Chapter 514 ’Promise me... ’

MARIA.

The figure who had tackled Galen out of the shadows tumbled across the high wooden beam, landing heavily on the narrow rafter before scrambling up into the lantern light.

Dark hair tumbled over her shoulders, her travelling cloak torn and covered in forest mud. Her breath came in frantic, ragged gasps as she pinned Galen’s arms behind her back.

Anabel.

My heart did a violent flip in my chest. She had come back.

Galen let out a feral, enraged screech, thrashing against the beam as she tried to elbow Anabel in the ribs. "Get off me, you wretched traitor!" Galen shrieked, her face contorted in pure fury as she tried to reach for the small silver boot dagger strapped to her ankle.

Aidan didn’t hesitate for a single microsecond. The instant Galen’s bow clattered to the stone floor below, he surged forward like a thunderbolt, vaulting up the wooden staircase three steps at a time. He hit the high beam in a blur of motion, grabbing Galen by the back of her leather collar and ripping her away from Anabel.

"I’ve got her!" Aidan roared, his voice echoing off the stone arches as he slammed Galen face-down against the heavy timber beam, pinning her wrists with a leather restraint in one brutal, fluid motion.

Galen thrashed, spitting blood and curses onto the wood, but Aidan’s grip was an absolute iron vice. She was completely subdued, her eyes burning with a desperate, defeated rage as he hauled her to her feet and dragged her roughly down the stairs toward the floorboards.

Noah finally loosened his firm grip on my waist, allowing me to take a step forward, my chest heaving as I looked up at the rafters.

Anabel slowly climbed down the wooden steps behind Aidan, her hands trembling violently, her eyes wide as she took in the horrific scene in the hallway—the dozens of dead guards, the pools of fresh crimson, and the sharp scent of copper hanging heavy in the air.

"Aidan... Noah..." Anabel rasped out, her voice cracking as tears instantly welled in her dark eyes. She took two trembling steps toward us, her gaze darting frantically across the floor. "I felt the blood link break... I came back as fast as I could. Where... where is Adrein?"

A heavy, suffocating silence descended over the corridor.

Aidan stopped in his tracks, his head dropping, his jaw clenching so tight the muscles in his cheek twitched violently. Davian, who was clutching his bleeding, scraped shoulder, turned his face away, letting out a ragged, painful exhale.

Anabel’s pale face drained of every single drop of color. "No..." she whispered, her hands flying to her mouth as her knees visibly trembled. "No... please, no..."

"He took a volley of arrows to save Maria and Noah," Aidan said, his raspy voice stripped completely of its usual strength, hollow and broken. "He... he dissolved, Anabel. He’s gone."

Anabel let out a choked, heartbreaking sob that tore through the quiet hallway. She collapsed straight to her knees on the bloody floorboards, burying her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with raw, uncontrollable grief as the reality of her brother’s death shattered her completely.

"Damien! We need to move Damien now!" Physician Thorne’s urgent voice barked out from the infirmary doorway, breaking through the heavy shroud of mourning.

Thorne sprinted into the corridor alongside two junior medics, carrying a heavy wooden stretcher. Damien was still lying on his back, gasping for air, the black iron arrowhead protruding straight out from the center of his chest plate. Blood was bubbling over his lips with every shallow breath he tried to pull into his lungs.

"Hold him steady!" Davian commanded, rushing over despite his wounded shoulder to help lift Damien onto the stretcher. "Damien, stay with us! Don’t you dare close your eyes!"

"Carefully! Watch the arrow shaft!" Thorne shouted, pressing clean linen pads around the entry wound as they lifted him. "Get him into the inner ward immediately! Clear the tables!"

Aidan handed the bound and furious Galen over to two reserve guards, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp decree. "Lock her in the secondary cell across from Vincent. Put heavy iron cuffs on her. If she moves an inch, drop her."

"Yes, Alpha!" the guards called out, dragging the snarling Galen down the dark cellar stairs.

The hallway erupted into a chaotic storm of frantic orders, heavy footsteps, and the clinking of medical tools as the house guards began clearing the dead and moving Damien into the emergency wing. Noah stepped up beside Davian, helping him wrap a tight bandage around his bleeding shoulder while directing the remaining perimeter guards to secure the outer gates.

Everyone was moving. Everyone was acting, fighting, and trying to pull the pieces of the compound back together.

But I couldn’t move.

I stood frozen in the center of the blood-stained corridor, my bare feet cold against the stone, my chest numb to the frantic chaos swirling around me.

The loud shouts of the guards, the clatter of weapons, and the soft, agonizing sobs of Anabel weeping near the wall all faded into a dull, distant buzz. My mind was completely wrapped in a heavy, echoing silence, spiraling backward into the memory of Adrein’s final moments.

I could still feel the phantom touch of his cold, trembling fingers wrapped tightly around my hands. I could still see his pale, bloody face looking up at me, his purple eyes burning with a quiet, desperate intensity as he drew his very last breath.

’Promise me...’

His raspy, fading whisper echoed louder and louder inside my skull, drowning out every other thought, every scream, and every order being yelled around me.

’When I’m gone... I don’t want you to only marry Noah... You have to marry my brothers, too... all of them. Keep them safe. Don’t leave any of them behind...’

A cold shiver ran straight down my spine, making my skin prickle under my torn, blood-splattered nightgown.

It was his last request. His dying wish, bought and sealed with his own blood as he gave his life to shield me from Vincent’s arrows. I had given him my word. I had looked him in the eye and swore to him that I would fulfill it, right before he dissolved into golden dust in my arms.

My eyes slowly drifted across the chaotic hallway.

I looked at Noah, his emerald eyes tight with stress and protective worry as he barked orders to his lieutenants. I looked at Aidan, his face carved of stone, his gauntlets stained with blood as he watched the medical doors. I looked at Davian, clutching his wounded shoulder, his breath coming in ragged, furious gasps. And inside that room lay Damien, fighting for his very life against an iron arrowhead.

They were broken. They were grieving, bleeding, and hanging on by a thread.

Adrein’s last words pounded against my heart like a heavy war drum, steady, inescapable, and absolute.

’Promise me.’

I squeezed my hands into tight fists at my sides, my knuckles turning white as I stared at the closed doors of the medical wing, his final promise burning like a white-hot mark into my very soul.