Chapter 162- Smoke Before the Fire
Adrian
They found us.
I felt the moment the illusion shattered—like someone tearing open the skin of the world. My wards screamed a warning a second too late, and by the time I looked up from the war table, the cloaking spell was gone. I saw their silhouettes lining the ridge outside.
Tarria.
She’d brought them. Led Lexy right to my doorstep.
Kael bolted upright, his instincts kicking in before thought. “We need to go. Now. We need to get to the rest of our backup.”
I didn’t move. My fists clenched on the table, jaw locked in fury. I had poured months of planning into this sanctuary—our fallback point, our war room. It was supposed to be a place no one could touch. But she had touched it. She had cracked it open like an egg.
“No,” I said through gritted teeth. “We stand and we fight.”
Kael cursed, already hearing the sounds of weapons clashing deeper in the tunnels. “We don’t have the numbers for this. If we stand, we fall.”
I looked at him then—truly looked. Kael had been by my side since the beginning, but I could see the edge of fear creeping in. Not just fear of death—fear that maybe we’d already lost.
I turned toward the dark hallway as footsteps approached.
Then she appeared—Lexy.
Blade drawn. Steady. Commanding. Fierce.
Behind her, Tarria stood tall, face unreadable. Fierce eyes cut sharper than steel.
Lexy’s eyes didn’t waver when she saw me. There was no satisfaction in them, no triumph. Just resolve and pure fury.
Kael moved fast, trying to take her out before she struck, but Tarria intercepted him mid-lunge. Their blades clashed in a blur of silver. Her dagger sliced deep, and Kael stumbled, the poison already in his blood.
Lexy came for me, and I met her halfway. Claws burst from my hands—dark, hungry, raw. Her magic surged back, pure and radiant. We collided, the impact shaking the very stones around us.
“You think this ends today?” I snarled, pushing against her magic. “You have no idea what you’ve stepped into.”
She didn’t speak. She pressed harder.
My strength faltered, just slightly. The hideout was compromised. My allies were scattered across the territories. I was running out of time—and blood.
She drove me back, slammed me against the wall, and I saw it in her face—she was going to win.
Then I heard it.
A horn. Faint, echoing through the tunnels.
Kael coughed, blinking up from the floor. “That’s… ours.”
A rumble followed—distant at first, then rising like thunder.
Lexy heard it too. Her eyes narrowed, then flicked toward the corridor behind me. Her team shifted, uneasy. The sound wasn’t footsteps. It was a force.
My men had arrived.
The outer defenses must have triggered their emergency signal. I had left that contingency in place in case we were ever compromised. I never thought we’d need it. And now it was the only reason I might live to fight again.
Lexy realized it too. She backed up a step, lips pressed thin. Tarria pulled her blade from Kael’s shoulder, eyes darting toward the tunnel where the sound grew louder—closer.
“Pull back!” Jace shouted from down the corridor. “They're breaching the north flank!”
Lexy hesitated—but only for a breath.
Then she gave the signal.
Retreat.
The word echoed like a curse.
Her team began falling back with precision, guarding one another. Even as they moved, Lexy stayed a moment longer, her eyes burning into mine.
“This isn’t over,” she said.
“It never was,” I replied.
A final burst of light flashed from her hand, blinding me long enough for her to disappear into the smoke and confusion. When my sight cleared, she was gone—and Kael was groaning on the ground beside me.
My soldiers poured in moments later, weapons drawn, faces grim. Some looked ready to chase. I raised a hand.
“No,” I said, breathing hard. “Let them go.”
My second-in-command, Lorne, approached. “We came as fast as we could. The alarms tripped less than five minutes ago.”
“You were fast enough,” I said. “Lexy was here. So was Tarria. They nearly had me.”
Lorne’s expression hardened. “Then next time, we don’t wait for an alarm.”
I knelt beside Kael. He was pale, sweat coating his skin. The poison was working fast, but he was breathing. Just barely.
“She cut deep,” he muttered, voice strained. “She didn’t hesitate.”
“She’s not the same girl you once laughed at,” I said. “She’s a blade now. One Lexy forged in silence.”
Kael chuckled, then winced. “And we… almost lost.”
“Almost,” I repeated.
But the truth was, we did lose. Strategically. Symbolically. Lexy had breached our stronghold, exposed our secrecy, and forced us to fight in defense. That wasn’t power. That was survival.
I stood slowly, surveying the damage. The war room was a wreck—tables overturned, maps scorched, the air thick with the stench of magic and fire. My sanctuary was no longer safe.
We need to move. Disappear again.
But not before sending a message.
“Burn it,” I told Lorne. “Everything. No trace. We’ll relocate to the eastern cliffs. Send the shadows ahead to clear the way.”
He nodded, already barking orders.
Kael groaned again. “What about the others?”
“We’ll regroup,” I said. “The ones worth keeping will find their way to us.”
I stared at the scorched tunnel where Lexy had vanished. For a moment, I almost respected her. Almost.
She’d been a step ahead and surprising me. For now.
But I still had cards to play. And she will find out what type of cards I got.
She thought cutting off my hideout would cripple me, that her little victory would mark the turning point in this war. But she didn’t know what I’d buried beneath these mountains—what truths I’d uncovered about Tarria’s bloodline, the dormant gate, the power gathering at the edges of the realm.
No, this was just the first bell. Of the many bells to ring.
And Lexy had just made it personal.
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