Chapter 157

ACHILLES.

I stare at Sahari’s naked form in the cage, blinking hard as though this would change everything. I still don’t know what to do or say. I just stand there speechless as Aristea steps back and almost collapses against her chair in relief. I don’t blame her for feeling only positive things, because she doesn’t know Sahari.

I watch as Sahari comes to, her eyes flickering around as though looking for something. When she finds me, she flinches and staggers back.

“I….” She trails off, tears starting to stream down her face. “What am I doing here? Why am I here? Why….”

She breaks into tears, hugging herself and clawing at her own skin. I can’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for her. I kneel beside the cage and try to look at her, but she just scrambles to put the cover around herself. I take one of the blankets covering the chairs and slide it between the bars. She makes a grab for it and wraps herself, her breathing getting more and more stable until she’s calm. Or at least, calmer than when she woke up.

“How do you feel?” I ask quietly, and she flinches. I take a deep breath and try for a different slower tone. “I don’t want to hurt you. I know we had our problems in the past and I know that—”

“I know what I did and I blame you for nothing,” Sahari suddenly interjects. “But I… I don’t understand how I got here. I know you didn’t take me back when I apologized to you and asked you. I know that I did make my way back to Tristan. I was asking him for shelter and security. He made me take something. After that, I don’t remember anything.”

I wait for her to say something more, but she stops there, staring into the distance with nothing but horror on her face. Based on what she said and what Claudia told me, I can safely say that I do believe her. She continues to shiver as she wraps the blanket around herself.

“Tristan turned you into a Rogue, and that’s how I found you,” I tell her. “She made an antidote and it works. Now all we need to do is turn the people back into what they’re supposed to.”

Sahari nods. I don’t expect her to even want to help, so I can’t help but feel surprised when she suddenly says, “I can take you there. Safely. But we have to act fast because he’s gaining momentum.”

I look at Aristea and she nods. We both turn back to Sahari. “How can I be sure that I can trust you?”

Sahari meets my gaze, and the only emotion staring back at me in her gaze is determination. “

"I have everything to gain from dealing with Tristan. I can work my way up and be sure that he would never hurt me or harm me in any way ever again. I can gain his trust, and I could be powerful in that way. But I'm choosing to help you."

I can't say that that completely reassures me, but for now, it will do.

I open the cage and help her out. "Well, then. Make sure that my trust in you is not misplaced."

I expect her to nod and get to it, but instead I find her staring at the clock on the wall. I walk closer to her to see what she's up to, then she faces me and says, "I know how to get in, and I will help you and your forces get there undetected."

"Good, then we will prepare an invasion for tomorrow," I say.

She shakes her head. "No. If you go tomorrow, you will not have much time to make things right at all. It would be too late. You need to go today, before the sun sets."

I turn to Aristea. "Tell Carlos to prepare the troops. We're marching to Mount Genesis."

* * *

CLAUDIA.

I look at Tristan, my heart crawling in my throat. I know I'm not the helpless girl I was before when I first met him, but right now he's making me feel that way. That look on his face alone tells me that he won't be letting me go.

"Are you scared of me?" he asks in a low voice. "I thought you were better than this. I'm surprised at how fast you revert back to what you truly are at the slightest provocation. It's almost like you never changed at all."

I glance at Kiernan's dead body. If I failed now, he would have died for nothing. I look back at Tristan and I realize that I don't really fear him. The only thing I'm afraid of is the syringe in his hand and the possibility of becoming like him.

"That makes two of us then, if I haven't changed at all," I say, and surprisingly, my voice sounds steady and maybe even a bit brave. "You're still the same scared abandoned boy trying to find some sort of company. And you need to use some fucked up means to get it. Nothing changed."

Anger flares in his eyes. I can tell I hit a nerve. I wait for him to retort, but the only change I see in him is the tension in his shoulders. It starts to ripple all over his body as he steps back. I thought he would just smirk at me and give some sort of snide remark. But I was wrong.

Instead, his body starts to expand, growing into almost twice its size in a single blink. I have seen him shift into his wolf form before, back when we were in the winter solstice meeting when we got attacked. Of course, back then none of us knew what he really was. It was obvious then that he was bigger than the others because he was supposed to be the Alpha, but now he's showing me what he's really capable of. What he's always been. What he was all along...

Spiky black fur starts to sprout from his body, shiny and pointy like needles instead of hair. His nails are sharp and black, tapered to a deadly point that I know would hurt immediately upon contact. But the strangest thing about him apart from his bloodred eyes is his teeth. They're all the same size, pointy and shaped more like triangular blades than actual teeth.

I stand back, pressing myself against the wall. He continues to get bigger and bigger until he's almost crushing Kiernan's body under him.

And before I can react, Tristan immediately launches himself at me, surprisingly fast given his size. I shift into my wolf form just in time to avoid his attack, but the wolf form I have is my normal wolf. I can't hear the voice of the divine being in my mind, and I can't bring myself to get bigger and more powerful either.

I feel his body slamming against the rocks, breaking the wall and causing one section of the cave to break and rain down all over us.

Kiernan's body gets buried in rock and rubble. I can see blood seeping through the cracks in between the rocks. My heart seizes up my throat, but Tristan doesn't give me a chance to process all of it. He emerges from the rocks and rams into me again.

This time, I have nowhere else to go. Rocks are raining down continuously, and if I move, I'm going to get crushed....

I brace myself for the impact, taking a deep breath. But as I do so, I catch a familiar scent that I thought I would never smell again.

The scent of Achilles.