Page 153 of A Sunwoven Ascent

Cillian had made it back.

Already, a cluster of Noskari recoiled from the light, retreating step by step toward the wolves waiting in the dark. Right where Ironwolf would finish them.

Good.

Kaldrek spun, searching for the next Noskari to tear apart, but each one he brought down did nothing to dull the pain carving through him. Not Evelyne’s grief. Not the terror and exhaustion bleeding from his pack. Not the hollow snap in his chest each time one of his wolves fell and the bond went silent.

Another cry split the night.

One of his own.

Kaldrek felt the life vanish before the body hit the ground. Uncontrollable grief surged through him and though he fought to keep it from reaching Evelyne, some part of him broke.

His gaze swept the estate. Fallen guards. Alaric’s men bleeding into the grass. Wolves limping, staggering, fighting on fumes while more Noskari poured from the dark in a tide that did not end.

They could not win. Not like this.

There was one thing left to try.

One desperate, dangerous thing he had hoped never to need, because he did not know whether it would save them or damn him. But hesitation would kill them all.

So Kaldrek ran.

Away from the fight. Away from his pack. Away from Evelyne.

Toward the grove.

Toward the only power he had left to seek.

Chapter 61

Once again, the Noskari vanished the moment they seemed to have taken enough. Alaric was grateful for it. Everyone needed rest, water, healers.

One moment he had been fighting beside his father’s guards, and the next the creatures dissolved into shadow and slipped into the night. The screams stopped. The tearing stopped. Only silence remained, broken by ragged breathing. Alaric searched frantically for Heidara, but there were too many wolves, too many bodies moving through the dark, so he pushed toward the manor instead.

The harsh, bone-deep sounds of shifting rose around him, the wolves returning to their human forms. Most simply sank naked onto the ground, too exhausted to do more than breathe, but Alaric kept searching for her, already tearing off his waistcoat to cover her when he found her. Relief nearly stole the strength from his legs when her eyes caught his and she ran to him.

“You’re alive,” she breathed, throwing herself into his arms. “Thank goodness. I was so worried.”

Alaric could not answer at first. He only searched her body for wounds, hands trembling as he looked her over.

She touched his cheek. “I’m not hurt.”

Only then did he pull her close, holding her as tightly as he dared. He kissed the top of her head again and again, breathing her in, grounding himself in the simple fact that she was alive.

“Alaric.” Heidara pulled back just enough to look at him. “Are you all right?”

Physically, he was. A few scratches. A few bruises. Nothing that mattered. But the rest of him felt hollowed out, and he hated how terrified he was to step into that manor and face whatever waited inside. All he could do was exhale into her hair.

“I’m better now that you’re here with me.”

“Yes, I am here with you,” she whispered, squeezing him once before stepping back. “But we need to go inside. They’ll need help.”

Alaric looked toward the manor and saw Holden carrying Aurelia’s bare body toward the entrance, where Cillian waited with the pack healer. He nodded, took Heidara’s hand, and followed them inside.

He was not sure how many minutes had passed since the fight ended, but the burning pile of bodies on Duskwood grass told him it had been long enough. Thankfully, the guests were gone, and the trees surrounding the estate would hide the blazing pyre from view. It was the only way to rid the land of the Noskari for good, to leave nothing behind for that darkness to cling to or spread from.

Everyone who could rest was resting. Everyone who needed tending had been seen to. But Evelyne sat curled in the corner of the dining room, shaking, her body healing while the rest of her seemed utterly broken. Two Oathroot wolves stayed close at her side, but Alaric remembered how she had been after Lord Aron was murdered during the Cindermoor attack. Then, as now, only one person had known how to reach her.