Chapter 258

Agnes

And so the plan was set. Tonight, at midnight, I would approach the facility with Thea—just the two of us, alone in the darkness.

Richard had spent the afternoon rallying his pack warriors, and they would wait with Elijah in the forest surrounding the facility. They’d wait for my signal to say I’d handled my stepmother, then the warriors would enter the facility, subdue any aggressors, and handle the rest.

If I didn’t give the signal within half an hour, they’d attack anyway.

So… no pressure or anything.

The sun had set an hour ago, and now I was sitting on the edge of the bed in Richard’s guest room, staring at my hands. In just a few hours, I’d be walking into what could very well be a trap, with my eight-year-old daughter by my side. The thought made me want to vomit.

Elijah emerged from the bathroom, his hair still damp from the shower. He’d been quiet all afternoon, ever since we’d finalized the details of the plan and Richard had sent a small army of scouts to search the old mining facility for any sign of life.

He wasn’t angry, exactly, but… distant. Like he was already mourning us.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said quietly, sitting down beside me on the bed. “We could still find another way.”

I turned to look at him. “What other way? Blow up the facility? Kill hundreds of innocent people?”

“I don’t know. Something else. Anything else.” He ran a hand through his wet hair. “I just… I had hoped you wouldn’t decide to do this.”

The words cut deep. “You think I want to do this? You think this is easy for me?”

“No, of course not.” He shook his head quickly. “That’s not what I meant. I know you’re doing this because you think it’s the right thing to do. I just…”

“You think I’m being reckless.”

He was quiet for a long moment. “Yes,” he finally admitted. “I think we’re all being incredibly reckless. And I understand why, but that doesn’t make it any easier.”

I looked down at my hands again. He was right, of course. This plan was insane, and we were all complicit. Walking into my stepmother’s stronghold with Thea, hoping that my fire abilities would be enough to take down whatever guards she had, hoping that I could get close enough to kill her before she realized what was happening…

It was a suicide mission. No. Worse than suicide. My child would be at risk right along with me.

But what choice did we have? My father’s plan would work, but it would also mean the deaths of everyone inside that facility. Children. People like Henry and Krystal, if they were even still alive. People like Elise.

“I hate myself for making this decision,” I said quietly. “But my wolf told me I have to.” I gulped. “She said that I need to do this. And that Thea needs to be by my side, otherwise it won’t work. We were supposed to wind up in that facility eight years ago, and fate is tired of waiting.”

“And you believe her?”

I shrugged. “Do I have another choice?”

Elijah didn’t answer right away. He just reached out and took my hand in his, his thumb brushing over my knuckles.

“I don’t know,” he finally murmured. “I wish I had a better answer, but I don’t.”

We sat in silence for a while, both lost in our own thoughts. Through our bond, I could feel his emotions—fear, love, resignation, and underneath it all, a deep, aching terror that he was trying so hard to hide from me.

“Elijah,” I said softly.

He turned to look at me, and the expression on his face nearly broke my heart. He looked like a man who was about to lose everything he cared about.

“Come here,” I whispered.

He shifted closer, and I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him against me. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, and I felt his shoulders deflate slightly.

“I’m terrified,” he admitted, the words muffled against my skin. “Agnes, I’m so fucking terrified that I can barely think straight.”

I held him tighter, running my fingers through his damp hair. “I know. I’m scared too.”

“I can’t lose you,” he said, pulling back to look at me. “I can’t lose either of you. Not again. I won’t survive it this time.”

I cupped his face in my hands. “You’re not going to lose us. We’re going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that for certain.”

“No,” I admitted. “I don’t know anything for certain. But I feel it in my bones, Elijah. If I don’t go there with her, like this, then she’ll be taken there.” I leveled him with a meaningful glare. “It’s better for me to be with her. You understand that, right?”

He searched my face, and I could see him trying to find some sign that I was mistaken. But we both knew that wasn’t the case. Fate was a driving force in our people’s lives—it was what brought mates together, what had brought us together.

Who were we to deny it now, when the future of the world was at stake?

“Just… Promise me,” he said, his hands gripping my shoulders. “Promise me you’ll come back in one piece with Thea by your side.”

The desperation in his voice made my chest hurt. “Elijah—”

“Promise me, Agnes. If that doesn’t happen, if something goes wrong and I lose you both…” He shook his head. “I won’t be able to live without you. I mean that. I won’t be able to go on.”

I knew he meant every word. If something happened to Thea and me, Elijah would be destroyed. Completely and utterly destroyed.

“I promise,” I said firmly, feeling my wolf push at my skin as if compelling me to say the words. “I promise we’ll come back to you.”

He stared at me for a long moment, then leaned forward and pressed his forehead against mine. “I love you,” he whispered. “More than anything in this world.”

“I love you, too,” I whispered back.

He pulled back slightly, his eyes searching mine. “When this is over, when we’re all safe, I want to go somewhere. Just the three of us. Somewhere far away from all of this madness.”

“Where?”

“I don’t care. The beach, the mountains, another country entirely. As long as we’re together.”

I smiled, the first real smile I’d managed all day. “That sounds perfect.”

“We’ll rent a little house somewhere quiet. Thea can run around and play without worrying about anything. We can just… be a family.”

“Just a family,” I repeated softly. The words sounded like a dream, something too good to be true. But maybe, if we survived this, it could be our reality.

Elijah leaned in and kissed me then, soft and gentle at first, then with growing intensity. I could taste the desperation in his kiss, the fear and love and need all tangled up together. I kissed him back just as fiercely.

When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing hard.

“Whatever happens tonight,” he said, “I want you to know that this past year, being with you, being Thea’s father… it’s been the best time of my life. And despite everything, I think you are the bravest, most selfless, most wonderful person in the world.” He inhaled sharply. “Thea inherited that from you. And it’s why I believe you’ll both be able to walk out of there unharmed. It has nothing to do with fate, and everything to do with you.”

I wanted to believe him. I needed to believe him.

“Kiss me again,” I whispered in response.

This time, when his lips met mine, there was something different in the kiss. Something desperate and consuming, like he was trying to memorize the taste of me, the feel of me. I kissed him back with the same intensity, my hands fisting in his shirt.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was pulling him with me as I fell back onto the bed. We collapsed into a tangle of arms and legs and fears, because we both knew that this might be the last time.