The Queen's Conquer

Chapter 49 : Revelations

A/N: Chapters 47 & 48 were flipped when I last updated so GO READ 47 IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY OR ELSE THIS CHAPTER WILL MAKE NO SENSE!!!

Also, there's an announcement this Friday (July 16th) on my Insta (@horridpegasus). Go follow me if you haven't already! :-)

•———•

Ephemeral • [uh-feh-mr-uhl]
Lasting for a very short time.

🖤

~+~

~ Anastasia ~

"We were ambushed," Killian begins.

After nearly ten minutes of me screaming and shouting at the poor male—at everyone here—and hating myself for ever trusting this mission to be a good idea, I've finally calmed down enough to listen to the whole story. My incessant trembling doesn't seem to help me concentrate, though.

Now dressed in something other than a flimsy blanket—a fresh T-shirt and some baggy jeans—, I've situated myself close to the crackling embers of the dying fire. Dawn has already begun its ascent over the horizon, indicating we were in that catacomb-like library for hours. As if it could control the speed of time.

The tear-stained streaks on my face and my knuckles pressing against my lips keep me subdued from interrupting Killian as he continues.

"And it caught us off guard," he says, swallowing carefully. He looks at Sterling, standing beside where he sits in front of me, and then glances briefly at Liam—still unconscious and healing—on the other side of the fire. "Markus shot Liam in the chest first."

"With a silver bullet," I whisper, staring mindlessly off at something near Killian's right leg. Another tear unwillingly slips down. I crush my eyes closed to keep myself from picturing it—how everything happened.

Liam—my Beta—was shot by one of the most fatal things I've ever come across for a werewolf.

Killian rests his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together. "We also learned that they're coated in wolfsbane, instantaneously weakening a werewolf's natural abilities."

That's what I had smelled when I examined those soldier's guns earlier.

Lilith comes closer, squatting to our eye level, seeing the guilt riddling my face. "No one is at fault for this, Anastasia."

"Is Liam going to be ok?" I ask quietly, not wanting to look over at the state of him to see for myself out of fear of breaking down again.

"Yes, he should be fine," Killian answers. "But we need to get him to the hospital. I'm sure there's still shards of the bullet we missed."

I've already profusely begged to heal him—use my powers and energy so he can recover more quickly. But Lilith had to repeatedly explain that I'm already too weak—that I was making an irrational decision on my own health after what we'd learned at Lukalla when I healed Sterling, Killian, and Samuel. And that there's extensive damage from the silver bullet that needs to be taken care of before I can even come close to touching the male.

"You pulled it out?" I say deathly softly.

"We didn't have much of a choice," he says. "If it stayed in his chest, he would be dead by now."

My head bows, my hands gripping the hair closest to my scalp. When I lift my gaze, I stare at the canopy above—the trees and their leaves that are beginning to glow with the growing sunrise.