Angel couldn't tear her eyes away from Toivo's disappearing form. Only when he vanished into the gloom of the exit tunnel did she force herself to pull backwards, spinning to face the wall as the Shadewylf guard marched back towards her cell.

The metal between her claws was ice-cold, making her feel as if she'd inhaled frozen air. She set the object down, keeping her eyes fixed on it, trying to calm her pounding heart.

She couldn't deny her relief. The rays of amber and palest yellow streaking her fur represented a sunlight she craved to see for real once again. The sky was her domain, and to be kept from it for so long - probably around two days now - was bordering on torture. Escape had been something she clutched for even in her dreams, and the thought of rescue pricked up her sagging ears.

And yet this was exactly what she and Fiammetta had feared.

Not only was Toivo here, but the Wylfrost were too. They were walking right into the trap, and Angel now found herself in a crucial part of their plan.

She gazed at the wall. Maybe this was all pessimism, and it was the Shadewylves that were underestimating their opponents. Konrad was the most sensible wolf she knew, even in the few times she'd met him. The Icewylves he chose were skilled and determined. Success was more that possible.

Besides, there was no choice for Angel. She could hardly set this tool aside when Toivo had risked so much to bring it to her, just for the simple reason his plan might not work. She had to try.

Lifting the tool in her teeth again, she shifted over to the wall and began to dig.

The sharp point slid deep into the rock with ease, as if it were soft clay rather than freezing stone. The scraping sound and dull thud she should have heard was absent. The wrongness of it all made her skin crawl, but she gritted her teeth and pulled the tool back. Much to her surprise, instead of a chunk of stone falling away from the wall, the rock merely parted to make way for a shallow hole.

This was one strong enchantment.

But she couldn't allow herself to admire the magic's work. Her pricked ears alerted her of the approaching guard. Lying down carefully, she spread out her wing to cover the hole.

Acting a downcast expression when the guard's eyes brushed over her wasn't difficult. This cave had a special talent for inducing a sinking solemnity in every grey curve. As soon as it was safe however, a smile quickly leapt up to replace it.

I'm getting out of here, she promised herself. They were all going to get out. She had to have faith in that.

Now she thought about it, she remembered Thea casting this enchantment, with Katana's guidance. The tool didn't just cut through rock. It spoke to the stone, coaxed it to move however it wanted.

Her snout twitched in amusement at the memory. Katana and Thea had argued for ages about exactly how it should work; a clashing of earth and magic. Eventually they'd managed to do it together - mostly Thea's way, though she'd been too tired to brag about it afterwards.

Her gaze darted to her left, where she knew Katana was curled, her scars pinning her down. How could things have gone so badly?

This is what we've been preparing for, her mind scolded, traces of Dawn's tone lingering within. You should have expected this. Now get up and start fighting back.

Scrambling to her paws again, she widened the tunnel with a hurried stroke, then leaned in to send it carving deep into the wall. Before the guard's pawsteps could begin thumping back in her cell's direction, she was sliding into her hole, her tail flicking out to knock over the lamp as she did so. The glass shattered, finally giving Angel's ears the crash they awaited, and the flame went out, darkening her cell.

Thudding paws sped up at the sound. Moving as quickly as she could, Angel shifted to the very back of her hole, completely enclosed, and sliced the tool across the opening. The rock obeyed, moving outwards to seal the gap shut.

Encased in darkness, Angel waited, her tight breathing almost silent.

A bang made her wince, most likely the guard opening up the bars to march inside. How, Angel wasn't entirely sure - she could only guess that the Shadewylves were working some magic. There would be time to dwell on that later. Right now, she focused on not letting the pace of her heart's beat get the better of her.

The guard yelled something, and there was the sound of more paws. A call to search the whole cave for an escaped prisoner. Deep snarls, dripping with frustration. Then the thuds echoed again, growing quieter until they left altogether.

Angel didn't even let her sigh of relief escape. She couldn't relax yet. Pulling in her able wing, she twisted in the tiny space, just about managing to pull herself around. Gripping the enchanted tool tight, she waved her snout either side, pushing the rock away so that it didn't press down painfully on her shoulders.

Being a wolf of the open sky, tight spaces were hardly her domain. She could feel her stomach squirming at the idea of being trapped here, surrounded by stone, with only dark and gloom to accompany her. Her heart wouldn't stop racing. But she focused on the cold of the metal in her fangs - the object that could get her out of here. The rock would obey its wills. She had nothing to fear.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself forward, slamming the tool into the rock ahead. It slid aside, and she scraped each wall as she wriggled through the tunnel, making it as wide as she could in her awkward position. With another heave, she dug again, cutting deep into the stone and pulling sideways to tug it away.

She repeated the process countless times, forever moving, her jaw aching from the strain with every strike. In the dark, it was hard to make out which direction she was heading, but she hoped that the upward slope she could feel beneath her chest wasn't her imagination.

After a time she couldn't measure, just as she began to think that perhaps she was heading in the wrong direction, and maybe she'd never reach the surface, a strange feeling sparked in her heart. Her head shot up, eyes seeing only black but knowing there was something else above. She was close. The sky called her, beckoning towards her true home.

