Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ALENA
Fury seized her, gripping her throat and stealing her breath away. Then the standing soldier barked a laugh and flicked food at Kaixo’s feet.
As if he were an animal.
The sight snapped something loose inside her.
“Get away from him,” she hissed.
Apollo’s growl followed hers, echoing off the stone.
The soldier spun, confusion flashing into alarm. His smirk died as he fumbled for the dagger at his waist.
Too slow.
Alena surged forward, feet sure, and drove her blade into his gut with practised precision.
She didn’t share Katell’s hunger for battle, but Phoebe had trained her well. The soldier’s breath hitched, and his mouth opened in a soundless cry. Alena yanked the sword free. Blood sprayed across the floor as he collapsed.
Her hands trembled, but her grip held. She didn’t look away—not this time.
A snarl tore through the air—Apollo launching into the second guard. The man toppled backwards in his chair, his scream cut short as the wolf’s jaws closed over his throat.
Alena was already moving, her pulse racing. She dropped to her knees beside the first fallen soldier, rifling through his cloak until she found a set of keys.
“Kaixo!”
The boy’s brown eyes snapped open at the sound of her voice, wide and disbelieving. Then a huge grin broke across his bruised face. “Alena!”
Relief hit her so hard it almost knocked the breath from her lungs.
She crossed the room in three strides, falling to her knees before him. She cupped his battered face between tender hands and thumbed the dried blood from his cheek.
Her stomach twisted.
A gash split his brow, still bleeding, and angry bruises bloomed along his arms, his wrists raw where the shackles bit in.
“I’m here. I’ve got you,” she murmured, pressing the edge of her cloak to his temple. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
Kaixo nodded, then shook his head—fierce, stubborn, brave in a way that made her throat tighten.
She swallowed hard and pulled him into her arms. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered into his matted hair. “I should’ve come sooner.”
His small arms wrapped around her waist, and for a moment, everything else faded.
She pulled back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Come on. We’re not safe yet.”
She worked quickly on the manacles binding his wrists.
The metal was thick and biting, crusted with rust and blood.
Apollo padded over, his muzzle still stained red, and gave a low, reassuring whine.
Kaixo reached out with trembling fingers and scratched behind the wolf’s ears, a weak laugh slipping through his bruised lips.
The final shackle hit the ground with a dull clank.
Alena rose and helped him to his feet. “Let’s go.”
Despite his weakened state, he seemed capable of walking by himself, his Non-Human strength keeping him upright. Alena pressed a steadying hand on his shoulder, the other clutching her sword.
The night air seeped through his thin tunic, and his body trembled beneath her hand. She quickened their pace, Apollo scouting ahead. Around them, the camp erupted in chaos—soldiers shouting, wolves snarling, hooves pounding the dirt.
Alena pulled Kaixo into the shadows beside a barrack, sheltering him from the wind. She stripped off her own cloak and wrapped it around him. The heavy wool swallowed his small frame, but the shivering eased.
“Rest for a moment,” Alena whispered, brushing the matted hair from Kaixo’s forehead. His skin was clammy beneath her fingertips, but his breathing had steadied. She turned from him, grounding herself, and reached outwards—through the tether of her magic—to the wolves.
Magic pulsed, dozens of threads yanking taut at once.
She saw Phoebe first. The had carved a brutal path through the watchtower, her blade slick with blood. The wolves flanked her like shadows, lunging and snapping at any soldier who dared approach. She’d made it to the gate, now wrestling with the corroded latch, her teeth bared in frustration.
From the second tower, archers nocked arrows, taking aim at Phoebe’s exposed back, but the wolves found them first.
Confident the would get the gates open in time, Alena let her awareness slide towards the stables. The wolves there had worked themselves into a frenzy, a whirlwind of teeth and fur.
Horses screamed and reared, their hooves slamming against the wooden stalls. Alena winced as the chaos roared in her head.
Her limbs trembled, magic stretched razor-thin. Drawing a shaky breath, she ordered a dozen wolves back through the gap in the barricade and released them. The threads severed one by one, like ropes cut with a knife. Relief followed, but so did a bone-deep weariness.
Then, amid the chaos of the remaining wolves, an orange Mark shimmered from a soldier’s forearm.
The healer.
Alena’s breath caught. Indecision gripped her. She hated leaving Kaixo, but without the healer, San wouldn’t survive.
She made her choice.
“Stay here,” she said, kneeling to press her dagger into Kaixo’s hand. “Apollo will protect you. I’ll be right back.”
