Chapter 99 The Curse Manifests
KAEL POV
I woke to the smell of rot. Not the normal decay of autumn leaves or dead prey. This was wrong—sick and twisted, like flesh corrupting from the inside out.
"Kael." Thomas burst into my room without knocking. "You need to see this."
I dressed quickly, following him through the packhouse. Dawn light filtered through windows, revealing something that made my stomach turn.
Black veins spread across the wooden beams. "What the hell is that?" I touched one carefully. Pain shot through my finger. Not burning—worse, like something was trying to crawl inside my skin.
"Don't touch it!" Aria rushed up, carrying gloves and containers. "It's spreading faster than we can track."
"Spreading from where?" I pulled my hand back, watching the black mark fade slowly from my fingertip.
"The territory borders." Thomas led me outside. "Started appearing three hours ago. Crops are dying, water sources turning foul and the wolves"
He stopped at the healer's sanctuary. Inside, a dozen pack members lay on cots. All writhing with fever.
"What happened to them?" I moved to the nearest—Joren, one of our best warriors.
"Nightmares." Aria checked his pulse. "They won't wake up. Just keep screaming about shadows and blood."
"How many affected?" I asked.
"Twelve so far." She looked exhausted. "But more are reporting symptoms. Headaches, nausea, paranoia."
"The curse." I said flatly. "It's starting already."
"Three weeks early." Thomas confirmed. "Whatever's triggering it, the eclipse isn't the catalyst."
"Then what is?" I watched Joren convulse, black veins appearing under his skin.
"Power." Aria measured out medicine. "Lira's display against the three packs. She used more moonfire in one battle than most Moonbloods use in a lifetime."
"So she triggered it." I felt sick. "By protecting us."
"She awakened it." Aria corrected. "The curse was always going to manifest. She just accelerated the timeline."
A scream echoed from outside as I ran toward the sound. In the training yard, wolves were gathering around something. I pushed through the crowd and froze.
The ancient oak at the yard's center was dying. But not naturally—its bark was peeling away in sheets, revealing pulsing black corruption underneath. And carved into the trunk, fresh and bleeding, were words:
MOONBLOOD RISES. DARKNESS ANSWERS. FIVE DEBTS COME DUE.
"Get everyone back!" I ordered. "Thomas, establish a perimeter. No one touches that tree."
"Too late." Marcus appeared, his hand pressed against the bark. Black veins crawled up his arm. "It's already inside me."
"Marcus, step away" I started toward him.
"No." His eyes reflected something dark and hungry. "I can feel it. The old magic, the curse my ancestors helped create."
"You're not descended from the five." I stopped carefully. "Your bloodline wasn't involved."
"Wasn't it?" He smiled, but it wasn't his smile. "Everyone forgets that my grandfather was Beta to Alpha Magnus. Helped plan the Silvermoon massacre, helped cast the blood magic."
"Beta lines don't carry the curse." Aria moved beside me. "Only alpha bloodlines"
"Only alpha bloodlines are meant to." Marcus interrupted. "But when enough blood is spilled, when enough magic is used, it bleeds into everyone who participated."
The black veins spread to his shoulder, his neck. Crawling toward his face.
"Fight it!" I commanded. "You're stronger than some old curse."
"Am I?" He tilted his head. "Or am I exactly what I was always meant to be? A vessel for vengeance."
"Whose vengeance?" I demanded.
"The wolves who died screaming." His voice layered with others now. "The packs who were erased, the bloodlines that ended in fire and silver. They want justice, Alpha Thorn."
"Justice or revenge?" I countered.
"Both." The darkness reached his eyes, turning them solid black. "Starting with the bloodlines who killed them."
He lunged impossibly fast. I barely shifted in time, his claws raking my ribs instead of my throat.
"Subdue him!" I shouted. "Don't kill—he's still part of the pack!"
Warriors moved in, but Marcus fought with strength beyond his rank. He threw off three wolves like they were pups.
"This isn't Marcus anymore!" Aria yelled. "The curse has taken him completely!"
"Then we exorcise it!" I tackled him, pinning him to the ground. "Aria, tell me you have something"
"Moonfire!" She scrambled for her supplies. "Only Moonblood magic can purge dark magic this strong!"
"Then get Lira!" I held Marcus down as he thrashed. "Now!"
"Already here." Lira's voice came from behind us.
She walked through the crowd, moonfire already blazing around her hands. But she looked exhausted—dark circles under her eyes, skin too pale.
"You shouldn't be up." I grunted as Marcus nearly broke free. "You haven't recovered"
"No time for recovery." She knelt beside us. "Hold him still."
"Lira, wait" I started to warn her.
Too late, she pressed burning hands to Marcus's chest. His scream was inhuman. The black veins writhed, fighting the silver flames. Dark smoke poured from his mouth, his eyes, his skin.
"Get it out!" Lira gritted her teeth. "Get out of him!"
The darkness coalesced above Marcus, forming an inhuman shape. "You cannot stop us, Moonblood." Multiple voices spoke as one. "We are the price of old sins, the debt that must be paid."
"Paid by whom?" Lira demanded, flames growing brighter. "These wolves had nothing to do with your deaths!"
"They carry the blood." The shadow gestured to Marcus, to me, to the assembled pack. "The guilty blood. All must pay."
"Then start with me." Lira stood, facing the entity. "I'm the one you really want. The last Moonblood, take me and leave them alone."
"No!" I surged upward. "Lira, don't"