Chapter Eleven

 

Leo was running through a mess of dead bodies, heading for what appeared to be the last Gilt Hollow stronghold, when he finally found Isa. He’d been keeping an eye out for her over the last two hours or so, hoping to catch another glimpse of her in the battle—and hoping that glimpse would be of her fighting and not of a dead body.

After two hours of not seeing her, dead or alive, he was beginning to wonder if she’d gone into hiding. She didn’t seem like the type to back down from a fight, but then again, she’d never been in a real fight. Maybe the stress proved to be too much for her, despite her best intentions. He hadn’t felt any sort of warning deep inside that his lifemate was in mortal danger, so surely, she must still be alive?

He hoped so. And then, all of a sudden, he felt a flash of sickening despair as he felt the lifemate bond within him going crazy. His whole body went hot and red, and he knew Isa was in mortal danger. She must still be in the fight, then, he thought, a split second before he saw her. The smoky haze was finally starting to clear a bit, and he could just make out her figure.

She was screaming at the top of her lungs, running toward a group of Gilt Hollow soldiers with her sword outstretched. She was so intent on the soldiers in front of her that she didn’t see the burly Gilt Hollow man jumping out at her from her left, a giant wooden stick raised above his head. He brought the stick down on the side of her skull, and she immediately lost her balance and started to fall. Leo was already running toward her, his grizzly paws flying across the cobblestones beneath him. He ran as fast as he could, but a horrible feeling filled him as he saw the man who had attacked Isa reaching down for the sword Isa had been carrying. An evil laugh sounded across the square as the man picked the sword up and raised it above his head, preparing to bring it down on Isa’s head.

I’m not going to get there in time! Leo felt a moment of panic, but that panic was quickly followed by the most overwhelming rage he’d ever felt in his life. Oh no you don’t! Not today! Not my lifemate. Leo let out the longest, loudest roar he had ever made in his life.

The man holding the sword paused, distracted by the roar. He turned to look at Leo for a split-second before turning back toward Isa, but that split-second was all Leo needed. It gave him the extra time he needed to reach the man. As Leo approached, he leapt into the air and ran sideways into the man, with the full force of his giant grizzly form. The man yelped in surprise and went flying sideways, his sword flying through the air as well. When Leo rolled off of him, the man took off running, stumbling across the uneven, bloodstained ground in his effort to get away. Leo let him go. He could have easily chased after him and killed him, but right now Leo’s more immediate concern was making sure that Isa was okay. After quickly surveying the area and determining that there were no more Gilt Hollow fighters around, Leo quickly shifted back into human form. He ran over to Isa, tears forming in his eyes as he knelt over her.

“Isa! Isa, are you okay?”

She blinked her eyes open, squinting at him and then furrowing her brow.

“Leo? What…what happened? The last thing I remember was running to attack some Gilt Hollow men, but then everything went black. And now you’re here.” She sat up slowly and looked around. “Looks like I’m still in Central Square. But the smoke has cleared up quite a bit. And I don’t see anyone fighting.”

“Shh, take it easy. You took quite a blow to the head. Some Gilt Hollow bastard was trying to take you out with your sword when I got here, but I stopped him. He ran away now, and I don’t see anyone else here. I don’t hear any more fighting, either, come to think of it.”

Leo looked around for a few moments, listening carefully and breathing in to see whether he could catch the scent of any nearby fighters. But he couldn’t smell anything above the stench of smoke and bodies. He couldn’t hear anything, either. The world had suddenly gone strangely, eerily quiet. Isa noticed the silence, too.

“Is the battle over?” she asked.

Leo shrugged. “I don’t know, but it sure sounds that way. Do you think you can stand? We should try to move out of this open space, at least. We can retreat to the forest to regroup, and maybe find out what’s happening along the way.”

Isa nodded. “I can move. I feel pretty much normal now that I’ve sat up for a few moments.”

“Good.” Leo stood and offered her his hand to help her stand. “Then let’s get you out of here.”

He supported her with one of his arms, and used the other hand to pick up the sword lying on the ground a few feet away from them. As they walked, he kept the sword at the ready, just in case. But he didn’t see or hear anyone. The fighting might actually be over, although Leo couldn’t say for sure who had won. In the midst of the battle, he’d only been trying to survive and to keep an eye out for Isa. Everything had been too much of a blur for him to be able to tell which way the battle was turning.

The fires must have all burned out now, too. The smoke was rapidly clearing, helped along by a brisk breeze blowing in from the north. Leo felt a bit shocked as he saw how much of Gilt Hollow had burned to the ground. He knew these streets well, and had spent years on these streets as a guard for the Severson noble family, memorizing the layout of the city streets. He knew which houses stood where, and what they all looked like. But nothing about these streets looked familiar right now. The houses were all burnt shells, and even the streets themselves looked charred in places.

“Wow,” Isa said, sounding a bit breathless. The destruction must have shocked her as well. “This place looks like the apocalypse came through here with a vengeance.”

“The shifter apocalypse,” Leo said. For the first time since the battle had started earlier today, he felt himself starting to relax. The shifters must have won this battle. There was no way that Gilt Hollow had sustained this much destruction and still come out on top. His heart pounded in his chest with hope. Was this really happening? Dare he believe that he might actually be free now? That he and Isa might actually have the chance to live together openly, with no one to judge their love or the fact that he was a shifter and she was not?

