Chapter 20: The Snow Gate Battle

Moonbane fire crawled along the portcullis teeth, blue flame eating the old ward marks. Frosthold soldiers formed a line across the inner road. Council guards dragged clerks and visiting Alphas behind stone barricades. The cold bit Nora's cheeks, turned her breath to fog. Her boots slipped on frost-slick stone as she ran. Three guards tried to take her to the vault. She refused until Darius looked back from the gate. His knuckles were white on his sword hilt. "Please." Not command. Not order. His voice cracked at the end, and she saw him swallow hard before he turned away. She nodded. "Maeve is in the infirmary. The hunters will know she testified." Darius's hand trembled once on the hilt. He looked at his captain. "Secure the infirmary." The captain hesitated, watching the gate shake again. "Go." Nora ran with the captain. Smoke filled the east wing, gray and acrid, stinging her eyes. The infirmary doors hung open. Beds overturned. A cabinet split open, bandages spilling across the floor like dirty snow. A healer lay on her side, blood matting her hair, groaning. Maeve's bed was empty. Nora opened her mouth but only a hiss came out, teeth bared. "They took her--the service stair," the healer gasped, pointing with a shaking finger. The captain cursed and moved. Nora was already running, shoving the stairwell door open. Each step heavier than the last. The baby pressed against her ribs, stealing her breath. At the bottom, two hunters dragged Maeve toward a side gate. Maeve fought--broken fingers, nothing left. She bit one man's wrist. Her teeth drew blood. She kicked the other's knee, a wet snap. Nora grabbed the nearest iron poker from the wall rack. The first hunter went down with a crack that sent heat up her arm. The second turned, silver blade glinting. Nora froze. Then the baby moved. Heat bloomed beneath her palm, fierce and white. The contract pages hidden inside her cloak flared through the fabric, lighting the corridor in silver. The hunter screamed. Not from the fire. From the names. Every omega contract Nora carried unfolded in the air by itself, pages tearing free, spinning around her like a storm of paper and ink. The silver script she had seen in the cellar blazed bright enough to blind. Maeve stared from the floor. "My lady?" Nora did not know what she was doing. She only knew she would not let another woman be dragged away by a debt written by men. "Let her go." The hunter lunged. The pages struck him first. Silver names burned across his skin. He hit the wall, clawing at invisible chains, and collapsed at Nora's feet. The corridor went quiet except for Maeve's ragged breathing. Nora swayed. Maeve caught her arm. "You saved me." "The baby did." "No." Maeve looked at the glowing contracts settling around them like fallen leaves. "You carried the names. You carried them here." A roar shook the stones. Darius. Nora and Maeve reached the side window in time to see him at the snow gate. His black coat was torn, blood on his sleeve. His blade burned white. Three hunters lay at his feet, and more circled him with hooks and chains. The chains clinked against stone. Cassian stood beyond the gate, untouched by fire. Rowan was beside him. Not captive. Beside him. Nora's blood went cold. Her hand pressed flat against her belly. Rowan lifted one hand toward the hunters and pointed at the infirmary wing. At her. The betrayal should not have surprised her anymore. It did anyway. Her hand curved over the curve of her stomach. The contracts at her feet rose again, trembling like living things, pages rustling. Darius looked up and saw her in the window. For one second, every wolf, hunter, and traitor followed his gaze. Cassian smiled. "There she is," he called through the burning gate, his voice carrying over the crackle of moonbane. "The mother of my debt." Nora felt the baby kick, hard, a sharp pressure against her palm. As if answering a name that wasn't hers to give. The contracts rustled, the silver ink flickering in the cold air, and she thought of Darius's cracked voice, the tremor in his hand. She did not look away from Cassian's smile. Her fingers found the edge of a torn page, still warm, and she pressed it flat against her stomach.