Chapter 146 BROKEN BY POWER
AMBER’S POV
The night felt wrong from the start. The air was thick, like it was waiting for something bad to happen. Even the wind stayed quiet. No crickets and no owls. Just silence pressing down on my ears.
“We don’t have much time,” Selene said as she drew the last circle on the stone floor. Her fingers shook, but her voice did not.
There were three of us. Selene, Mira and me. Three witches were needed, the spell demanded it. No less.
The clearing behind the old pack house had been prepared since sunset. Candles burned in a wide circle, their flames bending toward the center like they were afraid. Symbols were carved into the ground with ash and salt. In the middle stood Derek. He had taken off his shirt, his jaw was tight and his eyes were darker than usual.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked him quietly.
He looked at me like he already knew the cost.
“No,” he said. “But we don’t have a choice.”
Soul’s forces were getting stronger. Davina was growing bold, we were running out of time. This ritual was the only thing left that might give Derek enough strength to face them.
Selene handed me the blade. “It has to be your blood first,” she said.
My hand felt heavy. I cut across my palm without looking away from Derek. The sting was sharp, but I didn’t flinch as I let the blood drip onto the symbol carved at his feet.
Mira followed and then Selene just as the air shifted. The candles flared high, their flames turning almost blue. The ground beneath us vibrated like something huge was waking up under the earth.
“Start the chant,” Selene whispered.
We began and as we talked, I realized that this was something I had never experienced in my life before.
The words were old, older than any of us. They rolled off my tongue like they had been waiting there my whole life. Each word felt like it pulled something out of me, Derek stood still at first.
Then he gasped. It was small, just a breath but it made my heart slam. His back arched suddenly as his shoulders jerked and I heard the first crack.
It was bone. He dropped to one knee.
“Don’t stop!” Selene shouted.
We didn’t. The cracking grew louder, his spine stretched and I saw it. I saw his body change shape right in front of me. His arms lengthened and his fingers curled like claws. Veins stood out across his chest as he tried to speak. Nothing came out. His mouth opened in a silent scream, but no voice followed.
“Derek!” I cried, but the chant kept pouring out of me.
His legs bent at a strange angle. His muscles swelled, skin tightening over them. He looked taller and bigger like something inside him was forcing its way out. Another crack.
His neck tilted slightly, not fully human anymore. His eyes changed first and then the brown disappeared as gold swallowed everything, not wolf or man.
Something in between. He rose slowly to his feet, but it wasn’t the way a man stands. It was like watching a predator unfold and then he moved.
Too fast. He vanished from the center circle and reappeared at the edge of the clearing. The ground where he had stood was shattered stone.
Mira screamed. A tree near the clearing snapped in half as Derek’s arm brushed against it. Not even a full strike, just a swing and the trunk split like dry wood.
His chest rose and fell heavily. He looked around, breathing in deep, like scent meant more than sight now.
“Derek,” I whispered again.
He turned toward me but there was no recognition in his eyes, only instinct.
Selene grabbed my arm. “Hold the spell!”
The magic was building too fast. It burned inside my chest, climbing up my throat. My vision blurred at the edges. Derek let out a sound but it was not a howl nor a roar. It was something deeper. The sound shook the ground and made the candles explode outward in sparks.
He lunged toward the outer barrier, slamming into it. The invisible wall held, but it cracked like glass under pressure.
“He’s too strong!” Mira shouted.
And he was. The strength increase was not small. It was not gradual, it was terrifying. His muscles flexed and the air around him seemed to bend. He slammed his fist into the ground and a deep crater formed instantly. This wasn’t just a stronger wolf, this was something else. Something ancient even as my knees buckled.
The chant faltered on my lips. My chest felt hollow, like the magic had scooped everything out of me.
“I can’t…” I whispered.
Selene’s voice sounded far away. “Amber! Stay with us!”
My body had nothing left. The last thing I saw was Derek breaking through the barrier like it was paper. Then everything went dark.
When I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the clearing. There was no ground beneath my feet and there were no trees, no night sky.
Just silver light stretching forever and with the way it was, it just felt like I was in another universe entirely.
I wasn’t cold, I wasn’t warm. I just… was.
“Amber.”
The voice was soft, but it echoed everywhere at once. I turned slowly, she stood a few steps away.
She looked like a woman, but not fully. Her body shimmered like it was made of mist and moonlight. Long silver hair flowed down her back without wind, her eyes were pale and glowing.
I knew her before she even spoke again and this time, a sense of recognition fell on me anew and I realized what this meant.
“The Moon Goddess,” I whispered.
She gave a small nod, like she understood everything that was going on all at the same time.
“Yes.”
My heart pounded, though I wasn’t sure I even had a body here. “Am I dead?”
“No.”
Her voice was calm and gentle. “You are between.”
I swallowed. “Derek?”
“He lives.”
Relief hit me so hard I almost fell, though there was nowhere to fall.
“You called to me,” she said.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“You did, your blood did.”
I stared at her. “Why now?”
Her expression shifted even as sadness touched her glowing eyes.
“Because the chains that hold me are weakening.”
“Chains?” I repeated.
She stepped closer. The light around her dimmed slightly.
“My father,” she said quietly. “Soul.”
My chest tightened because I didn’t even understand anything that was going on at that moment.
“He feared what I was becoming,” she continued. “Feared that my power would grow beyond his control and so he trapped me.”
“Trapped you where?”
“Here, between worlds and bound to the moon but never free.”
“And Davina?” I asked.
Her eyes darkened at the name and I wondered what all of this meant for not just me but for the entire pack as well.
“The dark witch helped him,” she said. “Her magic sealed the prison, she wanted favor and power. He promised her both.”
Anger burned in my chest so bright that it was only a miracle I didn’t collapse right there and then.
“So all this time…” My voice shook. “You’ve been stuck here?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you fight back?”
“I did.”
The silver light flickered sharply around us, like it was answering whatever call I couldn’t hear.
“But betrayal is strongest when it comes from blood.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, she looked at me differently now…studying me.
“You carry more than witch blood,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“You are tied to the moon in ways you do not yet understand.”
A chill ran through me because this was definitely not what I expected to hear her say and the realization of that was enough to weigh me down.
“I don’t want power,” I said quickly. “I just want my family safe.”
“And that,” she said softly, “is why you were able to reach me.”
Silence settled between us, because that was the only thing we were comfortable in getting into, that and the fact that there were a lot of things still going on.
“Derek,” I whispered again. “What did we turn him into?”
She looked toward something far in the distance.
“He is no longer bound by simple wolf instinct,” she said. “He walks the line between beast and something older. His strength will grow but so will the struggle inside him.”
Fear crept into my chest because I didn’t know what this could mean for the future.
“Will he lose himself?”
“That depends,” she replied. “On you.”
“Me?”
“You are his anchor.”
I shook my head. “I can barely stand, I collapsed.”
“You gave more than you realize.”
The light around us began to shift and it felt unstable now.
“My prison weakens,” she said. “Your world will soon face the truth.”
“What truth?”
She looked at me one last time, and I realized that there were a lot of power in her words.
“That Soul does not only seek power over packs.”
“He seeks to erase the moon itself.”
My breath caught because I knew what this could mean not for only me but for everyone concerned.
“And you,” she added, her voice fading, “are the key to stopping him.”
The world shattered and I felt myself falling and then I woke up screaming.
BLOOD UNDER MOON