Chapter 204 WITCHES

Chapter 204 WITCHES
The shift came like a knife to the skull. One moment, I was tearing through another leech, his body crumpling beneath my claws, and the next, my head split open with a shriek that wasn't sound, but a piercing ring inside my skull.
My knees almost buckled, and my breath hitched.
My vision pulsed black at the edges, like shadows curling inward, choking the light.
Witches! Damn them.
The realization tasted bitter on my tongue. Vampires alone couldn't gnaw at my senses like this, it was witchcraft.
I ground my claws into my palms until blood slicked between my fingers. Lupercus snarled somewhere to my right, staggering, swiping blindly at an enemy I couldn't see. His massive frame bent as if he were about to crumple, the veins in his neck standing out like cords ready to snap.
I forced my legs to hold me upright, even as my muscles screamed to fold. Pain knifed through every nerve, but I ground my teeth until my jaw ached, dragging strength from a well older than the kingdom itself. They wanted me on my knees, they wanted the King of Lycans bowing in agony? Over my dead body.
I tore forward. One step. Then another.
A vampire lunged, fangs flashing, a sneer carved into his face as if he could taste my weakness. I met him with my claws in his throat, hot blood spraying across my face, the copper sting cutting through the witches' veil for a single blessed heartbeat. His body went limp before he even realized his mistake.
But the whistle surged louder like a war drum inside my skull. My head throbbed in rhythm with my pulse, veins straining so violently I thought they might burst through my skin.
I staggered, dropped to one knee, and forced myself up again with a guttural snarl that ripped from the pit of my lungs. Every muscle trembled. My body was failing, but I could not, would not, fall here.
Lupercus swayed beside me, barely holding his footing. Another vampire closed in, his blade flashing, and instinct overrode the pain. I shoved forward, intercepting the strike, my claws slamming into bone, tearing sinew and steel all at once. The vampire crumpled. I stood over Lupercus, shielding him with my own body even as another wave of witchcraft dug into my brain like hot iron.
They would not take him. They would not break me.
Every breath was fire. Every heartbeat a thunderous ache. My vision split into double images, the palace corridor spinning, blood slicking the marble until it looked like the floor itself wept red.
And still I fought.
Every strike came slower now, more labored, my body screaming mutiny against me.
Somewhere beneath the roar of battle, the shrieks and clash of steel, Narine's name echoed like a prayer I dared not utter. Fear gnawed me, I couldn't feel her presence, couldn't hear her voice, and the thought of her trapped in this chaos nearly tore me apart.
The witches clawed at my mind again, their whispers sliding under my skin, urging surrender.
I roared back into the shadows, veins bulging, body convulsing as I forced one more swing, one more tear through flesh, one more kill. My strength might splinter, my senses might fracture, but my kingdom would not fall tonight.
Not while I still drew breath.
The witches' curse still throbbed like hot needles in my skull, battering my senses with static, dragging my instincts into confusion. Every sound splintered, every movement blurred. My veins burned as though liquid fire had been poured through them, forcing me to fight with sheer willpower.
And still, I refused to yield. I cut through another wave of vampires, snapping necks, splitting throats, keeping myself between Lupercus and the swarm that tried to pin him down. Pain screamed through me, veins raised and throbbing beneath my skin, but rage held me upright. Rage, and the promise I made to myself the moment this night turned black, that Narine would live.
But then... the battlefield shifted.
A presence unfurled like smoke and steel, slithering into the air until every lycan, vampire, and witch, even the very stone beneath us, seemed to buckle beneath it. The fighting didn't stop, but it faltered.
From the shadows beyond the shattered courtyard gates, he emerged.
Tall, lean, and cloaked in black so deep it seemed to drink the low light around him. His movements weren't hurried or desperate. Each step was measured and arrogant. His eyes gleamed like molten silver in the dark, sharp enough to cut bone, cold enough to freeze marrow.
"Monohue," Lupercus muttered beside me. "The butcher of the Veylorn clutch."
