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I left with the child, but he regretted it afterwards
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I brought my mate, Kurt, back from the aftermath of a collapsed mountain ridge and sent the young she-wolf I had raised for six years to join the trainee ranks. That was when the male who had always b...
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第1章
I brought my mate, Kurt, back from the aftermath of a collapsed mountain ridge and sent the young she-wolf I had raised for six years to join the trainee ranks. That was when the male who had always been cold and restrained finally snapped.
He took our infant son into the desert’s forbidden no-man’s-land.
“Tell me where Zelda is,” he said, his voice low and feral, “or I’ll bury him alive.”
“There are five mounds of sand here. You have five chances.”
Kurt placed our tiny son into a shallow pit. The scorching sand seared his tender skin the moment it touched him. His cry was thin and piercing.
My heart felt like it had been plunged into boiling oil.
Before I could beg, Kurt began to push sand over our child.
The first mound fell.
My mind flashed back to little Kurt staring at me with hostility.
“You’re the orphan my mother took in? Don’t think living in my den makes you worthy to be my future mate.”
The second mound.
When I was eighteen and prepared to leave for Rivergate Territory to train as a healer, Kurt had pounded on my door, eyes red, gripping me tightly.
“I won’t let you go. I won’t let you leave me for Rivergate.”
The third mound.
On my twentieth name-day, Kurt had knelt before me, a trembling ring of bonefire circling us.
“Yvonne Whitmore, you mean more to me than life.”
The fourth.
During a distant trade expedition, he’d been caught in a landslide. When he came home after six long moons, Zelda was with him.
From then on, he slipped from our bed each night to go to hers.
At first, they truly only slept.
Until the day his body returned carrying the lingering scent of wild roses. Her scent. It clung to him for days.
That was when I knew everything had changed.
Our son’s cries weakened into ragged, choking whimpers.
I begged, “He is your son, too.”
Kurt’s face remained carved from stone. “Without Keith, what use do I have for a son?”
As my baby was nearly swallowed by the burning sand, I broke.
I told Kurt where she was hiding.
He didn’t say a word. He just ran. Straight toward Zelda.
He never looked back.
When I pulled my son from the blistering pit, his tiny body was limp, his voice only faint groans of pain.
I called for the healer scouts with shaking hands, then lifted my communication stone and dialed another rune-coded frequency.
“I’ll join the organization,” I said. “I’m leaving the pack with my child in a week.”
……
The male who once bought a hundred starstones for our newborn son, Ethan Kurt, on the night he came into this world…
He had said, “Each year on his naming day, I will gift him a star. Our son will live a hundred years.”
Yet now, for Zelda’s sake, he was willing to bury that same child—barely a hundred days old—alive.
I tried to explain, desperate. “She wanted to go. It was her dream.”
“No,” Kurt murmured, something soft and deranged flickering in his eyes. “Her dream… is that I sleep soundly.”
“So she will never leave me.”
Staring at his unhinged expression, I knew I had no choice but to yield once more.
After Kurt left, the healers rushed us from the desert’s cursed sands to the clan’s infirmary.
Ethan’s life was not in immediate danger, but patches of his tender skin were burned raw and had begun to fester.
I held him in the healing cot, his feverish body curled tight, whimpering even in sleep.
My message stone vibrated. A rune lit up.
Kurt: I arranged the best healer. Ethan will recover. I will bring Zelda back later. As long as you do not shame her, you will remain my mate.
My fingers trembled as I stared at the glowing words.
Becoming Kurt’s mate had been my dream since I was a young girl.
When the Kurt family adopted me, he hated me at first. Cold and distant, he barely spoke. But whenever I was bullied in training grounds, he appeared—fists and claws flying—taking wounds for me without hesitation.
When I turned eighteen, he begged me not to leave for Rivergate Territory. He cornered me against the wall and kissed me.
My face burned under his kiss. When I gasped for air, he whispered into my ear, “Yvonne, I loved you from the moment I saw you.”
“I just lacked the courage to admit it.”
On my twentieth birthday, he lit starfire along eighteen mountaintops, turning the entire sky into a spectacle meant only for me.
When he proposed, he gifted me an island in the Moonlit Sea, making me feel like the most cherished she-wolf in existence.
“Yvonne, you are more important than my life.”
Back then, I believed such happiness would last forever.
But it lasted only until the end of our mating moon.
Kurt left on a trading expedition and was caught in a deadly quake. He was trapped beneath collapsed stone for ninety-nine hours—starving, delirious, surrounded by death. In that darkness, it was Zelda’s rose-scented presence he clung to.
