Chapter 279

Chapter 279
KALEB
The whole main building was on fire.
watched it burn from a distance, admiring the plumes of smoke as they rose high into the air. It was a gorgeous sight, though dark given the circumstances. Thankfully, I couldn’t hear the screams and cries within because the tightly shut windows and doors had blocked them. As I stared at the building, I wondered if this was what those people felt when they locked my siblings and me in the dungeon, leaving us to our demise.
Had they stood outside the doors, wondering who would be the victor and who would meet a violent death at the hands of their family members? Had they felt satisfaction at the idea of us fighting one another?
All of my enemies, as well as those with the potential to be my enemies, were there in that burning building, but I couldn’t feel even a tiny bit of happiness at the sight. Nor did I feel regret or horror.
I felt absolutely nothing at all.
Those who had stood loyal to my side of the conflict had been evacuated out of the building and stood beside me, watching the structure burn with expressions of wonderment. Some were excited, like Raven. The young, dark-haired sorceress had been excited from the moment I’d revealed my plan to her.
“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she remarked, her bluish-green eyes enormous as they stared ahead. “It’s even more incredible than I’d imagined it would be, Kaleb.”
As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t call her crazy this time, because I was just as insane as her.
Raven had said there would never be a more perfect opportunity or idea to provoke Cassandra’s wolf spirit. She believed that the inferno and the burning were the keys Emmett Keller had used to seal Cassandra’s wolf. It was genius, really, to use her fear and trauma to lock away that vital key to her shifting, but we hadn’t known how to get it out of her. It wasn’t every day that one came across an opportunity for a fire big enough to elicit such a fear response, but this one had presented itself at the right moment.
When else would so many people gather in Vlokwell?
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Chapter 279
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Rain fell steadily from the sky, yet the fire didn’t cease. I wasn’t sure what kind of sorcery Raven had used on the building, but the fire had been so precisely controlled that it hadn’t spread beyond the intended point, nor was it ending until she said so.
“It’s like an oven,” she had said.
Fifteen minutes had passed, and Cassandra hadn’t escaped yet. Her small son and her maid were crying beside Raven, their faces filled with fear and shock as they stared at the building. The maid managed to keep herself steady, but Finnick’s chest wracked with s obs and his cries filled the air around us. It was heartbreaking to hear, but this was a necessary task. I couldn’t put an end to it simply because a child was crying.
Despite my indifference, Raven crouched down beside him and rubbed his back.
“Your mother will be just fine,” she assured the little boy repeatedly, but the more times she said it, the more horrified Finnick looked.
There came a point where I couldn’t look at him any longer. The child was a distraction. I couldn’t let his sorrow and pain affect me, not when I needed to stay so focused. My only worry was the sorcery that Emmett had hidden within Cassandra. There had been no conceivable way of extracting it, so we had come up with this plan. My mind swam with a million thoughts, but I forced myself to concentrate on the task at hand.
The smell of smoke soon became suffocating, and I loosened the tie around my neck. It was excruciating, and my throat began to ache the more of it I inhaled. Behind me, the voices of those loyal to me began to make comments about the acrid smell around us, and as they coughed, I knew it was time to call it.
“It’s time to get her out,” I remarked. If Cassandra died, our efforts would be in vain. We would have done all of this for nothing.
I raised my hand at the soldiers in special protective suits beyond us awaiting instructions, but before I could utter a word, Raven stood up and shook her head
“Not yet,” she insisted, but as soon as she finished her sentence, a loud growl escaped the building. It was an intense sound, so clear and strong that the air around us felt as if it had vibrated. The hairs on the back of my neck raised I straightened in place.
up
and
Before any of us could properly react, the intensity of the fire decreased all of a sudden. Mere moments later, it was quickly smothered.
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Chapter 279
eyes e
and angry as they stared
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“What happened?” Raven shouted, her ahead of us. She frowned deeply and raised both hands high in the air. The veins at her temples tensed as she strained, but no matter how she tried, nothing happened. All of her attempts at magic failed, and with every try, her agitation
grew.
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Another growl rang out and was quickly followed by a heavy thud. The front doors of the building flew open, and thick smoke billowed out onto the grounds. Among the thick trails of smoke was a gray wolf.
My eyebrows knitted together as I stared in confusion, and as I looked closer, I realized it wasn’t gray, but white. It had only looked gray because of the smoke, but its fur was actually snow white.
A white wolf.
That was a rare color to see indeed. White werewolves were exclusively female and usually highborn. It was a fur color reserved for royalty and nobility, and I had never seen a wolf that shade in person.
Guests who had been trapped within the building followed the wolf, coughing as they stumbled out.
The white wolf crawled closer toward Raven and me, its body lowered and its eyes
red as rubies.
Everyone around me froze, unsure of how to react.
With another growl, the wolf lept into the sky and launched an attack at me. I was swift enough to avoid its sharp claws, but Raven wasn’t. The young sorceress’ was ripped open, the deep wound instantly oozing rivers of blood.
I inhaled sharply.
Raven had put that arm on Finnick’s shoulder.
arm
The crowd drew backward in the chaos, and I half expected the boy to burst into tears, but instead, he widened his slate-gray eyes at the wolf and ran toward it.
“Mommy!” he cried out, and the wolf lowered her head, letting Finnick place a kiss on her cheek.
It was Cassandra?
Did that mean Raven’s plan had succeeded?
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Moments later, the wolf raised its snow-white head and stared at me. Then, it bared its pearl white teeth and road at me angrily.
arrows, but
The soldiers realized what happened and started to attack the wolf without instruction. They sprang into action and tried using their guns and arrows, nothing seemed to hurt the wolf, because the bullets and the arrows changed directions right before they could make contact with its body.
I inhaled deeply and knew the cause at once.
Magic.
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The soldiers began to reload, but I held my hand up and stopped them. They took a step back obediently, and once they were a safe distance away, I shifted into my wolf form. I hadn’t taken this shape since I’d won the battle in the dungeon, and it felt good to be back in it.
Once I was a wolf, the soldiers changed forms as well, and Cassandra pressed closer.
As she advanced, a strange feeling formed in my belly.
Would I win this time?
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