My jaw clenched. I'd heard the name whispered in council, tied to massacres, cities gutted and drained like carcasses. But I'd never seen him, not until now.
And gods help me, the stories hadn't done him justice.
"Ah," his voice spilled across the courtyard. "The great King Sargis. Protector of the realms. Keeper of order. I half-expected you to cower in your throne room while your dogs bled for you. But no..." His lips curved, too sharp to be called a smile. "Here you are. Bleeding yourself."
His gaze dragged lazily to the dead littering the ground, the fires climbing the palace walls, and the lycans struggling against the witches' curse as it tore at their minds and senses. Then back to me.
"Impressive, truly," Monohue drawled, pulling the edge of his cloak aside to reveal the blacksteel blade at his hip, its length humming faintly with stolen enchantments. "But you must know you're already finished. We've slipped past your guards, cut them down like wheat at harvest. And your senses..." He tapped his temple. "Broken like glass. Tell me, wolf king, how long before you crack, too?"
I clenched my jaw so tightly my teeth ached. Pain coiled around me like a chokehold, the witches' curse still digging claws through my mind, dulling my reflexes, and turning every breath into a grind of steel on stone.
A growl tore out of me, rumbling from deep in my chest until it rattled the stones beneath my feet.
Monohue's laugh split the dark, echoing against the ruined palace walls. He cackled, head tipping back in delight.
"Ah," he drawled. "The great King Sargis. The wolf who thinks himself eternal." His steps were measured. "Do you know how long I've waited for this moment? How long my kind has hidden in the shadows while yours strutted in the light, pretending the world belonged to you?"
I bared my teeth, claws dripping blood. I refused to give him the satisfaction of answering.
He chuckled.
"Allow me to introduce myself, since history will carve my name into your grave. I am Monohue Kjignawt, the night incarnate, heir of the Crimson Line, sovereign of the deathless." H lifted his chin with pride. "And I am the one who will see your kind burned out of this world until the last wolf howls his final breath."
Lupercus snarled at his side, but I stilled him with a glance. No sudden moves. Not yet.
Monohue spread his arms wide. "The eclipse is only the beginning. Do you think it is a mere coincidence that the sun hides its face today? No, Sargis. It is a herald. A sign that the age of Lycans ends here, bleeding beneath the claws of fate. And in its place rises the true order, the reign of the eternal night, the reign of vampires."
His voice swelled as though the shadows themselves echoed it. Around him, the vampires roared their approval, hissing and stamping like beasts drunk on the scent of victory.
He leaned forward. "You see, your downfall was always inevitable. You rule with pride, emotion, and stupid matebond. You pretend strength, but your heart makes you weak and...predictable." His eyes glinted with mockery. "While you wasted centuries bickering with witches and chasing after prophecies, I've built an army that doesn't fear. They fear nothing, because they are already dead."
His words dripped venom.
"You wolves still cling to notions of loyalty, honor, bloodlines, and councils. But the world doesn't bow to honor, it bows to power. And I, Monohue, will grind your kingdom into ash until even the memory of Lycans is extinct. Children will whisper of you as one whispers of monsters in old stories. And when they do, it will be I they worship."
The arrogance in his tone was unbearable.
I curled my claws, every muscle trembling with the need to strike him down where he stood. Yet even as fury seared through me, a flicker of unease coiled deep in my gut, because he wasn't bluffing. He had orchestrated this with precision, down to the very breath of the eclipse. He knew our walls and weaknesses.
Monohue smiled. "So tell me, King of Wolves...how does it feel to watch your reign collapse? To know that your bloodline dies tonight?"
"You talk too much," I growled, my voice rough, torn from the depths of my chest.
I spat, a streak of blood hitting the stone between us.
His smirk faltered, just for a breath.
"You want my throne?" I flexed my claws, digging grooves into the stone at my feet. "You'll choke on it before I let you touch it."
I bared my teeth, every muscle in me straining against the witch-fire still clawing through my veins. "You'll regret stepping foot in my palace."
He laughed, as if I were nothing more than entertainment.
"No, Sargis. I'll savor it."