Brute 262

Chapter 262 

ATASHA’S POV 

Hope thinned with every step we took deeper into the forest. 

The trees closed in around us, branches clawing at armor and skin alike, rain turning the ground slick enough that every retreat risked a fall. 

Despite the dark, the rain and the terrain, the beasts did not slow, and the Vargrahn’s presence behind them felt like a constant weight pressing forward, herding the horde with instinct alone. Even without seeing it, I felt it, the way prey feels a predator’s gaze long before teeth sink in. 

Cassian stayed beside me. 

He did not falter, did not slow, did not give any sign that the endless wave in front of us was wearing him down, but I could see the damage accumulating anyway. Claws tore through his coat. Blades scraped across his armor. Blood mixed with rain along his side and back, dark and slick, vanishing almost as soon as it appeared when I reached for him again and again. 

Each time I touched him, I healed. 

Each time I healed, something in me gave a little more. 

The strain crept in quietly, not as pain, but as a deep heaviness that settled into my limbs and chest. My breaths grew shallower. My vision blurred at the edges after every surge of power. My hands trembled when I pulled them back, even when the wounds closed cleanly under my palms. 

Yet, I did not stop. 

I could not. 

Cassian cut down another beast in front of us, his sword biting deep as the creature lunged, its body collapsing at his feet. He turned immediately, blade rising again, shoulders set as if he alone could hold the line against what felt like the entire world. 

How could he defeat all of them? 

The thought slipped in before I could stop it. Even Cassian had limits, no matter how strong he was, no matter how little the poison or magic affected him. There were too many enemies, too many directions, and too much ground already lost. 

I pushed that thought away and moved closer to him, my shoulder nearly brushing his back as another beast came out of the trees. He struck first. I followed, driving my sword into exposed flesh as rain sprayed into my eyes. 

I healed him again when a blow slipped past his guard. 

My chest tightened as the power answered slower this time, like it had to be dragged up from somewhere deeper than before. The world tilted briefly, and I had to blink hard to keep my footing. 

Still, Cassian stayed beside me. 

That alone kept me standing. 

Then the night split open. 

A loud bang tore through the forest. It was sharp and explosive, nothing like thunder and nothing like the roars we had been hearing. The sound rolled through the trees and echoed off stone, close enough that the ground shuddered underfoot. 

1/3 

:26 pm pp 

Chapter 262 

M 

I flinched and looked toward Cassian instinctively. 

He turned at the same time, his focus snapping toward the source of the sound, his expression tightening with alert recognition. Whatever it was, it had not been part of the chaos until now. 

That distraction cost us, 

A beast burst out of the darkness from the side, moving faster than the others, its body low and powerful as it slammed into Cassian’s flank. The impact was brutal enough to knock the air from my lungs just watching it. Cassian was thrown sideways. his body catapulted through the rain and into the undergrowth, vanishing between trees with a crash that made my heart lurch violently. 

“No!” I screamed, already moving toward him. 

I took two steps. Then suddenly, pain exploded through my back. 

Something sharp punched through me, cold and burning at the same time, stealing my breath and forcing a choked sound from my throat. I staggered forward, my sword slipping from my grip as the world tilted sharply to one side. 

I looked down. 

A blade protruded from my chest. 

My hands shook as I tried to steady myself, rain blurring my vision as I turned slowly, dread crawling up my spine even before my eyes found the truth. 

William stood behind me. 

His hair was plastered to his head by rain, his clothes dark with water and blood, but his posture was relaxed in a way that made my stomach twist. His hand was still wrapped around the hilt buried in me, and his expression held a smile that did not belong on a battlefield. 

It was calm, sadistic and… satisfied. 

“You should have stayed out of this,” he said. “You were never meant to survive tonight.” 

My knees buckled. Why is he here? Wasn’t he at the dungeon? No. Something else must have happened! 

I tried to pull power into myself, tried to force my body to heal the way it always did, but the response was sluggish, delayed, like my blood was moving through mud instead of veins. Warmth flared weakly around the wound, but it was not enough, not fast enough, and darkness pressed in from the edges of my vision anyway. 

William leaned closer, his voice dropping as if this was a private conversation instead of an execution. “You healed too much,” he murmured. “You always forget that even miracles have limits.” 

My fingers curled uselessly in the rain–soaked ground. 

I tried to turn my head toward where Cassian had fallen, tried to call his name, but my voice would not cooperate. The forest blurred, the storm muffled, and the sounds of battle faded into something distant and hollow. 

My body tried one last time to save itself. 

I felt the familiar pull, the instinct to mend and close and survive, but it sputtered, fractured, and then slipped out of my grasp entirely. Cold spread outward from the wound, swallowing the heat I had forced into others all night. 

Then… darkness rushed in. 

2/3 

1:26 pm P P M 

Chapter 262 

The last thing I saw was William’s smile. 

Then there was nothing.