Chapter 259
ATASHA’S POV
For one brief moment, I thought it was over.
The witch was pinned, bleeding, stripped of his escape, his magic useless against the hand crushing his throat. Cassian held him there like a thing already dead, and I had just stepped forward, ready to tear answers out of him whether he wanted to give them or not.
Then the ground lurched.
It was not a small tremor. It was violent enough that the floor buckled beneath my feet, hard enough that the table slammed into the wall and the scattered papers leapt like startled animals. The windows rattled in their frames, the walls groaned, and somewhere deep beneath the packhouse, something cracked.
Then the witch threw his head back and laughed.
It was not the sound of a man in pain. It was not even relief. It was wild and sharp and wrong, like he had been waiting for this moment the entire time.
“You really thought you won?” he rasped, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth as Cassian’s grip tightened. “You really believed this was all there was?”
The ground shook again, stronger this time, and the ceiling above us shed dust and splinters of wood. I felt it in my bones, a rolling pressure that did not feel like an earthquake but like something forcing its way upward.
The witch’s laughter turned breathless. “Arecor is already falling,” he said. “It does not belong to you anymore. It never did.”
The house groaned around us, beams creaking, stone grinding against stone as if the packhouse itself was being crushed from below. Outside, thunder roared in answer, so loud it felt like it split the sky open.
“We will rule this world,” the witch continued, eyes shining with something close to worship. “It was always meant to be ours. The packs, the kings, the laws. All of it was temporary.”
He coughed, blood spilling down his chin, and still he smiled. “You cannot kill me. I cannot die. I am not what you think I am! You fools!”
The floor cracked beneath our feet.
Cassian did not hesitate.
His arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me in hard enough that my breath punched out of my lungs. At the same time, his other hand tightened around the witch’s neck, lifting him like dead weight as the wall beside the window split open with a sharp, violent snap.
The packhouse began to collapse.
Wood splintered as the walls twisted under the strain, stone grinding against stone until the ceiling finally gave way behind us, collapsing in a violent cascade that drowned out every shout and cry in the room. The force of it shook the floor so hard. that it began to buckle beneath our feet, but Cassian was already moving, dragging me with him as he sprinted toward the open window. The room folded inward on itself as we ran, beams snapping and debris raining down, the packhouse tearing itself apart just as we escaped the moment the floor finally gave out where we had been standing.
Then we were airborne.
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Chapter 259
Rain slammed into my face, stealing my breath as we burst into the norm. Ther inside my skull, and lightning tore through the sky, bright enough to blind ur for a bette
Cassian hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb the impact, never letting good rather of on The slammed against the earth, his laughter breaking into something sharp and worked.
Behind us, the packhouse continued to collapse.
f
The walls began to cave in one after another as roof bears stepped under the pressure the core money sinking as if it were being dragged downward by something unseen beneath it. The parkeren word te timber bending in ways they were never meant to, as though the land well head nursed bottle and a spring a tot upon it. Outside, shouts erupted in all directions as guards and headers ran into the ran their worn colding a par orders dissolving into chaos as fear spread faster than fire ever could
Another bolt of lightning ripped across the sky.
And in that flash, I saw it.
The ground beyond the ruins was moving,
It does not look like it was cracking or sinking. It was… moving
How could the ground… move?
It looked like the land was folding in on itself. The smell hit next, wet earth and blood and something feral fat made my skin crawl.
The witch laughed again, hysterical now. “Do you see them?” he wheezed “Do you understand now?”
Without hesitation, Cassian released me and hurled the witch forward.
The man hit the ground hard, skidding through the mud as rain plastered his hair to his face. He tried to scramble back. tried to speak, tried to pull something from whatever power he still thought he had.
Cassian was already there.
Then… steel flashed.
The witch barely had time to register what was happening before Cassian drove the blade through him, fast and merciles The sound was sickening. The witch’s body jerked violently, his laughter cutting off in a wet, broken gasp.
For the first time, real fear crossed his face.
Lightning struck again, illuminating his expression as he stared up at Cassian, eyes wide, disbelief overtaking arrogance..
“You are a…” he choked, blood pouring from his mouth. “A beastman?”
His gaze slid to me, unfocused now, frantic. “You dare stand with a beastman?”
More blood spilled from his lips as he tried to breathe, his chest stuttering like it could not decide whether to keep going.
Cassian did not answer him.
He raised his sword and took the witch’s head clean off.
The body collapsed into the mud, twitching once before going still, rain washing blood into the soil like it had never
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Chapter 239
mattered at all. “You talk too much,” Cassian muttered.
Silence followed, broken only by the storm.
Cassian stood there, soaked, blood running down the blade in his hand, his expression cold in a way that made my chest tighten. This was not the man who teased or watched from shadows. This was something older, sharper, and far more dangerous.
I turned toward him, words already forming. “Cassian, what is happening? Why-”
“They are coming,” he said.
The way he said it made my stomach drop.
“Who?” I asked, my grip tightening instinctively.
Cassian turned and pointed toward the shifting darkness beyond the ruins. “Grab your sword,” he said. “And kill them all.”
Lightning tore through the sky again.
And this time, I saw them clearly.
A horde.
Beasts pouring out of the ground like the world itself had opened its mouth and decided to vomit everything it had been hiding.
They were already charging.
Toward us.
