Page 92 of From Frost to Flame

There was no warm veil. No loving words of encouragement. No fluttery heartbeat.

Their bond was entirely severed. It was as if his mother had ripped his soul from his own body.

I failed.

Tar consumed him inch by inch.

I failed him.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lex

Where Silas once stoodwas the gigantic beast. Its fur was as black as the darkest corner of the night sky. Its numerous tentacles thrashed on its back. Obeying a wave of his mother’s hand, it charged Orion’s silver gates. It smashed through the enchanted metal with ease, leaving it in a tangled mess. All the werewolves that dared cross its path were met with gnashing jaws. Silas's crown lay abandoned in the mud.

Lex’s legs gave out. His lungs froze in his chest and his heart threatened to burst. This pain was beyond heartbreak. It was as if part of his very soul had been severed.

“It’s going to be okay,” Mora said, holding him tight in her arms. “We have to go. Silas said if he fell, we needed to get you out of here.”

“I never should have let him lock me away in this damn castle. I should’ve gone with him.”

“Lex, there’s nothing you could have done,” Julian said, looking out the window at the destruction. “He’s gone.”

The word “gone” rang hollow in his ears as he sat on the floor. He knew they were right, but he couldn’t move. His eyes glazed over as he clung to himself. All the light in the world left, and he wanted no part of it. Mora and Julian talked frantically over him, debating the safest place to go before The Ravenous One came for him. Lex didn’t care where they wanted to go, it didn’t matter. Outrunning her would be impossible.

Then he heard it. A wisp of a whisper licked his ears, and he sat up straight. He rose to his feet and lookedat the snarling beast tearing through the streets.

Did I hear it, or am I already losing touch with reality without him?

It came again. Buried under the chaos of the battle that drifted on the wind, Silas's voice echoed only for him.

“I failed. I failed. I failed.”

A jolt shot through him. “He’s still in there,” he said to himself in disbelief. He focused his mind on the monster in the streets and he felt it. Afeather-thin thread wrapped around his heart being tugged. The other end was tethered to the beast, who snapped his jaws over wolves and fae indiscriminately. It wasn’t a mindless puppet. It was still Silas, and he was being controlled by his mother. “He’s in there. Silas is in there somewhere!” Grief became desperation and hope. He turned to his family. “I need to go help him. I need to tell the others he’s still here.”

“You’re sure that’s him?” Julian hesitated. “For all of Silas's flaws, he wouldn’t attack his pack like this.”

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