Chapter 110: Teeth in the Dark

The warehouse was fire and steel. Bullets ricocheted, claws ripped through flesh, and screams mixed with growls until I couldn’t tell which belonged to human throats and which didn’t.

The hybrids were everywhere. Some went straight for the Creed soldiers, tearing them apart with savage precision. Others turned feral, their eyes rolling, their claws ripping into the nearest warm body—friend or foe.

“Stay low!” Aidan barked, pulling me down just as a hybrid barreled past, slamming into the cage behind us with bone-breaking force.

Elena fired her crossbow, the bolt sinking into its shoulder. The creature barely slowed. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she shouted. “Since when do they shrug off silver?!”

“They’re not shrugging it off,” Ethan yelled, crouched by an overturned crate with his laptop already open, fingers flying over the keys even as gunfire cracked around us. “They’re evolving faster than we thought!”

“You’re telling me that now?” Elena snapped.

Aidan slashed down another Creed soldier who got too close, blood splattering across his shirt. His eyes flicked to me, sharp and urgent. “Roxanne, don’t freeze—fight!”

“I’m not freezing!” I snapped back, my knife cutting into the throat of a hybrid that lunged too close. Hot blood sprayed my face, metallic and sharp. My stomach churned, but I didn’t falter.

Echo moved like shadow, her blades flashing, every strike precise and final. She was quieter than all of us, but her voice cut through the chaos when she needed it. “The Creed isn’t winning this. The hybrids aren’t either. This isn’t a battle—it’s a culling.”

Selene still hadn’t moved. She stood near the cages, golden eyes glowing like twin fires, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

“This is madness!” Rhea shouted, clutching the journal to her chest as she pressed herself against the wall. “We can’t control them—we can’t—”

“That’s the point,” Selene called back, her voice calm, clear, cruel. “You were never meant to control them. Only Roxanne can.”

“Stop talking like she’s some chosen queen!” Elena barked, loosing another bolt. “She’s just a girl trying not to die in a slaughterhouse!”

Selene’s smile widened. “And yet she hasn’t died. Do you ever wonder why?”

“Because she’s stubborn!” Elena snapped. “And because we keep saving her ass!”

“Funny,” Aidan growled, cutting down another hybrid, “I thought she kept saving yours.”

“Semantics!” Elena shot back.

I wanted to scream at both of them to shut up, but I couldn’t. Not when Selene’s words crawled under my skin, burning like fire I couldn’t put out.

Why hadn’t I died?

The Creed soldier’s gunfire was almost useless now. The hybrids weren’t stopping. Blood pooled across the floor, thick and slick. The air reeked of iron and smoke.

Ethan suddenly cursed. “They’re jamming comms—no one outside knows what’s happening in here!”

“Then fix it!” Elena yelled.

“I’m trying, but the interference is—” He broke off as a hybrid leapt at him.

“Ethan!” I shouted.

But Echo was faster. Her blade cut the creature down mid-air, spraying blood across Ethan’s laptop. He flinched but didn’t stop typing, muttering curses under his breath.

Aidan’s hand caught my wrist, dragging me out of the path of another hybrid. His voice was low, sharp. “She’s testing you, Roxanne. Don’t give her what she wants.”

“I don’t even know what she wants!” I hissed.

“Yes, you do,” Selene’s voice carried over the chaos, like she’d read my thoughts. “She wants you to choose. To embrace what you are. Or to deny it and watch them all die.”

I spun toward her, fury burning in my chest. “You don’t get to decide who I am!”

She tilted her head, her smile soft, mocking. “I’m not deciding. I’m reminding.”

The hybrids roared again, their voices rising like a storm.

One of them—the largest—locked eyes with me. For a moment, everything else faded. The bullets. The screams. The blood. All I saw was him. His golden eyes glowed brighter than the others. His chest heaved. His claws dripped red.

And then he dropped to his knees.

One by one, the others followed.

Hybrids who had been tearing through Creed soldiers seconds ago… knelt. Heads bowed. Claws curled against the floor. The warehouse fell eerily silent, except for the crackle of broken lightbulbs and the shallow, panicked breaths of my friends.

Elena whispered, “Okay… creepy. So, so creepy.”

Ethan froze mid-typing, his voice shaking. “They’re not attacking anymore.”

“Because they’re waiting,” Echo said quietly.

Selene stepped forward, her golden eyes locked on mine. “They’ve chosen. Now it’s your turn.”

Every hybrid in the room lowered their head toward me.

My throat went dry. My hands shook harder.

Aidan’s voice was raw. “Roxanne. Don’t.”

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Because deep down, some part of me already knew what this was.

This wasn’t just a war.

It was a coronation.