Chapter 66 One day left

Chapter 66 One day left
I woke up stiff on the floor next to his cot, my broken shoulder a dull, grinding ache. My first glance, as always, was toward the corner.

Sylvia was awake. She was sitting exactly where she had been yesterday, knees pulled to her chest. She wasn't looking at the fire anymore; she was watching me with a wary gaze

The space between us suddenly felt wider than the Grand Canyon.

"Morning, Lil-bit," I whispered, trying to keep my voice soft, non-threatening.

She didn't answer. She just tightened her arms around her knees. The rejection stung worse than the bone Estava had set.

A hand touched my good arm. Vesper was awake. His green eyes were clearer today, the glaze of sedation replaced by his usual energy. The bruising on his face had shifted from angry purple to a sickly yellow-green—his hybrid metabolism was burning through resources to fix the damage, or at least tats what Estava said.

"She’ll come around," he rasped, his voice still wrecked. "She’s just... calibrating."

"She's terrified of me, Vesper. I saved her from a box just to become the monster in the room with her."

"Better a monster that loves her than one that wants to use her for bait," he said firmly. He tried to shift himself up on his elbows and hissed through gritted teeth, falling back against the thin pillow.

"Stop moving," I scolded, panic flaring. "Estava said forty-eight hours."

"I can feel my toes," he grunted, frustration radiating off him in palpable waves. "The paralysis is gone. The vertebrae are knitting. But these ribs..." He touched his side gingerly. "Every breath feels like broken glass."

The door banged open, letting in a blast of freezing air. Estava stood there, looking grim.

"Up, girl," she barked at me. "Sun’s up. Time to bleed."

I grabbed a protein bar and followed her out, ignoring the pleading look Julian threw me. He and Aleera looked like they were terrified of being left alone with the silent child and the broken Alpha.

We walked in a different direction today, deeper into the ancient growth where the trees were so thick they blocked out the sky completely.

"Yesterday was about breaking things," Estava said without preamble, thumping her staff on the frozen ground. "Easy. Satisfying. Like a toddler throwing a tantrum with a stick of dynamite."

She stopped in front of a thick curtain of thorny vines hanging between two massive oaks.

"Today is about precision." Estava pointed her staff at the vines. "Clear a path. Without setting the whole forest on fire."

I stared at the vines. They were thick as my wrist, covered in inch-long thorns.

"Move them," Elara commanded.

I closed my eyes, reaching for the power. It came easier today, a familiar hum beneath my skin. I remembered the rush of destroying the boulder. I reached for that heat.

Violet lightning crackled around my fingers. I thrust my hand forward.

A blast of raw energy hit the vines. It didn't move them. It shredded them, exploding the center of the curtain into mulch and scorching the bark of the ancient oaks on either side.

"Sloppy!" Estava yelled, whacking my leg with her staff. It stung through my jeans.

"I cleared the path!" I yelled back, the violet energy itching under my skin, wanting to retaliate against the old woman. The impulse was terrifyingly strong.

"You used a cannon to open a door," she spat. "Look at what you did."

She gestured around us. The blast had singed the surrounding ferns, killed the moss on the trees. The air smelled had a strong, toxic smell.

"That is Hera’s way. Scorched earth. If you fight like that when she comes, you’ll burn down the cabin with everyone inside it before she even touches you."

She leaned close, her eyes hard. "The hybrid energy isn't just the goddess power, Sylvania. It’s the human soul filtering it. You have to want something besides destruction."

"Like what?" I cried, exhausted and sore.

"Like control."

We went again. And again. For hours. I tried to gently push the vines aside. Nothing happened. I got frustrated, and the violet energy surged, vaporizing a blooming flower. I ended up on my knees, dry heaving from the backlash, my nose bleeding again.

"Stop thinking about how good it feels to let go," Estava murmured, crouching beside me as I gasped for air on the frozen ground. "Think about why you need to hold back."

I closed my eyes. I pictured Sylvia in the corner, terrified of my purple eyes.

A different kind of cold settled in my chest. It wasn't the hot rush of rage. It was heavier. Sadder.

I stood up, wiping blood from my upper lip. I faced a new patch of thorns.

I didn't reach for the heat this time. I reached for the cold. I need to not be the thing my sister feared.

I raised my hand. The energy that manifested wasn't crackling lightning. It was a slow, thick, viscous pulses of amethyst light.

I pushed.

The vines didn't explode, they bent backward, clearing a narrow path.

I held it for ten seconds, sweat pouring down my face, my knees shaking with the effort. It was infinitely harder than blowing them up.

When I dropped my hand, the vines snapped back into place.

I collapsed onto the pine needles, utterly drained.

Estava looked at the vines, then down at me. She didn't offer praise. She just nodded once.

"Better. Now get up. We're losing daylight."

When we returned to the cabin as dusk fell, the atmosphere had changed.

Julian was outside, pacing nervously with a piece of protein bar in his hand. "Something's wrong," he whispered as we approached. "The air feels... tight."

Inside, Vesper was no longer lying down. He was sitting on the edge of the cot, hunched over, his elbows on his knees, his head hanging low.

"Vesper, what are you doing?" I rushed to him, dropping to my knees between his legs, putting my hands on his knees. His skin was burning up again.

He lifted his head. The green eyes were burning with an almost manic intensity.

"I can feel them," he rasped. "Estava's wards. Out in the woods."

"You shouldn't be sitting up," I pleaded.

"I can't just lie here, Sylvania. I'm useless like this." The Warlord's frustration was bleeding through every word. "I can't fight physically. Yet."

He took a shuddering breath, his hands gripping my shoulders for support.

"But I am an Alpha hybrid." He jerked his chin toward Estava, who was watching him closely. "A Warlord."

"What did you do?" Estava asked sharply.

"I pushed," Vesper grunted. "I found the weak spots in your weave, old woman. And I poured everything I had into them. The energy I felt beneath my skin."

Estava closed her eyes, tilting her head as if listening to a distant frequency. Her eyes snapped open, wide with surprise.

"By the gods," she whispered. "He reinforced the ley lines. The perimeter just hardened into concrete."

She looked at Vesper with new respect. "You shouldn't have that kind of strength yet, boy. You'll burn yourself out."

"Let it burn," Vesper snarled softly, his gaze locking onto mine. "If they want in here, they're going to have to bleed for it."

A sudden, sharp ping sound echoed through the cabin, like a high-tension wire snapping in the distance.

We all froze.

Julian burst in the door. "What was that?"

Estava moved to the window, her face grim. "The first tripwire. The outer perimeter just got tested."

"Is it her?" I whispered, the violet energy under my skin stirring in response to the threat.

"No," Vesper said, his eyes unfocused as he tracked something only he could feel. "Too clumsy. Too weak. Scouts. Testing the defenses."

"They know exactly where we are," Estaca confirmed, turning back to us.

"Day two is over, children. Tomorrow night, the moon is full. They won't wait until then to start the siege."