CHAPTER 52
CHAOS EXPLODED ALL AROUND THEM.
Windows shattered, shards spraying everywhere as more Lucyn crashed in from outside, joining those already within as they attacked anyone nearest to them.
A single beat of hesitation on the gathered packs’ part was met with no mercy.
Throats were torn out—blood reeked in the air.
Guttural roars thundered all around. The noise reverberated hard within Lenore’s chest, clashing with the cold tingling across her skin.
Edmund shoved Lenore far back from a charging group of Lucyn—separating them within the war zone. Everything blurred into blood and fur.
She didn’t have a single second to scream his name—Cade yanked Lenore along with him—shifting back into human form beside her to narrowly escape the collision of werewolves that engulfed the space between them and Edmund. Above the sounds of violence echoed Arisa’s mad laughter.
“Stay behind me, Lenore!” Cade shouted as he shifted into a werewolf. “Open the vial!”
“Yes—alright—yes—” Lenore hastily repeated herself as she fumbled with the vial at her neck.
“Wait—damn it, just turn into a werewolf first—it’s too dangerous—”
“What?! Okay—”
“Keep moving back toward Varek’s pack too—stay in the back lines!”
“What should I do first?! Cade?!” Lenore shrieked back.
She was met with no answer as a Lucyn lunged at him. Cade crashed to the ground, barely holding back the other werewolf’s aggressive onslaught of snapping jaws. He snarled loudly and threw him off with a sharp kick to the gut.
“LENORE, GO!” Cade roared the moment he regained his footing. He lunged forward, the slash of his claws missing the enemy by just a hair.
Their fighting bodies forced Lenore to retreat quickly.
Her heartbeat pounded hard in her ears. With the adrenaline surging through her body, she pried the vial open—the golden magic gathering in her hand before she threw it toward Cade.
A ball of light shot toward him, dispersing into a wave of light that rippled across his fur—a preemptive defense against the Lucyn’s frost.
Cade couldn’t even look at her to thank her—and she needed to go too.
Small paws struck the floor as she shifted, choosing to be a wolf to slip through the tightening chaos.
The enchanted vial swung wildly around her neck.
She squeezed past tails that brushed against her body.
Broken slabs of marble floor shifted beneath her.
Her eyes darted back and forth, desperate to find anyone familiar. The metallic tang of blood overpowered every other scent.
A dark-green werewolf jumped in front of her. Brynn. Black liquid spilled from her snapping jaws, her cheeks stained with never-ending onyx tears, to Lenore’s horror. An unnatural twitch accompanied her movements, a telltale sign she wasn’t fully in control.
The powers of the umbral thistle were rotting her from the inside.
“Brynn!” Lenore cried. “It’s me!” But the roar of battle swallowed her words, and Brynn’s hollow eyes registered nothing. Lenore took a step back, but Brynn snapped into action—bursting forward with the intent to kill. Her blackened claws flexed wide.
Lenore jumped out of the way, scrambling against broken marble to dodge another attack. The marble shattered into dust under the power of Brynn’s slash. With barely a second to spare, Lenore shifted into her werewolf form—grabbing a slab of the floor and throwing it hard at Brynn.
Just as Brynn broke her way through, a golden ball of light darted into her open jaws. Lenore stood there, human again, as she clutched the opened vial in her hand—breath heavy. Brynn spluttered on the black liquid that pooled out of her mouth, falling down onto her knees.
Life sprang back into Brynn’s eyes, but the veins of black never left her claws. Heavy remorse tightened the creases under her eyes.
“Len…ore.” A quiet sob escaped her. “I’m—I’m so sorry.”
At the core of her stomach, a spiderweb of black crawled out. Pain seized Brynn, her muzzle thrown skyward as she howled. She reached out, almost desperately, before bursting into a violent growth of thorns. Lenore screamed her name.
Brynn’s body vanished—replaced by a mass of giant umbral thistles that twisted through the ballroom, tangling with others undergoing the same transformation.
Gargantuan roots crashed through the floor, tearing through the foundations and spreading through the rubble.
Lenore jumped back, narrowly escaping being crushed.
“Stars...” Lenore uttered under her breath. Her eyes slowly swept across the altered ballroom. Its former beauty was now lost to ruins.
Her gaze stopped. Through the tangled gaps of the thorny tendrils, stood Arisa, unblemished by the wreckage and violence.
Vines twisted into a thorny throne behind her.
On either side of her were Fia and Auden, suspended a few inches above the floor, held there by an unseen force.
Below the suspended bodies, Lenore caught a glimpse of a dark portal shrinking into nothing.
Their eyes were closed, a false peace settling over their slumbering forms. But their arms were completely covered in pulsating black veins.
The same veins ran up their necks, visible beneath the collars of their shirts.
Arisa lifted her thumb to her mouth, pricking her skin with a fang.
Drops of blood splashed onto the floor. She first approached Fia, prying her jaw open to offer blood Lenore knew should never be tasted.
“NO!” Lenore ran forward without thinking.
Straight toward the enemy.