Chapter 70 ECHOES OF HER LIGHT
The moment I step back from the forest’s edge, the world feels wrong.
Too quiet.
Too bright.
Too still.
The Shadow Woods do not simply fall silent. Silence implies peace. This is something different. A suspended tension, a trapped breath, a hum beneath everything like a bowstring pulled so tight a single touch might snap it in half.
Selene is in there.
Changing.
Becoming.
Breaking.
Ascending.
I feel her through the thin, trembling thread the Goddess has not yet severed. Days ago it was warm and human and painfully gentle. Now it pulses like the heartbeat of a cold star.
“Damien.”
Garron approaches as if I am a wounded animal. His steps are slow, measured, almost inaudible on the frost-touched ground. He knows my temper. He knows my grief. He knows my wolf is pacing beneath my skin with claws unsheathed.
One wrong breath and I could snap.
“She’s alive,” I say before he even speaks.
I feel Garron hesitate. “We all sensed another surge. Even the pups woke screaming.”
I inhale slowly. The air tastes metallic, sharp and electric. Like the moment before lightning hits the earth. The shadows feel thick, as though the forest is exhaling cold breath against my face.
“How do you know?” he asks.
Because my chest burns where her fingers touched me.
Because I have not stopped shaking since she walked away.
Because even now the trees whisper her name in voices that do not belong to wind or wolves.
“I just know,” I say. My jaw clenches. “But she is not Selene anymore.”
Garron lowers his gaze. “Damien… do you think she is becoming what the prophecy warned about?”
I close my eyes.
The Goddess’s whisper echoes in my skull like a brand carved into thought.
Power without control will consume what you love.
My heart pounds so violently my ribs ache.
“Yes,” I whisper. “She is.”
The ground shifts again. A third tremor, faint but undeniable. Pebbles roll across the dirt as if dragged by unseen fingers. Overhead, the moon flickers like a candle on the verge of dying.
“What do we do?” Garron asks.
There is nothing to do.
I sink to my knees. My fingers claw into the dirt. My lungs fight for breath that comes too shallow. My wolf presses against my mind, whining, frightened, furious. He wants to go to her. He wants to protect her. He wants to tear fate apart with his teeth.
But we both know the truth.
If I enter the forest now, I will die.
Not eventually.
Not metaphorically.
Immediately.
She is no longer someone I can reach with my hands.
I bury my head in my palms, breath ragged. “I tried to hold her. I tried to stop her. I tried to be strong for her.”
And I failed.
The wind shifts sharply. Cold air slices across the field behind me, carrying the scent of pine, frost and something else… someone else.
I lift my head.
A shape stands at the treeline.
A man.
Tall. Broad-shouldered.
Dark hair that the moonlight barely touches.
Silver eyes burning like winter frost.
“Kael,” I growl.
Of course he is here.
Of course the mate bond dragged him across the world to witness the destruction he caused.
His posture is rigid, fists clenched at his sides. His chest rises and falls with uneven breaths. He looks like a man held together by willpower alone.
“You feel it too,” he says. His voice is low, raw, cracked around the edges. “She is in pain.”
Pain?
What Selene is releasing is not pain. It is cataclysm. I can taste it. The power radiating from the forest crackles through the air like lightning trapped in a cage. It thickens the night. It warps the shadows. It vibrates beneath the skin.
“She should not be alone,” Kael continues.
“You do not get to speak about her,” I snap.
His jaw tightens. “Damien… I know what I did.”
“No,” I say sharply. “You do not.”
Because if he truly understood, he would not be standing so close to the woods that are unraveling Selene from soul to skin. If he understood, he would have fallen to his knees long before the forest called him here.
Kael steps forward. “She needs us.”
My wolf snarls so loudly I feel my ribs tremble.
“I need her alive,” I say coldly.
“And what do you think I want?” Kael’s voice cracks. “Damien, I would give every breath in my body to undo what I did to her.”
My fists curl.
The confession is honest. Brutal.
Painful to hear.
But too late.
“She chose me,” I say softly.
Kael’s expression shatters.
For a heartbeat, I pity him.
Then the ground shakes again.
A violent tremor rolls through the soil, stronger than the others. Frost shivers across the grass. The moon flares with blinding brightness and both Kael and I raise our arms to shield our eyes.
Then it happens.
A sound splits the air.
High.
Piercing.
Unnatural.
A scream.
Her scream.
Selene.
My knees nearly buckle.
Kael stumbles forward, eyes wide with horror. “Selene!”
“No.” I grab his arm. “Do not go in.”
He whirls toward me, fury blazing. “Why not?”
“Because you will die, idiot.”
He jerks away from me. “Then so be it.”
The tremor peaks. A burst of silver light erupts from the forest like a shockwave. The force knocks both of us backward. Garron curses and shields his face as debris scatters across the clearing.
I gasp for air.
Her power does not feel like an awakening anymore.
It feels like overflow.
Like a river turned ocean.
Like a force strong enough to crack the sky.
Garron grabs my shoulders, voice shaking. “Alpha, this is going to get worse.”
Worse?
Worse does not begin to cover it.
Selene’s scream echoes again through the woods. Softer now. Weak. Broken. Like a wounded creature trapped between two worlds.
My vision blurs with rage. With grief. With terror for the woman I love.
“Selene,” I whisper, voice breaking. “I am here. Please… hold on.”
The forest pulses.
The moon flickers.
A hairline fracture appears across its glowing surface. So thin it might vanish if I blink.
But I see it.
And I understand.
Her power is reaching beyond the earth. Beyond us. Beyond even the Goddess who cursed her path.
This is only the beginning.