Chapter 110 – The Loved And Lost

(Quinn's perspective)

The battlefield blurred behind me, vanishing with every pounding step. Derek ran at my side, shouting something—maybe my name, maybe an order—but I couldn't hear him. Something inside me twisted, a violent, wrenching pull so raw it nearly knocked me off my feet. The pain wasn't physical. It was deeper than that. Darker. It clutched my chest like claws digging into my ribs, squeezing until my vision wavered.

Luca.

My body froze. The Lunas skidded to a stop behind me, their frantic breaths matching mine. I barely felt the ground beneath me, barely processed the voices calling out. My entire world funneled into one agonizing, gut-wrenching certainty.

Something was happening to him. Something terrible.

"Trinity…" My voice was a whisper, a desperate plea carried away by the wind.

"Quinn." Her response was immediate, panicked. "They're dying."

My stomach bottomed out. My pulse roared in my ears. I didn't hesitate—I ran.

Trinity surged within me, her power bursting through my veins like wildfire, pushing me forward faster than I'd ever moved before. The wind howled, trees blurred past, branches snapped against my fur, but I felt nothing except the unshakable need to get to him. To stop this. To save him.

Then I saw it.

The doors of the hall loomed ahead, wide open like the mouth of a beast swallowing the last flickers of life inside. Blood. The scent hit me first—sharp, metallic, suffocating. The room was a massacre. Broken bodies littered the floor, their groans and whimpers a haunting soundtrack to the carnage.

But none of it mattered. Not compared to him.

My gaze locked onto the center of the room.

Luca.

He lay crumpled on the ground, his body twisted, his chest rising in shallow, stuttering breaths. A shadow loomed over him.

Cale.

A blade glinted in his grip, dripping with fresh crimson. My mind went blank, my vision tunneling on Luca's barely open eyes.

"I'm sorry, Quinn."

The words barely left his lips before Cale plunged the silver straight into his chest.

"No!" The scream ripped from my throat, raw and shattering, morphing into a howl as I lunged forward. My paws hit the blood-slicked floor, shifting mid-sprint as my human form crashed toward him.

I was too late.

His body jerked, a strangled sound escaping his lips. His breath hitched—once, twice—and then his body stilled, his head rolling slightly toward me.

"No, no, no!" I collapsed beside him, my hands trembling as I lifted his face, brushing blood-matted hair from his forehead. His skin was too cold. Too pale. His pulse weak beneath my touch.

Cale stood over us, his expression void of emotion. Then, as if none of this had ever mattered, he turned and walked away. Just like that. No hesitation. No remorse.

I didn't care. He didn't exist anymore. Not when Luca's hand barely twitched in mine.

"Luca," I choked, my fingers tightening around his. "Stay with me. Please. Don't do this."

His eyes fluttered, their once brilliant glow dimming. His lips parted, the sound so faint I had to lean in to hear it.

"Q-Quinn…"

His breaths were too shallow. His words too broken. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think. The world around me shattered into nothing but him, but the unbearable silence creeping in between his words.

"I love you," I whispered, my forehead pressing against his. "Please don't leave me."

A weak, almost imperceptible smile ghosted his lips. "And I… love you."

My heart clenched, cracked, split apart as he whispered the next words.

"Kiss… me… one last time."

A sob wrenched from my throat. I leaned down, my lips pressing against his, my tears mingling with the blood on his skin. It was soft. Fragile. A desperate, broken attempt to hold onto him. To keep him here. To make him stay.

But the moment ended too soon.

His lips stilled beneath mine. His chest rose—then didn't fall.

His hand slackened in mine.

"No." A whisper. A denial. A lie I wanted to believe.

My body shook violently as I clung to him, pressing my forehead against his, willing him back to me. "Amarok?" I called through the bond, my mind reaching—grasping—begging.

Nothing.

Silence.

A howl tore through my mind. Trinity's scream of grief, a sound so filled with rage and despair it burned through every nerve in my body. I couldn't contain it. The sound ripped from my own throat, an anguished scream that shattered across the hall, ricocheting off bloodstained walls.

Something inside me broke. Fully. Irrevocably.

Through the haze of agony, movement flickered.

Marcus. Ethan. Their beaten, bloodied faces were streaked with horror as they stumbled toward us, realization hitting them like a freight train. Marcus collapsed at Luca's side, his hands gripping his shoulders, shaking him, whispering, "No. No, you can't—"

Ethan fell to his knees, his head bowed, his entire frame trembling. Their grief tangled with mine, raw, unbearable.

I couldn't stay.

I wanted to. I needed to. But I couldn't watch them break over him like I was breaking. I forced myself to move, to press one last kiss against Luca's cooling forehead.

"I love you," I whispered, voice shattered. "Always."

Then I stood.

Every step away from him felt like a death of its own, my chest caving under the weight of it. But I didn't look back. If I did, I'd collapse, and I couldn't. Not yet.

The night air slapped against my skin, cold and biting. The distant echoes of battle still raged, but it felt like white noise, unimportant compared to the hurricane inside me. My body moved on autopilot, guided by something stronger than grief.

Something darker.

Rage.

Cale had taken everything. Torn out my heart and left it bleeding in my hands. And he thought he could just walk away. Like Luca was nothing. Like I was nothing.

He was wrong.

Cale had taken everything from me. From us. And he would pay. I didn't know how, but I would make sure of it. Even if it killed me.