A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 297: Slow motion

There was only a few seconds between Autumn and the ground as she fell. Just a few moments...

Time twisted around those moments...

bent at the edges...

warping like molten glass.

And through that broken slice of reality...Kieran tore through.

Like a streak of lightning.

A blur sharper than violence.

He cut straight through the Guardians’ circle...through their sigils, their gasps, the trembling air...zapping past all of them as if in a single heartbeat.

Freya was in his left arm.

His right arm swooped forward just as Autumn’s knees gave out.

And before her body could hit the ground...he caught her.

The world jolted back into motion...slow and syrupy...like it was drowning in honey.

Every sound muffled.

Every breath delayed.

Autumn collapsed against his chest, trembling.

Her flames sputtered like wet sparks.

She couldn’t even open her eyes.

Only her cracked voice escaped.

A broken whisper...

"Wh...Where...were you Kieran...?" Her fingers twitched against him.

"I...called you... I called you so many times..."

A choked sob hitched in her throat.

"We needed you... so bad..."

Kieran froze.

His whole body shook not from exhaustion,

not from the Rift, but from the sound of her breaking.

Very slowly...very carefully...he took her hands.

They were ice cold, limp, faintly glowing with dying blue flame.

He pressed them to his chest... right over his thunder stuttering heartbeat.

So she could feel him.

So she would know.

"Autumn..." His voice came out shredded.

"I ran until time broke."

Her breaths hitched.

He leaned his forehead against hers...a trembling. It was a fragile touch,

barely there,like he was afraid she might shatter beneath him. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"I heard you," he whispered.

"Every scream. Every call."

His jaw clenched, eyes burning.

"My queen... my heart... I swear to you..."

His fingers tightened around hers.

"I would never abandon you."

Her lips parted, a faint exhale ghosting against his cheek.

The moment hovered... so soft, trembling, impossibly intimate...

their foreheads touching,

their breaths mixing,

their daughter glowing weakly between them.

Autumn’s hand slid with a little effort higher on his chest,

searching for warmth,

for him,

for something to anchor her.

Kieran leaned closer... close enough that their noses brushed, close enough for her to feel the heat of his breath spill over her cheek.

The world stayed frozen around them.

Only they moved.

Only they breathed.

Only the two of them mattered.

And then her strength faded completely.

Her fingers slipped from his chest,

her head dropped forward against him.

Her body went limp in his arms as he pulled her closed... closer onto him.

Silence did not settle.

It stretched thin, trembling, uneasy as the Guardians advanced with their sigils raised again.

Slow motion swallowed everything.

Their footsteps.

The floating dust.

Autumn’s loose hair swaying faintly in Kieran’s arms.

Freya’s dim glow pulsing against his chest.

Kieran straightened, muscles coiled tight, a new found aura flickering under his skin like a warning heartbeat.

His eyes were bloodshot, burning. They lifted to the Guardians.

His grip around both Autumn and Freya hardened.

A promise that he was there.

"Don’t," he growled,though his voice was unstable.

"Don’t take another step."

The Guardians hesitated.

They hadn’t expected him to move that fast.

Or to break the rules of time itself.

Or to shield both mother and child with bare hands.

Something had changed in Kieran as well.

It wasn’t his former self anymore.

"Kieran," Mango whispered, cautiously raising her hand, "please...stay calm..."

"I am calm.You are the ones who need to calm down."

His voice cracked on the edges a little though he tried to hold onto intimidation.

Lightning flared through the ground like veins of fury.

"Stay where you are."

He looked sideways...eyes darting across the fractured battlefield... searching for a way out.

A door.

A breach.

A weakness.

Anything.

But there was nothing.

Only stone.

Only ruin.

Only enemies closing in from every side.

And then...a soft, amused laugh drifted across the broken terrain.

Karl finally peeled himself off the cracked boulder he had been lounging against...stretching like someone bored during an intermission.

Slow motion caught the curl of his lips...

the lazy swing of his arms...

the glint of wicked delight dancing in his eyes.

"Well,well, " Karl sighed, dusting his hands as if finally ready to join the fun,

"look at you, Big Brother."

He tilted his head, smile widening.

"Protecting two very breakable hearts at once. Admirable. Suicidal, but admirable."

Kieran stiffened.

Freya whimpered in his arm.

He held her tighter, jaw ticking.

"Karl," he said, voice tight and wary,

"don’t..."

"Relax."

Karl raised both hands innocently.

"I am not here to steal the baby. Or the mother. Not today.You know the plan from here, don’t you? " He winked. "That’s what you agreed to!"

He took a slow step forward.

The Guardians paused, confused.

Kieran didn’t move...but every line of his body screamed readiness.

Karl stopped just close enough that Kieran could feel the shift in air pressure.

Then he smiled...

A slow, knowing, unsettling smile.

And nodded.

As if the two of them shared some silent acknowledgment.

Some unspoken inevitability.

Kieran held his gaze.

Even though the hairs on the back of his neck rose.

Even though something cold crawled under his skin.

Even though he didn’t trust that smile...

He held it.

Held him.

Held the moment still because he knew what was coming... he knew what he needed to do...

The next nod exchanged between Kieran and Karl was small.

Tiny.

Barely a twitch of the chin.

But in the slow motion world between heartbeats...

It was an earthquake.

A decision.

A pact.

A betrayal, depending on who watched.

And the instant their gazes locked...

Karl moved.

Not walked...Neither ran.

ZAPPED.

A streak of blackened miasma ripped across the battlefield tearing through the Guardians’ formation like ink spilled across still water.

Their sigils sputtered.

Their eyes widened.

They couldn’t even turn before Karl’s silhouette blurred past them. He was like a smear of shadow and wicked delight.

He landed right in front of Kieran.

His miasma curled around him like smoke underwater, tendrils of shadows.

"Step aside," one Guardian barked, raising her sigil.

Karl didn’t even look at her.

Instead...With one lazy sweep of his hand...

WHOOSH.

Space split open behind Kieran.

A portal unfurled like a blooming black flower...petals made of shadow,

edges rippling like torn cloth.

Karl tilted his head towards it,

smirking with that maddening, theatrical charm.

"Here you go, Brother!" he chirped.

"As promised. A door."

Kieran didn’t hesitate.

Not even a breath.

He looped Autumn closer against his chest,

tightened his hold on Freya,

and with a single backward step leapt into the portal.

Lightning snapped behind him like a closing fist.

Karl chuckled, tossed the Guardians a mocking salute, and stepped in after him... Mango’s eyes widened.

"STOP THEM!" she screamed.

The Guardians lunged...sigils blazing...reaching for the flickering edges of the portal.

Too slow.

Far too slow.

The portal was collapsing...folding inward like burning paper.

Dark petals curling shut.

Their last chance vanishing.

But Mango...

Mango refused.

With a sharp, furious snarl,

she grabbed the nearest weapon...a heavy silver axe steaming with sigils,infused with Guardian blood...and hurled it with all her strength.

Slow motion caught the axe as it spun end over end... glinting, slicing through dust and fractured light... flying straight towards the closing tear in space...

Just as the final shred of the portal began to seal.

SLAM!!!!