I remember what it was like to be hungry and leashed. To be told I was dangerous, broken, lesser. To watch others like me believe it.
Bree’s voice still echoes in my head:They’ll have to go through me.
Not while I still breathe.
Thane appears at my shoulder, silent for a moment before speaking.
“You take the south flank,” I murmur. “I’ll keep the heart of it steady.”
He nods once. “Try not to kill them all before I get there.”
I don’t look at him, but my mouth almost remembers how to smile.
Zira’s voice is dry. “Save some for the rest of us.”
Then the moment passes, and we’re moving again.
The Sanctuary hums like a living thing around us—Ether threads glowing faintly beneath the soil, matching the stormlight above. Bree and the others stand near the courtyard center, a constellation of power waiting for the storm to break.
I position myself at the edge of the assembled Feeders, Zira a shadow at my side, every nerve tuned to the distant rhythm of approaching footsteps.
Five hundred heartbeats. Maybe more.
And beneath them, those familiar signatures—Feeders marching toward their own destruction because someone told them it was loyalty.
My pupils dilate, bleeding black from the edges inward. Beside me, Zira’s fangs extend.
The world sharpens. Every emotional thread in range snaps into focus like drawn wire. I feel the fear in our ranks, the determination, the hunger barely leashed. I feel the false confidence radiating from the approaching army, the obedience threaded through the enslaved Feeders like chains they can’t see.
Lightning flickers on the horizon, illuminating Phil’s silhouette at the head of the formation.
I let my power coil tighter, ready to strike.
Thunder cracks overhead.
The air tastes metallic, charged.
The first boot strikes Sanctuary stone.
The field hums against my teeth.
“Let them come.”
Chapter 50
Bree
The stillness after Stellan’s words isn’t silence. It’s the breath before everything breaks.
I stand at the center of the courtyard, mist coiling at my feet like it’s waiting for permission. The others close ranks around me—Gray at my right, Rhett at my left, Theo, Wes and Jace just behind. Silent. Ready.
Where the hell is Seth?
Theo leans close, his voice quiet but absolute. “You aren’t broken, Bree. You’re more whole than you’ve ever been. Cracks and all.”
My breath catches.
More whole.
