Page 87 of Fate Unchained

“Briony said I needed to take you to a sparring pit and let us both beat the tar out of each other ages ago. Maybe I should have listened.”

Kyril chuffed and sliced a second bauk’s head off. “That would have made me feel better.” He snarled and as another bauk swung at the two of them. “The one thing we’re told growing up is that when we take our true form and get our true family, the pack, it makes all the shit we put up with as kids worth it.”

Hans ducked a blow, and Kyril grabbed the bauk’s arm, twisted it, then sank his claws into the armpit. Another down. “And I let our family down,” Hans said.

Kyril jerked. He hadn’t expected Hans to say that. A bauk clocked him in the stomach. He grunted, but before he could do anything, Hans snarled and punched.

Hans’s claws sank deep, and blood sprayed. “I thought I’d let you all down much worse if I became Alpha. And I was right, I would have.” He glanced at Kyril before launching himself at another bauk.

Kyril leaped forward, staying at his side. “No, you—”

“When I thought Zann died, I knew I’d failed. I couldn’t keep him alive. How was I going to keep an entire pack alive?”

“What?” He blocked a bauk’s blow with his arm. “That wasn’t your fault.” The bauk kicked his leg, and Kyril staggered. They fell to the ground, the bauk landing on him. One swoop, and Hans tossed the bauk aside. Kyril flipped to his feet and kicked. Bauk down.

“I was dead inside, do you understand? And it wasn’t only from thinking Zann died. It started years before when I let him take Alpha. It was like—” Hans roared and sliced another bauk’s head off. “—a void inside. A painful one.”

A bauk bit at Kyril, and he twisted. Then smashed it on the head with his fist. It fell, and he slashed his claws into its neck. Five left. “That’s how we all felt when the pack dissolved.”

“I know that now. And the way I felt … I thought it was because of Zann, but it was because of the lack of being with the pack, too. I didn’t understand.”

They fought the last surge together, shoulder to shoulder, and when all the bauk lay on the ground, Hans turned to him. “We are a family, we’re brothers, in a way no one can understand. One claw breaks …” Hans put out his hand.

Kyril took it. “… But together, they prevail.”

Hans jerked him forward by the hand and hugged him. “What happened before will never happen again. Our pack isn’t going anywhere. And we’ll always be by your side. For eternity.” He clapped Kyril on the back. “I’ll be at your side until we both take our last breaths and then I’ll still be there in the afterlife. You are my family.”

He released him, and Kyril nodded. His throat felt tight. Words, especially words around how he felt, never came easy. Instead, he made a fist and pounded it on his chest. Respect for the Alpha—a gesture he hadn’t done for Hans before.

Brilliant white light flashed through the impending gloom. Blazh shouted in Vulk, and the two gargoyles exploded into tiny pieces of stone. Blazh once told Kyril that he hated using his magic and pointed to the scar stretching from his cheek to his brow. Then he’d never said anything more about it. Considering he’d just evaporated two gargoyle, whatever Blazh could do was impressive.

“Let’s go get your mate.” Hans sprinted forward.

Kyril kept pace. “She may not choose me.”

Hans glanced at him. “If she put up with you over the last month, she will.”

Kyril shoved Hans with his shoulder, and Hans shoved him back. Exactly like they used to in the old days. He smiled.

Time to get Lilah back.

35

Lilah stood behind the rich ebony desk positioned at the apex of the room. She kept her expression smooth, but her heart pounded so loudly she was certain Boris, only a few steps away, could hear it.

Had she really sensed Kyril? She’d stood there, captivated by the library. Then she’d seen him.

Morana’s tone gentled. “You’re the most important thing in Ulterra.” The words whispered over Lilah.

The same brownie who’d tricked her in the tea shop burst through a narrow door to the right. He carried a black, leather-bound book in his hands. He raced over to Morana and handed it to her.

The grimoire!

It had been locked inside Lilah’s cabinet in the library. How had this brownie known where she’d hidden it? Morana petted the pages like she would a cat. “Ah, thank you. This is back with its proper owner now.”

“How did you get that?”

“I was going to ask you to fetch it, I simply sped up the process.”

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