Her parents shielded a narrow space with their bodies, using the last of their water to keep the two of them alive—sacrificing themselves so their children could survive.
Before drawing their final breath, they entrusted Zelda to Kurt.
Six moons later, he brought her home.
I had never imagined that this so-called debt of gratitude would become my lifelong torment.
I kissed the corner of my son’s eye. “I am sorry, little one. Mother let you suffer.”
“But I will not let anyone hurt you again.”
I unblocked the rune frequency and sent a message.
“I will join your organization. But I have one condition. I am taking my child with me.”
The voice that responded was low, amused. “Your child… he is only a few moons old, yes?”
The speaker was known only as the Ferryman—leader of a secretive global order of shadow-walkers and codebreakers. Once you entered, your former identity vanished.
Exactly what I needed.
I said, “You have connections across the clans. I want to leave within a week. Can you make that happen?”
“Of course,” he replied, a soft chuckle in his tone. “In one week, the Ferryman will personally see you across the border.”
第2章
Two days later, Ethan’s fever finally subsided, and I brought him back to our den.
Before leaving, I wanted to personally erase every trace of myself from this place.
For years, I had carefully preserved everything Kurt gave me—bone-carved trinkets, tokens from our journeys, memories I once held dear. Now they were easy to pack away.
I kept only my spirit tablet, a few cloaks, and Ethan’s essentials. Everything else I boxed up and asked the groundskeepers to collect.
Ethan played quietly on the fur-padded sofa, his tiny hands poking into the gaps between cushions. With a triumphant giggle, he held up his discovery.
It was Kurt’s ring.
Our mating ring, forged under the Bonefire of our vows.
Now it lay forgotten inside a sofa crack. Seeing it again, memories of our shattered bond flooded me.
When I first heard Kurt had been trapped in the earthquake that ravaged the distant ridge, I nearly lost Ethan from the shock.
With his life hanging by a thread, I fought with everything in me to keep our child safe.
Six moons later, Kurt returned. That very day, our child was lost.
I had reached out to pat Zelda’s head to welcome her into our home as family.
She suddenly snapped.
She slammed her arms into my stomach and shoved me hard to the ground.
The child I had fought so hard to protect was gone in an instant.
Kurt said she was suffering from trauma and begged me not to blame her—blame him instead.
But he had barely escaped death. How could I bring myself to blame him?
So I swallowed the grief alone.
After that, Kurt treated me better. Twice as gentle. Twice as attentive.
But I still noticed the change.
At first, he would jolt awake from nightmares, haunted by collapsing stone and the bodies he had crawled over to survive.
Later, after I drifted to sleep, he would slip quietly into Zelda’s room.
Only her scent in the darkness soothed him. He slept beside her, returning to me before dawn.
Eventually, he did not bother to hide it. He stayed there the whole night. And when I caught him leaving her room at sunrise, he simply greeted me with, “Good morning. Is breakfast ready?”
I pitied him for the torment he’d endured. And because I knew that at first they truly only slept, I endured it all.
Until one day, Kurt returned home with the scent of wild roses clinging to his skin.
Her scent.
It lingered for three days. Even though he slept in our bed those nights, it didn’t fade.
Zelda had grown. And everything between them had changed.
He would take her roadside wildflowers and craft them into everlasting bouquets… while throwing away the lilies I bought because they masked her rose fragrance.
He would keep me at the hearth for ten hours brewing tonic for him, only to pour it out when Zelda wrinkled her nose at the smell.
He left me alone on our anniversary just to sit by her side, afraid she felt lonely.
The dream was shattered. It was time to wake up.
The person who meant more to Kurt than life was no longer me. It was his little rose.
I no longer cared. In five days, I would vanish from his world without a trace.
A knock sounded at the door. I assumed it was the groundskeepers, but when I opened it, Kurt stood there.
His expression was dark, as if he had come to confront me.
But then his gaze fell on the sorted items on the floor. He froze.
“You’re throwing these away?” He picked up a bone-carved cup. “Isn’t this your favorite? You use it every day.”
His confusion cut through me like a blade.
It had been a matching pair of mate-bond cups, carved by our own hands. But because Zelda liked the set, Kurt had given her his.
The next morning, her cup shattered. After that, I never used mine again.
A full year passed. He never noticed.
“It is useless now, so I’m discarding it,” I said calmly, then shifted the topic. “Did Zelda find it?”
