Page 79

Serenity's scream echoes behind me; the argent glow flickers brighter as Malachai's chanting grows more frantic. She needs me right now, long before I can indulge in any torture.

"Do you want to hear the real joke, Gideon?" I lean closer, my voice dropping to a whisper. "All those years you spent teaching me to hate? They're worthless now. Because I found something worth more than revenge."

His eyes widen in genuine shock. "Impossible. You're nothing but rage and bitterness⁠—"

"I was." My grip constricts around his throat. "But not anymore."

I could drag this out and make him suffer how he made me suffer. However, Serenity's magic is spiraling out of control, and every second I waste here is another second the entity grows stronger.

"Goodbye, Gideon."

I lunge to end it, but dark, corrupt council magic ignites in Gideon's hands. A concussive blast hits my chest, throwing me back. He leaps after me, his mechanical claws tearing deep into my shoulder. We crash into the stone, a tangle of fangs and shadow. He fights like a cornered rat, desperate and savage, driving an argent blade toward my heart. I catch his wrist, the metal searing my palm, and force it backward inch by inch. With a final, roaring surge of wolf strength, I shatter his wrist, driving him into the cavern floor, and apply one brutal, definitive twist.

His neck snaps with a wet crack.

The mastermind behind my pack's slaughter goes limp in my grip. For seven years, this exact image had been the only thing keeping me going—a phantom target I chased through every empty motel room and bloody contract. I expected the kill to feel like a triumph, a roaring vindication for the graves I left behind. Instead, as the life leaves Gideon's eyes, the crushing weight in my chest simply evaporates. The ghosts of my pack rest in serene satisfaction, gently letting me go into my own future. I don't belong to the dead anymore.

I drop his bleeding corpse. The past is finally buried, and my future is tearing herself apart fifty feet away.

I turn toward the ritual circle where raw celestial power now pours from Serenity's skin. Malachai stands over her with a ceremonial blade, his pale face twisted in fanatical ecstasy.

I launch myself across the ritual circle, but Malachai watches my approach with fanatical satisfaction.

"Too late, wolf," he whispers, and drives the ceremonial blade into his own palm. Blood wells crimson against metal as he compresses the wound to Serenity's forehead. "The vessel opens."

I slam into him, the impact shattering his ribs as his skeletal frame spins across stone. But the damage is done. Ancient words pour from his split lips in a language that predates civilization, and power responds.

Serenity's back arches against the restraints as something massive and alien unfolds behind her eyes. The ancestral marks on her forearms blaze blindingly bright, burning through her skin while her hair whips around her face in a supernatural wind.

"Serenity!" I tear at the chains binding her wrists, but cosmic power infuses them and burns my hands raw. "Stay with me!"

Her eyes snap open, transformed by the entity that now claims them. Something ancient and hungry peers out from behind her pupils and studies me, its regard leisurely and consuming.

"Darius," she gasps, her voice layered with harmonics that make my teeth ache. "I can't—it's so loud⁠—"

Power erupts from her body in waves that crack the chamber walls. Ancient stone groans and splits as centuries of magical imprisonment unravel in seconds. The entity moves through Serenity's consciousness like a parasite testing new limbs.

I grab her face between my hands despite the searing pain. "Fight it. You're stronger than this thing."

But Serenity's features are already changing. Her canine teeth elongate into fangs while slaty veins of power flicker beneath her skin. Her fingernails curve into claws that slice through the air, and when she speaks, it possesses the relentless pull of moon tides.

"The wolf," she whispers, the ancient entity clearly driving the words from her tongue. "You’re so warm, so alive. Perhaps we will keep you."

Estella struggles helplessly against her chains, weeping for the niece she is watching disappear.

Behind us, Malachai drags himself upright, blood streaming from his mouth as he laughs, manic joy shining in his eyes. "Behold! The Moon's Daughter awakens! After centuries of imprisonment⁠—"

A chunk of ceiling the size of a car crashes down beside him, drowning out his triumphant speech. The entity's awakening is tearing the chamber apart piece by piece, magical energy seeking release through any available crack.

"Everyone out!" Kellan roars from across the chamber. "This whole place is coming down!"

Serenity’s head snaps toward him, and a flicker of something unearthly crosses her features. Power builds in her throat, but I lean my forehead against hers before she can release it.

"Rene, come back to me."

Her eyes clear as they meet mine, and for one precious second she's herself again. "Darius—run. Please. I can't control⁠—"

The rest of her words vanish in a shriek of pure magical force that shatters every piece of stone within fifty feet. The chamber ceiling collapses in earnest now, tons of ancient rock crashing down as the entity's presence overwhelms the structural magic that's held this place together for centuries.