Chapter 156 The Source's Judgment
The end of a lie is a loud, shattering thing.
"Cassia! Stay with me!" Evan’s face was inches from mine. He had dropped the violin. His hands were pressing against the wound in my back, trying to keep the life from leaking out. "Look at me, Cass. Don't look at the light."
"I... I can't," I whispered. The cold was winning.
My father was backed against the edge of the fire ring. He looked small. For the first time in my life, Henry Marlowe looked like a man who knew he had lost. "Lydia? How are you here? The labs... the cryogenic chamber..."
"You thought you could freeze the moon, Henry?" My mother stepped out of the red light. She wasn't touching the ground. The grass beneath her feet was turning green, blooming in the middle of a blizzard. "You kept me in a box for twenty years to study the 'Source.' But the Source isn't a gene. It's a choice."
She turned her gaze to me. The violet fire in her eyes softened. "My brave girl. You did what I couldn't. You loved a man more than you feared the beast."
"Save her," Evan begged. He was crying, the tears mixing with the rain on his face. "You’re the Source. Save her!"
Lydia Marlowe looked at the silver blade. She looked at the baby, who was now quiet, watching her with amber eyes that matched hers perfectly.
"The silver is deep," my mother said. "It has touched her spirit. To pull it out, a price must be paid. The balance of the Peaks is strict, Evan Thorne. To keep a life, a life must be offered."
"Take mine," Evan said instantly. No hesitation. No doubt. "Take it now."
"No," I gasped, clutching his hand. "Evan, don't."
"Shh," he whispered, kissing my forehead. "I already died in the wires, remember? This time, I’m doing it for real. For you. For him."
My father let out a jagged laugh. "How poetic. The mutt dies for the masterpiece. Do it, Lydia! End the project so I can start over with the boy!"
My mother turned to Henry. Her face went cold again. "You will never start again, Henry. You have spent ten centuries trying to own a power that belongs to the earth. The Council is gone. The Board is burning. And you? You will face the trial of the ancestors."
The white wolf stepped forward. He didn't growl. He simply walked to my father and took the remote from his hand. He crushed it between his teeth.
"Take him," my mother commanded.
The wolves moved in. They didn't bite. They didn't tear. They simply surrounded Henry Marlowe and began to walk into the darkness of the trees.
"Lydia! No! You can't leave me with them!" My father’s screams faded into the storm until there was only the sound of the wind.
My mother knelt beside us. She touched Evan’s shoulder. "You are willing to give your soul for hers?"
"Everything," Evan said.
"Then the swap begins," she said. "But know this: Once the silver is gone, the wolf in you will be gone too. You will be human, Evan. You will be fragile. You will never hear the music of the woods again."
"I only want to hear her voice," Evan said.
Lydia placed one hand on the silver hilt in my back and the other on Evan’s heart.
The world exploded into violet light.
I felt a tug. It felt like my soul was being pulled through a needle's eye. The silver blade didn't just come out; it dissolved. I felt the heat of Evan’s life flowing into the hole in my chest. I felt his memories, his love, his very essence filling the gaps where the poison had been.
And I felt the wolf in him die.
I heard a sound like a string snapping. Evan let out a long, silent breath and slumped against me.
"Evan?" I reached out.
His eyes were open. They weren't gold anymore. They were a deep, dark brown. The color of the earth. He looked at me, and I could tell he couldn't hear my thoughts anymore. The link was gone.
"Cassia?" he whispered. His voice was different. Thinner. "Are you... Are you there?"
"I'm here," I said, pulling him close.
I looked at my mother. She was standing by the Altar, holding the baby. The red light was fading. She looked transparent, like a reflection in a window.
"The balance is settled," she said. "The Board is gone, but the world is not. There are others like you, Cassia. Others who are hiding. Others who are afraid."
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Back to the Source," she said. "The valley is safe now. But you cannot stay here. You must go to the city. You must be the face of the change."
"Wait!" I stood up, feeling my strength return. "What about Sarah? What about my sister?"
My mother smiled. "Look at the well."
I turned. Sarah was standing there, holding her rifle. But she wasn't wearing the Board uniform anymore. She was wearing a dress of woven grass, just like the women in the simulation. Her eyes were bright violet.
"She is the Guardian of the Well now," my mother said. "She will protect the memory of what happened here."
The white light flared one last time, and then it was gone. The storm stopped. The clouds broke, revealing a sky full of stars.
The clearing was empty. No wolves. No father. No mother.
Just me, Evan, and our son.
I looked at Evan. He was shivering. He was just a man now. He had no fur to keep him warm, no fever to heal his wounds. He was the most vulnerable thing I had ever seen.
"We have to get you inside," I said, helping him up.
"I can't hear them, Cass," he whispered, looking toward the dark woods. "The trees... they're just trees now. Everything is so quiet."
"I'll be your music," I said.
We walked back toward the house. It was a shell, but it was still standing. The Board's soldiers had fled when the Source appeared.
I sat on the porch, holding the baby. He was asleep, his golden fuzz glinting in the starlight.
I looked at the silver locket. It was still on the Altar, glowing faintly.
"Evan," I said. "There’s something you need to see."
He walked over to me, his steps slow. "What is it?"
I opened the locket. The lullaby was gone. In its place, there was a new message. It wasn't written in ink. It was written in light.
The war is not over. The Board was just one head of the Hydra. They are coming for the child in the city of stone.
"The city of stone," Evan whispered. "New York."
"We can't stay here," I said.
"But I'm just a man, Cassia," Evan said, looking at his hands. "How can I protect you? How can I protect him?"
I stood up. I felt the wolf inside me stir. It wasn't a beast. It was a protector.
"You don't have to," I said. "That's my job now."
A loud horn sounded from the road. A black car was speeding toward the house. It wasn't a Board truck. It was a limousine with a silver crest I didn't recognize.
The back door opened, and a man stepped out. He wore a tuxedo and a top hat. He looked like a gentleman from a different century.
"Mrs. Thorne?" the man asked, bowing low.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"I am the executor of the Marlowe estate," the man said. "And I am here to inform you that your father has 'passed away' and left you everything. Including the keys to the city."
He held out a gold key.
"But there is a condition," the man said, his eyes twinkling with a cold, blue light.
"What condition?"
"You must bring the boy to the gala on Friday night. The investors are very eager to meet the heir."
Investors?
If the Board is gone, who are the investors, and why is Evan’s name already on the guest list?