Chapter 47 The Return Of the Alpha
Two rogues stepped forward, blades rising for the killing stroke.
Arrows hissed through the air.
One took the first rogue in the wrist, the second in the throat. Both blades spun away, clattering across the stone. The rogue with the pierced throat dropped, gurgling blood.
Darius’s head snapped up.
“Alpha!”
Fernando stood in the shattered doorway, bow still raised, eyes blazing pure molten gold. Behind him poured the hidden cohorts, silent wolves in dark leather, faces painted with ash and blood. They fanned out without a word, arrows nocked, swords drawn.
The hall exploded.
Fernando dropped the bow and drew his great two-handed sword in one fluid motion. He crossed the floor in four strides and brought the blade down on the nearest rogue. The man raised his own sword to block. Fernando’s strike sheared through steel and bone, taking the rogue’s arm at the shoulder and half his head with it.
Vargus roared from the dais. “Kill him!”
Rogues charged.
Darius strained against the silver ropes, muscles bulging. The chains groaned. He roared and yanked harder. Silver burned flesh to the bone, but the pillar cracked. One final wrench and the ropes snapped. He hit the floor running, scooping a fallen sword as he went.
Samael followed a heartbeat later, chains tearing free in a spray of blood and stone shards. He seized an axe from a dead rogue and waded into the fight.
Fernando met the first wave head-on.
A rogue lunged with a spear. Fernando sidestepped, caught the shaft, and drove his sword through the man’s chest so hard the blade punched out the back and pinned him to the floor. He ripped it free in a fountain of blood and swung again, taking another rogue’s head clean off. The body stood for a second before collapsing.
Vargus leaped from the dais, midnight pelt cloak billowing, sword flashing. He landed between Fernando and the traitors.
“You should have stayed dead,” Vargus snarled.
Fernando answered with steel.
Their blades met in a shower of sparks that lit the hall like lightning. The impact drove both Alphas back a step. They circled, eyes locked, wolves fully risen.
Vargus struck first, a vicious overhead blow meant to split Fernando from crown to groin. Fernando caught it on his crossguard, twisted, and riposted with a slash that opened Vargus’s cheek to the bone. Blood poured.
Vargus laughed and attacked again, blade singing. Fernando parried, countered, parried. Every clash rang like a hammer on an anvil. Neither gave ground.
Across the hall, Darius fought like a man possessed.
He took a rogue’s sword through the thigh and did not slow. He seized the blade with his bare hand, yanked the rogue close, and buried his own sword in the man’s gut. Blood sprayed across his face. He ripped the weapon free and kept moving, carving a path through three more attackers in as many heartbeats.
A rogue captain charged him with a war hammer. Darius ducked the swing, came up inside the guard, and drove his sword upward under the chin and out the top of the skull. He kicked the body away and roared for the next.
Samael was death incarnate.
He swung the axe in wide, brutal arcs. One rogue tried to block; the axe sheared through sword and arm and kept going, burying itself in the man’s chest. Samael wrenched it free and brought it down on another’s shoulder, splitting him to the sternum. Blood painted the walls in sweeping arcs.
Corvin tried to flee toward a side door.
Samael saw him. He hurled the axe end-over-end. It buried itself between Corvin’s shoulder blades. The old traitor dropped without a sound.
Sabine raised a crossbow from the dais. Samael charged straight at her. The bolt took him high in the shoulder. He did not break stride. He reached her, seized the crossbow, and smashed it into her face. Bone crunched. She fell screaming.
Rolf lunged at him with a dagger. Samael caught the wrist, twisted until it snapped, then drove his own dagger up under Rolf’s chin and into his brain.
Mara and Veyne tried to run. Hidden cohort archers cut them down before they reached the doors.
Halric faced Darius across a pile of bodies. “Traitor,” Halric spat.
Darius answered with steel. They clashed in the center of the hall, swords ringing. Halric fought with desperation. Darius fought with cold fury. Halric’s blade slipped past Darius’s guard and opened a gash across his ribs. Darius answered by driving his sword through Halric’s throat and out the back of his neck.
Halric dropped, gurgling.
In the heart of the hall, Fernando and Vargus fought like gods of war.
Vargus scored a slash across Fernando’s chest, deep enough to show bone. Fernando answered by burying his sword in Vargus’s side, twisting until ribs cracked. Vargus roared and head-butted him, splitting Fernando’s brow. Blood poured into his eyes.
They broke apart, circling again, both bleeding heavily.
Vargus spat blood. “You are finished.”
Fernando smiled through red teeth. “Come take my head.”
Vargus charged.
Fernando met him.
Their swords locked at the hilts. They strained, faces inches apart, muscles trembling. Vargus kneed Fernando in the gut. Fernando answered with an elbow to the temple that staggered Vargus. They broke and struck again.
Vargus’s blade slipped past Fernando’s guard and punched through his shoulder. Fernando roared, seized Vargus’s wrist, and twisted until the sword fell. He drove his own blade straight through Vargus’s chest, the point erupting out the back in a spray of blood.
Vargus coughed red, eyes wide.
Fernando leaned close. “The north is mine.”
He ripped the sword free.
Vargus dropped to his knees, then face-first onto the stone, blood pooling beneath him.
The hall went still.
Fernando stood over the body, chest heaving, sword dripping.
Darius and Samael limped to his side, covered in blood and wounds, but all of a sudden, Vagus stood up his wounds closing back as he burst out laughing hard.
Darius and Samael stumbled back in shock positioning themselves to protect the Alpha.