* * * * *
Nick took to sitting on the edge of the porch farthest from the metal that Aura leaned against inside, keeping his thoughts as quiet as possible. The arrival of the Fireborn had put him more at ease, and slowly some of the Guard began to realize where he was. They brought him reports almost by the minute, stepping over the bodies of a dozen Oceanborn to get to the house. Nick hadn’t waited for the wolves to realize he was there before he destroyed them. If they had been Reston’s people, they wouldn’t have been coming from outside the compound.
The fight was nearly over with the Fireborn pack’s arrival, but there were more Oceanborn and Forestborn to deal with as well, and Nick knew that meant Council fighters had been present, not just the traitorous packs he had welcomed in with open arms. Sedovin had been confirmed dead, but he had no reports of Osvald, though he knew William had challenged him directly. When he saw Lea approach, carrying a body wrapped in steel in her arms, he feared it must have been the old knight.
She was quiet as she approached the house, but there were still tears streaming down her face as she placed the body in front of Nick. Once Ziem’s body was on the ground, his face was visible, and she let out the softest of whimpers. “He trapped Coren. Coren is still alive, pinned to the ground and slowly bleeding to death back there.”
Nick didn’t hide his surprise, and he shifted into his human form so that he could speak to Lea. “He did what?” He looked back down at Ziem’s face with new appreciation and not a little awe. Ziem had always been a brawler as a child, always in the middle of a fight, and the years obviously hadn’t changed that about him. But to go up against the Speaker of the Council? That was something else altogether.
“Coren. He’s wrapped in every bit of Ziem’s scrap metal and pierced with a sword through his chest.” She whimpered in emotional distress as she held out her hand, which had a gold ring in it. Ziem’s ring. She didn’t want it to get lost, so she had taken it to give back to Aura. Lea had always been a tough fighter, but she was always one of the first to break down once the violence was over. “All of his metal except for this.”
He took the gold ring from her and gripped it tightly in his hand as he looked back down at Aura’s husband. He looked at Ziem for a long few moments in silence with his head bowed before he spoke to Lea again. “Set a guard over Coren and make certain he doesn’t die. Have the Fireborn dry him off and keep him bound in Ziem’s steel. Bring him to the Court and gather everyone that’s left there once the compound is secure.”
Lea nodded and turned as quickly as she could force her exhausted body to move to fulfill his command. She didn’t want to look at Ziem any longer, and she didn’t want to talk about it any longer. She just wanted Coren to suffer for everything and everyone that they had lost.
When Lea was gone, Nick set Ziem’s ring down over the dead wolf’s chest and shifted again, one paw still on the steel, not looking back at the house behind him.
When Aura could feel Nick’s mind there again, open to speak with, she felt a little better. Who came? She knew he would only shift out if someone needed to speak to him in his human form, and so that’s what she supposed had happened.
He turned back toward the house, though she was sealed behind sheet metal and unable to see him at the moment. I’m so sorry, Aura. She could feel his sadness, and could hear Ziem’s name beneath his words.
Stop it. Don’t. She went to the wall and growled at the metal, at his voice coming through to her thoughts even though she couldn’t see him. Don’t you dare.
She could feel him shift again, his mind leaving hers for the moment, and the metal beneath her paws groaned against itself, splitting open at Nick’s touch. It separated just enough to let in sunlight, which she hadn’t seen in hours, but as her eyes adjusted, she could see Ziem’s form wrapped in steel across the porch. Nick was sitting off to one side, again as a wolf, looking away from her, not wanting to intrude on her grief.
It was like she was trapped in a nightmare, and the only way she could go was forward. She walked slowly toward Ziem’s body, starting to whimper as though she had been struck. Aura looked down at his face once she was close enough, and she licked his cheek gently as she let out a howl that cracked the air and set the metal around them vibrating with her pain.
You said you liked living. You were supposed to come back alive. Not like this. I can’t…I…Aura felt completely shattered as she stared at his dead body, and she moved to lie next to him, with her head on the metal covering his body. He was the only one left in the world that thought that she mattered, and he was the only one who had made her happy in a world that seemed ready to collapse in on her. He had deserved better.
Nick forced himself to remain in his wolf as she mourned
