Chapter 412: Secrets in the Shadows

The battlefield seemed to pause for a heartbeat as the cloaked figures halted abruptly, their faces frozen in shock. Darius, their leader, lay dead, his blood painting the snow crimson. Seven figures remained, clustered near the edge of the clearing, their hoods low, hands gripping the hilts of their weapons, eyes darting between each other as disbelief spread silently among them. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"This isn’t possible," muttered one, his voice low and ragged beneath his hood. "Darius... dead... like that?"

A taller figure with a scar running from his left temple down to his jaw, named Kyle, shook his head slowly. "He underestimated them. We all did. That was his mistake... and ours," Kyle said, the tone sharp, controlled, yet tinged with fear. His long cloak rustled as he adjusted the sword strapped across his back, the leather squeaking against the movement.

Another figure, smaller but wiry, with dark eyes that seemed to gleam even under the hood, spoke next. "What now, Kyle? Victoria will not tolerate this failure." His name was Theron, and his voice carried both impatience and worry. He shifted his weight, boots crunching lightly against the snow, glancing nervously toward the chaos erupting just beyond the treeline.

Kyle’s eyes flicked to the woman among the wolves — the one riding the massive predator — and a frown tightened across his face. Even beneath the hood, he looked pale, as if the sight of her had chilled him. He had never spoken to her, but he had seen her before. A quiet, unassuming figure in the shadows, always reserved, always silent. Yet now, mounted on the wolf with swords in hand, her eyes blazing and her movements commanding, she was utterly transformed.

Kyle felt a shiver run through him. This wasn’t the girl who always had her head down and avoided people. She was different.

"She... she’s not like before," Kyle muttered, voice low, almost to himself. His gaze tracked her as she moved with deadly precision, felling beasts with fluid, synchronized motions alongside the others.

Theron tilted his head, sensing Kyle’s hesitation. "What do we do? Darius is gone. Victoria expects results."

Kyle’s jaw tightened. He motioned with a gloved hand to three of the cloaked figures standing closest to the cave entrance. "Go in," he ordered. "You know what we came for. You know where it is. Retrieve the beast."

The three figures — a broad-shouldered man with a jagged scar across his knuckles named Morven, a quiet, nimble woman called Lysandra, and a young man in his early twenties who went by Kairen — nodded without a word. They melted into the shadows of the cave entrance, cloaks blending seamlessly with the darkness, boots crunching softly against the rocky floor as they vanished from sight.

Kyle watched them go, eyes narrowing. If not for the distraction, they would have gotten the beast from the cave and returned to Victoria.

He swallowed as he studied the woman on the huge wolf. The others were strong, yes, but this duo was stronger. They raided the beasts like they were nothing.

Kyle turned to Theron. "You," he said, pointing at him. "Go back to Victoria."

Theron stared at him in shock. "Go back? We’ve not even gotten what Victoria sent us here for, and you are telling me to go back?"

"Yes," Kyle told him. "I am."

"Are you okay? Victoria will kill us if we do not go back with what she asked us to bring," Theron told him.

"I know that, but this is important too. Take a look at that woman," Kyle told him, pointing toward the woman on the massive wolf with that strange mark on his head.

Theron didn’t understand why Kyle was pointing at the woman. "So?"

"That’s Victoria’s daughter," Kyle told him.

Theron turned to him with wide eyes, then looked back at the woman. She didn’t look familiar to him.

"Are you sure? Wasn’t she recorded as missing? I thought she was dead?" Theron asked him.

"I thought so too, but she’s very much alive," Kyle said. "And I know because I’ve met her. That woman now taking down beasts like they do not matter is Victoria’s daughter, Sophia."

Theron swallowed. "We need to inform Victoria," he told Kyle.

Kyle nodded. "That’s why I said you should go back to her. Inform her of the news. She would want to know."

Without another word, Theron shifted, sprinting into the forest, using the chaos as cover. His paws barely touched the ground as he ran westward, weaving between trees, dodging debris, and leaping over shallow ravines. His mind raced as he thought of how Victoria would react. The daughter she had presumed lost, the child she had searched for in secret, was alive and was with the enemy too.

Meanwhile, Ronan joined Sophia and Orion as they fought back the Trihydras. Sophia wasted no time adapting even to Ronan’s fighting techniques. She was the support Ronan never even thought they needed.

The other trainees pulled their weight too. Helios and Uther’s arrows were finished now, so they used their wolves instead, tearing into the beasts without mercy.

The young man and his people didn’t even need to fight. Dren and Nia covered them, holding their ground against the beasts that tried to attack them.

Gregory laughed with joy as they tore through the beasts. All the direwolves were on the floor now, dead as they bled out, while Kyle hid away because he feared for his life.

He was going to wait in a corner until the others he sent into the cave came back with the beast, and then they would be gone.

But he miscalculated, thinking that he was going to survive this.

Meanwhile, inside the cave, Lysandra and the others moved quietly. There was a very unpleasant presence in the cave that made the air stale.

They moved into the cave slowly, going deeper until even the sounds from the fight felt like they were coming from somewhere distant and not right at the clearing outside.

Lysandra paused in shock when they finally got to their target. Her eyes widened, and she swallowed as her gaze settled on the beast, who smiled at her...