Chapter 220: She’s Missing

Rhydor’s POV

One second, she was standing right there. I could feel her physical warmth radiating through the cool, damp air of the valley.

Her sweet, grounding scent filled my nostrils, anchoring my wild wolf instincts in the middle of this soon to be chaotic battle.

Even without looking directly at her, the rhythmic, steady pulse of her heart vibrated clearly through our mate bond, a beautiful melody that kept me grounded.

The very next second, she was just gone. Vanished. Dissolved into the empty air like a cruel trick of the mind, leaving absolutely nothing behind.

I felt the loss instantly, a brutal shockwave that struck me right in the center of my chest.

It felt as if a thick, freezing wall of black mud had slammed down inside my head, instantly severing the delicate thread of our connection.

Her scent was wiped away. Her emotions, her fears, her very presence in my mind went entirely dark.

The silence that followed was deafening, a heavy, hollow weight that pressed down on my brain until I could barely think.

Panic exploded through my veins, hot and violent.

The raw, primal fury of a mate who has just had his other half ripped away took control of my body.

My human skeleton cracked loudly as my bones shattered and reformed in a fraction of a second.

My muscles expanded with a painful, sudden heat, tearing through the fabric of my clothes as I shifted into my massive black wolf form.

I let out a low, guttural growl that shook the earth beneath my paws. My eyes burned a vicious, glowing red, fueled by the sheer terror of this sudden void.

Where did she go? My wolf mind roared, clawing at the thick mental wall.

Why is her scent gone? Breathe. Find her. I have to find her.

I raised my massive head, my jaw snapping closed as I forced my voice through the mental pack link, sending a distorted, roaring command that echoed in the minds of every warrior on the field.

"Find her!" I roared, the force of my command making the younger wolves stumble.

"Clear the entire area! She is gone!"

The creatures did not give me a single second to search.

Before the command could even fade from the pack link, dozens of those black-eyed monsters poured out from the dark shadows of the tree line.

They threw themselves at my massive black wolf form, their sharp claws scratching at my thick fur.

I fought like a demon, completely blinded by my rage.

I lunged forward, my jaws snapping shut around the throat of a creature and ripping it clean from its shoulders. Luckily this one doesn’t have sizzling blood.

I brought my heavy paws down, crushing their brittle bones into the dirt, painting the gray earth black with their dark, foul blood.

My teeth tore through their flesh, my movements frantic and chaotic as I fought to clear a path.

My glowing red eyes darted in every single direction, scanning the gray rocks, the dark trees, and the open plains.

I was searching, hoping to catch a single flash of her little silver-white hair. But there was absolutely no sign of her.

The space where she had stood was empty.

Then, my front leg suddenly gave out, and I stumbled heavily into the dirt.

A sharp, burning pain sliced across my front limb, radiating up to my shoulder.

I scrambled back, my chest heaving as I looked down at my leg. There was no creature near me.

Not a single monster had touched that part of my body. But the physical pain was incredibly real, a deep, slicing sensation that felt exactly like a blade tearing through flesh.

My heart squeezed in terror as the realization hit me. It was the phantom bond.

I was feeling the exact pain of a blade cutting across my mate’s arm.

She is hurting, my inner wolf whimpered, a desperate, frantic energy clawing at my chest.

Somewhere in that empty space, she is bleeding. Let me get to her!

I pushed myself up, ignoring the phantom burn, and threw myself back into the swarm of monsters with twice the ferocity, determined to tear this world apart until I found her.

Suddenly, the creature pinned beneath my heavy paws stopped struggling.

Its limbs went completely limp, and its black eyes snapped away from my face, turning toward the eastern ridge where I can’t actually point out.

Across the entire battlefield, a strange, eerie quiet fell. Every single monster froze in place, their claws hovering in the air as they ignored our weapons.

They turned their backs on us. They ignored my warriors, ignored the blades at their throats, and began to run.

They scrambled, crawled, and leaped over the rocks, moving in a massive, terrifying wave toward an unknown direction.

It was a silent, desperate migration, a black tide of bodies fleeing the fight.

I didn’t hesitate. I threw my head back and let out a booming, deep wolf howl that reverberated off the canyon walls, commanding my pack to follow.

I sprinted after the retreating horde, my heavy paws pounding the hard earth as I pushed my body to its limits.

My lungs burned with every breath of the cold, dusty air, but I kept my eyes locked on the black tide ahead, chasing the only clue I had left to find my mate.

Before we could even reach the edge of the ridge, a brilliant, blinding white light exploded on the horizon.

The flash was so intense it completely washed out the gray sky, turning the entire world a colorless, stark white.

A fraction of a second later, a crushing, physical wave of raw magic rushed toward us, ripping through the air with a deafening roar.

The running creatures closest to the blast didn’t even have time to scream; they simply disintegrated into thin air, turning into gray ash.

The impact of the shockwave hit my massive wolf form like a solid stone wall, lifting my heavy body completely off the ground.

It threw me backward through the air.

I hit the hard ground with a sickening thud, rolling through the dirt and rocks as the debris rained down around me.

A painful, high-pitched whine rang in my ears, completely blocking out all other sounds.

Slowly, painfully, I pushed my heavy front limbs up, my vision swimming with dark spots.

I shook my head, rattling the thick gray ash from my black fur as I struggled to stand.

I looked around, my chest heaving. The battlefield was completely silent now.

The roar of the monsters, the wind, the rustle of the leaves, everything had been completely erased, leaving a dead, heavy quiet.

I forced my aching legs to move, sprinting through the thick layer of ash toward the center of the blast.

I reached the steep riverbank and stopped dead in my tracks, my breath catching in my throat as my red eyes widened.

A massive, grotesque dome of black, smoking bodies sat directly in the middle of the shallow stream.

Hundreds of those creatures had thrown themselves on top of one another, forming a tangled, heavy wall of flesh to smother the explosion.

The water around the pile bubbled and hissed, steam rising into the cold air from the sheer heat of the blast.

A desperate panic took over my mind. Knowing my massive wolf paws were too clumsy and might accidentally crush whatever was hidden beneath that mound, I forced my body to shift back.

The transformation was agonizing, my bones snapping back into human form as I stood half naked, bleeding, and trembling in the cold wind.

I threw myself onto the smoking mound of bodies, my bare hands clawing at the leathery skin of the dead creatures.

The heat radiating from the pile burned my palms, but I didn’t care.

I grabbed their heavy limbs, tearing them off the pile with a desperate, frantic strength, throwing the corpses into the shallow water.

"Azura!" I screamed, my voice cracking, sounding raw and broken in the silent valley.

"Azura, answer me! Please!"

My fingernails tore against the rough skin of the monsters, blood dripping from my fingers as I dug deeper into the smoking pile, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird.

I gripped the massive, charred torso of a creature near the very bottom of the mound, straining my muscles as I ripped it away and hurled it into the stream.

The thick gray ash cleared slightly, settling onto the cold water.

Deep within the black, smoking mess of limbs, my eyes locked onto something small, half-hidden beneath the dark debris.

It was a human hand.

The skin was pale and stained with dark smokes, completely free of the black scales, claws, or corruption that covered the creatures on top of it.

It lay perfectly still on the wet dirt, the fingers relaxed and entirely motionless, looking incredibly fragile against the dark ruin around it.

My heart stopped beating.

The breath hitched in my chest, a cold, suffocating weight freezing my lungs.

I slowly reached my hand out, my fingers trembling violently as I hovered just an inch above the pale skin.

I wanted to grab it, to pull it into my arms and feel the warmth of it, but a terrifying dread kept me frozen.

But I could not bring myself to touch it.