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Change , I said inside my mind, despite never having the bond with Arelia that let her hear me. Change and become the beast I know you can be.

This was the refrain humming in my head as I began to run, as I saw the Volken jockey to be the ones to first lay into the women, as I saw my Kiralee push forward, her green eyes blazing.

She shouted something at them, that whip of a voice forcing some of the closest to stop, even for a moment, much to the amusement of the other Volken.

The stilled were shoved and pushed until they shook my daughter’s command off.

I enjoyed that momentary pause, where they looked down onto a tiny girl and felt it, the most foreign of Volken emotions—fear.

Then I heard the shouts.

There were few apart from Lian that enjoyed a special position with Volken society.

Sandoz was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, little more than an overly powerful civil servant, but he controlled the funds we generated and distributed them for the greater good.

Malafen took the horde on campaigns, leading the troops once they got clear of Leifgart, expanding our empire, taking new slaves and bringing them back.

But it was Lian that maintained law and order, as the Volken saw it, within the walls of our city.

He trained the young soldiers, tearing the boys from their mothers and installing them in the barracks.

It had been his hand that had pinched down on my shoulder when I had come into the city as a screaming, crying boy, when I had mastered my first fight sequence, when he led me into his private residence to discuss my visions.

He’d tried to make me one of his personal guards, a misleading enough name, as they did little to protect the lord and were more the unofficial police force within the city, not that there was much law and order to maintain.

Rather, it was just Lian’s will. So, when I saw a few of them move, carrying the larger crystals the elite used, I was not surprised.

The Volken’s attentions dropped to their spears as the crystals began to glow red.

A common enough thing, especially at this time of the year.

It was a two-way power flow, from the Volken to Lonan and back again, so they didn’t suspect what was coming.

I put my hand around mine, felt the heat against my skin, before yanking it free from my neck.

Then I felt the pull. Not as strongly as the Volken host, who went to their knees, something I’m sure they were unprepared for.

Including those around my daughter. Her green eyes glowed with an inner fire as she watched them go down, a reddish tinge creeping in.

Did she imagine she had created this? I couldn’t have wished for anything more, but as I ran down the gap left between the rows of now prone Volken, I saw Lian’s elite step forward, crystals in hand.

What had once been a network joining all men together, now became a net to ensnare them with.

I saw the White Wolf’s pack, gleaming like the sun as they ran down into the cavern.

They wouldn’t be in time to save the day, but they would save the women, of that I was sure.

I put on speed now, feeling the drag on my limbs, my body moving more due to mechanical force than any momentum I’d built.

So close, my love , Branwen said.

I know.

I glanced at Arelia, nodding to her for a moment as her hand wrapped tight around Kiralee’s.

They’d take her and all the women back to Sanctuary, and my child would have what I missed out on—a loving mother, peace and quiet, the ability to just be a child and choose her own path.

Her strength and abilities would be lauded there, though the reddish cast to her eyes may be an issue until they realised the Black Wolf was no longer under the influence of Lonan.

Because I was taking him out.

Lian frowned when he saw me approach, but when his mouth opened to shout an order, when he moved to stop me, Max nodded and then wrapped his chain around the neck of the Volken lord.

He pulled it so fast, so tight, that by the time Lian realised what had happened, Max’d dragged his rapist mate to the ground.

I watched the lord’s hands scrabble as they fought for purchase on the metal links, blood pricking the tips and flooding into his face as he went the same sullen red of the Great Wolf’s eyes.

I looked up into them, those of my god, and saw that ravenous mouth open, seemingly disproportionately huge, even with his massive body.

He hunkered down, and Lonan seemed to assume the rumbling was just more metaphysical bullshit.

He just stared out at his captive prey, presuming as the Volken had that the institutionalised privileges he’d gained from being the long-term conduit to the god were still in place, imagining the awful pleasures he’d gain as the Black Wolf swallowed each and every Volken, consuming all of the sins they had joyfully wallowed in, growing stronger both from their depravity and the ultimate betrayal of the brotherhood they’d lived in.

I glanced over to see Lian moved no more, his body having that final complete limpness that only came from death.

The Black Wolf jolted forward at that little boost in power, readying himself for the next strike.

So many of my visions ended like this, just endless, uniform blackness. There was no hot, no cold, no wind, no gravity, no horizon, no space, no nothing. Just nothing, until all I was blinked out.

Stay strong, my love , Branwen said, and I liked to think there was a tremor there, some show of emotion at the sacrifice I was about to make.

Lonan saw me, but it was too late. While he manipulated the power of the crystals, I could draw a little on it myself.

It gave me a last burst of speed that I used as I slammed into him, his arms going around me as if to stop me somehow, but that worked well for my purposes.

The Great Wolf’s jaws snapped out, grabbing the two of us and swallowing us down.

We went down into the beast’s belly, Lonan fighting for the moment, scratching and raking at my face, trying to do anything to deny what was inevitable. We were here, and then we were gone.