Chapter 215
My hands curled into fists. Hold it together. Soria’s voice echoed in my head like a tether, wrapping around the storm: They’ll be safer this way. Just for now. This buys us time.
Time. What a sick, twisted joke. We walked in silence down the corridor, my boots echoing sharp against the steel floor. I could feel the weight of their eyes on me. Watching. Praying I wasn’t just leading them to another kind of hell.
I slowed as we rounded a corner out of sight. “Listen to me,” I said softly, low enough the security systems wouldn’t pick up anything clear. “You have to be smart. Play along. Do not fight them. Not yet. Don’t talk back. Don’t give them a reason to single you out.”
A few of them nodded slowly. One girl bit her lip until she bled.
“They want to break you,” I added, swallowing the fire clawing at my throat. “Don’t let them. Stay together. Protect each other. No matter what happens, you keep breathing. You understand me?”
The boy closest to me, maybe sixteen, with soot smudged cheeks and bright copper hair, looked up at me with a spark of defiance behind his fear. “Are you going to help us?”
My chest cracked open. I crouched in front of him, met his eyes. “I am. I swear to the moon and every god that still listens, I will get you out.”
“Then why are you doing this?” he whispered.
Because I don’t have the power to stop it yet. Because if I don’t, Lucien will have you on a fucking altar before sunset. Because this world is a goddamn meat grinder and I’m trying to dull the blades. But I couldn’t say any of that. So I said the only thing I could.
“Because this keeps you alive.”
His lip trembled. But he nodded. I stood, straightened my spine, and led them down the last hallway toward the lab wing, toward another cage.
Inside, I was burning alive.
Elowen POV
The war room buzzed with tension thick enough to slice open with a claw. Maps, plans, intel, none of it fucking mattered right now. Because I couldn’t stop thinking about those fox shifters. What were they doing to them? Where were they? Was it already too late?
I slammed both hands on the table hard enough to rattle everyone in their boots. “I don’t wanna wait till later. I don’t wanna sit around planning angles and formations like we’ve got time to waste. We don’t.”
I looked around the table, fire boiling in my veins. “We’re already armed. We’re already ready. So why the fuck are we sitting here? I say
we hit the Crucible right now.”
“Yes,” Lyssira growled in my mind. “They stole our people. Our fury is the storm. Let it come.”
Daxon didn’t even hesitate. “I’m with her. We wait, we risk losing them. The Crucible’s not gonna see us coming, and that’s how I like it.”
“Same,” Bram rumbled, cracking his knuckles. “No sleep ’til bloodshed.”
Ashrian leaned forward, fangs already peeking, his voice smooth but sharp. “Let’s make some monsters pay.”
Vaelrix simply nodded, green eyes glowing like wildfire. Lachlan flexed his fingers, wind curling around his arms. “About time we kicked in
a few fucking doors, aye?”
Alpha Draven slapped a hand on the table, standing tall and proud, his voice, booming. “Agreed. Everyone, gear up. Now. Garron?”
King Garron rose beside him, silver armor already shimmering with moonlight. “My people are ready to tear that place down brick by
brick.”
Alpha Draven turned to the nearest messenger. “Double the guards on the east wing. The elders and children stay protected. We go in
fast, we come out with our people, or we don’t come out at all.”
There was temporary chaos as everyone thundered out to the courtyard. Once everyone was in formation, I was ready.
I stepped back, inhaling deep, and summoned my magic with a twist of my wrist and a blaze of purpose. My entire body hummed with power as the portal flared open, hot, gold, and furious.The front fucking gates of the Crucible loomed on the other side.
“Let’s knock,” I growled.
And then we charged through, my mates at my sides, allies at our backs, hearts full of rage and a promise. We’re coming. And we’re not leaving without every single soul they tried to steal.