Kurt’s voice turned bitter cold. “You still have the nerve to bring up Zelda?”
He looked at me with eyes full of loathing.
第3章
When Zelda walked into the den, I almost didn’t recognize her.
Just five days ago she had been as radiant as a wildflower in bloom. Now her cheeks were swollen, the corners of her mouth cracked, and dark bruises wrapped around her wrists so savagely they were painful to look at.
“Yvonne!” She fell to her knees the moment she saw me, bone striking stone with a sharp thud. “Please let me go. I can’t take it anymore.”
Instinctively, I stepped back. “What are you talking about?”
“They make us train from sunrise to moonrise. No rest. Barely any food.” She lifted her skirt of torn hide, revealing lash marks on her waist. “I fainted from exhaustion. They whipped me awake with a leather strap.”
“That’s impossible,” I blurted. Before sending her to the trainee barracks, I had investigated the clan thoroughly. They had no record of mistreating novices.
Zelda’s tears splashed onto the dirt floor. “It’s true. Please don’t send me back. I can’t be a trainee anymore.”
A chill crawled up my spine. “What do you mean I’m sending you? You told me it was your dream. You begged me to help you join.”
“I never had a dream,” she whispered. “I only wanted to stay by Kurt’s side.”
Then she turned to Kurt with trembling lips. “Kurt… the training is too hard. I can’t endure it. May I stay with you instead? I promise I’ll be good.”
Kurt reached out, gently patting her head, helping her rise.
When he turned toward me, his gaze was colder than an ice-edged blade. “Why did you force her?”
“I didn’t,” I protested, my voice shaking. “She begged me to go. I vetted the training clan. They don’t treat initiates this way. There must be some mistake—”
“Look at her injuries,” Kurt snapped. His brow furrowed. “What misunderstanding could explain this?”
He took a step closer. “Since you won’t admit it, then you will feel the suffering Zelda endured. Think of it as penance.”
Before I could speak, he seized my wrist. His grip tightened so fast a bruise bloomed immediately.
He dragged me toward the storage cavern.
He called to Zelda. “Bring Ethan.”
Kurt had always been gentle with our son. So when Ethan saw him, the little one giggled, reaching for him, nestling into his father’s shoulder for comfort.
But Kurt didn’t respond.
With a cold expression, he peeled our child off his neck and shoved him into my arms.
“Zelda was beaten. I won’t lay a hand on you. But your son will suffer with you.”
“Kurt,” I cried, grabbing his arm. “I swear I didn’t do anything. We can ask the elders to check the vision stones—call the guard, check the records.”
“So now you claim Zelda is lying?” Kurt’s voice dropped low. “Why would she harm herself just to frame you?”
“I raised her for six years,” he said, voice filled with conviction. “She is gentle, kind, pure.”
His eyes darkened as he looked at me. I never felt more like a stranger. “When did you become so cruel, Yvonne? You would even harm a child?”
My soul felt as if it were being dragged into a frozen abyss.
We had known each other sixteen years. Shared a den for six.
Yet Zelda’s tears erased everything.
The storage cavern door slammed shut behind us, plunging us into darkness. Ethan’s cries filled the air—loud, frantic, terrified.
The hot, dusty air choked us.
My baby, still fragile from fever, thrashed weakly in my arms. His cries faded into broken sobs, each one weaker than the last.
“Kurt. Open the door.” I pounded until my palms numbed. “He’s burning up again. He was just released from the healer’s hut. His wounds aren’t healed. He could die in here.”
“Kurt, punish me. Strike me if you want. But save Ethan.”
“He’s your son too. I’m begging you.”
Silence.
Only silence.
My legs buckled. I slid down the wall, trembling as though my heart had been cut out while I was still breathing.
Ethan’s cries grew softer. His breath shallow.
“Ethan. Don’t fall asleep.” I patted his cheek gently. “Baby, look at Mama.”
His lips parted with the faintest whimper, but his eyes did not open.
“Ethan.”
第4章
Zelda pushed open the cavern door.
I froze, then rushed toward her. “Zelda, please. Call Healer Edrin. Ethan needs fever herbs.”
She was my only hope. For Ethan’s sake, I could beg her, even if she was the reason we were trapped here.
A faint, unreadable smile curved on Zelda’s lips. She opened her palm. “You mean this?”
“Yes. That’s it. Thank you.” I reached forward, but just as my fingers brushed the bundle of dried whiteroot, she flipped her hand.
The medicine dropped to the floor.
