Chapter 155: White Light

Maddie Pov

The loose stone popped out of the mud and Calix slipped. His fingers lost their grip completely and my weight dragged both of us down into the dark.

I grabbed a thick tree root with my left hand and I locked my right arm around Calix’s neck. The root stretched and the dry dirt fell down into my eyes but it did not break. We hung there in the middle of the open air and the smoke from the pit was thick and hot against my skin. Below us, the rocks were still hitting the bottom with a loud crashing sound.

"Maddie, let go of me," Calix said and his boots kicked against the dirt wall. "You cannot hold both of us."

"I am not letting go," I said without looking down.

The earth beneath the roots made another groaning sound. A big piece of the lawn broke off to our right and Marcus fell with it. He let go of his branch and his body slid down the mud toward the center of the deep hole.

"Help," Marcus shouted and his fingers tore into the loose grass.

I felt a sudden heat in the middle of my chest. It was the white light again but it did not stay inside my veins this time. It pushed out through my skin until my whole body was bright white. The light felt heavy and thick like warm milk. I did not let the shift happen fully but I used the power of the white fur anyway. I reached deep down inside my brain and I threw the white light out across the entire clearing.

The light hit the dirt like a solid floor.

The falling rocks stopped moving in mid-air. The big cracks in the grass froze and the crumbling edge under Marcus’s hands turned solid like stone. The white light was holding the mountain together by force. My left arm started to shake from the pressure and my chest felt like it was being compressed by a heavy log but I kept the light going.

"Calix, pull up," I said and my teeth pressed together hard.

Calix used my shoulder to lift his torso. He caught a fresh root and swung his leg over the solid edge of the grass. He reached down instantly and grabbed my waist with both of his hands. He hauled me up out of the hole and we both collapsed onto the solid ground.

I kept my hands flat on the dirt and I poured every drop of the white light into the soil. The big sinkhole started to close up slowly. The sides pressed back together and the dark hole filled with mud until the ground was flat again.

The light went out in a small snap.

I fell forward onto my face. Every muscle in my body went completely soft and my skin felt cold. I could not lift my head and I could barely draw the air into my lungs. The power had emptied me out completely.

"Maddie, look at me," Calix said and he rolled my body over.

I did not answer. I just breathed slow.

"She is done," Marcus said and he walked over to us with a limp. "Look by the well."

Calix stood up and he kept one hand on my shoulder to help me sit up. The dust was starting to clear from the lawn and the orange fire from the house was small now. Simone was lying next to the broken stones of the old well. She had not fallen all the way down into the pit because the mud had pushed her back up when the hole closed. Her legs were pinned under a heavy boulder and her face was grey. The purple glow under her skin was gone.

"The war is over, Simone," Calix said and he stepped over the grass toward her.

Simone let out a weak cough and some dark blood came out of her mouth. She looked up at Calix and then her eyes moved to me. She was dying and she knew it but she did not look scared. She just looked mean.

"You think you won something here. You know…. I really loved you Calix. I love you to the extent that I could even spare my life for you. You ignored my love to…. be with that piece of shit," Simone whispered and she let out a small, dry laugh.

"Your rogues are gone and you cannot move. Secondly, don't you dare call all my mate a piece of shit. I can't believe you still have so much hate and nerves to speak in this state," Calix said. "It is over. You need to accept that you'll die a loner and the Moon Goddess will never forgive you for your dirty actions.”

She let out another dry laugh. "This territory is nothing," Simone said and her fingers twitched against the mud. "The stones were just the beginning of the noise. The noise travels far, boy."

"We are still standing," I said and my voice was barely a whisper from the grass.

Her head rolled sideways onto the wet dirt. Her eyes stayed wide open but the light inside them went out completely. She was dead.

Elder Thomas walked up behind Calix and he looked down at Simone’s face for a long moment. He did not say anything. He just raised his hand and the remaining twelve wolves of our pack stopped their growling. The clearing went totally quiet except for the sound of the old wood popping in the ashes of the house.

I looked at Calix and his face went dark. The bond between us felt quiet and warm but the forest around us felt very big and cold now. The red and yellow eyes in the trees were gone but the wind was coming down from the mountains and it smelled like snow.

"We need to move the injured wolves to the river," Marcus said.

"We move them now," Calix said and he did not look away from the northern ridge.