Chapter 644

KILLIAN

I didn’t see the exact mechanism

–

แล

Finistied

she was fast and the dagger that she’d had on her, the specific one that was always on her, was relevant, and the outcome was the werewitch was no longer holding her and there was a person on the ground.

She went for Hale.

Directly. Without preamble. With the specific intention of someone who’d decided what she was doing and was doing it.

She got close.

Hale teleported.

Not far – ten feet, the specific short-range displacement of someone who wasn’t running but was removing himself from the immediate contact threat while remaining in the operational space. He looked at Ivory with the expression of someone who’d expected this and had accounted for it.

“This is taking longer than planned,” he said.

“Everything takes longer than planned when it involves this pack,” someone near him said.

“True,” Hale said.

Ivory’s eyes went to Kael.

Who was shifting.

The partial shift – the specific thing I’d seen once, during the full moon incident in the clinic when the attack had been sent through the root. The shift that wasn’t controlled, that was the curse’s version rather than the wolf’s version, the specific horror of the thing that had been in him for three years making a claim on his body.

“No,” Ivory said. “You can’t. The integration-Kael, the integration, hold on—”

“KAEL,” Jordan said, from somewhere in the field. “Kael, stay with me, you have to stay with me

Kael snarled.

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Finiched

He turned and looked at Jordan and there was something in the look that was not recognition

“Kael, Jordan said, steadying, keeping his voice at the specific level – not scared, Jordan had learned years ago that scared was the wrong register for this, that the register that reached Kael’s wolf was the steady one, the one that existed below the panic. “Kael. I am Jordan. I am Jordan and you know me and you know where you are. Stay here.”

A swipe.

Kael’s hand, partially shifted, at Jordan.

Jordan got the shield

–

Aria’s shield, which had found Jordan in the specific way that a Luna’s moon shield reached for the pack member who needed it – and took the impact.

The shield held.

“He’s losing it,” Elite said, from my right.

“I know,” I said.

“The root activation is escalating,” Elite said. “With Hale actively working it-”

“I know.” I said.

“Aria,” I said, through the link, at a level that I hoped was reaching her. “Are you up.”

A beat.

*Getting there,* she said.

*We need the shield on Kael,* I said. *He’s partially shifted and not in control.*

*I know,* she said. *I can feel it.*

“EVERYONE IN THE CAR.”

Ivory’s voice.

At the volume that cut through everything else.

Everyone looked.

Nina had the car upright.

I did not fully understand how Nina had gotten the car upright. She was a restored wolf with full pack-enhanced strength and presumably this was the explanation but the specific mechanics of how she’d managed it in the middle of a field engagement while also shooting

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things was something I was going to ask about later.

The car was upright.

“NOW, Ivory said.

We moved.

Finished

The field was still active – enemies still present, the engagement not fully resolved. This wasn’t a clean exit. This was the specific kind of exit where you moved while things were still happening and dealt with the continued happening while moving.

Jordan grabbed Kael.

Kael was resisting – the part of him that was currently in control was not the part that had the ability to identify Jordan as Jordan, and the resistance was significant. Jordan held on with the specific grip of someone who’d been doing this for years, who’d held Kael through the worst of the curse, who knew exactly how to be present to someone who didn’t currently know you were there.

“IN THE CAR,” Jordan said.

We got Kael in the car.

Everyone else piled in with the specific organized chaos of people who’d decided a destination and were committed to reaching it regardless of what was between them and the car door.

Ivory was in the driver’s seat.

The engine was running.

I registered this as remarkable and then set the remarkable aside because the car was moving and Kael was in my arms and in Jordan’s arms and was making sounds that communicated severe distress.

“Ivory,” Aria said, from somewhere in the back. “Aria, find the red pill. Red. In my bag. Bottom left section. Find it and infuse it with your blood and get it into Kael’s mouth.”

“The red one,” Aria said.

“Red. Bottom left. Go.”

Aria was already in the bag.

The bag had spilled – during the car flip, everything had gone everywhere, the compounds scattered across the interior surfaces. Aria was collecting what she could reach, looking for red, her hands moving with the focused urgency of someone who’d received specific instructions

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and was executing them.

“Found it,” she said.

Finished

“Cut your hand,” Ivory said. “The blood activates the compound’s moon-child interaction. It needs your blood specifically.”

“How much-”

“Enough to coat it,” Ivory said. “Don’t think about it, do it.”

A sound that communicated Aria had done it.

“In his mouth,” Ivory said. “He might resist. Don’t let him.”

Jordan and I held Kael.

He resisted.

The partial-shift had given him strength that was not fully Kael’s strength and was not fully the wolf’s strength and was the specific compound worst version of both, and the resistance was significant and he was not going to open his mouth because the thing currently occupying the driver’s seat of his consciousness was not interested in cooperation.

“Kael,” Jordan said. At the level. The steady below-panic level. “Kael. You need this. This is going to help. This is Aria’s blood and it is going to help, open your mouth.”

Aria put it in.

