Chapter 27

Chapter 27
The Final Test

There would be one final trial, they said.

I believed that I had already endured enough suffering, enough brokenness, and enough bleeding. However, I realized I had no concept of what true tests looked like as soon as I entered that clearing, which was encircled by burned trees and had a dreadful atmosphere.

The earth throbbed under my feet. Static irritated my skin. Like a beast kept in a cage for too long, the shadow inside of me that I had cultivated, fought, and given up to awake. It was silent. It was observing. Awaiting.

I had been informed by Kade's voice that this test would not gauge my strength or speed. My soul would be put to the test. The aspect of me that still holds on to who I was rather than who I had become.

Then I caught sight of them. Selena. Jake. My dad.

Standing as though horrible and ancient forces had taken them from memory and woven them into this instant. Their grins were just as I remembered them to be, yet their eyes shone, cold and lifeless. Joking. Unrepentant.

"You're not real," I said softly to them. However, the ache in my chest told me otherwise.

The trial was underway.

Selena was the first to move forward. Her voice, not uttered but felt, reverberated in my mind. "Lily, do you still despise me? Or is your hatred of yourself greater because you allowed me to win?

Jake trailed behind. You pleaded for my affection. Horrible. Are you still interested in it?

The harshest silence came from my father. All he did was gaze. He exuded disappointment like a curse. That gaze was still capable of going farther than claws.

I let out a yell Not out of fear. From rage.

Their arrogant expressions were torn apart like smoke as the shadows sprang from inside me and sliced across the illusion. They did not, however, disappear. They changed their ways. More powerful. Sharper.

This was no delusion. I was like this.

The voice in my head came back, growling now instead of whispering.

Take them out. Destroy what remains of your history. You won't be free till then.

I made a lunge.

I drove the shadow-claws into Selena's chest, causing her to collapse first, her smirk breaking like glass. Jake put up a stronger fight. Did every time. It was always fun to act like he was stronger. I didn't hesitate this time, though. I didn't wince. The laughter pierced the final sliver of hesitancy as he reached for my hand, begging, the recollection of the rejection stinging.

Lost. Just one remains. My dad.

He didn't engage in combat. He didn't plead.

He merely gazed at me . And grinned.

"My daughter, you were never mine."

I went cold.

Because that was not his voice.

It was the Whispering Shadow's voice.

I pivoted. The clearing twisted. Faces melting. And I found myself standing by myself in a location that wasn't a forest or a dream.

The room was a throne.

Dark. Never-ending. Tall and covered in writhing shadows that seemed to be alive, a man stood at its center, waiting.

With a voice like thunder and ash, it declared, "You passed." "But something is gone from you."

My heart was racing. "What?"It gestured behind me. I pivoted.

And caught sight of her.

The girl I was before.

Broken. Bleeding. Bending down.

Her gaze met mine. Empty. Dead.

The Shadow remarked, "You chose power." "You can't keep her."

At my feet, the past was withering. Behind the throne, the future glowed like pitch and molten gold.

I hesitated even after that.

I ought to have left. However, I knelt.

Put a hand on her cheek.

And I experienced a crack in me.

The Shadow shouted at that moment.

"You're not prepared."

All around me, the world fell apart.

And I awoke on the floor of Kade's training grounds, breathing and bleeding.

His gaze locked with mine. Chilly. Making calculations.

And afraid. I said in a whisper, "You saw it."He gave a nod.

"I believe they located you," he answered softly.

It scorched my flesh. Shadows lit up my veins.

"Who?" I took a breath. Then we heard it. The howl.Not from a wolf.

From something far worse.

Something old. I'm being hunted.

Lily has come out of hiding. A fresh adversary. She has been awakened by someone older than the packs, older than Kade, and older than the Whispering Shadow itself. And it will happen.

The atmosphere was dense, pulsing with vitality that seemed both timeless and dynamic. With the lines beneath my bare feet throbbing with a faint red glow, I stood in the middle of the obsidian circle. I took short breaths, each one nourishing something inside of me that was no longer wholly mine.

The ground shook, but it wasn't from the earth; rather, it was from within me.

I sensed it. Something deep within me, the Whispering Shadow, had roused. Not like previously, no soft prods or whispers. It came roaring this time.

I clenched my jaw and concentrated on the test. This time would come, Kade had assured me. One last run-in with my own soul. If I didn't succeed, the darkness would devour me and turn me into a savage. I would surpass Alpha if I were successful. I would become famous.

My adversary wasn't a human. It was a reflection. A reflection of myself, with eyes like midnight storms and skin veined with shadows that flickered. She followed my movements, but she stopped when I stopped.

With an order that echoed through my bones, she murmured silently: Choose what to retain. Decide what you're willing to lose.

I felt a sharp pain behind my eyes. Pictures flickered. My father's quiet, Jake moving away, and Selena's smile as she moved to take my seat. However, there were also others. Kade's wary eyes. The group of outlaws who had taken me in. The power I had wrung out of the shadows.

My image lunged.

Claws and claws met. In a tornado of anger and recollection, our bodies clashed. She had to make a decision with each strike. I witnessed fragments of myself disperse in pain, love, longing, and terror.

And something gloomier.

It should have ended with the last blow. I felt the crack in my spirit when her fist struck my chest.

I didn't break, though.

I released what she asked for and opened my hand.

The agony ceased.

She was kneeling when I looked up. Merged, not defeated. The darkness did not disappear; rather, it became a part of me and was no longer distinct. Nothing to be afraid of anymore.

Above the circle, the light broke.

I got up by myself.

But not in the same way.

Symbols carved throughout my arms pulsed like a second heartbeat, and black-gold veins flashed dimly throughout my body. Kade didn't move forward; instead, he stood at the circle's edge.

He didn't have to. He was aware.

I was gone. However, there was a problem.

In the silence, I sensed it. When the wind wouldn't move.

The scream followed. Not human. Not a wolf.Something halfway.

When I turned to face the sound, I could see it beyond the trees.

A rip in the sky. Tore open like a piece of paper. The stink of old blood and forgotten oaths filled the black cloud that poured out.

Something was passing through.No, nothing. Someone. They were also trying to find me.