Chapter Three

The entire room fell silent.

I turned with Mina in my arms, spine straight, ignoring every needle-prick stare as I walked toward the doors.

Mina buried her face in my neck and sobbed quietly; warm tears seeped into my collar.

“Vera…”

A call as light as a feather drifted behind me.

I didn’t stop. I didn’t even slow down.

I’d almost reached the heavy double doors when, without warning—

They exploded.

Boom—!

The sound hit my eardrums before anything else, followed by a scalding blast wave that swallowed everything.

I slammed into the wall behind me, pain detonating across my back. My arms snapped tight like iron, forming a sealed cage around Mina, crushing her to my chest.

Her short scream was muffled by the jolt of my body.

A sharp ringing filled my ears, drowning out the world—until the sounds of hell came surging back in.

“Raiders!”

“Wolf hunters! They’ve colluded—”

“Protect the Alpha! Protect the Luna!”

Smoke burned my nose, mixed with blood and gunpowder. The chandelier swung violently. Guests who’d been immaculate a second ago became a panicked beast pack, shoving, warping, tearing. Formalwear split as bodies expanded—fur bristled, claws lashed in the chaos without friend or foe.

In the mayhem, my gaze cut through the smoke, instinctive and pathetic, searching for him.

I saw him.

Among falling decorative shards, Kael’s first reaction was to whirl around and throw his broad back—his body swelling—over Selene, wrapping her tight, forcing her down beneath the stage.

A posture of absolute protection. Fast. Decisive. Without hesitation.

My heart seemed to stop beating altogether. Even the last ember inside it went cold.

“Mom!” Mina’s scream yanked me back. A splinter of flying wood grazed my forehead. Warm, sticky liquid slid down.

Blood. My blood—darker than it should be.

No. Not here. Mina can’t be here.

Survival crushed everything else. I clutched her and scanned the room with a vampire’s vision in the dark. The smoke thickened, laced with a harsh chemical stench—wolf hunters’ methods. They’d come prepared.

The path to the fire stairs was blocked by a collapsed decorative pillar and a knot of fighting bodies. On the other side stood huge observation windows—beyond them, empty air dozens of stories down. Only the corridor we’d entered through still looked passable, though smoke churned there too.

“Listen to me, baby.” I cupped her icy little face and forced her to look into my eyes. “We have to run. Stay against the wall and get to that corridor, okay? No matter what, hold onto Mom.”

She nodded hard, terrified, lips white.

I drew in a lungful of smoke and gunpowder. I used my body to shield Mina from anything that might fly at us and hauled her forward along the wall. Broken glass bit into the soles of my feet, but I felt nothing.

Just a few steps—

Then a fully wolfed-out werewolf burst from the side, eyes red, clearly past distinguishing friend from foe. Drool flew as it lunged, claws cutting the air toward Mina’s nape.

I shoved Mina with all my strength toward the corridor.

“Run!”

The push sent her forward. The recoil threw me backward, and the attacker was knocked aside by another figure crashing in from a different direction. They went down, tearing into each other.

I scrambled up—but the next second, a bottomless terror turned my blood to ice.

“Mina?!”

My shove had thrown her off balance. Instead of making the corridor, she was clipped by a werewolf fleeing in panic and stumbled toward the opposite side.

And behind her—

A raider. He grinned as he lifted something in his hand: a blackened metal canister, smoking.

A bomb.

“Mina!”

I roared and sprinted for her, the world shrinking to the tiny flash of her dress flickering in the chaos.

Time stretched impossibly. Every sound pulled away; every image slowed.

I unleashed strength no human disguise could contain, speed surging to the limit. People blurred into elongated smears of color. I dove, threw my whole body over her, pinning her into the corner between the wall and my chest. My arms circled her head. My spine curved, becoming the last fragile shield.

Boom—!

The blast went off almost on top of us.

A savage force slammed into my back, tearing flesh, crushing bone. Scalding fragments embedded themselves throughout my body. The shockwave felt like it pulverized my organs.

The taste of blood flooded my mouth. Darkness rose like a tide.

But against my chest—one faint point of warmth.

Mina. She was alive. Alive.

That thought was the final spark holding my dissolving consciousness together.

I don’t know how long passed. Through the ringing in my ears, I caught a voice—splintered with panic and despair—shouting somewhere nearby:

“Save her! Please, save her—!”

Kael.

He was shouting. He was begging them to save her.

He… finally… It was Mina, right?

My thoughts, nearly frozen solid, turned with effort.

Yes. He must have seen it. He saw the child in danger… He still—

A faint current of air brushed my cheek. Someone dropped to their knees beside me, rummaging at something—white clothing… a healer?

In my blurred vision, everything was a wavering smear.

Use my… heart’s blood…

The deepest taboo knowledge in my bloodline surfaced as my consciousness guttered out. It was the only thing I had left to give—the last thing.

I don’t know where I found the strength, but I lifted a hand heavy as iron and grabbed the nearest cloth, my fingers catching soft fabric.

With the final shred of life in me, I forced the words out through blood-wet teeth—soft as a sigh, yet wrung from every ounce of will I had left:

“Draw… my… heart’s blood… It can… save her…”

The dark finally fell all the way, swallowing everything.