Chapter 10 – Cracks in the Wards
922 Words
Nyra’s POV
The fortress should have been quiet. It was the middle of the night, the stones themselves sunk in sleep, but my heart hadn’t calmed since Kael’s mouth left mine.
We were still half tangled in each other when the scrape came again. Soft. Wrong.
Kael froze, every muscle taut against me. His golden eyes locked on mine, warning me not to move, not to breathe. Slowly, he set me on my feet. The warmth of him left me instantly, and the cold rushed in.
“Stay behind me,” he murmured, but I didn’t.
The scrape became a shadow moving along the corridor.
Kael tore the door open with such force the hinges screamed. The hallway was empty, torches sputtering. Too empty.
The smell hit me next. Bitter. Metallic. Familiar in the worst way.
“Shadow Pack,” I whispered, dread curling in my gut.
Kael’s hand wrapped tight around my wrist. “With me.”
We stalked into the corridor, every sound magnified by silence. The stones groaned underfoot, as if the fortress itself was warning us. At the far end, a figure turned the corner—too fast to be a servant, too deliberate to be afraid.
Kael lunged. I followed.
We chased him down the lower corridors, the air colder, heavier. My wolf bristled, restless.
The intruder stopped. Turned.
Not a stranger.
My stomach dropped. One of the young warriors who’d carried food trays to my room in those first days. Polite. Forgettable. Safe.
Now his eyes glowed with twisted light, his hands veined with shadow.
Kael’s growl rattled my bones. “You.”
The warrior smiled. “Alpha. Little mate. So easy to fool.”
Kael’s POV
Betrayal cut deeper than steel.
“You touched my wards,” I said, low and deadly.
He laughed. “Touched? No, Alpha. I unraveled them. Thread by thread. And you were too distracted with her to notice.”
His gaze slithered toward Nyra. “The curse wants her. And you—” his smile widened—“you want her more than life.”
My blade was out before his words finished, flashing toward his throat.
But the shadows erupted, thick and choking, and he slipped into them like smoke.
The corridor trembled. A crack ran along the ceiling.
“Kael!” Nyra shouted, but the next blast drowned her voice.
Lucan’s POV
By the time I hit the lower halls, it was already a mess. Smoke. Shadows. The Alpha radiating fury like a damn bonfire. Nyra clutched a blade, wide-eyed but standing her ground.
And our so-called brother-in-arms? Smiling like a bastard in the middle of it.
“Traitor,” I spat, swinging my sword. It sparked off his shadows. “You could’ve just asked for stew instead of blowing holes in the house, you know.”
He laughed, but there was madness in it. “Still joking, Gamma. Always. Let’s see if you’re laughing when she screams.”
I saw it then—the way Nyra’s hands trembled, shadows coiling at her fingertips. My stomach sank.
“Oh, hells.”
Mira’s POV
The torches blew out, and the vision struck.
Chains. Fire. Blood spilling on snow.
Kael and Nyra bound together, choking, the traitor’s face gleaming in the dark.
I had known him since we were children. That made the vision worse. Real.
“The wards—” I gasped, racing down the hall, silver light burning in my palms. The walls themselves seemed to wail. “Kael! They’re breaking!”
My voice shattered the air, but I was too late.
Nyra’s POV
The fortress shuddered. My wolf lunged inside me, frantic, as if every stone screamed the same thing—danger.
Kael spun to me, his face savage. “Back to the chamber!”
“No.” I clutched my blade tighter, my wolf pushing me forward. “If you fight, I fight.”
His fury snapped. In one heartbeat he crushed me against the wall, his mouth devouring mine. Rage and hunger, teeth and fire. His hand tangled in my hair, his body pressed hard into me, the taste of him burning through fear.
“If you die,” he rasped against my lips, “the curse wins.”
“Then let me die beside you.”
Something in him broke. For a moment, I thought he’d lose control entirely—mark me right there, damn the curse. His eyes blazed, fangs grazing my skin—
The floor split.
Shadows ripped through stone. The traitor’s laugh echoed as wolves poured in, black-furred, snarling, claws flashing.
Kael shoved me behind him, shifting mid-motion, his wolf exploding out—massive, black, golden eyes burning. His roar shook the fortress.
I barely had time to breathe before one of the Shadow wolves lunged at me. My blade caught its chest, hot blood spraying. My wolf howled in triumph.
Kael tore another apart with his jaws. Lucan roared somewhere behind me. Mira’s silver light blazed, fighting back the dark.
The traitor’s voice slithered through the chaos. “You can’t fight fate. She belongs to us.”
I raised my blade again, chest heaving, fire in my veins.
The courtyard beyond us groaned, stone splitting wide.
And there, burned into the snow and glowing black-red, was the mark.
Jagged lines. The same Mira had seen.
Only now it pulsed, alive.
The traitor spread his arms, laughing as shadows surged up like claws.
Kael leapt in front of me, his roar shaking the night—
And the world collapsed into darkness.
- Writer
