Bettina and Arnold were running for their own dear lives, dragging between them, the nearly dead Erich. The Citadel was an absolute nightmare.
The sounds of the Rogues attacking were deafening, stone shattered, and the howls of werewolves echoed through the halls. The air was thick with dust and the smell of ozone.
"we need to get to the East gate" Arnold yelled, pulling Erich's heavy, and limp arm over his shoulder. "it leads to the hidden paths Sybil my mom, won't expect us to run that way".
Bettina was using all her strength, pulling Erich's other arm across her smaller body. Erich has a terrible weight. He is a tall, powerful man and now that his life force was hanging, his body felt like solid rock.
"He is burning up" Bettina gasped, looking down at Erich's forehead. "He is not just weak, Arnold, he is dying what did he do? Why is he this why?".
Arnold didn't look at her. "He broke the Trial, he paid the highest price a triple hybrid can pay".
Suddenly, three of Queen Sybil's personal guards vampires in black armor came around the corner their swords were already drawn. "The prisoner and princess Arnold, stop!" the lead guard yelled.
Arnold shoved Erich's body towards Bettina, saying : "Go! I will buy you some time, hurry up". Arnold didn't wait for her answer. He drew his sword and roared, his own vampire speed is enough for him to attack the three guards.
Bettina knew she couldn't argue, but she still can't be able to go far with Erich in this state, so she used her last burst of adrenaline to drag Erich's heavy, unconscious body into a small, dark side room filled with supplies and old armor.
She slammed the door shut and looked at Erich. He was barely breathing. His heart, the strong Triple Hybrid heart, was fluttering weakly.
Bettina and was just a human, but she was a human who watched the most powerful beings he knew destroy himself for her. Her fears vanished, replaced with a fierce, focused calm.
"you are not dying on me," she whispered to him. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a large, heavy woolen blanket from a nearby shelf, something ordinary and forgotten. She soaked it in a barrel of stale rainwater meant for cleaning the armors.
She tore the cold, wet woolen blanket into strips. She covered Erich's head with the cold, wet cloth. It was a simple human trick to cool a fever.
Just then, Arnold crashed into the room, his armor ripped and blood running down his face. "we have to move, I can't hold them for long we are too close to the fighting".
Bettina pointed at a narrow, low vent near the floor. "can we fit in there? It looks like a sewage drain".
"it's the garbage chute", Arnold gasped. "But yes! It leads out into the woods".
Arnold looked at the dying Erich. "so I will be lifting him up". Bettina stepped up. "you don't have to lift him. Just cover the end of the chute. I will push him".
Arnold, was amazed by the sudden strength in her voice, nodded. He kicked over a shelf of metal plates to the block the door and quickly moved to the chute.
Bettina got behine Erich's body, she grabbed on to his ankles and pushed. The weight of the triple Hybrid king was almost impossible to move, but she pushed with everything she had, her love, her fears, and her pure desperate human will. She shoved his body into the narrow dark chute with much difficulties.
Arnold helped pull Erich's arms from the other side. Finally, with a painful scrape of armor, the three of them tumbled out of the darkness and into the wet, cold leaves of the deep forest outside the Citadel.
They were free, but the fight was still raging behind them. Arnold looked down at Erich, whose breathing was now shallow and shaky. "We are from the guards for a few minutes, but he needs deep healing. He needs the sanctuary. It's the only place Sybil can't follow".
He looked at Bettina, the fierce, small woman who had just used Brute force and a wet blanket to save his brother, the triple hybrid. "Can you walk, Bettina. The sanctiis far. And we can't stop until we get there".
Bettina pushed the wet hair from her face. She looked back at the Citadel, now a place of smoke and explosions. She had won her freedom, but she had lost her peaceful life forever and gained a nearly dead triple Hybrid who needed her to live, she now has someone with her to live for. "let's go", she said pulling Erich's limp arm over her shoulder again. "lead the way Arnold".