All we needed was a path.
So I carved one.
With fire at my back. With vines at my side. With teeth and fury and blood in the sand.
We pushed through the chaos—step by bloody step.
Leo tore through the nearest Sentinel, shadows curling off his fur as he bounded past. Maddie’s vines lashed and coiled, ripping up stone, pulling men from their feet. Phoenix was a blaze beside me, flames spilling from his hands as if his fury had caught fire. Slade was sending projectiles left, right and centre with frightening accuracy.
“There!” Caelen pointed through the smoke, toward the far edge of the cliffs. “The inlet—look!”
Ships.
Tucked into the narrow curve of the coast, half-hidden by rock and fog, sails low and colours muted. Not warships—evacuation vessels.
They were real. Velmere had delivered.
Civilians and wounded soldiers were being loaded aboard, guided by Veilguard scouts and cloaked sentinels of our own. People were climbing from broken carts, carrying children, dragging injured comrades.
Hope surged in my throat like a sob.
“We get them there,” I said. “All of them.”
General Marcus was on the ridge, shouting orders, trying to hold the western line. But they were faltering. Badly.
If we didn’t break through—
“They’ll be slaughtered,” I breathed.
“No they won’t,” Phoenix growled, stepping beside me. His shoulders blazed. His jaw was set. “Not if we make the lineours.”
Slade appeared behind me, blood on his temple. He handed me a blade, our eyes locking for a heartbeat.
“Let’s finish this,” he said.
I turned to the others.
“To the evac point. Protect the civilians. Break the fucking line.”
They didn’t hesitate.
We charged.
Chapter 28
Thorne
The garrison was falling.
It was only a matter of time now. The Veilguard would think twice before rebelling again.
The scent of blood and fire thickened the air, searing my lungs with every breath. Screams rang faint from above, muffled by crashing waves and the war drums pounding across the hills.
I could see them—my former companions—still fighting. Still freeing civilians. Still clinging to the lie that this could end in anything but ruin.
Didn’t they know it was already over?
Vasquez appeared beside Vael and me, his boots crunching over charred sand. Behind us, his ship had docked. Soldiers spilled out like shadows.
