The Beta’s Fang is dead.
I stare at the body as it collapses to the ground in a heap. Lifeless. Just like that.
The person who hurt me and dogged my nightmares is dead.
“No one touches Kaida Keres,” Cadel announces in a dark and terrifying voice. I bite back a whine, but I can’t do anything about my scent that spreads. My alpha saved me. He saved me from my worst nightmare. So easily.
I stare at Cadel, needing to touch him, needing to…he stalks over to me, ignoring the shouts and swords, and shoves his fingers through my hair. I stare at him, barely breathing, seeing only him.
“You killed him.”
“He touched you,” Cadel growls.
I don’t know who moves first, but in the next moment, we’re kissing. It doesn’t last long, but it eases the panicked, unsettled feeling inside me.
The Warden nudges his horse forward. “Since he’s dead, and the entertainment is done, let’s get moving.”
The Beta’s Claw is staring at his counterpart’s body, obviously struggling with the rage. His eyes glitter as he stares at Cadel. He takes one step and is stopped when the Warden moves his massive horse in between them.
“She wants them alive,” the Warden hisses.
The Beta’s Claw shakes, his whole body trembling with emotion, then quicker than I can imagine, he throws a knife, burying it in Theo’s chest.Theo groans, and I realise he was still alive. I’d assumed he was dead, that in those moments where I’d distracted the Fang, he’d passed quietly.
“Let’s go,” the Warden orders, and the Path shoves us into a brisk march.
What are the chances of escaping a fourth time?
Of everyone making it out alive with me?
I almost collapse with the agony of it, but I turn my head and see something in the grey light. Charlotte lies against a boulder, her face as white as it can go, her hand cradling her wound. Ava lies with her head in her lover's lap. Their fingers tangled together.
They could be sleeping.
They fought until the end. They lived and died with honour and by their beliefs. How can I do anything different?
I am so scared.
He’s dead.
There will always be someone else just as crazy, just as dangerous, maybe worse.
I need to survive and escape again. We can kill them. There has to be a way.
Is life worth living if I don’t have my alphas?
On and on, my thoughts send me flying into a dizzying spin, leaving me hollowed out. By the time the sun rises, hidden behind those dark clouds, I have no hope left.
No fight left.
I’m tired.
Just tired and wondering how we could possibly fight a goddess and win?
It’s preposterous.
Three days later, the collapsed wall comes into view and the burnt husk of Foreen. The burial city of alphas and omegas.
“Welcome home,” Walker says softly.
