Chapter 6
When I woke up, the cave was quiet. The fire had burned low, leaving only faint orange embers glowing softly in the dark. I blinked slowly, my muscles aching from days of tension and abuse. Every part of me hurt, but for once, it wasn’t from a fight.
He sat near the cave’s entrance, watching the trees outside. His posture was rigid, alert, like he was expecting someone—or something.
“You didn’t sleep,” I said, my voice still hoarse.
He turned his head slightly. “Didn’t need to.”
I pushed myself up, wrapping the cloak tighter around me. “You’re still the same. Always pretending you don’t need rest. Or help.”
He didn’t argue.
I walked over, settling beside him. The forest looked peaceful now. Snow was falling again, quietly, like nothing had happened. Like blood hadn’t soaked the earth just hours ago.
He finally spoke. “They’ll come soon. The next pack who runs the prison—if they know what happened, they’ll want revenge.”
“I figured.” I looked down at my bruised hands. “You said there’s one base left.”
He nodded. “And the man who runs it is the worst of them.”
“Who?”
“Alpha Radek.”
I flinched. That name was known in whispers, in threats told to new prisoners to keep them obedient. He was the monster’s monster. Even the guards feared him.
“You’re going to kill him?” I asked.
He nodded. “And burn the last of this operation to the ground.”
“How?” I stared at him, confused. “You’re wounded. You’ve been running for days. And you’ve got me, who can barely walk—let alone fight.”
“I didn’t come this far to let you fight,” he said quietly. “I came so you wouldn’t have to anymore.”
I felt something tighten in my chest. A memory of warmth, of safety—of a time before all of this. When his arms were the only place I ever felt free.
“Then let me come,” I whispered. “Not to fight. But to finish what they started. I need to see it end, with my own eyes.”
He looked at me, like he was seeing the girl he once knew buried somewhere deep under the dirt and pain. After a long pause, he nodded.
“We leave before sunrise. I know a way into the mountain.”
“Mountain?”
“Radek’s base is buried inside it. Hidden, protected. But I’ve been there once before. They won’t expect us to return.”
I reached for his hand. His fingers were cold, rough with scars. Mine trembled as they wrapped around his.
“I never stopped waiting,” I said.
“I know,” he whispered. “And I’ll never leave you again.”
The snow outside thickened, the wind picking up as if the forest itself could sense what was coming. War. Revenge. A reckoning long overdue.
We sat in silence, side by side, two ghosts of who we used to be.
But tomorrow, we wouldn’t be ghosts anymore.
Tomorrow, we’d be fire.