Mira's. Pov.

Lyra entered at dawn with four guards flanking her. She circled us slowly, studying her chained parents like specimens pinned for examination. "Did you search every day?" Her voice was clinical. "Or just when guilt made you remember I existed?"

I tried to answer, but she talked over me. "And you." She turned to Kael. "Did you reject her to protect her, or because claiming her would cost you the throne?"

Kael didn't respond. He watched her with that unreadable Alpha expression, but I felt something else through the bond, calculation.

"You'll stay here until I decide what you're worth." Lyra moved toward the exit. "Darius wants you dead. I haven't decided if he's wrong."

The casual mention of our execution hung in the cold air. One of her younger guards shifted his weight, muttered to the wolf beside him. "Should just kill them now. Worked last time."

The other guard elbowed him hard. Too late. My head snapped up. "Last time? What last time?" Lyra froze mid-step. The silence stretched until she finally turned around.

"Someone from Windermere came looking for you years ago." Her tone stayed flat. "Said they were sent by Mira to find her lost daughter."

My chest went hollow. I'd sent so many searchers, lost contact with several over the years.

"They were lying," Lyra continued. "Trying to infiltrate. We dealt with them." The euphemism was clear as broken glass. Kael's voice came out quiet. "You murdered someone searching for a missing child."

"I protected my people from infiltrators." Lyra lifted her chin. "There's a difference." I felt it through the bond before I saw it. A wave of power that made the air pressure change.

Kael dropped to the ground, wrists mangled and streaming silver-poisoned blood. For a heartbeat, he stayed down. Then he rose, and there was nothing human left in his eyes.

Four guards rushed him at once. He met them with the broken chain wrapped around his ruined fist. First guard's windpipe crushed. Second got the chain around his throat, Kael pulling until something snapped.

The third guard landed a knife in Kael's side. Kael tore out his throat with claws that shouldn't exist on human hands. Twenty seconds. Three dead, one running.

Lyra watched without moving. Her expression gave away nothing. Kael didn't chase the fleeing guard. He came straight for me, hands shaking as he worked my chains.

"Kael, your hands, "

"Don't matter." His voice was barely recognizable. "Getting you out." More guards coming, shouts echoing down stone corridors. Kael used a dead guard's knife on the lock mechanism.

I looked past him to Lyra. "Help us. Please." Something flickered across her face, gone too fast to name. She said nothing. The lock broke. My chains released and I dropped, legs buckling from hours suspended.

Kael caught me against his chest. Our eyes met, and the bond roared between us. "Can you run?" he asked. My legs felt like water, but I lied anyway. "Yes." He knew but didn't argue. His bloody hand cupped my face briefly before pulling me toward the door.

We hit the corridor and ran into six more guards. No room to maneuver in the narrow space. Kael shoved me behind him. My wolf surged forward without permission, claws extending, fangs dropping.

I pulled a guard off Kael's back and ripped into his shoulder. Felt life leave under my hands. The shock of the first kill lasted half a second. Then survival overrode everything else.

We broke through that group and stumbled into a larger chamber. Darius waited with a dozen wolves. "You should have stayed in your chains," he said. "Died with dignity." "Dignity from you?" Kael's laugh was ugly. "You stole our daughter."

"I saved her from becoming like you." Darius's contempt was palpable. "Weak. Compromised by emotion." Lyra appeared behind us, blocking retreat. We were trapped between them.

Darius noticed her positioning. "Well? Kill them or step aside." The pause felt endless. Lyra didn't move toward us but stepped away from the exit. Not helping. Not stopping either.

Her eyes met mine, anger and curiosity, and something softer she was trying to bury. "You're weak like them," Darius spat at her. Wrong thing to say. Behind us, Darius shouted orders. Kael stumbled, caught himself on the wall. Left a bloody handprint.

"Which way?" I asked. "I don't know." First admission of helplessness I'd ever heard from him. My wolf suddenly surged. I could smell it, fresh air, different from the recycled cave atmosphere.

I grabbed his hand. "This way. Trust me." He followed without question. The trust was absolute and terrifying. We rounded a corner into three guards. No time to avoid, no room to retreat.

This fight was messier. We were slower, weaker, accumulating damage. Kael took a cut across his thigh. I got my arm sliced from shoulder to elbow. But we won. Left three more bodies and kept moving.

Another group, four this time. Kael's sword arm barely functioned; I'd lost the partial shift. We won through desperation more than skill. One guard escaped, running ahead.

"He's warning whoever's at the exit," Kael said. "Then we run faster." We couldn't run faster, but we tried anyway.

Emerged into morning light, main gate ahead. Six guards waiting, alerted and ready. The gate was barred, reinforced, and designed to hold against armies. We shared a look, both knowing we couldn't win.

"I'll clear them," Kael said. "You run when it opens." "We run together or not at all." He started to argue. I cut him off. "Together, Kael." Something complicated crossed his face. He nodded once. We attacked together.

The synchronization happened without thought. I went low while he went high, covered his blind side when he focused forward. When I stumbled, he was there. When he faltered, I caught him.

The mate bond made us move as one group. Guards fell not because we were stronger but because we were unified. Final guard dropped. We held each other upright; neither could stand alone.

Together, we lifted the gate bar. Together, we pushed through. Cold mountain air hit us like salvation.

Rocky paths, treacherous footing. Kael's leg was giving out repeatedly. I supported him. The path led to a cliff edge. River gorge sixty feet below, white water churning. Dead end. Behind us, the pursuit is closing in. Thirty seconds at most.

Kael looked down at the water, then at me. No discussion needed. "Together?" I asked. He pulled me against his chest. "Always." Rebels reached us as we jumped. Someone grabbed my shirt, and Kael tore me free.

Weightlessness. His arms were around me, trying to shield me from what was coming. Then impact. Like hitting concrete. His arms were ripped away by the force. Cold so intense it stopped my heart. Underwater, no sense of direction.

Current grabbed me, pulled me under. Tumbling, lungs burning, couldn't find the surface. Broke through for one gasp of air. Swept back under immediately.

Next time I surfaced, I was already far downstream. Screamed his name. Nothing. Searched the white water desperately. No sign of him anywhere.

The current is too strong, pulling me farther away. I fought it, trying to get back. Useless against the river's force.

One more glimpse of the distant cliff. Empty. Kael was gone. Panic clawed worse than drowning. We'd survived everything, only for the water to take him.

The cold was winning. But I couldn't stop looking back. Couldn't stop searching the water for any sign. The mate bond stretched between us like a wire pulled too tight. Still there but growing thinner.

I didn't know if that meant he was alive or if I was feeling the last echo before it snapped forever. The river turned sharply. White water pulled me under again.