Eventually, that calling grew so great that not even her broken wing hurt anymore. Smiling, she lifted the tool and struck one final time, cutting into the rock above. It broke easily, and through the crack that formed, sunlight gleamed.

There it was. Light. Pure, real light.

Stretching her head up, Angel basked in its warm glow, the golden rays glittering at the tips of her ears and wrapping her snout in a warmth the cave had never even dreamed of. She swiped at the rock again, and the resulting glow was blinding, yet she didn't care. Her eyes stayed wide open, staring right at her beloved sun. She'd go blind for the rest of her life if only for the sight of it now.

One final shake of the tool confirmed it. Her able wing fanned out at her side as she leaped clean out of the hole, and even the feathers of her broken wing twitched, longing to stretch out beside the other and greet its domain.

For at least a minute she stood there, eyes shrinking to slits, pleasure weaving throughout her fur as she raised her head as high as it would go. She couldn't join the sun yet, or fly amongst the shining blue. But right now, standing beneath it would more than suffice.

"I'm never leaving you again," she breathed, giving the clear sky a respectful nod.

Her response was a rather impatient cough.

Snapping from her trance, Angel's gaze shot towards the voice, head dropping the moment the speaker's identity processed. Embarrassment tugged at her snout. She hadn't been planning on make her reunion public.

"Hi, Konrad," she mumbled, focusing on a spot on his bottom jaw. She was uncomfortably aware of the way his eyes studied her, narrowed and analytical, reading every twitch of her tail. Even more so, she felt the collective gaze of the dozen Icewylves behind him, each with expressions less intimidating than their leader's but making up for it with their bulging forepaws.

Yet still a joy spiralled within her, dancing at the beautiful glint of the sunlight bouncing off white fur.

"Hello, Angel," he replied. It was always hard to tell with Konrad whether the softness in his tone was an illusion or not. Everything about him was serious: not a fur strand out of place, not the slightest waver in his stance. Everything about him screamed military. Angel had both feared and respected that from their very first meeting, not long after she'd joined the Twilytra movement.

Providing a cough far more awkwardly formed than his had been, she gestured with a tilt of her head at the hole beneath her paws. "I dug the tunnel," she stated - obvious, but an easy set of words to grab for in the absence of anything more intelligent. "I'll go first and widen it as I go down?" An accidental question. Her voice peaked at the end without her permission.

"Yes," he said, nodding his approval. A jerk of his head brought a female Icewylf, with eyes as pale as snow, to stand beside him, whilst the rest of the Wylfrost formed a line. A smile rose to Angel's snout as she spotted a flash of black and yellow amongst the wolves. She forced it not to fall away.

The two pups would not end up imprisoned. Konrad was capable, as were his soldiers. This mission would not fail.

Just keep telling yourself that.

Sometimes, it was hard to detect even the sarcasm of her own thoughts.

Slipping in ahead of the Icewylves, she took a deep breath, casting the sky a final glance. I'll see you again.

Then she descended into darkness once more.

Tool clutched in her teeth, she moved as fast as she could, sweeping her head from side to side to break away as much of the rock as possible without lingering. The female Icewylf's breath was uncomfortably cold, settling like a frosty sheet on her tail. The breathing sped up as they neared the prisons, and so did Angel, the anxiety to reach the battle palpable behind her.

When the tunnel began to flatten out, hinting at their closeness to the cave, she had to push through the wish to hesitate and force herself to bash away the final thin sheet of stone.

The tool fell from her jaw as she leaped, barely able to process the mass of black that awaited them. All she knew was that she had to fight it away.

Shouts and yelps were already reaching her ears by the time her claws found her first opponent. Her brief time under the sky had gifted her new energy, and she had him pinned in seconds, both of them thumping into the cell's dust-covered floor. One thud of her paw into the back of his snout - a sensitive spot she knew all too well - and his eyes slid shut, conciousness drifting from him as easily as the clouds far above.

But it was one easily battle amongst so many difficult ones. Angel barely managed to scan the battlefield once, but it was enough. The Icewylves were outnumbered. Not by much, but when it came to Shadewylves, just one extra set of claws meant all the difference.

She tore her gaze away just in time to catch fangs flying towards her, glinting yellow in the flickering lamplight. Bracing herself, she managed to roll aside, dodging the attack, and then throw her claws at his flank. Blood bloomed there for an instant before he ripped his side away and came at her, strong and hard.

This wolf moved with twice the speed of her previous attacker. It took all of Angel's effort to counter his flurry of strikes, both claws and fangs swinging towards her every weak spot. It wasn't long before a particularly sharp fang managed to sink into its target, drawing a screaming gash into her left forepaw before she could yank away.

With a cry, she fell, collapsing beneath the Shadewylf. Lean black paws whipped out to grab her thrashing wing and pin it against her chest, claws pinching delicate bones. The wolf pressed down with surprising strength, paws placed in such a way that when Angel struggled in the hold she could feel claws scratching beneath her fur.

