Chapter 83

{Ryanna’s POV}

My legs moved before my thoughts could catch up.

I was running, harder than I ever had. Faster than even my newly attained Silver Wolf instincts had ever carried me. The wind peeled against my skin, branches slicing past like paper cuts, but I didn’t slow down. Not because they did not affect me, but because of the urgency.

“Please be ok, Nox.”

The trees blurred. I pushed harder. My muscles didn't scream from the speed, nor did my lungs burn, but I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be. Needed to be.

My heart slammed against my ribs like it wanted to escape, to fly ahead and reach him before I could.

Even with all the distance I’d covered… I was still late.

By the time I burst through the thinning treeline into the clearing, history had already been made.

Blood soaked what it could in ugly pools. Bits of fur, shredded weapons, and splintered bones all decorated the clearing.

The first person I recognized wasn’t Nox.

It was Rohan.

He was screeching.

A gurgling, inhuman noise as he scrambled backwards across the dirt, one hand covering the gaping socket where his right eye had once been. His left arm was gone, ripped clean at the shoulder. He wouldn't be healing from that.

Blood sprayed in arcs as he scurried like an animal, terrified and blind, away from something.

From Nox.

He lay near the center of the clearing.

Still.

Breathing, barely. His form was wrecked beyond anything I’d ever seen. His abdomen was torn open, and lodged in the wound was Rohan’s missing arm, twisted unnaturally, still twitching like it hadn’t figured out it was dead yet.

All around him were the bodies of strangers, wolves I didn’t know, but one glance told me they’d mattered. I even glimpsed one of those same beasts Casper had fought, collapsed and lifeless.

Nox had been the storm.

But the storm had passed.

I dropped beside him so hard the earth beneath me cracked. “Nox—!”

His head tilted toward me. His breathing was faint, his lips slick with red, but his eyes locked onto mine.

“Ryanna…” he whispered.

My name.

Not ‘princess.’

Just me. Ryanna.

It broke something in me that I didn’t know could still break.

×××

{Nox’s POV}

She looked like heaven.

Or maybe I was seeing things, drifting toward the edge and convincing myself the final face I’d see would be the one I wanted to.

But no.

She was here.

Here.

My lungs stung like they’d been filled with fire and broken glass. Every breath came in shorter, more desperate gasps. I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. Couldn’t even move my fingers. But I could see her.

Her face.

She transformed from this mystical silver wolf back to herself.

Her short white hair was streaked with blood and sunlight. Her eyes were impossibly blue, already rimmed with tears.

“I’m here,” she said, gripping my hand. “I’m here, Nox, don’t move, I’ll take you back to the pac—”

“No,” I rasped, my voice barely sounding anymore.

“That won't work, not even… Cyclis Bloom could fix this. I know what this is. I know what’s coming.”

She cried harder. Sobbing so much her words barely came without gasps.

I hated that I was the reason for that.

“Don’t carry me. Please. Don’t lift me. Just… stay. Sit with me, Ryanna.” He whispered.

He paused for what felt like forever, then continued: “Be with me. Like we used to. Like when we’d share tea.”

She clutched my hand harder.

I could see her lips trembling. She nodded slowly.

I smiled. “Close your eyes… Imagine it. You're back in that hidden space. That little fire between us. Your favorite cup. My chipped one. That dried herb blend I always over-steeped.”

She closed her eyes.

I almost forgot I was dying.

“It’s nice. It's peaceful.”

My chest rattled. Blood bubbled into my throat.

“Thank you… for giving me another chance,” I croaked, teeth probably red. “You gave me something I didn’t think I could have. A means to get revenge. A reason to be better. A friend

… a true friend.”

Her tears fell freely now.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured.

“Sorry, I couldn’t avenge Casper.”

I coughed hard. Blood sprayed her hand as she trembled from the feel of it. A grim reminder of the fact that my time was limited.

“But I did what I came to do. They know now. The pack knows who attacked them. They know it was Aurelius. He wanted to silence the witnesses. That’s why he sent Rohan. That’s why… he killed them.”

My eyes fluttered.

Darkness nipped at the edges of everything.

Then she spoke.

“Casper’s alive.”

I blinked.

“Ah… I see.”

“He woke up,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

“He’s alive, Nox. He’s… he’s alive.”

And then she wept. Tears dropped from her face to mine, streaking through the blood and dirt on my cheeks. Warm yet haunting.

I lifted my hand.

Or tried to.

My fingers barely moved. I managed to reach her face, shaky, clumsy as I wiped her cheek.

But my hand came back red.

And I couldn’t feel it anymore.

I smiled, a faint and fleeting expression.

“I’m glad I got to see you again,” I said, blinking slowly. “Glad we shared all we could. I believed in it. In you.”

“You’re not allowed to leave,” she choked out. “Not yet. Nox, please—”

“I hope you win. I hope you come out of this whole. Happy. Free...”

She couldn't laugh, overwhelmed with this much grief. But she forced it, for me. I held onto that sound.

I held onto her.

For a few fleeting seconds, everything felt ok.

But the dark was creeping in now.

My thoughts wandered.

My lips moved one last time.

“…At least now I can be with my big brother. Osiris. I don’t blame you or Casper for what happened. He had it coming.”

And then I said nothing else.

Because there was nothing left to say.