“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 Amazon 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.
All but three—Apollo, and the two still flanking Phoebe. They would stay.
They wove through the darkness back to the barracks, the crackling fire and shouts of pursuit fading behind them.
Kaixo darted forward the moment he saw the right building, clearly familiar with the place, but Alena caught his arm before he could enter.
“Kaixo,” she said gently, crouching to his level. “Your mother… she hasn’t woken up yet. You need to prepare yourself?—”
His eyes bulged, and he slipped from her grasp before she could finish. He bolted inside, calling out with a raw cry. “Amatxo!”