Stilling, she stared up at her attacker. The Shadewylf was female, she realised with a jolt - the strength and speed in her strikes had led Angel to believe otherwise. Somehow, her mind had the capacity to scold herself for being unfair to her own sex.

Eyes of pale violet glared down at her, the hatred within them sparking recognition within Angel. This was the guard that had taken over from Lucifer in her first day spent in the cells. She hadn't seen either of them since. Something she'd been rather glad about - she preferred it when her enemies were somewhere between friendly and furious.

Growling under her breath, she skewered her racing thoughts. This wasn't the time to consider things. She tried pulling away, and violet eyes flashed with delight as the movement carried Angel right into the path of waiting claws.

She bit back her yelp. One more wound to add to her collection. The collective pain formed a knot in her throat, and the weight on her lungs made breathing through that pain achingly difficult.

She didn't even have the energy to shoot the Shadewylf a returning glare.

Pressing her fangs together, she let her eyes wander where the rest of her couldn't. Her heart sank. The rest of the battlefield was in a similar state to her - trapped beneath dark claws, slowly giving in to failure.

A large flash of white drew her attention. Konrad, weaving amongst the strikes of three darting Shadewylves. As she watched, he lunged at one of them, the momentum sending him stumbling. Claws caught him from behind, and he fell, wide paws still jabbing outwards even as the closest wolf aimed a forceful swipe at his snout.

He couldn't win. None of them could.

She could hear her own breathing, uncomfortably loud in her ears, strong and rapid. They wouldn't kill him. They couldn't. Chief Konrad wasn't dying for her.

"Oh, they won't kill him. Or any of you. At least not yet," assured the wolf pinning her down. Harisah, whispered Angel's memory, the name Lucifer had spoken popping into place. Harisah's tone, though absent of snarls, carried a threat far fiercer than even the lowest growl. It moved lightly, quick like a fox, ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness.

"Why?" Angel couldn't help asking. "And why haven't you knocked me out?" she added, the thought only just occuring to her as she twisted to face the glaring violet eyes.

"You'll see." Harisah's jaw parted slightly, letting her fangs flash in a smile Angel could only interpret as excited. "And maybe because it's more amusing to see you struggle."

Angel's glare finally revealed itself. "I won't give you the pleasure."

She stuck true to her word, only tilting her head sideways to comfirm the true bleakness of their situation. Her cell door had completely vanished, she realised, allowing the battle to spread out into the narrow corridor. It was there the remainder of their mighty Wylfrost army stood: three Icewylves, including the female wolf that had followed her down the tunnel, and Toivo, his blue eyes lit up with determination as he desperately dodged the attacks of a wolf nearly twice his size.

So much for our successful escape plan. So much for seeing the sky again.

If she had the energy, Angel could have cried.

The rest of the army, decorating the cave in patches of white fur and splashes of blood, seemed mostly unconcious - at least, if Harisah's word could be believed. She prayed hard that it was. Having wolves die this way, die trying to get her out of a prison, would haunt her for the rest of her life.

This moment would haunt her regardless. She'd never felt so crushed. Not even in all the time she'd spent alone in her cell.

A team of Shadewylves were gradually backing the Icewylves into a corner, driving them away from Toivo. Streaks of frost made the air around them sparkle, but it did little to aid the white wolves' efforts.

"Why don't you just knock me out and go help your friends," Angel said to the Shadewylf. The question died as it left her throat, emerging drained of all hope. Judging by Harisah's snort, she could tell.

"There's no need," she replied simply. She was right.

The Icewylves fell, one by one, squirming until the weight of their pain or the strike of a claw sent them deep into unconciousness. It wasn't long until Toivo followed them, finally tiring. He couldn't avoid the attacks anymore. Any trace of hope Angel still clung on to for rescue vanished the moment his opponent latched claws into his flank and drove him into the stone.

Even then, he didn't stop fighting. His eyes glowed as bright as sapphires, alight even in the oppressive darkness, not needing the lamplight to allow them to shine. Right up until a paw rammed hard into the base of his snout, and the light finally faded.

A tear did escape Angel then. He was just a pup. His fearful expression as she'd lifted him from the hill, back when there'd been no force in his strike and no dark in his fur, was still burned deep in her mind. Yet here he was, fighting for his life. And doing a far better job at it than she was.

It wasn't right.

A chuckle from above prevented her from spiralling further into mourning for his innocent soul. Lifting her head, she stared at Harisah. The Shadewylf's glare had faded to something softer now. Mocking sympathy, perhaps. At least she wasn't angry anymore.

"Crying?" She chuckled again. "Cute."

A growl rumbled in the back of Angel's throat. "You're evil."

In a flash, the fiery glare returned. "I'm bored of you now," Harisah hissed. Angel flinched away from the claws as they approached, but its result was inevitable.

The thud of pain rippled through her, turning all her thoughts to sludge. Still, in the last second she was able to stare at their fallen soldiers littered amongst the cave's prison, one final realisation struck her. It flickered like a fork of lightning throughout her mind, bright and sparking, before the darkness swallowed it entirely.

Lexi was nowhere to be seen.