Chapter 12 The Silver Queen
My mother stood at the edge of the trees. Her white lab coat was spotless, even in the mud. She looked at me with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. The syringe in her hand glowed like a captured star.
"You look confused, Elara," she said. She stepped over a fallen branch. "Did you really think you were just a lucky human who caught an Alpha’s eye? You were never human. You were the masterpiece."
I looked at my hands. The silver glow under my skin was getting brighter. It felt like needles were pushing out from my bones. The pain in my stomach was a hot, swirling fire. It wasn't just a pregnancy. It was an awakening.
"What did you do to me?" I rasped. I pulled Leo tighter against my chest. My son was still unconscious, his breathing shallow. On the rocks behind me, Xavier groaned, his fingers clawing at the stone as he tried to wake up.
"I didn't do anything but give you the right blood," my mother said. "The Moretti family thinks they are the kings of the world because of their wolf. But there is a line older than the wolf. The Silver Line. The ones who can command the energy of the earth itself."
She pointed the syringe at me. "Julian didn't have the wolf, so he was weak. But you? You have the blood and the womb. You are the only one who can carry the True King. And you already have."
I looked at Leo. The "Ancient Blood" everyone kept talking about wasn't from Xavier. It was from me.
"You used me," I whispered. The tears finally stopped falling. In their place came a cold, sharp anger. It felt like a blade being sharpened in my chest. "You let me live in that basement. You let me suffer while you watched from your high tower."
"The stress needed to trigger the gene," she replied calmly. "And it worked perfectly. Look at you. You killed a demon tonight. You led an army of outcasts. You are finally ready to take your place as the head of the Agency."
"I’m going to kill you," I said.
I didn't say it with a scream. I said it with a promise.
"With what?" she laughed. "You’re exhausted. Your Alpha is half-dead. Your son is drained. And I have a squad of soldiers ten seconds away."
I felt the silver fire in my veins snap. It wasn't a wolf shift. It was something else. The water in the river behind me stopped flowing. The pebbles on the ground began to lift into the air.
I stood up, still holding Leo with one arm. With my free hand, I reached out toward my mother.
"You think I'm weak because I don't have teeth and claws?" I asked.
I flicked my wrist.
A wave of silver light shot out from my palm. It hit my mother like a physical punch. She flew backward, the syringe shattering against a tree. The gold liquid spilled into the dirt, hissing like acid.
"How?" she gasped, clutching her bruised chest.
"I'm a mother," I said. "And I have a lot of years of pain to pay back."
I felt a hand on my ankle. I looked down. Xavier was awake. His eyes weren't gold anymore. They were the same silver as mine. The bond between us had changed. It wasn't just a mate bond; it was a link of power.
"Elara..." he whispered. He stood up, his wounds closing in seconds as the silver light flowed from my skin into his. He looked stronger, taller, and more dangerous than ever before.
He looked at my mother with a snarl. "You touched my family for the last time."
But before we could move, a dark shadow fell over the clearing.
It wasn't a helicopter.
A massive, winged shape descended from the clouds. It landed with a crash that cracked the earth. It was a dragon, a beast of bone and shadow, with eyes that burned like red coals.
Standing on the dragon's back was Julian. He wasn't dead. His broken body was being held together by dark, purple smoke.
"The Silver Queen has arrived," Julian mocked, his voice sounding like a thousand dead souls. "But the Shadow King is already here."
He raised a black staff, and the ground beneath us began to turn into a swamp of oily mud.
"The Blood Oath isn't a lock, Elara," Julian shouted over the roar of the dragon. "It was a ritual! And now that your silver is awake, the ritual is complete!"
The forest around us began to scream. Literally scream. The trees started to bleed black oil, and the Omegas who were hiding in the brush began to howl in agony.
"What is happening?" I yelled, grabbing Xavier’s hand.
"He's opening the gate!" Elena screamed from the tunnel entrance. "He's using your light to power the Shadow Realm!"
Suddenly, the ground beneath Leo began to glow purple. A crack opened in the earth right under my son.
"MOMMY!" Leo woke up and screamed as he began to slide into the dark pit.
I lunged for him, but a wall of black fire erupted between us.
"The boy is the key to the gate, Elara!" Julian laughed. "Thank you for waking him up for me!"
I looked at Xavier. I looked at the dragon. I looked at the pit swallowing my son.
I didn't think about the baby in my stomach. I didn't think about the Agency. I focused all the silver fire in my heart into one single point.
"Xavier! Give me your hand!" I commanded.
As our palms met, a pillar of pure silver light shot into the sky. The dragon roared in pain, its wings beginning to melt.
But as the light hit the peak of its power, I felt a sharp, cold metal press against my back.
"Don't move, Luna," a voice whispered in my ear.
I froze. It was Miller. The man who had saved us. The man from the Resistance.
He wasn't looking at Julian or the dragon. He was looking at the device in my pocket, the one with the data.
"The Resistance doesn't want to save the world, Elara," Miller whispered, his voice full of greed. "We just want to be the ones holding the leash."
He shoved a needle into my neck. Everything went cold.
The last thing I saw before the world turned black was Miller picking up Leo and stepping onto the dragon's wing.