridge law.
Only my father remained within the circle for a final moment.
I stopped a few feet from him. He stood in his human form, wearing his heavy patrol jacket, looking suddenly, devastatingly old in the artificial glare.
“Wren,” he whispered, his voice cracking. He reached out, his hands trembling as he gripped my shoulders. “Listen to me. Remember what I told you when you were little. The cold doesn’t kill what belongs to it. Whatever they throw at you... you just keep breathing. You hear me?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I thought of our house, the laptop sitting on my desk, and my friends Elias and Sage. All the mundane pieces of my life were now on the other side of a line I could no longer cross.
“It’ll be okay, Dad,” I whispered, reaching up to place my hand over the tactical vest he wore under his coat. “I’ll be okay. You don’t have to worry about me anymore. It’s done. Just... tell Mom and Jace I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye. Elias, Sage, them as well.”
Arthur let out a jagged breath, pressing his forehead against mine for one last second.
“Why did you always have to be so strong?” he wondered, his voice barely audible over the low thrum of the distant SUV engines. “I should have been the one to protect you from this.”
“You saved me,” I said and pulled away slowly, the biting wind rushing into the space between us. I saw the heartbreak etched into his face, the guilt of a father going home while his daughter was taken into the wild.
“Go, Dad,” I whispered. “Before they change their mind.”
He lingered for a second, then turned and walked toward the vehicles. I stood alone in the wash of the floodlights for a heartbeat before turning toward the treeline where the Night-Stalkers waited.
Skarde was watching me, his head tilted. He gestured toward a steep, narrow trail that bypassed the main roads, heading straight into the jagged heights.
“Keep your head up, ghost pup,” Rhys murmured, adjusting the strap of a black tactical pack on his shoulder.
I looked at him, my breath hitching as the reality of my situation finally settled in. I was leaving the only world I’d ever known with three strangers who looked like they belonged in a nightmare.
Torin took a heavy step forward, his expression devoid of pity. “We have a long climb ahead of us.”
I flinched slightly at his tone, but I didn’t look back. I followed Skarde into the trees, the rhythmic crunch of our boots on the frozen earth the only sound as the lights of the Serpent’s Neck faded into the mist.