Chapter 262: Nooo!!!
(... continued)
Autumn’s eyes snapped to Kieran, her pulse hammering in her throat.
She could feel the disaster...quite literally...the pull, the rupture, the dread rolling in waves from the southeast.
Her breath tore out of her chest. "The dock area!" she cried, voice breaking against the cold air. "Come with me... I can get us there faster!"
Before Kieran could even form a reply, her hand shot out. Fingers clamped around his wrist...
"Wait...Autumn...where are you..."
Too late.
She yanked him forward.
Her blue flames ignited...light bursting around them in a violent snap. The world smeared, blurred, collapsed in a rush of wind and thunder.
His breath ripped out of him as his body tore through space alongside hers, his muscles straining against the impossible pull.
And then...
The ground slammed back beneath their boots. Sand. Wet. Heavy with blood and salt.
They stumbled to a halt on the beach. The night reeled around them, smoke curling, the sound of metal here and there, the roar of the sea crashing against the horror sprawled before their eyes.
It all but slammed back into Autumn’s lungs with a rush of a rotten something.
Her boots scraped across the blood soaked sand as she staggered forward, Kieran right beside her.
Both of them heaved, their chests rising and falling in jagged unison, eyes wide as the battlefield opened up before them.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Neither could.
The ocean hissed against the rocks. The scent of death clung to the air.
The beach was scattered with ash, broken limbs, black ichor smeared into the tide.
And at the center they noticed movements.
Blackmoon soldiers had already arrived.
Their armor glistened dark as they encircled the monstrous carcass of Roanoke’s body.
Spears jabbed, blades shoved, testing Roanoke’s hulking corpse to see if it truly lay still.
The thing’s massive chest caved where it had been torn open...shadows leaked like smoke into the sand.
One soldier cursed, shoving the monster with the butt of his weapon. Another nudged with his boot, spitting as though disgust might keep away the stench coming out of it.Filthy.Beyond vile...
But none of that mattered.
Not to Autumn. Neither to Kieran.
Their gazes drifted beyond the soldiers.
Beyond the monster.
And then...
Their hearts seized.
Two small figures huddled together in the sand. Jasper’s tiny arms still locked around Freya’s shoulders, his face buried, shaking. Freya clutched him just as hard, her golden eyes swollen with tears, her claws digging into the earth as if anchoring herself to what remained of this world.
The moment Jasper lifted his face, blotched all red,dirty,wet...the sight was too much. His little legs moved before thought could catch him.
"Mammaaa!"
Autumn gasped.
"Oh,my baby!" The sound splintered from her chest as he flung himself into her arms. She dropped to her knees in the bloodied sand, catching him, clinging to him... her heart still hammering with dread. "Oh, Jasper..." Her words drowned into his hair as she kissed his crown again and again.
Right at the same time another cry tore forth...
"Dadaaa!" Freya hurled herself into Kieran’s chest.
He folded around her instantly, his arms banding tight, lifting her clean off the ground. His face pressed into her bloodied, tangled hair, his jaw clenched hard enough to shake.
"Freya..." His whisper cracked, low, almost broken. "I’ve got you, little wolf. I’ve got you..."
They sobbed against their parents, grief shaking their small frames. Autumn and Kieran held on, shoulders trembling, hearts splintering.
And then...
Autumn’s gaze strayed.
Her arms still crushed Jasper to her chest, but her eyes drifted over his small shoulder, past the soldiers, past the monster, to the crimson soaked red wolf...
Her breath caught. Her vision swam.
"NO!!!" The word barely left her lips.
Orion’s body lay crumpled,still massive but absolutely still...unmoving...his fur drenched in blood that had already begun to darken against the tide.
His chest did not rise at all. His eyes...those fiery eyes...now stared half lidded at nothing at all.
Autumn’s heart buckled. The world lurched sideways.
"Orion..." Her whisper was a wound. "Oh gods, no...no...no no...this is not happening...."
At the same instant...
Kieran’s jaw stiffened. His arms tightened around Freya as his gaze locked beyond her shoulder.
And there lay Lyla...barely heaving...if it could even be called heaving....it was more like the desperate attempts before one’s last breath.
Her body sagged where she leaned against Roanoke’s corpse, her dress drenched, clinging to her like molten tar. Her hands still trembled as she clutched her own gapping wound... from where she had ripped her own bone.
Her chest laboured as it barely rose and fell and more...each heave spilled more blood...like it was a ragged rattle of someone caught between life and the void.
Kieran’s lips parted, but no words came out.
The scene froze around him...his men shifting uneasily, the children sobbing, the sea churning red... the massive dead wolf... the abomination lying dead...and his wedded wife wrapped in blood...literally shredded.
Autumn’s eyes fixed on Orion’s still form.Then flickered towards Lyla... then back at Roanoke... desperately trying to understand what had transpired...
Kieran’s eyes fixed on Lyla’s broken frame... then back at Autumn.
And neither could move.
Their grips tightened around their children.
Finally, it was Lyla who stirred...
It was barely a twitch at first...a faint shift of her mangled frame against the sand...
Her chin sagged forward, strands of hair glued dark to her face....the movement seemed to tear her open further.
Then...slowly, agonizingly slowly...her head lifted... just a little...
Her eyes fluttered half open, clouded...almost distant...glassy, yet still searching.
Still reaching.
Her lips parted...and a broken rattle of sound seeped out.
"...Au...Autumn..."
Autumn froze.
Her heart lurched violently against her ribs, her arms stiff around Jasper. The boy whimpered into her chest, but she could no longer feel him...could no longer breathe properly.
Lyla’s trembling hand lifted from her ruined lap. Fingers slick with blood, shaking, outstretched towards her...and towards her alone.
"...sis..." The word was almost inaudible.
A desperate plea. A prayer.
Autumn’s throat cracked with a sob.
She clutched Jasper tighter once...just once...then tore herself open from him.
"Stay...stay here...with your father," she whispered hoarsely, dropping her son against Kieran’s chest with shaking hands.
Kieran caught the boy...too stunned...but Autumn didn’t meet his eyes...
Her gaze was locked on Lyla...unblinking, burning.
And then...she ran.
Sand scattered beneath her boots, the wind slicing across her tear streaked face as she flung herself forward, every muscle screaming, her body trembling like it would shatter.
Her tears fell faster than her steps, dripping into the blood soaked earth as her chest convulsed.
Her voice broke out of her, raw, shaking apart at the edges.
"Lyla... no...."
Her heart hammered, a frantic drum.
Each beat screamed one truth.
She was about to lose her sister... all over again...
She reached out...
Her arms outstretched.