dreams whisper through silence by mae 256

Chapter 256 

+30 Bonus 

Dominic’s POV 

We pushed into the enemy territory at dawn with the advantage of surprise, and for the first hour, we held our ground. The Emberlight warriors were well-trained and larger in numbers but not especially coordinated, and our men were better. 

But they had reserves that our scouts hadn’t accounted for. A second unit, larger than the first, coming in from the east. I saw them coming down the slope and cursed under my breath. 

“Fall back to the tree line!” I shouted. “Hold the center!” 

The second unit hit our flank hard. I pulled my sword out of a man’s shoulder and turned to find Ryan at my side, bleeding from a cut above his eye and-looking at me like he was waiting for a miracle. 

“We’re getting cut off from the left side,” he said. 

I looked. He was right. Three of our smaller units had been pushed back far enough that the gap between them and the main force was growing, and if it kept growing, they were going to be surrounded. 

“Pull them in,” I said. “Get them back to the center, now.” 

“If we do that, we lose the ridge.” 

“If we don’t, we’ll lose the men.” I caught a strike from my left and drove my elbow back hard. “Pull them 

in.” 

Ryan went. I kept fighting. 

The next twenty minutes felt like an eternity. We were holding, but barely, and every time I thought we had found a foothold, the Emberlights pushed back harder. 

I took a hit to the ribs that would have broken something if I hadn’t turned at the last second, and another to the shoulder that I was going to feel for a week. Around me, my men were doing everything I had trained them to do, and it still wasn’t going to be enough. 

I could feel it. The shift in the air that happened when a battle started to tip, the point at which our forces began to realize that this might be the end. 

I was just about to call for an all-out retreat when a sound made me look up. A horn. It wasn’t ours, and judging from the way the enemy forces looked, it wasn’t there, either. 

I turned just in time to see a fresh wave of warriors pouring out of the trees, hitting the Emberlight flank from the side in a formation I didn’t recognize. 

For a split second, I thought another pack had joined the enemy forces. 

But then, at the front of the unit, I saw him. 

Lucas. 

He was on foot, moving through the chaos with his sword up, calling orders to the men around him in a voice that carried over the noise of the fighting like he had done this a hundred times before. 

– 

+30 Bonus 

Ilis warriors were well-organized and powerful. They cut through the battle like perfectly-honed blades. 

Within the hour, it was over. 

The Emberlight Alpha was a large man, broad across the shoulders and going gray at the temples with a haughty look about him. He stood across from me in the field between the two forces, his remaining men at 

his back. 

“We can discuss terms,” he said. 

I was just about to open my mouth when Lucas strode up to me, his armor covered in blood, and said, ” Before terms are discussed, I have something the Alpha should see.” 

I glanced at him. He held his hand out, and a nearby soldier walked over and placed an envelope in his hand. He opened the envelope and pulled out a stack of documents. He held them out with a wry smile, and one of the Emberlight Alpha’s men took them over. The Alpha took the stack and looked down at the first page. 

The change in his face was immediate. He looked up sharply. “Where did you get these?” 

“Don’t worry. Your chief scientist is alive,” Lucas said. “He’s been cooperative. I imagine he’d like to stay that way.” He nodded toward the papers, then looked at me. “Those documents detail the development and intended deployment of a biological agent. A plague, specifically designed to be carried by individuals who appear healthy. Intended to be introduced to an enemy pack’s population through civilian contact. Refugees, for instance.” 

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