<b>Chapter </b><b>95 </b>
Maximus
The rain came sideways, shing through the narrow pass like the mountain itself had grown teeth. Each drop cut like ice, slicing across my arms as I dragged my hood lower and pressed deeper into the cliffside. The terrain here was ancient- jagged rock walls carved by forgotten gods, thick with moss and rune–scars older than any living wolf. It was the kind of ce people avoided without knowing why.
It was also the kind of ce where ghosts still whispered.
My boots sank into the mud as I reached the marker–three stones stacked atop one another, the top one carved with the de–and–rune sigil I hadn’t seen in years. A sign. A warning. A memory.
I’d seen that markst during a mission for the Council, buried in the dirt outside a burned–out vige. I’d stood <i>there</i>, younger, cockier, with blood on my knuckles and orders on my tongue, and I hadn’t known what it meant.
I knew now.
I pushed through the narrow gap in the rock, shoulders brushing the slick stone as the pass gave way <i>to </i>a hollowed–out cove. The cave beyond was warm–unnaturally so–and lit with the faint green glow of moss–fed rune light. The air hummed like a de being sharpened.
And he was waiting.
“Maximus Laker,” the man said without turning. “Didn’t think you had the balls toe alone.”
“Didn’t think you still had a face,” I replied, voice t.
He chuckled–low and sharp like a whetstone kiss–and turned.
Time had not been kind to him.
Half of his face was scored with scars, deep and brutal, the kind that came from magical bacsh or betrayal. His left eye was clouded white. His hands–once so steady they could etch runes into bone–now trembled slightly as he reached for the sk at his belt.
But the de–runner was still very much alive.
“I assume you’re not here for pleasantries,” he said, sipping.
I shook my head. “I’m here for the truth.”
“Expensivemodity these days.”
“I have coin.”
“And guilt,” he added, eye narrowing. “It leaks off you like a bad wound.”
I didn’t answer.
He gestured to the stone b beside him. I sat, dripping, soaked through, heart beating like war drums in my chest.
“I need to <i>know </i>about the rune–bonding system,” I said. “The one the Council used on gifted wolves. On the rogues. On her.”
The de–runner didn’t blink. “What makes you think I know anything?”
“Because you created it.”
He sipped again, then set the sk down. “I helped build it. Didn’t design the core. That was older than all of us. Pulled from ruins. Tranted from the tongues of things that no longer breathe. But I etched it into steel, into cuffs, into cors. I was the Council’s knife. And you were their hammer.”
I swallowed hard. “And Kael?”
That name made him go still.
“Kael,” he said slowly, “was one of the first.”
My throat tightened. “The first… what?”
“Ethereal–bound.”
The wordnded like a crack in stone. I felt it ripple through me, deep and cold and undeniable.
“What does that mean?”
Sessfully unlocked!
“It means he wasn’t just a gifted wolf,” the de–runei salu. He was por tethered to something–or someone–that amplified his magic beyond normal limits. The Council didn’t understand it at first. They thought it was a fluke. But when he began seeing visions… feeling things before they happened… they realized he wasn’t just gifted. He was chosen.”
“Chosen for what?”
“To anchor a prophecy.”
I stood. “You’re telling me Kael was part of a prophecy? That this–this whole war–isn’t just about rebellion?”
“No.” The man looked at me then, and his expression wasn’t smug or cold–it was tired. Bone–deep tired. “It’s about fate<i>. </i><i>Or </i>what people think fate is. The Ethereal–bound are rare. One every few generations. Born when the moon aligns with the me. They’re linked to a catalyst–another gifted wolf with power so old, it doesn’t just bend the world. It rewrites it.”
My heart slowed.
“Jiselle.”
He nodded. “If she is what they think she is, then yes. She’s the me.”
I stepped back, the cave suddenly too small. “And Kael…”
“Is the anchor. The vessel. The bnce. Call it what you will<b>, </b>but if the prophecy is right, the Ethereal and the me are two halves of the same force. Apart, they burn. Together, they either rule–or destroy.”
I felt sick.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I was.”
I ran both hands through my wet hair. My fingers trembled. “So what–he’s not using her? He actually believes they’re fated?”
“Worse,” he said softly. “He may be right.”
The words echoed in my skull like a war drum.
He may be right.
I thought <i>of </i>Kael–calm, controlled, terrifying in his precision. I thought of Jiselle, burning and broken and stubbornly
beautiful even when she was afraid. I thought of the way she’d looked at me thest time we spoke–not with hate, not with love–but with disappointment. Like she didn’t recognize me anymore.
“What if she starts to believe it?” I asked, voice barely above a whisper. “What if she stops fighting it? What if she lets him
in?<b>” </b>
The de–runner met my gaze. “Then we don’t just lose her.”
I swallowed hard <i>“</i>we lose the world.”
A long silence passed.
Outside, the rain softened. The mountain held its breath.
“You still love her,” the de–runner said.
I didn’t respond.
“You think love is enough to pull her back?”
I stared at the cave wall, watched the runes shift and flicker.
“No,” I said finally. “But guilt might be.”
He smiled bitterly. “Then I hope your guilt’s stronger than prophecy.”
“You still love her,” the de–runner said.
I didn’t respond. I didn’t need to. The truth sat between us, silent and raw.
“You think love is enough to pull her back?”
I stared at the cave wall, watched the runes shift and flicker like dying stars. There was something ancient in them- something hungry. Like the mountain had seen too many gods rise and fall and knew the cost of believing in salvation.
“No,” I said finally. “But guilt might be.”
The de–runner huffed a breath that wasn’t quite augh. “Then pray your guilt is louder than fate.”
I nodded once, jaw clenched. “I intend to make it scream.”