I lunged to grab it, but she pressed her bare foot down, grinding the crushed herbs into dust.
“I thought he would die in the desert,” she murmured. “He’s very lucky.”
I stared blankly at the pale powder smeared across the stone.
Zelda pinched my chin and leaned close. “Yvonne, listen to me. Kurt and I are bound by life and death. We were fated long before you existed.”
“Do you know what he told me when he held me?” Her voice softened. “He said he can’t sleep beside you. Only my scent calms him.”
I bit my lip hard, fighting the wave of pain clawing up my chest. I remembered clearly.
After our first night as mates, Kurt held me close and whispered, I can’t sleep without your scent.
“He doesn’t love you, Yvonne,” Zelda breathed. Each word sliced deeper.
“Why couldn’t you let go? Why did you bring a child into this world just to trap him?”
A cold dread crept through me. Holding Ethan tightly, I asked, “Did you do all this on purpose? Just to take Kurt from me?”
“Not entirely.” Zelda tilted her head, smiling sweetly with venom beneath. “I also wanted to watch you suffer.”
“You and I were both orphans. So why did you get adopted by the Kurt clan and win his heart, while I had to trail behind with no name and no rank?”
I said quietly, “Kurt wanted to adopt you. It was you who—”
“Who wants to be his adopted daughter?” she snapped, voice cracking into a scream. “I am his destined mate. His wife.”
Her fingers slid across my abdomen and jabbed Ethan’s flushed cheek. “When your baby died back then, I was thrilled.”
My vision blurred.
She continued softly, “Kurt protected me. Even though I killed his child, he still protected me.”
“That’s when I knew he was mine.”
Her nails dug into Ethan’s cheek, making him cry out.
I grabbed her wrist. “Don’t touch my child.”
Suddenly, Zelda stumbled backward with a gasp of fear.
“Ah!” Her forehead slammed into the iron door latch, and blood streamed down her face.
“Zelda!” Kurt stormed in, immediately gathering her into his arms and pressing his hand to the wound. “Steward, bring the healer.”
Zelda sagged against his chest. “Kurt, I’m alright. Ethan has a fever. Let the healer see him first.”
Then she looked at me with watery eyes that hid triumph. “I only wanted to give him medicine. Why did you push me?”
Tears mixed with blood trailed down her cheek.
Kurt’s face twisted with anguish. He turned toward me, voice cold. “Yvonne, why can’t you be more patient?”
“She fell on her own,” I said, pointing at the crushed herbs. “She destroyed Ethan’s medicine.”
His eyes dropped to the floor. For the first time, something flickered in them.
He knew how long I had waited to become a mother. He knew I would never risk my child’s life.
Hope flickered in my chest. “Kurt, Ethan’s fever—”
But before I could finish, Zelda broke into ragged sobs. “It’s my sister. She said Ethan would rather die than take my herbs. Kurt, please help him. He’s really sick.”
Kurt gently cupped her face. “Even now, you’re still thinking of him.”
Then he stood and approached me.
I will never forget the look in his eyes.
“Yvonne,” he said softly, the gentleness colder than any snarl, “I never imagined your jealousy would blind you to your own child’s suffering.”
He held out his hand.
“Give me Ethan.”
第5章
I instinctively held my son tighter. “What are you trying to do?”
“How can I trust Ethan to stay with you when you’re in this state?” Kurt’s voice was cold.
“No.” I staggered back. “He is my son. I will not be separated from him.”
Kurt’s gaze hardened into ice. He tore Ethan from my arms. The little one wailed, claws curling, ears pressed flat in fear.
“Give him back to me!” I reached for them, but Kurt kicked me aside. My waist slammed into the sharp corner of a stone chest, and a strangled cry escaped me.
For a moment, Kurt’s back stiffened, but he never turned around. He lifted Zelda gently and left the cavern… carrying my child.
The door shut. Darkness swallowed me whole.
When consciousness returned, everything was washed in pale white.
The ceiling of our den.
I turned my head. Kurt sat beside me. He stirred the moment I moved and brushed a hand across my cheek. “You’re awake. Do you feel unwell?”
“I…” My throat scraped like sand. No sound came out at first.
Kurt quickly pressed a cup of heated springwater to my lips. “You were unconscious for a full day and night. Why didn’t you tell me your blood-essence drops so easily? I was terrified when you collapsed.”
His concern looked real. His voice gentle.
Gentle enough to almost make me forget he had locked his mate and their child inside a storage cavern to suffocate.
Almost.
