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75
Aiden's POV
Haylee’s war in her own mind against her father rends my heart, but Xavier’s evolution gives me chills. The bastard has been outmaneuvering us at every turn—we've been doing nothing but playing directly into his hand.
"The ritual's giving him strength," I snarl to Marcus, who is standing frozen next to me as Xavier's physicality starts to swell and twist. "He never meant to heal the rift. He needed us to fish open it wider.”
Marcus's jaw clenches. "Then we break the circle. Stop the power flow."
“And run the risk of losing control of the boys’ powers completely?” I shake my head grimly. "Look at them."
Kael and Lior are swathed in very clear supernatural light; their young faces are intense, scrunchy with concentration as they struggle to control the sort of forces that might rip holes in reality. If we interrupt the ritual prematurely without a shutdown procedure, it could destroy them.
“There’s got to be a better way,” I mutter to myself, mentally racing through every piece of mystic knowledge I’ve ever picked up along the way. "Every ritual has a weakness. Every spell has a counter."
Laughter explodes from Xavier to echo on the field and his form grows yet larger as the shadowy magic curls and winds across him like living armor. Really, Aiden, did you believe you could outsmart me? You, failed to keep your own mate? Until you, whose pack disbanded over your weakness?"
The words sting, but I fight through the mind games. My boys are growing weaker and weaker with every ounce of power that drains through them. Haylee is over exerting herself attempting to disrupt the flow of the ritual. What we need is a miracle, and we need it now.
I feel it happening — literally. Haylee's memories slam into my mind though the mate bond. Not her new memories, but an older something. Something she had hidden in the recesses of her mind since the first time she had heard the prophecy as a child.
I imagine a younger Haylee in her father’s study, leaning forward with wide eyes as the ancient seer talks about of twin children who would have the power to close the shadow realm for all time. But in the memory, the seer doesn’t say what we’ve been told.
“The children will have to decide,” the seer in the vision says, her eyes in the exist looking through the physical world. "Not sacrifice, but choice. They need to donate their powers, to balance things, knowing that, post balance, they will lead mundane lives. There is but one way to mend the realm: by the enforcement of willing surrender of power.
It strikes Haylee, hitting me at the same time, and through our conduit I feel the tremor of her recollection. The prophecy has been misread for centuries. The twins are not going to die — they are supposed to opt to lose their supernatural powers to save everyone else.
“The decision,” I breathe, my epiphany complete. "It's not about sacrifice. It's about choice."
But as this realization also forms, I see that we have a more pressing problem. Xavier changes faster and the shadow soldiers are on every side. I can't get to Haylee and the boys and keep us defending positions.
“I need to find a way to break the circle,” I say to Marcus urgently. “I need to reach Xavier before he finishes changing.
“That’s suicide,” Marcus says simply. “He’ll have you completely under his power while he’s drawing strength from the ceremony.”
“Then I had better make it worth his while.”
I lunge out of the way, transforming in mid-sprint. My strength and speed of a wolf propel me across the battlefield quicker than any of the creatures of shadow can respond. But I’m not the only one with that idea.
The trees spill forth Haylee's father, his now darkened body gliding away from the withdrawing shadow army, with lethal poise he steps into my cutting line. For a second, I think he’s going to hit me, but instead, his shadow-stormed eyes meet mine with a sudden, shocking lucidity.
“Protect my daughter,” he growls, in a tone that is pure Alpha, but also fatherly desperate. “I will keep Xavier busy. You get to the boys."
“You’re fighting the corruption,” I understand, seeing him battling with the black magic that’s changing him.
“Love is more powerful than shadow,” he says, grimly. "Always remember that, son.”
He then hurls himself at Xavier with a roar of such power that the air around this screams in terror. The two darkened Alphas smash together amid a whirl of shadow and rage, their explosive attack sending out ripples across the battlefield.
I take the distraction to get to haylee and the twins, and slip into the magic circle where Kael and Lior look up too me wear hired, but resolved.
