Chapter 87 Kian’s Return
Amara’s POV
The night was on fire. Even from miles away, the sky flared crimson, and the smoky odour hung on the breeze like a warning.
Although I was far from the battlefield at the time, I would later recall Kian's return as though I had experienced it alongside him.
Kian was gone. When he prepared to leave, I had witnessed the anguish in his eyes and the wordless farewell in his clenched hands. He had turned his back on the pack and me. I believed he was permanently gone.
However, the truth was revealed by the sky.
His heart was struggling with itself as I pictured him standing on that desolate hill and watching the flames rise.
At first, he most likely mumbled, his jaw clenched, "Let them fight without me." "She has already been selected. She is no longer in need of me.
But it would have hurt in his chest. He would have been scratched by his inner wolf. He couldn't go any further because of his soul.
I could just hear his hands clenching and his voice breaking. She is still mine, though. My friend. My heart. Even if the word is never spoken by her.
I knew something must have broken inside him because the smoke smelled of death.
"No," he must have said, his eyes blazing and his head shaking. "I can't let her pass away." I can't let him pass away. I can't let the pack drop.
I imagined him turning, his wolf charging forward, his boots pressing into the ground. Even though it was broken, his heart continued to beat for me.
Thus, his pledge reverberated within him as he ran back into the night at a speed greater than the wind:
I'll end it with her if this is the end.
I was watching Rowan die. His body was broken, blood seeping onto the soil, and his hand had fallen inches from me.
I grabbed at him and screamed his name, but he didn't move. With her shadow magic swirling like snakes poised to attack, Lilith stood over us, laughing.
“What a jerk,” she said. At your feet, one wolf is scuttling to death. Someone who left you. And you—" her red eyes pierced me. "I already have you."
Torn between fear and anger, I shuddered. "You will never own me!" I let out a yell.
She merely smiled. Fire gathered in her raised hand. Black as night, the flames curled into a spear, which she threw directly at Rowan.
My heart stopped beating.
"NO!"
Then, he arrived.
A roar like thunder, a whirl of gleaming. The spear broke in the air, sending sparks flying all over the battlefield.
Kian.
His wolf eyes glowed like molten gold as he landed in front of Rowan. Even though his skin was covered with blood and sweat, and his chest heaved, his presence was unyielding and unstoppable like fire.
Lilith paused her smile. "You," she growled.
Kian didn't respond to her. For me, his voice thundered. "Go back, Amara!"
With tears in my eyes, I shook my head. "You returned..."
He gave me a single glance, his face split between love and agony. "I will always return."
Then he turned and stood between Lilith's storm and Rowan's shattered body, dagger in hand. Shadows swung as she struck again, but Kian moved like rage itself, slicing through each blow.
I sobbed as I slid over to Rowan and held his head in my lap. "Please stay with me! Don't abandon me!
His lips parted and his eyes blinked feebly. "Kian."
As Rowan's waning eyes remained focused on the man rescuing him, I looked up, heartbroken.
Lilith was pushed back step by step by Kian's roar. Sparks and blood flew as his blade clashed with her shadow magic, and despite the wounds he sustained, his body would not shatter.
Then Rowan jerked his hand up, shaking and feeble, in an instant that burned into me.
His eyes met Kian's.
Through the fire, the eyes of the two men, who were tied by anguish, competition, and me, met.
They understood in silence.
Rowan nodded just a little.
Kian gave it back, his eyes flaming and his teeth gritted.
They stood together as warriors, not as competitors.
With rage in her voice, Lilith hissed. "You believe you'll be saved by unity? I'll rip it to pieces!
But I believed for the first time. Hope blazed through my tears when I saw them side by side for the first time.
The fire was raging. The darkness cried out. The earth trembled.
My two friends were standing shoulder to shoulder, prepared to battle, right in the middle of the storm.