A day and a night.
Only four more days. Then I would be gone.
I forced myself upright. “Where is Ethan?”
He pressed me back into the furs. “Don’t worry. Zelda is tending to him.”
“What?” My heart clenched. I shoved him away and stood.
Kurt seized my wrist and threw me back onto the bedding. “What are you doing?” His jaw tightened, as if holding back rage. “Yvonne, you need rest.”
Fear and fury surged hot through my veins. “You left my child with Zelda. How do you expect me to rest?”
“Yvonne!” Kurt erupted, pacing beside the bed, then snapping, “Why are you so hostile toward Zelda? You two used to get along.”
“Yes,” I laughed, bitter and cracked. “I once treated her like a sister. But what did she do? Have you ever asked? Have you ever cared to know?”
“You—”
A woman’s scream burst from the next chamber.
Then a baby’s cry—raw, choking, desperate.
I shoved Kurt out of the way and sprinted into the nursery hollow.
The sight froze my blood.
Ethan lay on his back, his tiny chest heaving, his face burning red as he coughed and gagged. Curled milk—too thick, too sweet—covered his cheeks, his chest, the bedding beneath him.
Zelda stood off to the side, wiping her tunic with a cloth, her face twisted in irritation, not concern.
I swept Ethan into my arms, patting his back, trying to clear his airway. As I pressed him close, I saw angry red welts blooming across his forehead and chest.
A reaction. A strong one.
Kurt turned to Zelda first. “What happened?”
I demanded, “Zelda, what did you feed him?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. Only some clan-milk mash.”
Kurt immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Why are you blaming her? She is still just a girl.”
I stared at him, disbelief clawing through me. “You trusted her with Ethan? Did you check if he reacts to mountain-milk? Did you even look at him when you walked in?”
“Enough!” Kurt roared, the sound rattling the cavern walls. “Zelda did her best to care for him. And you? You only ever find fault.”
“Yvonne, your jealousy, your bitterness… it disgusts me.”
第6章
I was stunned.
Disgusting?
“No,” I shook my head with a bitter smile. “Kurt, you are the one who makes me sick.”
“Don’t argue,” Zelda cut in, her voice trembling as she forced out a sob. “It’s my fault. Sister has every right to blame me.”
Kurt immediately stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body, disappointment darkening his eyes. “Look at Zelda. Doesn’t that make you feel ashamed?”
Suddenly, an old memory nudged at me.
I met Kurt’s gaze. “Do you remember what you told me the night you asked me to be your mate?”
For a moment, his expression went blank.
That brief flicker made everything feel absurd. I laughed softly, bitterly. “You said I was more important than your life.”
He looked away. “You weren’t like this back then.”
“So you changed your mind?”
“I didn’t.” His voice rose abruptly, almost desperate. “Yvonne, of course I love you. But Zelda’s parents saved my life, and I promised them—”
“Enough.” I turned, Ethan still trembling in my arms. “It’s been six years. I’ve heard enough.”
At the healer’s cavern, the tribe’s spirit doctor took one look at Ethan and his face turned grim.
“What were you thinking? Even if a pup this young isn’t allergic to sea-creatures, you cannot grind fire-shrimp into milk-root mash. Had you arrived one moment later, he might not have survived.”
My head swam. “Fire-shrimp?”
The healer frowned at my tone and sighed. “Find a new caretaker. Whoever fed him this… did not do so with good intent.”
Zelda.
My legs nearly gave out.
I had almost lost Ethan.
I steadied my voice. “Can you prepare a written record of his test findings?”
After returning to the den, I drafted the separation pact.
In the garden hollow, Kurt hovered anxiously around Zelda. “Your wound hasn’t closed. Don’t strain yourself.”
Zelda smiled faintly as she loosened the soil around a small sapling. “I’m only tending the earth. I’m fine.”
“That is the intertwined tree you planted for me. I want it to grow strong. Even if I can’t stay by your side, I’ll still have it.”
Kurt grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t say that. I planted that tree for you. It means we’ll be together forever. Don’t you believe that?”
My mind went blank for a moment.
A sharp ache tightened my chest.
A new sapling stood in the best part of the garden.
Not long ago, a tree had grown there—the Albizia lovers’ tree we planted on the day we forged our mate-bond. It symbolized eternal love.
After Ethan was born, Kurt had said he wanted a tree for him in that sacred spot, a symbol of strength for our child. He claimed he moved the Albizia for Ethan’s sake.
It was a lie.
He didn’t want a place for our son.