“Dad?” Kael says quickly, “We know what we have to do.”
“The prophecy isn’t about dying,” Lior says, his young voice calm even as the world around us falls to ruin. “It’s about, are we willing to help, even if that means we have to give up what makes us special.”
My heart is full of pride and breaking with fear. "Are you sure? You lose your powers once: they never return. You'll be ordinary kids."
Kael and Lior share another one of those looks that’s ten years beyond them, then face me with similar expressions of determination.
“Dad, it’s not like we’re not regular kids,” Kael says matter-of-factly. “We are just lucky enough to have a few more items that we don’t need right now, so other people that need them more than us can.”
‘Besides,’ Lior says with a little smile, ‘we still get to keep the best mom and dad in the world! That’s all the special we need.”
Before I say anything, Haylee arrives, tears on her face, but her eyes on fire. “They know the choice,” she adds, her voice barely louder than the battlefield din. "But the ritual demands they both unleash their power at the same time. If even one hesitates—"
“We will not hesitate,” chant the boys in unison, as their hands grip me and Haylee’s.
I can see love and terror fighting in Haylee's face—the same battle I am fighting. We're asking our children to make a truly beautiful sacrifice for people who might never know they made it.
“Together, then,” I say, my voice breaking slightly. "On three."
But as we start to synchronize the power release, all hell breaks loose behind us. A new voice pierces the battle—a voice I know and grow more and more terrified.
“You thought I was dead, didn’t you?”
I whirl back around to find Arielle stepping out of the smoke, very much alive, with a bunch of werewolves that I don’t recognize. Her features are contorted by the same malicious satisfaction I recall from the time that she betrayed me, but there seems to be something different about her now. Something that gives me the creeps.
“You were always too trusting, Aiden,” she goes on, voice now possessed of an unnatural force. "You didn't think that little puff of smoke could kill me, did you? I’ve been expecting this moment much longer than Xavier has.”
“It’s impossible,” Haylee whispers. “You attempted to take your own life to avoid justice.
Arielle’s laugh is cold and sleek. “I did everything I could to lead you to believe I was desperate enough to die rather than be captured. But I've been playing along with another all the while—a faction who has made Xavier's dreams seem like child's play.
The werewolves with her fanned out into a coordinated attack pattern, their movements too perfect to be skilled. They are not simply allies — they are being used.
“We have been sitting here watching this little drama unfold, just like we hoped,” Arielle goes on, her eyes latched onto the twins. "Xavier has completed all the difficult tasks of accumulating the shadow magic. Your boys have done us the courtesy of blowing their load full strength. “And now, we just take what we want.”
One of her 'tamed' werewolves rushes at inhuman speed towards Lior. I step in to intercept, but I am not quick enough. And before any of us can do anything, the attacker takes hold of my son and rolls away.
"Lior!" Haylee screams, her power crackling ominously as maternal rage overtakes her.
“It needs both the kids for the prophecy,” Arielle yells, retreating with her prize. “But it does not specify they have to be voluntary participants. My side has found ways to force theirs out of power.”
Therefore, it feels like an impossible decision. I can chase down Arielle and attempt to save Lior, but then what about Haylee and Kael coming against Xavier’s last change on their own? The prophecy stipulates both twins have to choose to sacrifice their power at once — and with Lior imprisoned, that’s now been neatly taken away from us.
“Run,” Haylee says forcefully, seeing the struggle on my face. "Get our son back. We will hold Xavier as long as we can,” Kael and I may be doing the mourning.
"I can't leave you—"
“You can’t,” she cuts in, her voice cracking. “We can’t perform the ritual unless both boys are present, we cannot allow Arielle to leave the crypt with Lior. Go, Aiden. Rest assured, I will stand by our family until you can bring him home.”
Just as Arielle bounds into the flame-ridden mayhem with my boy, Tony’s monstrous expansion crawls up behind us and I realize we’ve entered the stage of this nightmare where there are no closing curtains and I have no fucking clue how any of us are going to make it out alive.