Chapter 127: Chapter 11

ADELIE

Maeve burst into the library, her voice filled with urgency. “We have a problem!”

Before she could finish her sentence, the sound of wolf howls echoed from outside. “Adelie!” Kairos’s voice rang out.

I sprinted toward the noise, but Maeve’s voice trailed after me. Kairon sped past me, and when I reached the front door, Kairos was blocking it. “Move!” I demanded.

“Adelie!” Maeve’s voice echoed again.

Collin was struggling to get in. As soon as Kairos recognized him, he let him through. “You can’t go out!” Collin warned me.

“I am stronger than you!” I retorted. “Stronger than all of you combined.”

Kairos rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed. “That’s not the point.”

“They are here to kill you,” Maeve interjected.

I whipped my head toward her. “Where’s Elias?”

“With Lucy and her pups.”

I turned to Kairos, who hadn’t moved. “Are they fighting?”

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Let me out!”

“Think of Elias.”

“I am. I doubt they will leave without getting to me.”

Kairos glanced at Collin. “King’s order to not let her out.”

He then looked back at me, shaking his head. Who did Leonard think he was? He couldn’t control me. A surge of energy erupted from me, and two death angels in their true form materialized behind me. They towered over us, their skeletal bodies a dusty black.

Collin looked at Kairos, fear evident in his eyes and voice. He cleared his throat before speaking. “So, we have two werewolves, one half vampire, and one death angel nymph. I think it’s more dangerous for us to stay here,” he said.

Kairos sighed. “Take them away,” he told me, seemingly unfazed by my display.

I did as he asked, and only then did he step back. “You will stay near us. Maeve stays behind, me and Collin will take the front.” Maeve nodded, and Kairos opened the door, he and Collin stepping out first.

Outside, a crowd of unfamiliar werewolves had gathered. But there were even more of the king’s fighters approaching. The newcomers didn’t stand a chance.

Leonard was speaking with them, but as soon as I stepped out, all eyes turned to me. “We won’t touch anyone. We need only her.”

“I am here!” I announced. “I suppose you have a proposition?”

“I have a topic I would like to discuss. Alone. If possible,” the lead man spoke. He was calm, composed. But I couldn’t let my guard down.

Kairos spoke before I could. “That’s not possible. Unfortunately, pack duties call. She doesn’t have a single minute to spend with you.” His voice was laced with hatred.

The man in front gritted his teeth. “Very well…we’ll be on our way then,” he said.

Kairos looked at Leonard. “Wait!” Leonard demanded. “I want an explanation!”

“You cannot demand anything from me, Leonard!” The man retorted, disregarding his title. “We are rogues. We don’t live by your orders. We owe you nothing.”

“You disturb our peace!” the king retorted.

“We are only here for her. She does not live here, meaning that it is not your business.”

I stepped forward. “Then speak!”

“We’ll leave,” he said, a smile playing on his lips as he left with his rogues.

I turned to Leonard, who was scanning his pack. Everyone was silent despite the large crowd. His wolves were ready for a fight.

Leonard looked at me. “Go inside! We’ll watch the perimeter.” He clearly didn’t believe they would leave so easily.

Kairos took me by the waist and led me toward the castle. “Are they following them?”

He nodded. “They are. There’s no chance the rogues left without a fight. They wouldn’t have bothered to come if they weren’t up to something.”

“Since when are you my bodyguard?” I asked, looking up at him with a smirk. But he didn’t look amused, his face was stone cold serious.

He opened the front door and let me in. But before I could take in what was happening, he roughly pushed me to the side, my body slamming into the wall. My head spun from the impact, but I quickly shook off the dizziness to see what was happening.

Kairos had taken my place and was now being attacked by a wolf inside the king’s castle. I saw blood, but I wasn’t sure whose it was. Soon after, Kairos shifted into his wolf form, and two of the king’s wolves ran in, shifting mid-jump.

I quickly got up to help, ready to release my energy, to awaken Bloom. But before I could, I was knocked down with a wolf’s fur in my face. My body hit the floor hard, and I thought I heard the floor crack under my weight.

My eyes fluttered open, but everything was blurry. I tried to see what had happened, but my ears had given up too. I couldn’t hear anything.

Something was trickling down my body. My vision slowly returned, and the sound in my ears came back.

It felt like my entire right shoulder had been bitten off. I screamed in pain when I realized the wolf who bit me was still latched onto me.

Someone tackled the wolf, and he was thrown off of me, dragging me across the floor in the process.

I lay there on my stomach, feeling lifeless and in excruciating pain, while everyone fought around me. I weakly lifted my head and saw a pool of blood. My blood. The deep red color was spreading more and more on the floor beneath me.

KAIROS

The pack arrived quickly to help. The rogues who attacked were killed on the spot. I thought we had done well. We managed to fight off everyone. My eyes scanned over everyone who was there. I was looking for her. For Adelie.

