Topple 213

Chapter 213 

The scent of ash and blood slapped me in the face before my boots even touched the dirt. Smoke curled from the rubble, choking the morning light, and the silence, godsdamn silence, was the worst part. 

Daxon growled beside me, eyes wild. “This was a thriving village. Where the hell is everyone?” 

Ashrian sniffed the air, fangs out. “No bodies. No blood pools. Just ruin.” 

Bram shifted, pacing like a caged beast. “Something’s wrong. Very wrong.” 

Rivena unsheathed her blade, her silver eyes scanning. “We need to split. Now. Search everything.” 

Draven barked out orders in seconds, organizing troops with brutal efficiency. “Lycan and wolf squads, sweep north and west! Vaelrix, tak 

the dragons east. Fae warriors, with me. Find them!” 

Taya’s voice cut through like a knife. “We’ll check the south side. Rylen, Jace, Amaris, come on!” 

I took off toward the center, my mates on my heels. The village was fucking flattened, huts burned to black skeletons, wells collapsed, and what used to be a school was now a pile of melted stone and twisted metal. 

My pulse thundered in my ears. Then I heard it. 

Thump. Thump. Thump. From the granary. The only building still standing. I raced to it, slamming my palms against the heavy iron doors. “Hello?! Can anyone hear me?!” 

Crying. Screaming. Scratching. I whipped around. “BRAM!” 

He was there in an instant, ramming his shoulder into the chained doors. They sparked, fucking magic, of course they were. 

“Can’t break them!” he roared. “They’re sealed with something dark.” 

“Lachlan!” I snapped. 

“Aye!” He stepped forward, his hands already glowing with elemental energy. “Ye hit high, I’ll hit low.” 

Lyssira bared her teeth in my skull. “Unleash it. Burn it all.” 

I did. Our powers collided, moonlight and elemental flame, slamming into the ancient chains until they exploded in a shower of sparks and runes. The doors ripped off the hinges like they were made of paper. 

And what came out broke me in fucking half. Children. Dozens. Barefoot, screaming and weak. Elderly fox shifters stumbled behind them, their eyes wide and glassy from dehydration. Some collapsed immediately. One tiny boy wrapped around my leg, sobbing into my thigh. 

“Oh gods,” I whispered, catching a frail woman as she fell forward, “They’re alive. They’re alive.” 

Ashrian was already distributing water bottles to the collapsed. Bram was carrying three kids at once. Daxon peeled off his jacket and wrapped a shivering toddler in it. 

A tall, gray furred fox woman gripped my arm. Her voice rasped. “Lucien… and a pale woman. They came with others. The ones in white masks… the Lock. They took all the able bodied, men, women… anyone strong.” 

“They what?” Rivena snarled, crouching beside her. 

“They… left us to die in here.” Her eyes filled with tears. “They locked us in yesterday morning. No water. No food. Just heat. Babies… passed out. We thought we were forgotten.” 

“Not on my fucking watch,” I growled, cradling one of the unconscious babes to my chest. 

Vaelrix flew overhead, his voice booming from dragon form. “No other life signs found east.” 

“The northern homes are burned,” Amaris shouted from the distance. “No survivors!” 

“We’re out of time!” Alpha Draven snapped as he returned with Garron. “Elowen, can you open the portal back?” 

I nodded, my eyes blazing. “Lachlan, with me.” 

We tore the air open with raw magic, forming a stable gate to Stormclaw Keep. 

“Get them through!” Halrik bellowed, tossing two elderly women over his shoulders like they weighed nothing. “NOW!” 

Druen helped carry the smallest ones, his eyes locked on Rivena, who was already guiding five kids at once through the portal. 

“Seventy four children. Thirty two elders,” Luna Aelira reported, voice sharp. “That’s all. That’s everyone.” 

When we emerged on the other side, chaos exploded. Mages rushed to set up the new east wing, kitchen, bathhouse, beds, healing rooms. The keep’s walls lit up with wards to keep the new residents safe. 

Alpha Draven’s voice thundered. “Get every healer in the castle down here! Feed them. Bathe them. We’ll get them beds by nightfall if I have to hammer every fucking nail myself!” 

I ran beside him, still holding that tiny boy. “They were left to fucking die in there. Like cattle.” 

His face darkened. “This is war now. They go to fucking far. I have fucking had enough!” 

Back inside the castle, trays of food were rushed out, and fire mages heated giant cauldrons for bathwater. Blankets and healing tinctures were poured into trembling hands. I looked around at everyone, my mates helping feed and clean, Rivena holding a toddler on her hip, Druen helping rebuild a shattered crutch for an elder, Garron and Seraya passing out water. 

2/3 

This… this was why we fought. Lyssira purred in my mind, proud. “We will find the others. We will burn the world down if we have to.” 

I closed my eyes and whispered back, “Yes. We will.”