He wanted a place for Zelda.
I drew in a long breath, walked over, and opened the separation pact to the signature page. “I want to register Ethan in an insurance scroll. Sign this.”
“Why are you here?” Kurt cleared his throat, uneasy. “Don’t you already have protections for him? Why add another?”
He reached to read the document.
As I moved to block him, Zelda tugged on his sleeve. “Kurt, go ahead and speak with her. I’ll wait outside.”
“Wait, I’ll come with you.”
“No need.”
He shoved the scroll back into my hands. “Leave it in the study. I’ll sign it once I’ve read it.”
I grabbed his wrist. “I’ve read it. Just sign.”
He frowned, glanced nervously at Zelda, already holding the doorway open.
He scribbled his signature quickly, then ran after her without looking back.
“That’s it.”
I stood there dazed.
Just like that, our six-year mate-bond ended—so carelessly, so disgracefully.
I walked into the pup’s chamber and pressed a kiss to Ethan’s warm little forehead.
“Baby… we’re free now.”
第7章
That night, I slept in the pup’s chamber while Kurt stayed in Zelda’s den.
On the first night after signing the separation pact, we silently completed our parting.
In the following days, I finalized the clan’s dissolution rites and sorted through my personal tokens and assets.
Kurt still spent time with Ethan and me during daylight hours, but each night, he returned to Zelda’s sleeping furs.
He held Ethan, patting her tiny back to soothe her, murmuring to himself, “When she is better, we will take a family carving together.”
“Perhaps we should make one every year.”
I forced a smile. Not a good idea. I leave at dawn.
Kurt, there is no future for us.
The night before my departure, I carried Ethan into the master cavern.
Only one token of me remained on the wall: our mating carving.
“Sister, are you still awake?”
The familiar rose-sweet scent drifted in. I tensed. “What are you doing here?”
Zelda stepped inside carrying a lit herbal flame-lamp. “Kurt gifted me a set today. The scent is Albizzia. He said you might like it since I do not.”
My hands curled into fists.
Once, Kurt gave me everything I loved.
When did I become someone who received what Zelda rejected?
Zelda smiled, though something sharp glinted beneath. “Do you know what happened to the Albizzia tree in the garden hollow?”
I shook my head. It didn’t matter anymore. That place now belonged to their ‘bond tree.’
“Burned to ash,” she whispered. “I saw Kurt light the fire himself.”
I told myself it did not matter. Yet my heart ached all the same.
Seeing no reaction, Zelda let her smile fade. She watched me for a long moment, then flicked her hand.
The lamp flew from her grasp, striking the curtain of woven grass.
Flames erupted instantly.
“What are you doing?”
She shut the door behind her, madness flashing in her eyes. “Tell me, who do you think Kurt will save?”
Then she contorted her face in terror and shoved me hard.
“Yvonne! What are you doing? Kurt, help me!”
The flames surged, and I turned my back to shield Ethan.
Pain tore through me.
I hit the ground, rolling to extinguish the fire on my skin. The agony drained every breath in my body.
The smoke thickened. Kurt kicked open the door and saw Zelda first.
“Zelda! Get up!”
“My legs… Kurt, they hurt so much,” she cried.
“Come here. I’ve got you.”
“Kurt…” I rasped, “Please… help me. Take Ethan…”
“Yvonne.” He finally turned toward me and froze at the sight of my burned back.
“Don’t fear. I’ll take you to the healer’s cave. They will mend you. There won’t be a scar.”
“Cough… cough… Kurt…”
Zelda’s coughing shattered his resolve.
He drew his hand away from mine.
“There is too much smoke. Zelda’s throat cannot handle it, Yvonne.”
“Kurt!” I grabbed his wrist with the last of my strength. “Take Ethan out first. Please.”
“Kurt… cough… cough…”
His panic hardened into decision.
He tore his hand from mine and turned away.
“Yvonne, hold on. I will send someone for you.”
“Kurt!”
Flames rose between us like a wall, drawing a brutal line.
Zelda’s throat mattered more than my life or our pup’s.
I should have known.
Holding Ethan close, tears burned down my face. “I’m sorry, little one. I failed you again.”
Just as all hope drained away, the window covering shattered.
A tall figure stepped through the fire.
“Midnight,” the Ferryman said, extending his hand. “Seems I arrived just in time.”
From the sky-beast’s saddle, I watched the fire devour the mating carving on the wall.
Every last trace of me in that den was gone.
Kurt, we will never meet again.