Only now did I see Adelie from afar, lying there…just like Raphael once did. She wasn’t moving. She was lying in a pool of blood. It couldn’t all be hers, could it? No person had that much blood.

Leonard rushed to her and lifted her limp body into his arms. Her right arm hung limply at her side as she was picked up. A drop of blood trickled down her arm and off her fingertip.

I couldn’t hear what was being said. I could barely hear any sound at all. It all seemed like a dream.

Leonard carried her, running up the stairs, leaving a trail of blood behind. Others followed them. I shifted back to my human form. Only then did Collin approach me. He was saying something. He shook my shoulders. “You’re hurt!” he told me, handing me a robe and almost dressing me himself.

I pushed him aside and ran upstairs, but my vision failed me and I stumbled on the steps.

I didn’t know how long I was unconscious. All I knew was that Collin was trying to wake me up. And once I did and remembered what had happened, I got up and continued on my way.

“Kairos!” He called after me, but I ignored him. I ran into the room. Leonard, Maeve, Lucy, and the pack doctor were inside.

I stopped at the doorway, taking in the scene in front of me.

Maeve was sobbing uncontrollably, kneeling by her bed. Lucy was clutching Leonard’s arm, tears welling up in her eyes. Leonard’s shirt was soaked in dark red blood, as were his hands. But it wasn’t his blood.

I walked in and Leonard looked at me. I hadn’t yet seen Adelie. The doctor was in front of her. “You should go,” he whispered to me, gripping my shoulder.

I ignored him and shook his hand off. I walked further in and saw her lying there. Her face was as white as chalk, her lips blue, and the veins around her eyes were a stark green.

Her dress had been cut up, revealing her upper half. But no one here cared that she was exposed like that. They weren’t staring at her breasts. They were staring at the bites on her shoulder and collarbone, which were gushing blood. The doctor’s gloved hands were covered in her blood as he stitched her up like a rag doll.

Collin walked in and spared a glance at her, going pale. He cleared his throat. “Now…when she wakes up, she won’t be thankful you all gawked at her like that. Let’s go.”

When…he said when she wakes…but even he knew there was…if Leonard and Lucy left first. Collin looked at me. “Kairos.” I didn’t react, so he went to Maeve.

“Let’s wait outside.” But she just pushed him away. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up.

“Let me!” she screamed. But even the vampire in her was too weak to fight.

He dragged her outside the room, but she managed to get away. I went over to her and took her in a hug. And she fell into my arms. And I in hers. We cried together, her hair damp with our tears. I held her tightly. Because she was the only one who knew my pain. The only one who knew what Adelie meant to me.

Her hair muffled my sobs. I was doing my best to hold it together, but it was a losing battle.

“Kairos, she’s dying!” Maeve’s voice was a whimper, barely audible.

I pulled back from our embrace, cradling her face in my hands. My cheeks were wet with tears that refused to stop. “She’ll be okay,” I tried to reassure her, my thumbs gently wiping away her tears. I forced a smile onto my face. “She always pulls through. Remember?”

I moved her away from the sight of Adelie. She didn’t want to leave the room, so she stayed by the door, huddled on a small cushioned couch, wrapped in blankets brought by the maid.

The doctor took three hours to stitch Adelie up. Afterward, they removed the blood-soaked sheets.

I found myself sitting on the front steps of the castle. It was quiet, the only sound the rustling of the willow tree that held my gaze. After a while, Collin came and sat next to me. “Maeve is with Elias. The doctor is trying to control Adelie’s fever.”

“Will she make it?” I asked. I was no stranger to Death, but Adelie’s death would eclipse all others.

“She lost a lot of blood,” he echoed my thoughts. But would she be okay?

Collin was silent for a while before he spoke again.

“Why aren’t you with Maeve right now? You two seem close. All the hugging and such.” His words were awkward, out of place. We were all waiting for news about Adelie, and he was worried about Maeve.

Maybe that was fair. He didn’t know Adelie. He didn’t owe her anything. People die all the time. It wouldn’t mean anything to him. So, he was concerned for the person he knew was safe and alive, the person who was almost guaranteed to see the next day.

“Don’t,” I said, shaking my head. I had noticed the way Collin looked at Maeve. He was smitten. But Maeve was a force to be reckoned with. Winning her over would take more than a few compliments.

He quickly rubbed his face with his hands. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t the time.” He seemed to panic. “I see that you two are close. I just think you should be with her. She’s hurting.”

Me and Maeve? The idea was amusing. If he knew our history, he’d think so too. If he knew that Maeve had been there when I fell for Adelie.

“I’m not your competition. But trust me when I say that your only competition is her own independence. She’s fierce. She’s not for the faint-hearted.”

“I wasn’t…”

“Then why are you so interested in my relationship with Maeve?” I didn’t let him finish. “I don’t think she needs anyone right now. She’s hurting, but she’s terrible at accepting help.”

