Chapter 63 His Last Redemption
Silas shifted. A rough sound tore from his throat as if speaking cost him pieces of himself. "Redemption," he repeated, almost amused. "You think I get something like that?"
Derek didn't answer right away. He could see how bad it was now. How deep the infection ran. Silas's left hand trembled violently, fingers curling like claws fighting their own bones. His breathing came in uneven bursts. Some too human. Some too animal.
Behind Derek, Cassius and Riley waited silently. Tense and ready. But Derek stepped closer, ignoring the stench of rot and old blood.
Silas's corrupted eye flicked to the movement, glowing brighter, hungry. His human eye narrowed, desperate. "Don't," he growled. "You shouldn't be near me."
"It's the only way," Derek said quietly. "We don't have time for distance."
A muscle twitched along Silas's jaw. He looked away, but not fast enough to hide the flicker of pain. Not physical pain. Something older. Deeper.
Derek swallowed hard. "Moira had a vision. She's certain. The prophecy needs you."
Silas barked a laugh that cracked like dry stone. "A prophecy." He shook his head. "Of course. Always a prophecy." Then his voice dipped lower. "What does it want? My blood? My soul?"
"Your choice," Derek said. "And your sacrifice."
Silas went still.
The den seemed to shrink. The darkness leaned in closer.
"So that's it." His voice roughened. "You mean my death."
Derek didn't lie. "Yes."
Silas laughed. A raw, hollow sound that didn't belong to the man Derek once knew. "And you came all this way to ask me that?" His corrupted fingers dug into the dirt. "To look me in the eye and ask me to die for a pack I betrayed?"
"No," Derek said softly. "I came to ask you to choose what you want your end to mean."
Silas stiffened.
Derek took another step. Close enough now to see every tremor in him. "You think you're too far gone. Maybe you are. But if you help us, if you help seal the Nightbringer, then your life, your pain, everything you've suffered, it won't end as a curse. It'll be your redemption."
Silas's laugh collapsed into a cough. Black veins crawled higher along his neck like they were listening, reacting.
"You're wrong," he rasped. "Look at me. I'm more monster than wolf."
"You're my brother," Derek said.
Silas jerked. His head snapped up.
"No matter what you've done," Derek continued, voice low but steady. "You were raised in my house. My father loved you like his own blood. And I..." His throat tightened, but he forced the words out. "I loved you like a brother."
Silas's face twisted. Not anger. Not hate.
Grief.
The kind that comes from deep, bone-deep memory.
"You don't get to say that," Silas whispered. "Not after everything."
"Why not?" Derek asked. "You betrayed me, yes. You hurt me. You nearly destroyed my life. But even now, even like this, there's still something inside you fighting. I can see it."
Silas pressed a shaking hand to the corrupted side of his face. "Fighting," he echoed, voice thin. "You think this is fighting?"
Derek waited.
Silas's breath hitched. He squeezed his eyes shut.
And in the next moment, Derek felt it. Something shifting in the air. A pressure. A presence.
The darkness in Silas surged.
His corrupted eye blazed with violent light. His body jerked backward against the wall as if pulled by invisible chains. A guttural growl ripped from him. Inhuman and aching.
Cassius tensed. Riley reached for his blade.
Derek held up a hand. "Stand back."
Silas's fingers clawed at the stone. His body shook so hard Derek thought the bones would snap.
A voice, cold, ancient, merciless, slithered into the den.
“Kill him.”
Silas gasped, choking on the words. "Stop, no, get out."
“Take his power. Finish what you started.”
His head snapped toward Derek. For a terrifying heartbeat, something else stared at him.
Derek didn't move.
"Silas," he said quietly. "Fight it."
Silas's teeth bared in agony. "I, I can't."
"You can."
Silas lunged as if the command inside him demanded blood. Cassius shouted. Riley drew his weapon.
But Silas crashed to his knees before he reached Derek. Both hands clutching his skull. A scream tore through him. Raw. Broken. Animal.
"Silas," Derek urged, voice sharp now. "Listen to me. Remember who you are."
Silas's scream broke into ragged breathing. "I can't, Derek, please, help me."
Derek knelt in front of him, ignoring every instinct screaming at him to step back.
"Look at me."
Silas's human eye lifted. Bloodshot and desperate.
