Chapter 169: Soul Merge

Maddie Pov

I was hovering two inches in the cold air and my long hair was blowing straight up toward the dark clouds. The bright gold light inside my chest felt like hot water pouring through my veins and it was spreading out to the tips of my fingers.

"Maddie, look at me," Calix shouted from somewhere below my shins.

I tried to turn my head to find his face but my neck was locked straight. My left wrist was still in his grip but his big hand felt very small and far away now. A thick band of silver light was connecting my ribs directly to Kai’s chest where he was kneeling in the dirt.

"The power is too thick," Marcus said from the brier path.

"Hold on to the stone," Elder Thomas said.

Suddenly, the white light flared loud and the mountain ridge completely disappeared from my eyes. I was no longer standing in the cold valley with Calix. I was standing inside a massive wooden hall that smelled like wet iron and old dog fur. There were large torches burning along the log walls and the floor was made of black slate stones.

"She is here," a heavy voice said from the front of the room.

I looked down at my own hands and they were small like a child's hands again. A long white dress was dragging across the black slate and my boots were missing entirely. Kai was standing right next to me but he did not look like the old man from the creek. He looked young and his silver hair was cut short at his neck.

"Put your palm on the altar, Maddie," my mother said and she came out of the shadows by the wall.

Her face was wet from crying and she had a thick leather book under her left arm. She looked exactly like she did before the great freeze.

"I do not want to stand here," I said and my voice sounded very high.

"You have to sign the contract to save the line," she said and she pushed my shoulder forward toward the stone table.

A tall man with a gold crown on his head stood on the other side of the stone. His eyes were entirely silver and he held a long bone knife in his right hand. He took my wrist and he dragged the sharp point across my thumb until the red blood came out fast.

"The house of the peaks accepts the promise," the king said.

The moment the blood hit the stone book, the wooden hall shook violently and the logs began to turn into black smoke. The child's dress disappeared from my skin and I was suddenly standing on top of a very high mountain covered in deep white snow. The wind was howling so loud my ears started to ache.

"This is the future, Maddie," Kai’s voice said and it came right out of my own throat.

"Get out of my mouth," I said.

I looked across the snow and I saw the valley camp. The three canvas tents were completely torn down and the tall pine timbers of our new cabin were broken into small pieces on the ground. There was no fire burning in the circle and the water barrel was smashed.

"Look at the ridge path," Kai said.

I turned my body toward the steep dirt trail and my heart went very fast against my ribs. A large gray wolf was standing over a pile of broken rocks near the creek. It was Kai’s wolf shape. His muzzle was covered in red blood and he had his front paws planted on a thick chest.

Calix was lying beneath the paws. His gold eyes were totally wide open but they were completely blank and they did not move at all. His white shirt was torn open from the collar to the belt and his chest was not moving up or down. He was entirely still on the cold earth.

"No," I screamed and I tried to run down the snowy hill to reach his hand.

My feet would not move through the deep drifts. The silver thread in my chest pulled tight and it dragged me backward away from the valley.

"The son of Hawthorne cannot hold the north," Kai said and his younger face appeared right in front of my eyes in the snow. "The mate bond will break when the winter comes fully. I will take the title and I will take the territory."

"I am going to kill you first," I said.

"You cannot kill the man who holds your soul, Little Moon," Kai said and his gray eyes shined under the white sky. "We are already one blood. When I wake up on the ridge, you will walk to the peaks with me and the young Alpha will stay in the dirt."

The snowy mountain suddenly split down the middle with a loud cracking sound like a big pine log breaking in a fire. The gold light rushed back into my eyes and the cold wind from the valley path hit my face again.

I tumbled backward and my knees hit the hard gravel of the ridge. The silver link broke apart into a hundred yellow sparks and the air went totally quiet. Calix dropped down onto the dirt right next to me and he wrapped his large arms around my shoulders.

"Maddie, I have you," Calix said and his breath was very short against my neck. "You are back."

I looked across the stone circle but the old man was no longer kneeling by the fire. The gray rocks were completely empty and his long coat was gone.

"He left," Marcus said and he lowered his iron spear.

"Which way did he go?" Calix asked and he stood up to look down the trail.

"He went toward the high peaks," Elder Thomas said.

I stayed on my knees in the gray dirt and I looked down at my right hand. The yellow glow was fully gone from my skin but my thumb felt very sore where the bone knife had cut me in the vision. I looked at Calix’s warm chest and my body started to shake because I could still see his blank gold eyes staring up from the snow.

"We have to go back to the camp, Calix," I said and I grabbed his leather sleeve tight.

"The ridge is safe now, Maddie," Calix said and he rubbed my cold fingers. "We can walk slow."

"We cannot wait," I said and I looked at the dark woods where the future was waiting. "He is coming for the cabin tomorrow."