The swallowing was reflexive – even in the state he was in, the body’s basic reflexes were present, and the pill went down.

In the back of my mind, Khris – Kael’s wolf, visible in the link in the specific way the Alpha’s wolf was always visible – was not the integration version. The warm, learning-to-be-one-thing version. This was a different channel, older, the version that had existed for three years when the curse was fully active.

*Kill them,* Khris was saying, in the link. Not to anyone specifically. The specific broadcast of something that was not in control of itself. *Kill them. No one left. Kill all of them.*

*Khris,* Silver said, through the bond, through the link, at a level that was – I felt it even from here, the specific quality of the Luna’s wolf making contact with the Alpha’s wolf at a level that was below the verbal.

*Khris. We’re here. You’re here. Come back.*

The car was moving through trees.

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Ivory had left the road.

67

Finished

I looked up – the windshield was showing forest, the specific density of trees that communicated we were well off any established path, and Ivory was driving through it with the quality of someone who’d decided the direction and was committing to it regardless of what the terrain had to say about it.

“Ivory,” Kael said.

His voice.

Not the other version – his voice, the actual one, breaking through whatever the pill and Aria’s blood were doing.

“Ivory,” he said again.

“I know,” she said, from the front. “Hold on.”

“The root-”

“I know,” she said.

“It’s-the integration isn’t-”

“I know,” she said. “Hold on. We’re almost there.”

Her phone.

She was dialing with one hand while driving through a forest with the other. The specific Ivory multitasking that was alarming and also somehow worked.

“Plan B,” she said, into the phone. “Activate it. I’m sending coordinates. Destination is—” she gave a specific location, the words delivered with the rapid precision of someone giving navigational information to someone who needed it immediately.

“We’re heading for the cliff,” she said.

“The cliff,” Nina said.

“Yes,” Ivory said.

“Ivory,” Nina said.

“I know,” Ivory said.

“There’s a waterfall,” Nina said.

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Finished

“I know,” Ivory said.

“Ivory,” Nina said.

“I know,” Ivory said.

“IVORY,” Nina said.

“I KNOW, Ivory said.

The car broke through the treeline.

The cliff was ahead.

The night was showing us the edge of it and the specific darkness beyond that edge that communicated a significant drop and water that was moving at the base.

Kael looked.

“Aria,” Ivory said.

“Yes,” Aria said.

“The root,” Ivory said. “After this. You take it out.”

“The cost,” Aria said.

“The cost is nothing compared to his life,” Ivory said. “As long as that root is in him they can do this to him whenever they want. Every time they do it, the suppression gets weaker. Eventually it stops working entirely and they have permanent access to him through it.” Her voice was completely even. “The root comes out. That’s his only chance.”

“What cost,” Kael said.

He’d caught the word.

“Aria will survive,” Ivory said. “It will drain her power significantly. She’ll need recovery time. But she survives.”

A beat.

“Ivory,” Kael said. “What cost.”

“The cost I said,” she said.

“That’s not-”

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Pilshed

“The cost I said,” she repeated, and the repetition was the specific repetition of someone who’d made a decision about what information was being provided and was not changing it.

The car was close to the edge.

“I’m sorry, Ivory said.

Her voice was – not the clinical register. Not the management layer. The actual one, from somewhere below all the layers, the specific quality of someone saying something true in the limited time before the moment in which it could be said passed.

“I’m sorry for doing this to you,” she said. “All of it.”

“Ivory,” Kael said. “Ivory, what are you—”

She opened the door.

Moving.

She was out of the car and falling and rolling and the car was still moving and I understood in the same moment what was happening and what I couldn’t do about it because the car was already at the edge and the edge was already-

Gone.

The car went over.

– significant. The specific quality of gravity making a claim that there was no argument against, the descent that was the descent, and then the water.

The waterfall hit the car with the force of water that had been falling for a long time and had strong opinions about what hit it.

We were in.

Cold.

Complete, comprehensive cold, the specific cold of water that didn’t compromise, and the car was sinking and we were moving because we were wolves and wolves had lungs and the fall hadn’t killed us and the water was cold and deep and the direction that mattered was up.

I got out.

Jordan got out.

Nina was already up- I could see her above me, the surface visible, and Nina was already at it.

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Kael was-

Finished

Kael was fighting his way up with the specific determination of someone who’d been in worse situations by a significant margin and was not going to be stopped by water. The pill was working – I could feel it in the link, the Khris channel, the specific quality of the deranged version receding and the integration reasserting, the warmth coming back in degrees.

Elite was beside me.

Aria broke the surface beside me.

I looked.

Everyone up.

“Status,” Jordan said, the moment his head was above water. “Everyone give me status.”

“Here,” Nina said.

“Here,” Elite said.

“Here,” I said.

“Here,” Aria said, already looking at Kael.

“Here,” Kael said. And then: “Where is Ivory.”

The surface of the water.

The cliff above us.

The treeline at the base where the waterfall pool met the bank.

No Ivory.