"Remember the waterfall," Derek said. "In the northern woods. The day you pulled me out when I fell in the river. You were ten. You laughed because I cried."
Silas's face twisted.
"And remember my father's feast days," Derek continued steadily. "When he'd carve the meat and give you the biggest piece because he said you were too thin."
A tremor of recognition passed through Silas.
"And remember the day those older wolves cornered me behind the barracks?" Derek said, voice steady. "You were half their size, but you still stepped in front of me. You didn't even hesitate. You bled for me before you ever let me be afraid."
Silas let out a broken sound. Half sob, half snarl. "Stop, Derek, stop."
"I'm not leaving you," Derek said. "Not again."
Silas's breathing shuddered.
The darkness inside him pushed again. Harder.
His body slammed against the wall once, twice, as if something was trying to tear its way out of him.
Cassius moved. "Derek..."
"Stay back!" Derek didn't look away from Silas. "He's choosing. Right now."
Silas let out a cry that echoed through the den, shaking dust from the ceiling. His corrupted eye flickered wildly. Violet, then red, then something almost black. His claws dug into the ground.
The Nightbringer's voice hissed like steam.
“He is mine.”
Silas roared, clutching his chest as the veins crawled higher, threatening to consume the last intact part of him.
Derek leaned closer. "Silas. You're stronger than him."
Silas's voice cracked open. "I'm not."
"You are," Derek snapped. "I know you. I always have."
Silas's breath stuttered.
And then...
A trembling breath escaped him.
The violent glow in his corrupted eye dimmed.
His shoulders dropped. His hands unclenched.
When he lifted his gaze again, both eyes, one brown, one corrupted, held a fragile clarity.
"I'll help you," he whispered. "But I can't promise how long I can hold it back."
Derek's chest tightened. "That's enough."
"No," Silas said. "It's all I have."
He pushed himself upright. Hands shaking, legs barely steady. Riley hesitated but didn't interfere. Cassius watched with wary respect.
Silas looked at them all. Guilt in every breath he took. "We need to move fast. The corruption, it changes by the hour."
Derek nodded. "Then we leave now."
Silas gave a rough laugh. "Back to Nightfang. After everything I did there." Then he lifted a trembling hand to his stomach where the veins pulsed. "If I lose control..."
"I'll stop you," Derek said. Voice firm but steady.
"And if you fail?" Silas asked quietly.
Derek met his gaze without flinching. "Then Amanda will."
Silas blinked, surprised. "Amanda, trusts me?"
"No," Derek said honestly. "But she believes in what you can still choose."
Silas's breath hitched.
He nodded once.
They stepped out of the den into the gray clearing. The strange hum of the Shadowlands seemed to vibrate under their feet. Cassius and Riley surrounded Silas carefully. Both ready but not hostile.
Silas took one shaky step, then another.
And then the ground trembled.
A low rumble rolled across the land like something ancient waking from sleep.
Pierce stiffened. "That's not normal."
Derek felt it too. A cold pulse spreading outward like a shockwave.
Silas staggered. His corrupted veins pulsed in violent rhythm.
And then...
A voice thundered through the Shadowlands.
Not inside Silas's head.
Not in Derek's mind.
Out loud.
Every tree shuddered. The air cracked like ice. Even the corrupted wolves lurking in the shadows whined and crawled back.
"Little wolves, playing at heroes."
The voice was everywhere at once. Sky, earth, blood.
Silas froze. Riley stepped back. Cassius's eyes widened.
Pierce whispered, "Nightbringer."
The ground split in thin jagged lines as the voice deepened with fury.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
A wind whipped around them. Cold as winter graves.
"Did you think I would let you remake the seal?"
Derek's heart pounded. Silas swayed, gripping Derek's arm to stay upright.
The Shadowlands darkened.
"I'm coming for you all."
Silas's corrupted eye flared painfully.
"Two days until the eclipse."
Cassius cursed under his breath.
"Two days until your world ends."
The voice dropped to a whisper that crawled under their skin like ice.
"Gather your forces. Say your goodbyes. It won't matter."
The wind died.
The forest went still.
For a moment, no one breathed.
Silas swayed, clutching Derek's arm. His corrupted eye flickering like a dying star. Riley's face had gone pale. Cassius's hand hovered over his blade, knuckles white. Even the shadows seemed to recoil, as if the land itself feared what came next.