The last Shadow of Roderic

The last Shadow of Roderic


Chapter 179: The Last Shadow of Roderic

The Watcher's hand extended toward Brooke.

Brooke froze.

Kael erupted inside him like a sunburst of stunned disbelief.

Alicia’s breath left her in a slow, trembling exhale.

Diana’s expression twisted in shock, outrage, jealousy, disbelief tangled into one.

Max Junior smiled faintly, softly, knowingly.

“Brooke of the Crescent Hallow.

Step forward as the chosen mate of the True Heart.”

Brooke stumbled one step, then stopped.

“Me?” he whispered, voice breaking.

Alicia bit her lip to stop hers from doing the same.

The Watcher nodded. “You alone passed all trials of loyalty, heart, and restraint.”

Brooke exhaled a trembling breath, and then looked at Alicia helplessly, like a man standing before a cliff he both feared and longed to leap from.

“Alicia,” he whispered, voice fragile, “tell me this is real. Tell me you want this.”

Alicia stepped toward him, her face inches from his.

“I do,” she whispered. “Brooke… I do. I always did.”

Max turned away sharply, emotion choking him.

Yuri dropped his head, barely holding himself together.

Diana’s teeth clenched audibly.

Suddenly, a violent tremor tore through the courtyard stones.

The wolves inside each of them surged in alarm.

Kael flared inside Brooke, "Alicia!"

Flo seared through Alicia, "Danger...now!"

Tawny snapped inside Max, "Move!"

Selena hissed inside Diana, "It begins..!"

The Watcher lifted his staff, eyes blazing.

“The Proclamation cannot continue.

Something has broken the wards!”

Max Junior hissed, “Someone’s here.”

Alicia grabbed Brooke’s wrist.

“Who?” she whispered.

A voice echoed from the shadows.

A familiar voice.

Cold. Female.

Triumphant.

“Me.

Did you think my sentence ended my war?”

Diana’s head jerked up.

Alicia turned slowly.

Max, Brooke, Yuri, Max Junior...all pivoted into fighting stance.

From the northern archway, cloaked in silver fire, stepped Roderic’s sister, the last hidden heir of Aldric, the secret magician who had been pulling strings long before Diana’s fall.

Her wolf, which was massive, spectral, dripping with void, materialized behind her.

She smiled, eyes flicking toward Brooke and Alicia’s joined hands.

“A proclamation night?

How lovely.

Shall I ruin it?”

Alicia’s blood chilled.

Brooke roared.

Max shifted halfway.

Yuri snarled, wolf rising.

The Watcher lifted his staff.

And the heir whispered, “Let the Queen choose, if she survives.”

The ground split.

Silver wards shattered.

The courtyard burst into erupting light.

And everything... the love, the bond, the fury, the future... detonated into chaos.



Out of the blue, a scream split the courtyard.

Alicia and Brooke sprinted, their wolves stirring with predatory urgency. As they rounded the archway, the scene exploded before them.

Smoke.

Broken tiles.

A pulse of corrupted magic crawling like black fire across the ground.

And at the center of it, stood Roderic’s sister, Lysandra.

Tall. Elegant. Drenched in darkness.

Her pale hair whipped around her like a living serpent, eyes blazing with the same madness that had consumed her brother.

“You!” she hissed as Alicia stepped into the courtyard. “The false queen. The cursed child. The reason everything in my family has been destroyed.”

Alicia lifted her chin. “Your brother tried to burn the kingdom. Twice. He betrayed the Council, the prophecy, and our people.”

“And YOU let the Council sentence him!” Lysandra screamed, her voice crackling with dangerous magic. “Now you’ll pay.”

Brooke stepped beside Alicia. “You’ll go through both of us.”

Lysandra smiled, slow and cruel.

“Oh, Brooke. You sweet, stupid boy. You think she’ll keep you when she realizes what her crown demands?”

Alicia felt Brooke tense but she squeezed his hand, her voice steel.

