He looked me over like I was something distasteful.
“You could’ve been great. But instead, you chose betrayal. You chose to leave us.”
He raised his hand.
Maddie vibrated with power, her fingers twitching at her sides, light pulsing beneath her skin.
“Back off, old man,” she growled. “Or you’ll regret it.”
“You think your little flower tricks frighten me girl?” he snarled. “I have an army at my back!”
“I won’t warn you again.” Her voice was low, sharp—almost vibrating with something wild beneath it.
I braced myself, claws digging into the dirt. If this was it—if this was how it ended—I’d go down fighting.
I growled again, deep and guttural.
And that’s when the earth answered.
It started low—a hum in the ground, barely a whisper. Then it grew.
The soil beneath us shuddered. Trees swayed. Branches groaned. A few soldiers flinched, weapons lifting instinctively.
Maddie didn’t move. Or maybe she did—but it was like the earth movedwithher.
Power pulsed from her skin, rippling in waves. Her feet hovered just off the ground. Her eyes burned white-hot, wild and otherworldly. Her hands blazed with raw magic.
And then—she struck.
The earth split with a thunderouscrack. From the shadowed wilds behind us, the foresterupted.
Bears. Boars. Wolves. Deer. Birds—hell, even goats. A whole storm of fur and feathers and teeth burst from the trees like they’d been summoned by a god.
They weren’t running from something.
They were runningtowardit—toward the Sentinels.
Screams tore through the clearing. Bodies scattered. Chaos erupted as soldiers were crushed beneath hooves, tusks, and talons. The stampede was merciless.
Maddie dropped to the ground, drained. I didn’t hesitate.
I shifted, scooped her onto my back, and ran.
She’d opened the door. I wasn’t wasting the chance.
“Stop them!” Vasquez howled, but even he was being swallowed by the wild.
By the time his voice faded behind us, the forest had claimed the battlefield.
We tore through the last stretch of wilds, Duskfall rising ahead—its dark towers catching the dusk light, banners of the Crown and Iron reach flapping from the parapets like bloodstained warnings.
Too close.
Too exposed.
Then I heard it.
Click.