“Adelie is her luna… But she cried so hard.” He looked away. “I’ve never seen anyone cry so loudly. In panic. Her whole body was shaking.”

“She shows you what she wants you to see. She wants to appear strong, indifferent, but she feels just as much as the rest of us. And if you’ve seen her like this, it means she’s at her limit.”

“She cried like she lost her only love,” he said. There was a hint of sadness in his voice. He knew what it was like to lose love. And for Maeve, it was love. The same kind of love I had for Raphael. A love for a friend.

“She’s not just her beta. Adelie would never see her as just her beta. They’re friends, sisters by choice. Maeve is a vampire, a beta in a pack ruled by a nymph. Nothing about them is conventional or easy. If you want to win Maeve over, you’ll have to make sacrifices. She’ll never settle for comfort. She’d rather die alone.”

“How do you know her so well?” he asked.

“We have a history.”

“What kind?”

“That,” I pointed at him, “if you dwell on her past, you won’t win her over either.”

We sat there for a while, just talking. We were never friends, but now we were discussing the simplest things.

As night fell, everyone was finally eating their first meal after the attack. I couldn’t bring myself to eat.

I wouldn’t eat until Adelie could. So, I wandered around the castle, my footsteps echoing in the empty hallways. Until I found myself outside Elias’s room.

I knocked softly and walked in. “Hey!” I greeted him, trying to sound cheerful, holding back my tears.

He looked at me, studying my face. “How’s Adelie?” he asked.

“Have you eaten yet?” I countered. He pointed to the untouched tray next to him.

“How is Adelie?” he asked again.

“Your mom’s fine. She’s resting,” I lied.

“Can I see her?” he asked.

I cleared my throat, trying to keep my voice steady. “Better not, she needs peace.”

“I’ll be quiet, just to see how she’s doing.”

I shook my head, even though he wasn’t looking at me. “Wait till she gets better first.”

He got up from his chair and walked over to me. “Do you want to go outside and play?” he asked.

I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you weren’t the playing type.”

“I sometimes do,” he said, reaching up to take my hand. We hadn’t even reached the door when he pulled his hand back and returned to his desk. “I changed my mind,” he said, not even a minute later.

I walked over to him slowly. His head was buried in a book. “Elias…” I started, but he cut me off.

“You’re all liars,” he sniffled. “All you ever do is lie.”

He was crying. Tears were falling onto his book. I couldn’t hold back my own tears any longer. “Why do you say that?”

“She’s not fine. And you don’t know if she will be.”

“Elias…why do you think that?” He was smart. Maybe too smart for his own good.

He didn’t answer me. “Your mom will be fine.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“She’s a fighter.”

He looked at me, anger flashing in his eyes. “You all think she’s so strong. That she can do anything. But she’s just like the rest of us. Fragile, small, scared. None of you understand.”

I did understand. But I wanted her to be invincible. I wanted her to be someone who couldn’t be hurt. Because seeing her like this was unbearable.

I wanted to tell Elias that she would be okay. But how could I lie to a child who was wiser than me?

I let out a heavy sigh and sat down next to him. “I don’t want to think about any other outcome. But I’m scared,” I admitted. “She deserves so much better than this.”

He returned his attention to his book. “You love her.”

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. “What if I do?”

“I know you do.”

“Do you think she could love me?”

He shrugged. “She does. But she’s hurt.” I knew he wasn’t talking about the physical pain she was in at the moment.

“You’re very wise for an eight-year-old.” He just rolled his eyes at me.

“Maybe everyone else is just dumb for their age.” That made me laugh. A genuine laugh. “Except mom.”

We fell into a comfortable silence. “Is she a good mom?”

“Why wouldn’t she be?” I must have offended him, his lips pressed together and his brow furrowed. “She’s the best. At everything. Everyone is already crying like she’s dead,” his voice was filled with more anger than a child should have.

“They care, everyone does.” I tried to soothe him, but he was overwhelmed. “You should rest,” I reached out to pat his shoulder, but he shrugged my hand away.

“I don’t like to be touched.”

“You don’t let your mother hug you?” He didn’t answer, and I slowly stood up.

“Well… It’s good that you know how lucky you are to have her as your mother.”

“It’s bad that you didn’t know how lucky you were to have her.”

“What?” I asked, shocked. My eyes were fixed on the side of his face.

“You hurt her because you were hurt, but it didn’t help either of you.”

“Has she told you…?”

“No. I just know it.” He cut me off.

“How?”

He rolled his eyes. “Just because I’m a child doesn’t mean you can doubt my intuition.”

“It’s hard to think of you as a child when you know so much. Are you sure your parents weren’t some wise necromancers?”

“I know who my parents are. My mother is very powerful but my dad…he’s a bit slow. Nothing special. He makes poor life choices.”

“Don’t like your dad, huh?”

He stared straight ahead. “He doesn’t like himself.”