Chapter 176- Shadows of Defeat
Adrian
The world was still trembling when we slipped away. My ears rang with the aftershock of her fury, a power that burned brighter and hotter than anything I’d ever felt before. Lexy. Queen of fire and shadow. She had unleashed herself upon us, and at that moment, survival was the only card left to play.
Kael stumbled beside me, his usually measured steps erratic, his breath ragged. We’d run through the ravaged field, bodies and embers alike marking the place of our downfall. The night air stung with ash. Every inhale tasted of scorched earth and humiliation.
We lost.
The words churned in my gut, a bitter poison I couldn’t swallow down. Victory had been so close, within reach, but her unleashed wrath had torn through our lines like parchment in a storm. My men scattered, burned, and broken. What remained of our strength fled in chaos, and I—Adrian, the one who never bows—was forced to retreat.
I hated every step of it.
“Keep moving,” I barked at Kael, though my own legs felt like lead. My body throbbed with the remnants of her power, as if her flames had branded me even from afar.
Kael gave a sharp nod; one hand pressed to his side where a jagged wound leaked dark through his tunic. He was pale, but his eyes still burned with that stormy resolve I’d come to rely on. “I can’t… believe she held that much back,” he rasped.
Neither could I.
We broke into the cover of the forest at last, the trees swallowing us in their shadows. I leaned against a trunk, chest heaving, sweat dripping into my eyes. The sounds of pursuit never came. Either Lexy was too drained from her outburst to follow—or she wanted us to run, to taste the shame of our own failure.
I clenched my fists until my nails bit into my palms. She had humiliated me before my men. She had humiliated me before Kael. Worst of all, she had proven me wrong.
For all my preparations, all my strategies, I underestimated her.
Not her power—no, I’ve always known she carried fire in her veins. What I underestimated was her will. Her refusal to break.
Kael slid down against a rock, his head tilted back as he let out a pained breath. “We should… regroup. Heal. You’re no good to anyone like this, Adrian. Neither am I.”
I paced, every fiber of me rejecting stillness. Rest felt like surrender. Yet, he was right. My body screamed for reprieve, and even I knew that charging forward now would be nothing more than suicide.
The crackle of my own anger kept me upright.
“Regroup?” I muttered, turning on him. “While she gathers her allies? While she cements her rule with fire and ash? Every day we waste, she grows stronger. We can’t afford time, Kael.”
His lips curved in a grim line. “And yet, without strength, without soldiers, what do we have? Look around, Adrian. The men are scattered, those who survived at all. We must call them back. Rally them again. Or else it will be just us—and two blades can’t carve a kingdom.”
His words cut, but they were true. I hated that they were true.
I dragged a hand through my hair, tugging at the roots as if pain might sharpen my focus. The forest around us pulsed with night sounds, indifferent to the storm that had just passed. It mocked me with its peace.
Kael’s wound was worsening, and though he made no sound, I knew the pain gnawed at him. I knelt beside him, tearing cloth from my sleeve and binding his side with firm hands. He gave me a sharp glance but said nothing. We’ve fought side by side long enough for silence to speak louder than words.
When I finished, I rose and looked beyond the tree line, toward the land we’d fled. Lexy still ruled it. For now.
“She thinks this is over,” I murmured, more to myself than him. “She thinks driving us back means victory. But she hasn’t broken me, Kael. She hasn’t won. She’s only lit a fire—and fire consumes everything, even its wielder.”
Kael smirked faintly despite the pain. “That’s the Adrian I know. Already plotting the next strike.”
I stared at him, and the shadow of a plan began to stitch itself together in my mind. Retreat wasn’t the end. Retreat was survival, and survival gave birth to opportunity. Lexy’s power was great—too great to challenge head-on again. Not until we had the means to counter it.
“She has her Phoenix,” I said slowly. “Her bond to CJ, her so-called balance of light and darkness. But bonds can break. Power can be turned against itself. If we can’t crush her outright, then we dismantle what makes her strong. Piece by piece.”
Kael’s eyes narrowed, catching on to my meaning. “Her allies.”
“Exactly.” I began pacing again, the old fire returning to my stride. “The packs that stand behind her, the wolves that whisper her name as though it’s salvation. We turn them. Corrupt them. Isolate her. What is a queen without her people? What is a warrior without those she swore to protect? If she wants to burn us, then let her burn everything she loves trying.”
Kael chuckled low, though it ended in a wince of pain. “You’re ruthless, Adrian.”
I leaned down, meeting his gaze with the steel of my conviction. “We can’t afford mercy anymore. Not with her. Not with them. The moment we chose this path, mercy died.”
He held my stare for a beat before nodding once. Agreement, acceptance, loyalty. Despite his wound, despite the ruin of the night, Kael was still at my side. That mattered more than I let on.
The silence stretched, broken only by the night insects, until he asked, “What about Tarria?”
Her name was a stone in my gut. I thought of her—the potential she carried, the way I got others whispering of her as a beacon of both light and darkness. Some wanted her crowned. Others wanted her silenced. She was a threat, a variable I hadn’t decided whether to try to exploit or destroy.
“We’ll keep her in mind,” I said carefully. “For now, our focus is Lexy. But if Tarria becomes a tool we can use—or an obstacle in our way—we’ll deal with her accordingly.”
Kael’s smirk deepened. “Always calculating.”
“Always,” I answered.
The forest night stretched long, and fatigue pressed against my shoulders, but inside me burned a resolve that no flame of Lexy’s could snuff out. Tonight, we retreated. Tonight, we licked our wounds.
But tomorrow? Tomorrow we will rise again.
I will gather my men. I will spread whispers among her allies. I will carve doubt into their loyalty until they question every command she gives. I will strike not at her body, but at the foundation beneath her feet.
And when the time is right—when she’s isolated, when her strength becomes a prison instead of a weapon—then I will face her again. Not as the hunted, but as the hunter.
Kael shifted, grimacing as he adjusted against the rock. “We’ll need a place to lie low. A stronghold, hidden but close enough to move quickly. Somewhere they won’t think to look.”
I nodded, already envisioning the map in my mind, the hidden valleys and abandoned keeps. “I know a place. It’s far enough to buy us time, close enough to strike when we’re ready.”
He let out a breath, weary but resolved. “Then we have our path.”
I looked back once more through the trees, imagining the distant glow of Lexy’s power, imagining her standing victorious among her people.
Enjoy your triumph while it lasts, Queen. Bask in the light of your so-called victory.
Because shadows are patient. And I am their master.
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