CHAPTER 10: THE EASTERN GATE

Damian was already moving before Ryder finished speaking, his calm shattering into something sharp and lethal, the same version of him I had caught a glimpse of once before in a dark park with six men closing in around us.

"Kade, come with me," he said. "Xavier, get Helena to the safe room on the west wing. Ryder, pull every guard we have to the eastern fence, now."

"I am not hiding in a safe room," I said.

"Helena." Damian's voice cracked like a whip, with all softness from an hour ago burned away. "This is not a discussion."

"Someone just tried to kill Mara for knowing too much," I said, standing my ground even as my heart hammered against my ribs. "You think whoever is attacking that fence doesn't already know I was the one who found out that she is a fraud? So if they're coming for anyone tonight, it's not just this house, it's answers, and I am the one who started asking questions."

Something flickered across his face, frustration warring with the truth of what I had said, and for one second, I thought he might actually argue further. But instead, he turned to Xavier. "Guard her to the safe room and make sure it is locked. And remember, there are no exceptions, and someone must stay with her at all times."

"Copy that," Xavier said, already steering me toward the hallway with a hand at my back, gentler than I expected given the urgency in his voice.

We had barely made it past the second corridor when the first sound of chaos reached us, distant shouting, the sharp crack of something colliding hard against metal, followed by a howl that raised every hair on my arms. Xavier's grip on my arm tightened.

"That's not one of ours," he said grimly, quickening his pace.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Because ours don't howl like they're enjoying it."

We reached the safe room, a reinforced door tucked behind what looked like an ordinary linen closet, and Xavier had barely gotten it open when Nora came sprinting around the corner, breathless, a tray of forgotten dishes abandoned somewhere behind her.

"Luna," she gasped. "They said to get everyone below ground. And I was trying to reach the east hall, but there's fighting going on already, I don't know if I can get back—"

"Nora." I grabbed her arm before she could bolt past us in a panic. "Come with us now."

"I have to check on the kitchen staff first, there are still people back there—" she said.

"Nora, please." My voice cracked with something close to desperation. "It's not safe."

She hesitated, turned her eyes toward the hallway behind her, where the sounds of fighting were growing louder and closer, the scent of smoke beginning to curl faintly through the air vents.

"I'll be quick," she said, and before either of us could stop her, she turned and ran back the way she came.

"Nora!" I called after her, but Xavier's arm caught me hard around the waist, dragging me back.

"You can't," he said, low and urgent. "Helena, I know but you can't leave. Because if something happens to you tonight, then everything Damian and the rest of us are fighting for out there means nothing."

I wanted to scream at him that it does not matter, that Nora was the only person in this entire house who had shown me kindness without expecting anything in return, but the words caught in my throat as the lights along the corridor blinked once, twice, and then died completely, plunging the hallway into darkness broken only by the distant orange flicker of something burning.

"Get inside," Xavier said, shoving me toward the safe room door. "Now."

I could not move fast enough. Then a shape came barreling out of the smoke at the end of the hallway, not one of the household staff, not anyone I recognized, a man with wild eyes and bared teeth already halfway to us, and behind him, a dragging, stumbling, one arm wrapped protectively around her own middle, was Nora.

"Xavier!" I screamed.

And he was already moving, faster than I had seen anyone move, closing the distance in seconds and slamming into the attacker with enough force to send them both crashing into the wall. Then I ran for Nora immediately, catching her as her knees buckled, her whole body trembling, blood soaking dark and warm through the front of her uniform.

"I got him off," she gasped, her voice thin and wet in a way that terrified me more than anything else that night. "I got him off Ellie in the kitchen, and I just couldn't get away in time—"

"Don't talk," I said, pressing my hands hard against the wound, my fingers instantly slick and warm. "Don't talk, just hold on, please, Nora, hold on—"

Xavier had subdued the attacker, pinning him hard to the ground, but more shapes were emerging from the smoke behind him, three, four, moving with the same wild, half-shifted hunger.

"Helena, I need you to get her inside," Xavier shouted, his voice strained as he fought to hold the first enemy down. "I can't hold this him down and protect you both."

"I'm not leaving her out here to die in a hallway," I responded.

"You won't have a choice if you don't move right now," he replied.

Then I carried Nora up as best as I could, her weight sagging heavily against my side, her breathing growing shallow and uneven, and I half-dragged her toward the safe room door, with my own hands shaking so badly I could barely work the lock.

That very moment, I heard Damian's voice roaring through the smoke behind us, and felt the ground shake as something enormous and furious collided with something else, but I did not look back, not with Nora's blood soaking through my clothes and her breathing growing weaker with every step.

I got the door open, dragged her inside, and pressed both hands hard against the wound as I had seen done once in an old first aid training back in Ashwood, years ago, half-remembered and desperately insufficient for whatever damage had been done to her.

"Stay with me," I begged, my voice breaking. "Nora, please stay with me, help is coming soon, just stay with me—"

Her eyes fluttered, unfocused, finding mine for one brief, terrible second.

"Is it true?" she whispered, so quiet I had to lean closer to hear it at all, blood bubbling faintly at the corner of her mouth. "What they're saying about you."

"Nora, don't talk, save your strength—"

"I don't care what you are," she breathed, her fingers finding mine, weak and cold. "You were kind to me, and that's all that ever mattered."

Her eyes slid shut, her hand going slack in mine, and somewhere behind me, the safe room door burst open, and I did not know or even bothered to know in that terrible, frozen second whether it was help finally arriving or something far worse coming to finish what tonight had started.