<b>Chapter </b><b>87 </b>


    *Nathaniel*


    The second Jiselle disappeared from my sight, something inside me snapped.


    One moment she was there–fighting, surviving, burning like the brightest star in a ckened sky. And the next, she was gone, dragged into the chaos as the mountain crumbled around us, swallowed whole by the very war we hadn’t been ready to fight.


    My heart stopped.


    My mind nked.


    And my wolf…


    My wolf roared.


    The shift hit me so hard I staggered, barely catching myself before the transformation ripped through me. It wasn’t just instinct–it was rage. A primal, feral thing wing its way out of my chest, demanding blood, demanding violence, demanding her back.


    “JISELLE!”


    I didn’t care who heard. I didn’t care who saw.


    My voice shattered the air like a thunderp, ricocheting through the broken arena, rattling the stone itself. Students screamed. Council guards shouted orders. Rogues poured through the fractured defenses like a flood.


    But all I could see was the empty space where she should have been.


    I bolted forward, barely human, barely sane. My ws shredded through the first council enforcer that stepped into my path. His body hit the ground before he even realized he was dead. Another leapt at me–a rogue this time–and I mmed him into the pir so hard the stone cracked.


    I didn’t stop.


    Every instinct screamed at me: Find her. Find her. FIND HER.


    I tore through the battlefield like a storm, my senses ring wide, hunting for the scent of her–moonlight and earth and wildflowers–but it was already fading, swallowed by smoke and magic and blood.


    Another enforcer charged. I ducked under his de, snapped his wrist with one hand, drove my ws into his gut with the other. I didn’t wait to watch him fall.


    I didn’t wait for anything.


    I was death in motion.


    I don’t know how long I fought. I don’t know how many bodies hit the ground around me. All I know is that the moment I caught a glimpse of golden hair shing through the broken archway, something inside me surged to life again.


    Maximus–Fucking–Laker.


    He wasn’t fighting the rogues. He wasn’t fighting the council.


    He was looking for me.


    And when he found me–when our eyes locked across the chaos–he ran at me.


    “Get out of my way!” I roared, but he was already mming into me, shoulder–first, knocking us both off bnce.


    Ished out instinctively, my ws raking across his chest. He snarled, shifting halfway, his own wolf rising to meet mine.


    “You don’t understand-” Max growled, blocking another of my blows.


    “I understand enough!” I mmed him into the nearest wall. Dust rained down around us. “You betrayed her! Again!”


    He ducked my next punch, barely. “I was trying to keep her alive!”


    “You LIED!” I bellowed, striking again, fueled by a rage so vast it felt endless. “You let them use you!”


    “She would’ve been dead by now if it weren’t for me!” Max shouted, blood dripping from his mouth. “Carrow wanted to bind her with a rune–dagger, Nathaniel. You think the council would’ve hesitated after that?”


    I paused–just long enough for doubt to splinter through the age


    And Max used it.


    Sessfully unlocked!


    He shoved me backward with a snarl, breathing hard, his chest heaving. His face–bleeding and furious and desperate- looked nothing like the smug bastard I remembered fromst year.


    “She’s alive because of what I did,” he panted. “You want to kill me? Fine. Do it. But don’t forget–we’re wasting time. They‘


    re taking her. Right now.”


    My hands shook.


    My wolf paced, furious.


    But deep down, I knew he was right.


    And then Bastain’s voice cracked through the smoke and fury:


    “Nathaniel! Enough!”


    I turned to see him standing at the broken threshold, blood soaking his tunic, his sword dripping red. His eyes burned into mine.


    “This isn’t the enemy!” he shouted, gesturing at Max. “The council is scattering! The rogues are overrunning the school! If we don’t focus–we lose her. We lose everything!”


    For one horrible, dizzying second–I wanted to ignore him.


    I wanted to tear Max apart piece by piece.


    But then I thought of Jiselle.


    Of herugh.


    Of the way she’d kissed me before the trials began, fierce and stubborn and beautiful.


    Of the way she had looked at me like I was her whole world.


    And I knew what she would want.


    Survive first.


    Fightter.


    I snarled once–low, dangerous–but pulled back.


    Max staggered, blood slicking his side, but he nodded grimly.


    A temporary truce.


    Bastain pointed to the eastern wing. “That’s where thest group was seen heading. If they’re taking prisoners–they’ll go through the river tunnels.”


    I didn’t wait for more.


    I sprinted forward, dodging rubble and bodies, my heart hammering in my ears.


    Eva.


    I skidded to a stop when i saw her copsed near one of the shattered pirs. Blood stained her shoulder, and Ethan knelt beside her, his hands pressed to a wound in her side.


    “Eva-” I crouched down, scanning her quickly. “Is she-<b>” </b>


    “She’s alive,” Ethan said hoarsely. His face was pale. His own side was bleeding through his uniform. “Barely. Bastards hit her when she tried to cover a retreat.”


    I swore viciously.


    “We have to get them out,” I said “Both of them. Now.”


    Max arrived a secondter, limping slightly, his face grim.


    “I’ll cover them,” he said. “You go.”


    I hesitated–every instinct screaming not to trust him.


    But then Eva moaned softly, her fingers clutching Ethan’s jacket, and I knew we didn’t have a choice.


    “Touch them wrong and I’ll gut you myself,” I snarled.


    Max just nodded once, grimly. “Understood.”


    I stood, my body vibrating with restrained fury.


    The school around us was crumbling–figuratively and literally. Columns copsed. Fires burned unchecked. Council members fled into the hidden tunnels. Students fought wherever they could.


    The war wasn’ting.


    It had begun.


    I lifted my head to the sky–saw the full moon burning above the open crevice–and made my vow silently, to the stars, to the goddess, to whoever the hell was listening:


    I will bring you back, Jiselle.


    I will tear down this world if I have to.


    I will burn the earth to its roots before I let them keep you.


    I ran faster.


    Through the blood.


    Through the fire.


    Through the ruins of everything we had once believed in.


    And as I sprinted into the darkness beyond the mountain, the only truth that mattered was this:


    She was gone.


    And I would burn this entire world to the ground to get her back.


    END of Part 1.