Chapter 309

Alaric didn’t flinch.

“You are the anchor,” he continued. “The line that cannot break. If you step into that battle, you risk everything you are holding together.”

“What about Nolan?” I demanded. “What if-“

“I will make sure he is safe,” Alaric said, and for the first time, I heard an oath in his voice. Not a promise. A vow.” On my life.”

My breath caught.

“You have my word as his ally,” he added quietly. “And as your father. I will not let anything happen to him.”

The fight went out of me all at once.

I sagged slightly, the weight of what he was asking pressing down on me. Stay. Hold. Trust.

The hardest things I’d ever had to do.

Before I could respond, hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor.

“Ellie!”

Lance skidded to a stop in front of us, eyes wild, hair already pulled back for battle. He took in the situation in a second-Alaric holding me in place, the panic room door behind us, the tension crackling in the air.

“They’re here,” he said breathlessly. “At the outer wards. We don’t have much time.”

His gaze flicked past me-and softened instantly.

Isla stood a few paces back, pale but composed, hands clenched tightly in front of her.

Lance crossed the distance in three strides and pulled her into his arms. She clung to him fiercely, burying her face against his chest.

“You listen to me,” he said urgently, one hand cupping her face. “You stay with Ellie. Both of you. Don’t be brave. Don’t be stupid. Just-just stay alive. Keep each other safe.”

Her lips trembled. “You’d better come back.”

“I will,” he said, kissing her hard, like the act itself could seal the promise. He rested his forehead against hers for a split second longer, then stepped back.

He turned to me, eyes sharp now. “Stay safe, please.”

I nodded. “I will.”

He squeezed my shoulder once, hard, then turned and ran, already shifting as he went,

Isla watched him disappear down the corridor, her breath shaking. I moved to her side without thinking, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

She was feeling exactly the same thing that I was right now. Being in love with those stubborn, reckless Silver Fang brothers felt like a curse at moments like this. For all of their tough talk and promises, they couldn’t see the future. They couldn’t defy death.

“We’ll stay together,” I said quietly. It was all that we could do. Just listen to Lance, keep each other safe.

She nodded, leaning into me. “Okay.”

The walls shuddered faintly.

Not from impact—from power. Whatever was coming, the shockwaves of it’s arrival were already reaching this

far.

The outer wards flared, a deep vibration rolling through the packhouse that rattled my teeth and made the goddess’s presence surge again, responding like a shield drawn tight.

I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling the energy there-solid, unyielding.

This was it.

This was the moment that everything Alaric had been teaching me would become necessary. The moment that I would learn if the goddess’s favor was truly going to be enough for me to protect what mattered most to me in this world.

Alaric was right. My place was right here. I wasn’t meant to chase the storm.

I was meant to weather it.

Somewhere beyond stone and wards, Nolan was standing at the front lines, teeth bared, wolf ready. Cassian. Lance. Alaric soon enough.

I would trust every one of them with my life. Right now, I would have to trust them with their own, too. I had to believe that they could do what must be done now without losing themselves in the process.

“Keep each other safe,” I whisper. The words seem loud in the empty corridor. They weigh heavily on my heart, but they’re all that I have.

And here inside the heart of Silver Fang-I stood with Isla, with Rae and my sons behayers of magic and will, holding the line that mattered most.

The storm could rage. It could bring with it Felicity and all of the strength of her anger and hatred for me. It could follow at my heels and rain blood down on me.

But it would not take what I was holding. It would not take what mattered most, the family that we had fought so hard to make. To bring together and hold.

Not tonight.

Not ever.