Chapter 84 Chapter 84
Harper woke up feeling stressed, her mind still tangled with the weight of The One’s words from the night before. The ritual. The key. The possibility of Koda returning. The terrifying price she might have to pay. She groaned softly and opened her eyes, expecting to see the familiar canvas ceiling of the tent and the sleeping forms of Catherine and Sarah beside her.
Instead, she found herself staring directly into a pair of black-rimmed eyes.
The One was sitting right beside her sleeping bag, leaning over her, watching her with an intense, unblinking gaze.
Harper screamed, bolting upright and scrambling backward until her back hit the side of the tent.
Her heart hammered wildly as she looked around in panic. The tent was empty. Sarah and Catherine’s sleeping bags were gone. Their things were gone. The lantern, the snacks — everything.
“Where is everyone?” she asked, her voice shaky and breathless.
The One didn’t move. He simply tilted his head, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across his lips.
“I made them disappear,” he said calmly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Harper’s stomach dropped.
“What… what do you mean you made them disappear?” she whispered, her glowing hand instinctively clutching the blanket tighter. The strange power inside her surged in response to her fear, pulsing hotter under her skin.
The One leaned closer, his voice dropping to a low, intimate murmur.
“I wanted to talk to you alone. Without your little friends listening. Without the camp watching. So I… sent them somewhere safe. They’re still in the camp, just not here. Not right now.”
Harper stared at him, her breathing ragged.
“You can’t just do that,” she said, trying to sound firm even though her voice trembled. “You can’t just make people disappear because you want to talk to me.”
He chuckled softly, the sound sending a shiver down her spine.
“I can do a lot of things, princess. And right now, I want to finish our conversation from last night.”
Harper swallowed hard, her back still pressed against the tent wall.
“The ritual,” she said quietly. “You really think I can help you leave Koda’s body?”
The One’s eyes darkened with something like hunger.
“Yes. Your power is the key. The ocean awakened it. The bloodline you carry from your father’s side — it’s tied to the old seals. The witches who sealed my kind used blood like yours to lock the gates. Only blood like yours can open them again.”
He reached out and gently took her glowing hand, his thumb tracing the faint silver light under her skin.
“If you help me perform the ritual, I leave this body. Koda returns. I get my own form back. No more sharing. No more fighting for control.”
Harper pulled her hand away, but not before she felt the strange spark between them — the same spark that always happened when they touched.
“But what’s the price?” she asked, her voice barely audible. “You said it would demand something from me. My power? My blood? My soul?”
The One didn’t look away.
“All of it, in different measures. The ritual is ancient. It was created by the first demons who wanted to escape the seals the witches put on us. It requires the blood of the key, the power of the vessel, and a willing sacrifice. You would have to give a piece of yourself to break the bond between me and Koda.”
Harper’s eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall.
“And if I say no?”
The One’s expression softened, just a fraction.
“Then I stay trapped in this body. Koda stays trapped with me. And the hunger… it keeps growing. Eventually, I won’t be able to hold it back anymore. Not even for you.”
The tent felt too small, too quiet.
Harper looked at him — the monster who had protected her, kissed her, terrified her, and now offered her the one thing she had been secretly wishing for.
She whispered the question that scared her most.
“What happens to us… if I help you?”
The One leaned in until their foreheads almost touched.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, his voice raw. “But I know I don’t want to lose you. Even if I get my own body back.”
Harper closed her eyes, the glowing in her hand pulsing brighter than ever.
The choice was still hers.
And it felt heavier than the entire forest pressing down on her.
“Let’s do it” Harper said.
—
The night air was thick and heavy as Harper slipped out of her tent, her heart hammering against her ribs. The camp had finally gone quiet, the lanterns dimmed to faint glows and the distant crackle of the bonfire long since died out. She moved carefully between the tents, her glowing hand hidden in the pocket of her hoodie, the strange new power inside her pulsing like a second heartbeat.
The One was waiting for her at the edge of the forest, half-hidden in the shadows of the trees. His black-rimmed eyes caught the moonlight as he stepped forward, offering his hand without a word.
Harper took it.
They walked in silence deeper into Eldergloom Woods, the path growing narrower and the trees closing in around them until the camp lights disappeared completely behind them. The forest felt alive tonight — branches whispering, the ground almost humming beneath their feet.
They reached a small, ancient clearing where the trees formed a perfect circle. In the center of the ground was an old, weathered stone altar covered in faint, glowing runes that pulsed in time with Harper’s hand.
The One stopped and turned to her.
“This is it,” he said quietly. “The old gateway. The place where the first seals were cast.”
Harper stared at the altar, fear and determination warring inside her.
“Are you ready?” he asked, his voice softer than usual.
She nodded, even though her legs felt weak.
The One took her glowing hand and gently turned it palm-up.
“You’ll need to cut here,” he said, placing a small, sharp obsidian blade in her other hand. “Let your blood touch the stone. Your power will do the rest. It will open the door between me and Koda.”
Harper’s fingers trembled as she pressed the blade to her palm.
She looked up at him one last time.
“If this works… Koda comes back, right?”
The One met her gaze.
“Yes. He’ll wake up in this body. And I’ll be free in my own.”
Harper took a deep breath and pressed the blade down.
A sharp sting shot through her as blood welled up, bright and glowing with that strange silver light. She pressed her bleeding palm onto the cold stone altar.
The moment her blood touched the runes, the entire clearing erupted with light.
The ground shook.
The trees groaned.
A powerful wind whipped around them, carrying voices — ancient, angry, whispering in a language long forgotten.
Harper gasped as the power inside her surged violently, flooding out through her hand into the altar. It felt like something was being torn from her chest, raw and painful, but she didn’t pull away.
The One’s eyes turned completely black, then flared with bright red light.
His body began to tremble.
A dark, shadowy form started to separate from Koda’s body — twisting, writhing, becoming more solid with every second.
Harper cried out as the pain intensified, her knees buckling.
The One reached out and caught her, holding her upright.
“Stay with me,” he growled, his voice layered with something ancient and powerful. “It’s almost done.”
The shadowy form fully detached, collapsing onto the ground beside them and slowly taking shape — a tall, dark figure with the same sharp features but older, more dangerous, eyes burning like coals.
At the same moment, Koda’s body went limp in The One’s arms.
Harper watched, tears streaming down her face, as the real Koda’s eyes fluttered open — brown, confused, but unmistakably his.
“Harper…?” he whispered weakly.
The newly freed demon — The One in his true form — stood tall, flexing his hands, a dark smile spreading across his face as power radiated from him like a storm.
“It worked,” he said, his voice deeper, richer, no longer sharing space with another soul.
He looked down at Harper, who was still trembling in his arms, blood dripping from her palm.
“You did it, princess.”
Koda tried to sit up, his eyes widening as he saw the demon standing over them.
“What… what happened?” he asked, voice hoarse.
The One turned to him, his smile sharp.
“You’re free, little wolf. And so am I.”
Harper looked between the two of them — the boy she had grown up beside and the demon who had become something far more complicated.
The ritual was complete.
But as the wind died down and the runes on the altar faded, Harper realized with a sinking feeling that nothing would ever be the same again.