“Kaixo, wait!”
He vanished behind the curtain, and Alena rushed after him, leaving Apollo at the door to stand guard.
Inside, Leywani stood off to one side, her expression grave. The air was thick with the bitter scent of willow bark tea. San lay still on the mat, her skin waxen, her breathing a shallow whisper. The herbs had dulled her pain, but they couldn’t undo what had been done. Her wounds were far beyond anything Alena could mend.
Phoebe came up beside her. “No luck with the healer then?”
Alena barely found her voice. “He died at the gate.”
A sharp cry broke the stillness. “Amatxo!” Kaixo had dropped to his knees beside his mother, his small hands shaking her limp shoulder. “Amatxo!”
Tears spilled freely down his cheeks. The rawness in his voice cleaved straight through Alena’s chest.
“Kaixo…” she tried, her own throat tight. “She’s?—”
San stirred.
Barely.
Her brow wrinkled, and her eyelids fluttered open just enough to focus. A faint smile touched her lips as she saw her son. She murmured his name softly and her fingers curled around Kaixo’s cheek, brushing away his tears with what little strength she had left.
Alena crossed the room and knelt on her other side. “San, I’m here,” she whispered, aching to give comfort she couldn’t promise. “I’m here.”
San’s other hand sought Alena’s, trembling as it clasped tight.
She spoke to Kaixo, her words tender and rhythmic in a language Alena couldn’t understand. Kaixo broke down, shaking his head in disbelief, sobbing into the cradle of his mother’s palm.
Then San’s eyes searched the room. “Alena?”
“I’m here.” Alena leaned close so San could see her face clearly.
Sea-green eyes met hers—no fear, no panic. Only peace. And something deeper. Trust.
San’s fingers brushed the golden shimmer of Alena’s Omega Mark. Then, in a raspy voice, she whispered something in her own tongue. A single phrase. One Alena couldn’t decipher. She repeated it, soft but urgent. A third time—slower now. Final.
Kaixo looked up at her, eyes red, as if to translate, but the words caught in his throat.
Alena nodded anyway, though she didn’t understand. She would honour it—whatever it was. There would be time to ask later.
San coughed, blood trickling from her mouth. Panic flashed across Kaixo’s face. “Amatxo!”
She gave him a weak smile, stroking his hand with her thumb as her eyes fluttered shut.
“Amatxo!”
Silence fell. The room seemed to hold its breath, waiting for the inevitable. Kaixo wept beside her, his small frame wracked with trembling sobs. Leywani knelt, steady hands on his shoulders, murmuring quiet words though her own eyes brimmed red. Near the doorway, Phoebe sat watch with her sword across her lap.
Outside, shouts echoed through the camp, frantic voices, rushing footsteps.
A crushing weight pressed down on Alena’s chest, and she turned towards the window. Stars still glimmered above thetreetops, distant and cold. She closed her eyes and whispered a prayer she hadn’t spoken in years.
She was the Omega. Chosen by the gods. Surely the Maiden—or one of the old gods—would hear. Surely they would send help. She would give anything if San could be spared.
But no answer came. No sign. No whisper in her mind.
And when the first blush of dawn bled across the horizon, painting the sky in bruised purple and dull rose, San was gone.
Alena pressed her fingers to San’s wrist, searching for a pulse. Finding none, she stroked her pale, still-warm cheek, her heart breaking.
