Jabir crosses over to him, studying the phone screen that tracks the movement of the warriors. Then he removes his own from his pocket. “I’ll have patrol ready the trucks.”
“We’ll need two birds,” Axe barks. “And I want them loaded with as much artillery as we can carry.”
The room starts to spin. I barely hear Nell state that this meeting will be postponed. I barely hear anything except for the dread pounding in my ears.
I make it to Axe before he can cross the threshold to the hallway. “You’re not seriously going with them,” I squeak. “You’re still injured.”
His agitated gaze is fixed on the clock mounted to the stone wall. “I’ll be fine.”
I shake my head. “Please. Think about this for a second.”
“I’ve got the coordinates!” Jabir yells from down the hall.
Axe’s large body carefully sidesteps me. He slips out of the room to catch up with the others.
Tears burn in my eyes, calling after him just as he turns the corner. “Axe, wait!”
Behind me, Nell places a hand on my shoulder. “A mate doesn’t say goodbye unless he believes he won’t return.”
Chapter 26
AXE
Of all the possible secrets Vessa could have buried, I never imagined anything of this magnitude. The goddess must truly hate my family to deliberately pair me with someone promised to my greatest enemy. Why else would she have abandoned my parents in their time of need? Why, after all these years, continue to punish us?
My heart stammers on the realization. What Qinnu was trying to tell me in the conference last night. This isn’t a punishment at all. It’s an opportunity for revenge—what I’ve spent twenty long years thirsting for.
The curse is a thorny paradox. If the Luna goddess truly wanted to atone for what she and the other gods took from the Blood Master, why give the Sponsa Noctis to a lycan?
Vessa is no vampire bride,my wolf snarls.She belongs with us.
Maybe so,I coax him.But that doesn’t make her any less of a threat. She’s been lying to us this entire time.
She didn’t ask for any of this. She isnotour enemy.
Right now, I’m in possession of the Blood Master’s only known weakness. Perhaps the only living thing that has ever mattered to him. Even so, I can’t deny that she’s chipping awayat my armor—that she is my weakness as well. I don’t know what the hell to think anymore. Only that I have three options. Claim her, let her go, or put a bullet in her head. War is inevitable, no matter the recourse. And I can’t keep the Council in the dark much longer. Especially if I intend to mark her as my equal.
Having the Yinsew Council breathing down my neck is burdensome enough. When the other Commanders learn of my mate’s curse . . . we won’t stand a chance. No one in their right mind would pledge to wage full-scale battle against the monsters who are hunting Vessa. Lycans are at a vast disadvantage as it is, perpetually at odds with each other.
Still, the alternative is ten times the risk. Should I cut her loose, and she end up in the cold hands of the vampires, nothing would stand in the way of their master finally wreaking havoc on the realm, ascending to power over all creatures.
I can’t even think about it without writhing in fury. Long, curved fangs puncturing her neck instead of mine. Consuming her. Changing her.No.I won’t let it happen.
My mother’s voice is a fleeting whisper in my mind.Somnium was locked away for a reason, Viggo: to hold back the unfathomable darkness.
Clutching my rifle close, I squeeze my eyes shut and listen to the whipping winds as they berate my cheeks. The memory snags a hook in my chest. Mother would plead with me to find a way for her to stay. Father would tell me to hold my ground, just as he did in his last moments. And to kill every last vampire that walks this bloodstained earth.
The Ugruk Circlegrows more inhospitable by the day.
The icy domain of the Norgsik spans over 2,300 miles along the Yuet Sea. It’s no surprise that only nomadic lycans choose to reside here. Between Bissex and Agathora, almost all humans have abandoned these faraway posts. In these conditions, rations are few and shelters from extreme subzero temperatures are far between. Even Volken’s Alpha Commander, whose jurisdiction begins fifty-five miles away on the other side of the Slovko Strait, rarely steps foot in the Circle.
Two years ago, at the height of my vampire eradication campaign, Tesni and I attempted to survey the edge of our province, our objective being to monitor activity around the temple of glaciers. A legendary floating mountain, known to house the portal to Somnium. What we found were ruins of a once thriving indigenous community, ravaged by second-gen vampires. That, and a different scavenger—the qi’yovar. Snow bears that the Blood Master resurrects into demons.
Bleeding Sun’s warriors responded by tripling our efforts to cleanse the territory of bloodsuckers. In the heart of winter, the Circle is engulfed by darkness for sixty days. It was the longest I had ever remained in my wolf form. Another week and Tesni I likely would have spiraled into a feral psychosis. Together, we persisted in the agonizing cold, ripping the vampire colony apart limb by limb, throwing their pieces into the sea.
The demons let us believe that we were victorious. That the portal remained undisturbed, only for us to realize that all this time, their master was just regrouping.
The reminder continues to pummel me as Jabir glances down at the map on our monitor. According to Tesni’s itinerary, she was to make a final stop with the group at a general store in Farrow. Only accessible by plane, the isolated Bissex town hosts one of the few remaining settlements nestled at the western brim of the Circle, where the confluence of land and ice is nearly indeterminable. From here, the unit was supposed totrek west, along a smooth plane of thick ice as far as the eye can see. There’s no place to take cover, no way to blend in. Just ice and open ocean. It’s exposure that can prove to be a deadly disadvantage.
