Chapter 36: The Rescue

Hecate POV

Hours passed. Or perhaps it was only minutes. Time had lost all meaning in the white silence of the storm.

The snow eventually stopped falling, but the cold remained, a living thing that clawed through my robes and seeped into my bones. My fingers were numb around the reins. My face was raw from the wind. But I did not stop searching.

The silver thread from the tracking spell still glowed faintly ahead of us, pulling me deeper into the rogue forest. Aileen was alive. I could feel her life force at the edge of my awareness, flickering like a candle in a storm, but still burning. Somehow, impossibly, she was still alive.

Beside me, Maddox rode in silence. His stallion was flagging, its breath coming in thick clouds, its hooves dragging through the drifts. He had not complained once. Not about the cold, not about the hours, not about the danger that lurked in every shadow between the trees.

But I saw the tension in his shoulders. The way his hand never strayed far from the sword at his hip.

"The storm has passed," he said finally, his voice hoarse. "But the temperature is dropping. If we do not find her soon..."

He did not finish the sentence. He did not need to.

"She is alive," I said. "I can still feel her."

He looked at me then, his golden eyes searching my face. "How? She is barely three years old. Her wolf has not awakened. A child that small should not have survived the night in these conditions."

"Children are more resilient than we give them credit for."

"Or you are more powerful than you admit."

I did not answer. I could not. Because he was right. The tracking spell should have faded hours ago. The cold should have claimed Aileen long before dawn. But something was keeping her alive. Something was protecting her.

I did not know if it was luck or fate or the Moon Goddess herself. I only knew that I could not stop searching. Not while the thread still glowed. Not while I could still feel her heartbeat at the edge of my magic.

"We should have found her body by now," Maddox said, voicing the thought that had been gnawing at me for hours. "The rogues, the cold, the wolves. Something should have..."

"She is not dead."

"How do you know?"

"Because I would feel it." The words came out sharper than I intended. "When someone I am tracking dies, the spell shatters. It has not shattered."

Maddox was quiet for a moment. Then he guided his stallion closer to mine, close enough that our knees touched.

"You speak about this child as if she were your own," he said. "The desperation in your voice. The way you have not slept, not eaten, not stopped searching. It is more than duty, Hecate. It is personal."

I kept my eyes fixed on the silver thread.

"You have children, do you not?" he continued. "That is what this is. You are a mother."

My throat tightened. I should have lied. I should have deflected. But the cold and the exhaustion and the strange intimacy of the dark forest had lowered my defenses.

"I have a son," I said quietly. "He is with my sister in the Midnight Pack. Waiting for me to come home."

"A son." Maddox repeated the word as if tasting it. "How old?"

"Almost three."

"Almost three." He was silent for a long moment. "And his father?"

I looked at him then. At his golden eyes, his dark hair dusted with snow, the pendant still hanging against his chest. The vial of my blood warm between us.

"His father does not know he exists," I said.

Maddox's expression shifted. Something flickered in his gaze. Confusion. Curiosity. Something softer that I did not want to name.

"Then he is a fool," Maddox said. "To not know he has a son. To not be there for you. To let you face this world alone."

I almost laughed. Almost cried. The irony was too sharp, too painful.

"We should keep moving," I said, turning back to the silver thread. "She is close. I can feel it."

Maddox did not push further. He only nodded and guided his stallion forward, keeping pace beside me.

The forest grew darker as we rode. The trees pressed closer, their branches heavy with snow, their shadows stretching across the path like grasping fingers. The silver thread grew brighter, pulling me east, then north, then east again.

And then I heard it.

A howl. Low and long and hungry.

Not Maddox. Not a wolf from any pack I knew.

Rogues.

I pulled the mare to a stop, my hand going to the dagger at my belt. Maddox did the same, his sword sliding from its sheath with a soft whisper of steel.

"There," he said, nodding toward a ridge ahead.

Figures emerged from the trees. Dozens of them. Their eyes glowed in the dim light, amber and red and yellow. Their fur was matted, their bodies lean and scarred. They moved with a predatory grace that made my blood run cold.

They surrounded us before we could run.

A large wolf, bigger than the others, stepped forward. Its lips peeled back from its fangs, and a voice echoed in my mind. Not spoken aloud. The mindlink.

Intruders. You are in rogue territory. State your purpose or die.

Maddox's jaw tightened. I saw his hand grip his sword, saw the muscles in his arm tense. He was calculating. Deciding whether to fight or surrender.

Through the mindlink, I reached for him.

Do not attack.

His head turned toward me, surprise flashing across his face. He had not expected me to reach him. Outsiders could not usually access a wolf's mindlink.

How are you doing that? he asked.

I am powerful enough, I said. That is all you need to know.

He studied me for a moment, his golden eyes narrowed. Then he gave a small nod.

We are searching for a lost child, he said, addressing the rogue leader. A girl. Three years old. She wandered into the forest last night.

The rogue leader growled. The sound vibrated through the snow, through the trees, through my chest.

We have no child.

I felt a surge of frustration and fear. The silver thread still glowed. Aileen was close. I could feel her.

She is here, I said. I can sense her. The child is with you.

The rogue leader's eyes fixed on me. Its head tilted, as if it were seeing me for the first time.

A witch. The word was laced with suspicion and something like respect.

A healer, I corrected. And I am not leaving without that child.

Maddox shot me a warning glance. But I did not care. Aileen was out there. Alone. Afraid. And I had promised myself I would not fail her.

The rogue leader circled us, its pack closing in around us. I counted at least twenty. Too many to fight. Too many to flee.

You will come with us, the leader said. The Alpha will decide what to do with you.

Maddox moved closer to me, his shoulder brushing mine. Through the mindlink, his voice was low and urgent.

We cannot go with them. It is a death sentence.

I think the child is with them, I said. I can feel her. The trail ends where they are.

You cannot be certain.

I am certain.

Maddox was silent for a long moment. The rogues pressed closer, their hackles raised, their fangs bared. The leader growled again, impatient.

Decide. Now.

Maddox looked at me, his golden eyes burning. And then he did something I did not expect.

He sheathed his sword.

We will come with you, he said to the rogue leader. But if the child is harmed, I will burn this forest to the ground and every creature in it.

The rogue leader's lips curled in something that might have been a smile.

Bold words for a man walking into his death.

Maddox did not answer. He only looked at me, and through the mindlink, his voice was soft.

Stay close to me. No matter what happens.

I nodded, my heart pounding.

The rogues closed in around us, herding us deeper into the forest, away from the path, away from the castle, away from everything familiar. The silver thread still glowed in my hand, pulling me toward the child.

And as we walked, Maddox reached for my hand. His fingers intertwined with mine, warm despite the cold.

I did not pull away.

So they followed the rogues toward their lair, willing to do anything to save the child.