“He stays because he’s earned his place… not because I’m forced.”

“Lies!” Lysandra shrieked.

She lifted both palms.

Black lightning exploded toward them.

Alicia dodged right, Brooke left, the ground erupting behind them in a cyclone of shrapnel and shadow. Alicia threw up a shield of pure Heart-energy, white-gold, pulsing with ancient power, and deflected a second strike.

But Lysandra was stronger than Roderic.

More reckless.

Driven by pure vengeance.

Flo snarled.

"She will not stop. Not unless she’s broken."

Alicia shifted partially, letting Flo’s strength lace her limbs without fully transforming. Her eyes glowed molten gold. She sprinted forward, Brooke matching her speed, Kael roaring inside him.

Lysandra sent a wave of darkness slicing across the courtyard.

Brooke leapt over it.

Alicia dove through it.

They hit her simultaneously with Alicia’s glowing fist slamming into her ribs while Brooke’s kick struck her thigh, sending her stumbling.

But Lysandra didn’t fall.

She laughed.

“You think physical force will stop me? I drank the Well of Shadows. I carry the bloodline of the Stormed Wolf. And I will END YOU.”

The shadows behind her expanded into tendrils, writhing like monstrous arms. They whipped toward Alicia.

Brooke lunged, blocking two, slashing a third with a dagger, but one shadow-arm wrapped around Alicia’s ankle, yanking her violently off her feet.

She hit the ground hard.

“Alicia!” Brooke shouted.

Alicia gasped as the shadow began dragging her. Her magic burned through her veins as she pushed against it, but the shadow resisted, tightening like a chokehold.

Lysandra stalked toward her.

“One little crush of my hand… and your heart will stop beating.”

Alicia’s eyes narrowed. “No. It won’t.”

Flo surged forward.

Alicia’s body shimmered, half-shifted, glowing, impossibly powerful. Her claws formed, wolf fangs lengthened, eyes blazing white-gold as she ripped the shadow-tendril apart with a furious snarl.

Lysandra stumbled back.

Brooke didn’t hesitate, he tackled Lysandra across the courtyard, slamming her into a stone pillar hard enough to crack it.

Lysandra screamed and hurled him back with a blast of dark magic.

Alicia rose to her feet, unstoppable, her voice heavy with ancient dominance.

“This kingdom will not suffer your bloodline any longer.”

Lysandra’s eyes filled with hatred, then fear.

“No..no, I am the rightful heir of the Stormed Wolf! I am the one the prophecy meant..!”

“You twisted the prophecy,” Alicia said. “Just like your brother.”

She raised her hands.

White-gold magic spiraled upward, forming a sphere that hummed with raw purity and judgment.

Lysandra froze, eyes wide. “Wait...Alicia...WAIT..!”

Alicia thrust her palms forward.

The sphere unleashed a burst of cleansing energy, slamming into Lysandra. Darkness peeled from her body like burning smoke, ripping away the corrupted magic she’d fused with.

Lysandra collapsed to her knees, trembling, her power extinguished.

Brooke joined Alicia’s side, breathing heavily. “She’s down.”

“Not yet,” Alicia said softly.

Council guards flooded into the courtyard, spears raised, magic pulsing. Elders followed, stern, shocked, and grim.

Elder Helena stepped forward.

“Queen Alicia… what is your directive?”

Alicia looked down at Lysandra, who glared back with bitter loathing.

The same loathing Diana had once shown.

The same willingness to destroy everything for power.

Alicia’s voice carried across the courtyard.

“Lysandra, daughter of the Stormed Wolf line, you are hereby placed under Council custody for crimes of treason, attempted assassination, and dark bonding.”

“NO!” Lysandra snarled. “You hypocrites! You let Diana live...why should I..?”

“Because the Council will judge you,” Alicia answered.

“And your sentence,” Helena added, “shall reflect the crimes you have embraced.”

Lysandra was bound in silver restraints and taken away, screaming curses that echoed through the night.