Free Web NovelChapter 89: Chapter 89: We Face It As One
That night I barely slept. I walked the battlements instead, checking sentries and staring north. The distant pinpricks of enemy fires looked closer. The alignment loomed. Five days until that woman tried to rip the future from my body through my children.
Dawn on the fourth day brought news from Darius. They had struck hard at the pass. Heavy casualties on the northern side. Their momentum broken again.
But Darius had taken a wound to his sword arm. Nothing life-threatening, the messenger assured me, yet the words still landed like stones in my gut.
I pushed the fear down and kept working. The keep transformed hour by hour. Traps lined the approach. Cauldrons of oil waited above the gates. Archers practiced their angles until shots flew true even in darkness.
I trained with the women myself, pushing through the pain in my side, letting them see their queen bleed and keep standing.
Lila joined the older children’s drills in the afternoon. She moved with surprising focus for her age, small wooden blade flashing. Thorne and Elara watched from a safe corner, clapping at every solid strike. Their innocent encouragement carved something fierce into my chest.
By evening the keep felt ready. As ready as stone and will could make it.
I stood on the highest tower as the sun bled across the western sky. The wind carried the faint scent of distant smoke.
Somewhere out there Darius rode back toward us with news of another victory and a wounded arm. Kane and Rylan still harassed the column’s edges. The witch-blood heir pushed forward with whatever remained of her force, driven by madness and ancient debt.
Five days.
I placed both hands on the cold parapet and let the stone ground me. This keep had stood for generations. It remembered every siege, every winter, every hard choice. Now it would remember us.
The children slept safely below. My kings fought for them across the hills. The pack stood united on these walls.
I had nothing left to give but everything I possessed.
And when that woman finally reached our gates, she would learn exactly how much a mother and her mates were willing to burn to keep their own alive.
I left the tower with that truth burning in my blood and spent the next hours walking every level of the keep. The air smelled of hot pitch and freshly sharpened steel. Children too young to fight carried water skins to the walls while their parents reinforced weak points with timber and iron.
I stopped at each station, spoke names, adjusted grips on spears, reminded them why these stones mattered. Their eyes followed me with a mixture of exhaustion and something fiercer now. Belief.
By midday Darius returned with the remnants of his strike team. His sword arm was bound tight, face drawn with pain and road dust, but he sat straight in the saddle.
I met him in the bailey before he could dismount, gripping his good hand as he swung down. The bond flared hot between us, carrying his relief at seeing me whole and my own at having him back.
"You pushed them hard," I said, keeping my voice low.
"Hard enough they’ll feel it for days." He leaned in, forehead briefly against mine. "They lost wagons, horses, and another twenty who decided dying for her dream wasn’t worth it. But she’s still coming. Faster now. Like something’s driving her beyond reason."
We moved inside where healers waited. While they rechecked his wound I told him about the final preparations. The oil cauldrons ready above the gates. The hidden pits along the approach. The archers who could loose blindfolded now.
He listened, jaw tight, then added his own observations from the field. Our plans sharpened further in that quiet room, layered with everything we had learned bleeding across these hills.
Kane and Rylan sent word by fast rider in the afternoon. They continued to nip at the column’s heels, costing the enemy sleep and supplies. The witch-blood heir had begun executing her own stragglers. Desperation had taken root.
Later I found the children in the inner courtyard under heavy guard. Lila had organized the younger ones into lines, showing them basic footwork with sticks. Thorne and Elara toddled after her, copying her movements with clumsy delight. When she saw me she straightened like a tiny general.
"We practiced hiding spots too," she announced. "Three different ones. I can get them there fast if the bad ones break through."
The pride in her voice warred with the fear it masked. I pulled her close, then gathered all three until we formed a knot of small limbs and fierce hearts.
Thorne babbled about "loud horses" he had heard from the walls. Elara simply held my braid like a lifeline. Their warmth pushed back the cold knowledge of what marched toward us. free𝑤ebnovel.com
Darius joined us after the healers finished. He sat on the ground and let Thorne climb him like a mountain. freeweɓnøvel.com
The sight of my mate, still streaked with road dirt and fresh bandages, playing gently with our son carved deep into me. This was what she wanted to destroy. Not just lives, but moments like these.
Evening brought the four of us together in the war room once more. Kane and Rylan remained in the field, but their presence lingered through the bond.
We adjusted markers on the map as new reports arrived. The enemy would reach the outer plain in three days. The alignment loomed two days after that.
"She’ll throw everything at the gates," I said. "We let the first wave exhaust itself, then open the side posterns and hit their flanks. If she uses her power again, we endure it together."
Darius traced a route with his good hand. "And if she tries to slip a small team inside during the chaos?"
"Then the inner defenses take them. No one reaches the nursery. No one gets close to the children."
The words settled heavy between us. We had already bled rivers to reach this point. Whatever remained would be spent without hesitation.
Night fell across the keep like a cloak drawn tight. I walked the battlements one final time with Darius at my side.
Below us the pack moved in disciplined patterns, every station manned, every trap tested. Torches flickered along the walls, turning stone into something alive and watchful.
We stopped at the eastern tower where the wind carried the faintest hint of distant smoke. Darius turned me toward him, his injured arm careful as he pulled me close.
The kiss started slow, then deepened with everything we couldn’t say aloud. Fear. Love. The absolute refusal to let this end any way but ours. When we broke apart his eyes held mine with quiet ferocity.
"Whatever happens when she arrives," he said, "we face it as one. You, me, Kane, Rylan. And those three small wolves sleeping below."
I nodded, throat tight. "As one."
We returned to the chambers where the children had been moved to the most protected inner room. Lila slept with one arm across her siblings. Thorne had kicked his blanket off. Elara clutched a small cloth doll someone had made her. I adjusted their covers and stood there until my eyes burned.
Darius waited by the door. We slipped into the adjacent room and found what rest we could in each other’s arms. Sleep came fragmented, filled with visions of stone altars and small cries, but every time I woke his heartbeat steadied me.
Morning arrived with fresh reports. The northern force had pushed through the night. They were closer than we wanted. Three days had become two and a half.
I rose, dressed in fresh leathers, and strapped on every blade I could carry. The keep felt different now. Taut. Ready. The pack looked to me as I walked the lines, and I gave them what strength remained in my bones.
The witch-blood heir marched with broken men and stolen power. She believed the old blood gave her right to my children’s futures.
She had never met a mother who had already burned her own path across half the north to protect them.
We were down to two and a half days now.
We would use every single hour to remind her exactly who held these walls.
And when she finally stood before our gates, she would understand that some curses cannot be stolen.
They can only be answered with fire.
*********************
I spent the next day turning that answer into reality. The keep became a machine of deliberate violence. We filled the approach with caltrops and shallow pits covered by thin mats of woven branches.
Archers practiced from every angle until their shoulders screamed. I walked the lines with Darius, testing ropes that would drop boiling pitch and checking the strength of reinforced gates. His injured arm limited him, but he refused to rest, directing teams with sharp commands that left no room for error.
By midday the outer plain looked innocent. Only those who knew where to look could spot the death waiting beneath the grass.
I stood on the forward wall and watched a lone scout from the north ride close enough to see our preparations before turning back. Let him carry the message. Fear worked both ways.