His eyes widened with fear, but he nodded. She bent and kissed the top of his head. Then she turned, sword already in hand, and sprinted into the night.
The screams from the stables mingled with the rising wind. Behind her, the armoury tent was a blazing beacon, flames licking high into the dark sky—sure to draw the rest of the camp soon.
She reached the stables where chaos ruled. Horses thrashed, bodies littered the ground—soldiers bloodied and broken. A few survivors scrambled for the panicked horses, their movements clumsy with fear.
Alena scanned their arms, desperate for another glimpse of the orange Mark. Nothing.
A glint caught her eye.
She twisted on instinct, parrying just in time as a blade whistled past her ribs. A soldier lunged, face twisted in rage.
Before she could counter, two wolves crashed into him from either side. He went down hard, his scream strangled in his throat as teeth tore into flesh.
Alena didn’t pause. She kept moving, eyes scanning, sword ready.
Still no sign of the healer.
She ran to the gate where wolves and soldiers clashed in a storm of snarls and steel.
A sharp cry split the air. She wheeled around and spotted a soldier sprawled in the mud, clutching a blood-soaked leg. He waved a torch wildly, trying to keep a growling wolf at bay.
An orange pattern shimmered across his skin.
Hope bloomed through Alena’s chest. She would drag him back and force him to heal San, no matter what.
They were all going to make it out. Alive.
“You!” Alena called out, grasping the few Rhaetic words she knew. “Come!”
The soldier looked up, terror etched across his face.
The wolf snarled, ready to strike, but through their bond, Alena got it to back down.
The healer raised his blade with trembling hands as she approached. “Who are you?” he demanded in Koine.
Alena knocked the weapon from his grip and pressed her blade to his throat. “It doesn’t matter. You’re a healer, aren’t you?”
The man spat at her feet. “I’m not going anywhere with you, rebel scum.”
“You speak as if you have a choice,” she hissed. San was fading. Kaixo was waiting alone in the dark. “Heal your own leg, then follow me to the slave barracks. Now.”
His eyes narrowed, dark with hatred. “You’ve come for the beast.”
Alena froze.
“The beast?” Her voice was flat.
His lip curled. “The Non-Human female. The Emperor forbade us to treat their kind. I won’t touch her.”
Disgust surged through her gut, but before she could answer him, a horse shrieked.
She turned just in time to see it barrelling towards her, eyes wild, foam spraying from its mouth. On instinct, she dove aside, crashing into the packed earth. Pain flared in her shoulder and shot through both knees. Her sword skidded out of reach.
She lay stunned for a moment, the wind knocked out of her.
Behind, the healer gave a mocking laugh, but as Alena pushed up on shaky elbows, a surge of horses thundered past out of nowhere. She barely had time to register the blur of hooves before they slammed into the man, lying in their path.
They trampled him underfoot in their frantic dash for the gate.
“No!” Alena’s scream ripped from her throat.
She scrambled to her feet, heart racing as she rushed to his side, but it was too late. Blood pooled beneath his head, and her fingers found no pulse.
He was gone.
Despair tore through her. Her only hope of saving San was gone—snuffed out in an instant.
She picked up her sword in a daze, surveying the chaos she’d unleashed. The armoury blazed like a pyre, the wolves feasted on the fallen, and horses crashed through tents in blind terror.
She had done this.
The distraction had worked—yet it had cost her the only chance of saving San.
“Alena!” A hand grabbed her shoulder, grounding her. Phoebe’s voice cut through the fog clouding her mind. “What are you doing standing there? We need to go! Where’s the boy?”
The stood splattered in blood, two grey wolves at her heels, their eyes gleaming in the firelight. The urgency in Phoebe’s expression hit Alena like a slap. She flinched, swallowing hard against the lump in her throat, unable to voice what had just happened.
“He’s with Apollo,” she said hoarsely.
She led Phoebe to the barracks where Kaixo still stood, dagger clutched tightly in one trembling hand. The moment he saw Alena, he dropped it and flew into her arms, holding her as if he never meant to let go.
Alena knelt and wrapped him close, heart twisting. He trusted her blindly. And soon, that trust would break.
“Let’s go find your mother,” she whispered into his hair.
They moved fast, slipping back towards the slave barracks with Apollo leading and the chaos of the camp rising behind them. Soldiers shouted as they spilled from the sleeping quarters, rushing to control the blaze.
Alena focused through the noise and guided the remaining wolves out through the gaps in the barricade. When they’d cleared the outer edge of the camp, she loosened her magic on them, letting them go.