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They collided.

Steel against steel. Alpha against alpha.

Every blow struck with purpose, every parry a promise. The air around them crackled with tension and raw power as their weapons clashed, sending sparks flying into the night. The ground beneath their feet trembled with each impact, mud and leaves churning under their relentless battle dance.

"You think these people will follow a wolf who lies to his mate?" Ezra taunted, dodging left with the fluid grace of a predator. His eyes gleamed with malicious delight as he added, "Whohesitatedwhen she needed you most?"

Jace's blade missed by inches, slicing through the air where Ezra's throat had been moments before, but his voice didn't waver. The storm in his grey eyes intensified, muscles coiling beneath his battle-worn henley. "And yet I've got the whole damn town behind me. What'veyougot, Ezra? A pack of traitors who'll scatter like rats when this is done? Men without loyalty are just bodies waiting to fall."

Ezra snarled, his handsome face contorting with rage. He threw a bolt of corrupted magic, the kind he had learned when being a shifter wasn't enough—black and red tendrils that writhed like living shadows—but Jace ducked, rolled across the blood-soaked earth, and came up swinging. His blade sliced clean through Ezra's side with a satisfying resistance. Blood bloomed across his coat, darkening the expensive fabric.

The rogue alpha stumbled, one knee nearly touching the ground.

But only for a breath. His recovery was unnervingly swift, fueled by whatever dark power he'd been channeling.

"I should've taken her when I had the chance," Ezra hissed through clenched teeth, his voice dropping to a venomous whisper as he circled Jace. His fingers twitched with barely contained magic. "She wasmeantfor more than you. All that chaos magic wasted on a wolf who can't even protect what's his."

"You so much as speak her name again—" Jace lunged forward with primal ferocity, blade catching Ezra's collarbone with a crunch of bone and steel "—and I'll rip your tongue out while you're still breathing to feel it."

They broke apart for half a second, panting, sweat glistening on their foreheads despite the cold night air. Around them, the forest burned with spellfire and snarls. The ancient spirit guardians Lyra had summoned tore through Ezra's pack with otherworldly precision, their bark-covered limbs moving with terrifying efficiency. Jace could feel Lyra standing at the edge of it all—glowing with silver-tinged power, auburn curls whipping in the magical winds, her moss-green eyes locked on him with everything she had. The scent of her magic—wild honey and storm clouds—reached him even through the chaos.

That was why he was here. That waswhohe was fighting for. Not just his pack or his town, but the witch who'd turned his orderly world upside down and made him believe again.

He charged again, sword raised high, heart pounding against his ribs like a war drum.

And didn't see the dagger until it was too late.

38

LYRA

Lyra felt it before she saw it.

Like the earth itself cracked. Like her heart stopped beating.

The moment Jace fell, something in her split wide open.

She had just cast another binding circle around the edge of the battlefield, directing forest spirits through a burst of spellfire, when it hit her—a hollow pull, a tether violently slackening.

Her head whipped toward the center of the clearing. And there he was. Crumbled on the ground. Blood blooming from his side, soaking into the dirt like a curse.

“JACE!”

She didn’t remember running. Didn’t remember screaming.

Only the wind tearing at her hair, the forest shuddering beneath her boots, the sound of wolves fighting and dying around her like background noise.

Everything tunneled intohim.

She dropped beside his body, knees hitting the bloodstained grass, hands already glowing as she pressed them against his chest.

“No, no—don’t you do this. Don’t you leave me.”

His eyes were closed. Too still. Too quiet.

Her magic sparked at her fingertips, shaky and wild, flickering like a candle in a storm.

“Please,” she whispered. “Jace—wake up. I need you.”