Chapter 98 THE COLLAPSE
SELENE’S POV
The night breaks quietly.
That is what terrifies me.
No alarms. No screams at first. No warning carried on the wind. Just a wrongness that seeps into my bones as I walk the outer patrol path with Damien’s guards, the forest pressing too close on either side.
The moon hangs low and pale above us, its light uneven, as if it cannot decide whether to shine or surrender. I feel its weakness like a hollow behind my ribs. Not pain. Absence.
The wolves feel it too.
I sense it before anyone stumbles. Before anyone speaks. Their steps begin to lose rhythm. Breathing turns shallow. The air fills with the sharp metallic scent of panic.
“Hold formation,” one of the guards mutters.
Another growls low in his throat, a sound that is not quite human and not quite wolf.
Then the first one goes down.
He drops to his knees with a strangled cry, claws ripping free as his hands convulse. Bones shift halfway, caught between forms. His scream cuts short as his body locks, trapped in an in-between that was never meant to exist.
“Moon help me,” he gasps. “I can’t— I can’t—”
The second follows.
Then the third.
It spreads like a sickness.
Wolves stagger, clutching their heads, some dropping to all fours, others frozen mid-step as their instincts tear themselves apart. I hear snarls snap into sobs. I smell blood where claws gouge stone and flesh alike.
“Fall back!” someone shouts.
But there is nowhere to fall back to.
I move before I think.
My heart slams against my ribs as I drop beside the first wolf, my knees hitting the dirt. His eyes are wild, unfocused, pupils blown wide with terror.
“Look at me,” I say sharply, gripping his shoulders. “Breathe with me.”
He doesn’t hear me.
His wolf is clawing its way out without permission, instinct tearing against a bond that no longer holds.
The moon is not answering them.
I feel the panic rise in my own chest, sharp and suffocating.
This is my fault.
The thought hits me with sickening certainty. Not because I caused the collapse, but because I feel the gap where something once flowed freely. The moon’s connection to them is fraying, and my body knows exactly where that thread used to pass through me.
I close my eyes.
And instead of reaching upward, toward the moon—
I reach outward.
The instinct shocks me.
I do not pull.
I do not summon.
I redirect.
The power moves differently this time. Not like fire racing through veins. Not like heat begging to be unleashed. It is quieter. Heavier. It flows through my chest and out through my hands like water finding a new channel.
Silver light spills from my palms, not flaring, not burning.
Settling.
The wolf beneath my hands gasps.
His claws retract with a wet, painful sound. His breathing stutters, then slows. His eyes focus, the wild panic draining as if someone turned down the volume inside his skull.
He collapses forward, unconscious but alive.
Around us, the others freeze.
“What did you do?” someone whispers.
I don’t answer.
Because I don’t know.
I move to the next one, then the next. Each time, I feel the same strange resistance, like I am diverting a river around a broken dam instead of trying to rebuild it. The energy does not come from the moon.
It passes through me.
Their wolves settle.
Their bodies stop fighting themselves.
The forest grows unnaturally still.
And then—
pain lances through my spine.
White-hot. Blinding.
I cry out as something slams back against my magic, furious and vast. The silver light around my hands shatters into sparks that burn the ground where they land.
I stagger backward, barely catching myself.
The Goddess.
Her presence crashes into me like a tidal wave.
What are you doing?
Her voice is not a whisper now. It reverberates through my skull, shaking my teeth, pressing against my ribs from the inside out.
“You are not the source,” I choke. “They’re dying.”
They are not yours to save.
Her rage coils tighter, suffocating.
The wolves around us whimper as the air thickens. Shadows twist unnaturally, recoiling as if something sacred has been violated.
I feel it then.
Clear as truth.
“You are weakening me,” she snarls. “You divert what is owed.”
“I’m keeping them alive,” I gasp.
You are stealing what feeds the balance.
Her fury spikes.
The moon flickers violently overhead, a visible shudder rippling across its surface. Wolves cry out again, some collapsing as the ground trembles beneath our feet.
Damien appears at my side in an instant, hands gripping my shoulders as I sway.
“Selene,” he says urgently. “What’s happening?”
“I can help them,” I whisper, shaking. “But she doesn’t want me to.”
His jaw tightens.
Of course she doesn’t.
The Goddess surges again, power slamming into my chest so hard I drop to my knees. Light fractures outward from my mark, scorching the earth in a perfect ring.
Enough.
Her voice turns cold.
You will not become a conduit. You are a vessel.
The words snap something inside me.
“No,” I breathe, forcing myself upright despite the pain. “I am not.”
The energy around me responds.
Not violently.
Steadily.
I reach again, slower this time, not fighting her, not defying her outright. I bend the flow, guiding it sideways instead of upward.
The wolves stabilize.
Every single one.
Silence crashes down across the patrol path, thick and disbelieving.
The Goddess recoils.
Not defeated.
But startled.
This has never happened before.
I feel her withdraw just enough to watch.
To learn.
Damien stares at me like I have just rewritten the world.
“You didn’t draw from the moon,” he says quietly.
“No,” I answer, breath shaking. “I rerouted it.”
Understanding dawns slowly across his face.
“She doesn’t control the flow,” he murmurs. “She controls the source.”
“And sources can be bypassed,” I finish.
The realization is exhilarating.
And terrifying.
Because the moment it settles—
the sky darkens.
The moon dims another shade.
And far above us, something ancient stirs in answer to the disturbance.
The Goddess is not the only thing listening anymore.
Her voice returns, softer now.
Dangerous.
Careful.
You will regret this, Selene.
I lift my head, meeting the invisible weight of her gaze.
“Maybe,” I whisper.
“But not tonight.”
The forest exhales slowly, the wolves beginning to stir as consciousness returns.