Chapter 110 Into the Spirit Realm
LIRA POV
The eclipse began at midnight. I stood at the temple ruins, three days of fasting leaving me hollow and light. Grandmother Ash drew symbols around me in salt and ash.
"Remember." Her voice was urgent. "The guilt will try to become yours. It will show you things. Terrible things to make you believe you're responsible."
"I know." My voice sounded distant even to myself. "Refuse what isn't mine."
"More than refuse." She pressed a crystal into my palm. "Reject it violently, force it back to its source and make it face itself."
"And if I can't?" I asked.
"Then you'll be trapped there." She said bluntly. "Forever carrying guilt that will eventually destroy you."
"Comforting." I looked at Kael, restrained again but conscious. "Any last advice?"
"Come back to me." He strained against the silver chains. "Please. Come back."
"Always." I touched our bond through distance. "Hold on. This won't take long."
"Liar." But love flooded through our connection. "I'll be here. Waiting, however long it takes."
"The eclipse is reaching totality." Grandmother Ash checked the sky. "Lie down, clear your mind and let your spirit separate."
I lay on a cold stone, staring up as the moon disappeared. Darkness felt complete and absolute. "Drink this." Ash placed a cup to my lips.
The liquid burned going down as my vision blurred immediately. "What was" I started.
The world tilted. My body felt impossibly heavy, then impossibly light. Then gone entirely, i stood in the spirit realm again. But it was different this time.
Not the peaceful meeting place where I'd spoken to the dead. This was darker and colder. "Hello?" My voice echoed strangely. "Is anyone here?"
Laughter answered me, cruel and familiar. "Little Luna." Magnus Thorn emerged from the shadows. "Welcome to my hell and soon, yours."
I stumbled back. "You're dead, gone. I broke the curse"
"You broke the collective curse." He corrected, moving closer. "But individual guilt remains. Mine that js passed to my son. And now, confronted by you."
"I'm not here for you." I summoned moonfire, but it flickered weakly. "I'm here to purify Kael's bloodline."
"Purify?" Magnus laughed. "You can't purify what's rotten at the core. The Thorn line is built on blood and bones."
"Then I'll tear it down and rebuild." I straightened despite fear. "Whatever it takes."
"Brave words." He circled me like prey. "Let's see if you can back them up."
The world shifted. Suddenly I stood in Silvermoon territory. Twenty years ago, watching the massacre unfold.
"No." I tried to look away. "This isn't real"
"It's a memory." Magnus whispered beside me. "Truth, watch what your precious mate's bloodline did."
I watched Magnus—younger, fiercer—leading the attack. Watched him cut down wolves who begged for mercy. Watched him laugh as the temple burned.
"Stop." I pressed my hands to my ears. "I don't need to see this"
"Yes, you do." He forced my eyes open. "See what runs in Kael's veins. What he'll become eventually just like I did."
"He's nothing like you!" I shouted.
"Isn't he?" Magnus gestured, and the scene changed.
Now I watched Kael, the first time he'd hurt me. When he had sex with Nessa and made me watch.
"See?" Magnus purred. "My son, my legacy. Who is cruel, controlling and exactly like me."
"He changed." I said through gritted teeth. "He chose differently"
"For now." The scene shifted again, showing future possibilities. Kael striking me, killing me. Becoming everything he feared.
"That's not real!" I closed my eyes. "That's fear! Manipulation!"
"It's a possibility." Magnus breathed. "In his blood and bones. You can't purify genetics, you can’t wash away inherited evil."
"Evil isn't inherited!" I opened my eyes, moonfire blazing brighter. "It's chosen! And Kael chooses differently!"
"Does he?" Another shift. Showing Kael in the cell. "He looks pretty evil to me."
"That's the curse!" I advanced on Magnus's spirit. "Your curse! Your guilt making him sick!"
"My guilt?" He matched my advance. "I have no guilt. I did what was necessary, took what was weak and made it strong."
"You murdered hundreds!" I shouted. "Children! Families! An entire pack!"
"I removed competition." He corrected coldly. "Silvermoon was dying anyway, i just accelerated the inevitable."
"My mother held off ten alphas!" I let moonfire pour out. "My father led with wisdom and strength! They weren't weak!"
"They were weak enough to die." Magnus smiled cruelly. "Weak enough to leave you alone and weak enough to fail."
"They died protecting me!" Tears and fire both flowed. "Died so I could live and break your fucking curse!"
"Language, little Luna." He tsked. "So unbecoming."
I screamed, unleashing everything. Moonfire exploded outward, pure and devastating.
Magnus's spirit recoiled. "You can't destroy me! I'm already dead!"
"I can reject you!" I advanced through the flames. "Reject your guilt! Reject your evil! Reject everything you represent!"
"Reject me all you want!" He rallied. "I'm still in Kael's blood! Still in his bones! Still in his choices!"
"No." I stopped directly in front of him. "You're in his history. That's all and history can be overcome."
"Pretty sentiment." Magnus reached for me. "But ultimately meaningless. Blood is blood, guilt is guilt. Inheritance is"
I grabbed his wrist as Moonfire poured directly into his spirit form. "Inheritance." I said clearly. "Is a choice. Kael chooses to reject you, he chose be better, to break the cycle. And I choose to help him."
Magnus screamed as fire consumed him. "You can't! You don't have the power"
"I have love." I said simply. "And that's stronger than your hate. Stronger than your guilt and stronger than anything you created."
His spirit began dissolving. "This isn't over!" He howled. "The guilt remains! Passes to the next generation! And the next! Forever!"
"Not forever." I pushed harder. "Just until now. Until me. Until I break it completely."
He shattered like glass. His scream echoed, then faded.
I stood alone in darkness, breathing hard. "One down." I said to the void. "Four to go."
Shapes emerged. The other four alphas all bearing guilt that had infected their bloodlines.
"You think destroying Magnus was hard?" One laughed. "He was the weakest, most conflicted. We have no doubts."
"We did what was right." Another added. "What was necessary, what any alpha would do."
"You committed genocide." I faced them all. "Murdered hundreds and used dark magic. There's nothing right about that."
"There's everything right about survival." Another countered. "About taking what's needed, about ensuring our bloodlines prospered."
"At the cost of mine." I let moonfire build again. "At the cost of hundreds of innocent wolves."
"Innocent." One spat. "Your pack hoarded resources and refused to share, they deserve what they got."
"My pack." I said coldly. "Protected sacred lands, they hoarded ancient pacts and lived in peace until you destroyed them."
"Peace built on power." One circled. "Power you didn't deserve. Moonblood Luna acting superior, looking down on the rest of us."