Leo held tighter to Isa as they walked through the ruins of Gilt Hollow. He had waited so long for this moment that it felt surreal to think that freedom might actually be here. But the more he saw, the more he became convinced that the shifters had won this battle. The majority of Gilt Hollow looked like it had been charred to a crisp, and bodies of Gilt Hollow citizens lay all over the streets. Leo didn’t see very many shifter bodies, though. Either all the dead shifters were somewhere else in town, or the shifters had actually made it through this with low casualties.

He picked up his pace without consciously realizing it. He was feeling less worried about attacks now, and more curious about where the rest of the shifters might be. They must have all gathered somewhere, but he didn’t see any signs of life anywhere. Had everyone already gone back to Bear Hollow? But if so, how had he missed that? Surely, Otto would have sent some shifters to sweep the town and let any remaining shifters know that people were heading back.

Leo hadn’t been musing about this for long when he heard the faint sound of voices. Someone was yelling, although it sounded more like some sort of verbal argument rather than a continuation of the bloody battle that had been taking place.

“Did you hear that?” Leo asked Isa.

She nodded slowly. “It sounds like it’s coming from the direction of the palace. Should we go check it out?”

Leo nodded and the two of them turned to their left to take the road that would lead them past the Arena, past the Seversons’ house, and finally to the palace. Or to what was left of the palace, anyway. Leo was curious to see whether anything remained of the magnificent building after the explosion and fires.

The Arena had fared better than most of the buildings. Some of the outside area was covered in black soot, but the Arena itself didn’t seem to have suffered any fire damage. It was still standing, and its roof even gleamed in the sunlight that now shone through the clearing smoke. Leo turned away. He didn’t even want to look at that horrid building, where so many shifters had been forced to fight wild animals against their will, purely for the entertainment of the Gilt Hollow humans.

If this battle is over and the shifters truly have been victorious, the first thing we should do is burn that Arena to the ground. For now, though, Leo turned away from the sight of the Arena and back toward the road ahead of him. They passed the Seversons’ house, which had still been in the process of being repaired from a large fire that one of the shifter resistance fighters had caused there a few months ago. From the looks of things now, the repairs had been completely undone by today’s fire. The little bit of the Seversons’ house that remained was nothing more than a charcoal-colored shell. The gardens were all burnt as well. Where once there had been vibrant flowers and deep green trees, there were now only ashes and blackened trunks.

Isa whistled. “This is insane. There’s nothing left of Gilt Hollow.”

Leo glanced over at her, feeling a sudden pang of pity for her. Despite the fact that the Gilt Hollow humans had treated everyone so poorly, this had been Isa’s hometown. She had grown up here, and her whole life’s worth of memories were here. It must feel strange to see it all in ruins. “Does it make you sad to see this?” he asked.

Isa shrugged. “A little bit. This is everything I’ve ever known, and now it’s just gone. It feels like such senseless, needless destruction. But at the same time, the people of Gilt Hollow brought this on themselves. If they had treated the shifters well and shared the wealth of this area with them, none of this would ever have happened. I’d rather see all of this property destroyed than see the shifters continue to suffer like they have been.”

Leo squeezed her shoulder. “It’s hard to believe that you’re the daughter of the Emperor. How did you grow up here, with him as a father, and manage to care so much about the shifters?”

“I think it’s because I grew up here, with him as a father, that I care so much. Every time I saw him mistreating the shifters, it fanned the anger inside of me. I knew your people were just that—people—and that treating you like animals was wrong. I vowed that I would change things one day, but I always assumed that day would be far, far in the future, after my father was dead. I didn’t think I had the courage to stand up to my father while he was alive and ruling this city.”

“I guess you had more courage than you thought.” Leo leaned over and gave her a kiss. “And I’m thankful as hell for that. You’ve made a big difference in the battle today, but not only that, you’ve proven to everyone in Bear Hollow that you truly are different. They’re going to love having you around.”

Isa blushed. “You really think so?”

“I know so. But no one’s going to love having you around as much as me.”

“Assuming the shifters really did prevail today. I’m not going to stop worrying about that until I see my father surrendering with my own eyes.”

Leo smiled. “Well then, let’s hurry and get to the palace, so we can see that and get on with our lives.”

Leo wasn’t sure that they were going to find the Emperor at the palace, but he was sure that wherever they did finally find the Emperor, the man would be surrendering. The destruction to Gilt Hollow was far too great for Gilt Hollow to continue on as though nothing had happening.

But within a few moments, it was clear that they were going to find something important going on at the palace, even if the Emperor wasn’t actually there. The yelling grew louder, and there were even cheers. Leo chewed on his lower lip. Hopefully those cheers were coming from shifters and not from Gilt Hollow citizens.

As they rounded a sharp corner in the road and the massive palace grounds came into view, Leo’s worries were eased. The palace was still a little ways ahead of them, but he could see a large crowd of shifters, and the shifters were definitely the ones cheering. The shifters were all standing in a circle, and Leo couldn’t be sure but it looked like they were surrounding the Emperor.

“Is that your dad?” Leo asked, glancing over at Isa.

She nodded. “Yes, and he doesn’t look happy. Come on. Let’s go see what’s going on.”

Before Leo could say anything else, Isa had broken away from him and was running toward the crowd.

Well, here goes. Let’s see what is to become of the great Gilt Hollow Emperor. If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll promise to leave the shifters alone from now on.