Chapter 129: 129
Maeve's POV
Flash back to the final mark
The storm tore open the sky, splitting the mind-space apart. Lightning, fire, shadow all of it howled like my ribs when I tried to breathe. Everything in my body ached. I felt hallow, broken. Like I could fade away like dust in the wind at any moment.
Stormi’s voice cracked through the void:
“HURRY!”
Her howl lit the veil in gold. She threw herself between me and the walls of shadow gnawing inward, every line of her burning brighter than she had strength for. I saw her fur peel away in streaks of light, eaten by the dark, and still she stood. I could tell this was hurting her. The shadow beast had taken so much from us, our power. But She needed to speak to their wolves. Im so greatful I get to see them but apart me wanted to scream. For a heartbeat, I wanted to scream turn away. Don’t see me like this. Don’t see how ruined I am. Dont let them see how broken I am now.
“I can’t hold her off much longer!” Her voice shook. “The shadow beast is clawing her soul apart. Every breath you waste, every choice you refuse, it steals more of her. Finish the bond—or we lose her forever!”
I sobbed. My body lay broken in the storm’s center, pressed down by gravity that wasn’t gravity but despair. My mate mark from Kieran and Brinley glowed faintly, searing like dying embers across my chest and throat. I whispered something, maybe please, maybe don’t let me go. No one heard me, I was fading so fast. Every time I tried to breathe I felt myself slowly sinking into the oblivion.
Raiyna’s claws raked the ground, crimson eyes furious. Axel crackled with sparks, his growl thunder. Onyx swelled like living shadow, voice shaking the realm. Behind them — the humans, dragged in by force, their faces pale, horrified, shivering.
Stormi’s fire surged, silencing even the storm. She turned to each of them in turn, her fury molten, She yelled at all of my mates.
To Kieran: “You are unraveling. If you don’t let Brinley anchor you, the shadow will eat you with her.”
He shook, whispered, “I can’t just—”
“You must!”
To Rowen: “Your loyalty means nothing if you won’t fight. She gave you her heart and you pushed it away. You are the coward here.”
His voice broke. “I thought she didn’t want me—”
“She always did. And your blindness cost her everything.”
To Brinley: “And YOU. She told you first. And you broke her. You spat her heart back at her. You’ve always known the truth, but you were too selfish, too afraid to share what was already yours. You made her feel small. You failed her.”
Brinley’s sobs sliced the air. “I didn’t mean—”
“You DID.” Stormi’s roar shook the storm itself. “Stop hiding behind fear. Stop pretending this bond is a question. It is the only answer. Claim them—or Maeve dies.”
Her words rattled my cage.
And then — it happened.
Their wolves nudged them harshley towards one another. Kieran and Brinley marked each other. Their screams ripped through me like someone had nailed fire into my throat. My own mark seared white-hot, Everything came hammering through me, Brinley’s grief flooding me, Kieran’s desperate love pounding in my chest like it belonged to all of us.
The ground convulsed. I screamed. My body writhed as if every nerve burned from the inside out. We were all tied. Excpet for me and Rowen.
“ROWEN, NOW!” Axel’s roar.
Rowen’s voice cracked as he ran to me, he held me in his arms like I might fade into ash right then and there. His voice was soft, breaking. " I’m sorry, Mae… this isn’t how I wanted it. Please forgive me."
And then his teeth sank into me, sealing what should have been sealed months ago. I lifted my head up weaklu and marked him with the last bit of my strength.
The marks merged. I felt it—three flames on my neck burning into one, the bond snapping shut around me like chains that were also wings. For a second, I was whole. I was theirs. The circle was closed. We were whole.
I cried until I couldn’t breathe. Because it was everything I wanted. Everything I had begged them for. And it had come too late.
The Shadow stirred. Her laughter split the cage in two.
End of flashback.
“Pathetic,” the shadow me purred. “Look at you, clinging to scraps like they’re salvation.”
Stormi stood her ground. “They chose her. They always will. THIS IS HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE”
Chains of smoke lashed out, striking Stormi’s throat. She choked, golden fire sputtering as the shadows wrapped tighter around her frail body.
“They chose her?” the Shadow laughed. “They chose themselves. Their guilt, their pride, their shame. And now they think this bond will save her? Foolish little beasts.”
“No!” I sobbed, pressing my hands to my chest. The marks seared hotter and hotter, as if trying to fuse into my bones. Don’t leave me, don’t fade, don’t—
The Shadow’s claws dragged through my memories like a hand through water. Brinley’s laugh in the infirmary twisted into mockery. Rowen’s kiss under the moon curdled into pity. Kieran’s vow at the cutting became a sneer, his eyes black with shadow.
I clutched at my own chest, digging my nails deep until I bled. “Stop twisting my memories! Please—leave me those at least!”
“They were never pure,” she whispered. “They were always tinged with fear, with selfishness. I’m just showing you what you were too weak to see.”
Stormi fought, snarling even as the chains bit deeper. “You lie. You’re nothing but the hunger that’s left when love is buried when someone consumes to much power. You’ll never win.”
The Shadow leaned close to the bars, her silver-black eyes gleaming like eclipses. “She’s already mine. And soon—so are they. Theres no going back.”
And I broke.
I pressed my forehead to the cage, sobbing until it burned my throat raw. The marks on my skin seared bright white, then dimmed, terrified they would vanish before I could hold on.
Stormi collapsed, the chains choking her till she went limp, and unconcious beside me.
I must have passed out with her becasue I woke in darkness again.
Not the storm’s kind, not even the suffocating void the Shadow drags me through. This is colder, closer. Like a coffin lined with my own bones.
And it whispers. Every name I’ve ever heard screamed at me ' monster, freak, mistake, weapon. ' They press against my skull until I want to tear it open just to let them spill out.
I curl forward. My hands dig into my chest where the marks burn faint and broken, afraid they’ll disappear if I let go. I’m nothing without them. Nothing without them.
And for one heartbeat, I thought to myself.. I thought this was it.
That I had lost them, and myself, for good.