Chapter 149: Roof Coming Down

Calix Pov

The big wooden beam above us split with a sound like a gun shooting. I looked up and I saw the main support of the roof cracking in two. It was black and orange with fire and it was falling straight toward Maddie's head.

I did not think. I just moved.

I lunged forward with my shoulder and I hit her in the waist. I used every bit of strength I had left in my legs. My shoulder hit her ribs hard and she went flying sideways across the floor. She hit the ground near the open door and rolled out of the way.

Then the ceiling hit me.

It was not just one piece of wood. It was the whole center of the roof. The impact was so loud my ears started to ring and I could not hear the fire anymore. A heavy piece of oak slammed into my back and pushed me flat against the floorboards. The heat was right against my face now. I could smell my own hair burning.

I tried to push myself up. My hands were flat against the floor but my legs would not move. The big beam was sitting across my lower back. It was hot and it was heavy. I tried to pull my legs out but they felt like they belonged to someone else. There was no pain yet. There was just a cold numbness that started at my hips and went all the way to my toes.

"Calix!" Maddie screamed from the other side.

I could not see her. There was a wall of orange flames and black smoke between us now. The smoke was so thick I could not see the door anymore.

"Maddie, get out," I said and I coughed hard.

"I am not leaving you."

"You have to go."

"No."

"The roof is still falling."

"I can break the wood."

"Maddie, stop," I said and I spit some soot onto the floor.

"I can reach you."

"You can't. The fire is too hot. Go to the door."

"I am not going without you."

"My father is outside."

"He is not out there."

"Just go."

"Calix, please."

"I am stuck," I said and I closed my eyes. "I can't feel my legs."

"I will pull you."

"You can't reach me."

I heard her hitting the logs on the other side of the fire wall. The wood made a dull sound but it did not move. The flames were too high and they were moving fast. I could feel the heat on my neck. It felt like my skin was starting to blister. I took a shallow breath but the air was full of smoke and it made my chest tight. I could not get enough air into my lungs.

From somewhere outside the broken windows, I heard a voice. It was loud and it was screeching over the sound of the burning wood.

"The pack is mine now," Simone shouted.

"Where is Calix?" a Silverthorn wolf asked.

"He is dead inside," Simone said and she raised her voice. "They are both dead. The house is a grave. Now move the line forward."

"What about the elders?"

"Kill them if they do not kneel," Simone said.

I heard the Silverthorn wolves howling outside. The sound was flat and wrong. They were celebrating because they thought they had won. They thought the Crescent pack was finished.

I felt the purple feeling in my head start to fade. It was not because the stone was gone. It was because my body was stopping. The cold feeling was moving up from my legs into my chest. My heart was beating very slowly. I could barely hear the fire anymore. The orange light in the room was starting to look dark.

"Calix?" Maddie's voice sounded further away now.

"I am here," I thought but I did not have the air to say it.

"Calix, answer me."

"Go," I whispered.

The fire made a loud pop and a shower of sparks landed on my back. It hurt but I did not move. I did not have the strength to flinch anymore. I just watched the black smoke roll across the floorboards. My eyes were heavy. I wanted to close them and just let the dark take over.

I heard a step. It was not a wolf's step. It was a heavy boot hitting the floorboards near my head.

I tried to turn my neck. It hurt to move but I managed to look up a little bit. The smoke was clearing around the base of the pillar next to me.

Someone was standing in the smoke. He was wearing a long dark coat and he did not have a mask on. The smoke did not seem to bother him at all. He did not look at the fire. He only looked at me.

It was my father. I could now see him clearly. He had already let Elara go and shown himself fully.

Alpha Hawthorne was standing there. He did not look like he had been in the war room. He looked clean and his face was very still. He had his hands in his pockets. He looked down at me like I was a dog that had been hit by a wagon.

"Father," I said and my voice was barely a sound.

He did not answer. He took his right hand out of his pocket.

He was holding a stone. It was not purple like Simone's stone. It was not green like the vial. It was a deep, dark grey that looked like a piece of coal but it had a white light moving inside it. It was the real third stone. The binding stone from the vault. It was glowing with a pulse that matched the beat of my own slow heart.

"You have the stone," I said and I tried to lift my chin.

"Simone is a fool," he said and he adjusted his grip. "She thought she was the one playing the game."

"Help me."

"You are weak, Calix. You let a female ruin the pack. You let her turn you against your own blood."

"She is my mate."

"She is a white wolf. Her mother was weak too. They are all weak when they love."

He raised the grey stone. The white light inside it got brighter. I felt the pressure in my head change. It was not cold like the purple stone. It was hot. It felt like my blood was boiling inside my veins.

"But the strength is still in the blood," he said and he stepped closer. "And I am going to take it back."