Chapter 396 396
Sabine POV
Within seconds, Maxime collapses unconscious, unmoving on the stone floor.
Damien’s attention shifts immediately.
His eyes find me.
“It dies with me,” he says again.
“What dies with you?” I ask softly, forcing my voice to remain steady as my gaze flicks toward Maurice only to find him still on the ground, not moving.
“It dies with me.”
“Damien, that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Wait,” my wolf snaps urgently inside my head. “Something’s wrong.”
You think? I snap back at her, careful not to provoke the werewolf king standing before me.
“My bloodline,” Damien mutters, pacing now, his voice fractured. “My bloodline is cursed. I won’t let it take my son.”
Then he turns away from me and walks deeper into the cave.
I know, instantly, that I have no choice but to follow.
The bond between Maurice and me still burns, warm and alive beneath my skin. I can feel it pulsing through my veins. As long as I keep Damien away from him, Maurice will survive this place.
But my brother?
I can’t say the same.
And I can’t face Aurélie again and tell her I failed her.
Not again.
Not her… not the children.
I close my eyes and draw in a slow, steady breath and the lake house floods my mind. Memories I fought for years to bury surge forward in brutal clarity.
I can’t go through that again.
I’m not strong enough.
But I can’t leave him either.
If I do, I’ll carry that regret for eternity.
So I follow Damien into the dark.
Every instinct in my body screams against it. The hair on the back of my neck rises, warning bells blaring in my blood as something deeply wrong presses in around me.
Still I keep going.
I move blindly, hands brushing stone, until a faint red glow appears ahead. I follow it, my steps lengthening, quickening as the dim light offers just enough visibility to keep me moving.
Danger coils around me. I can feel it in my bones, feel them shudder as I freeze watching strange, unnatural shadows slide across the cave walls. A scream lodges itself in my throat, but no sound comes out.
This place was never meant for the living.
Certainly not for a hybrid like me.
I don’t understand what I’m seeing. I know only this I will never forget it. These shadows will haunt me for the rest of my life… if I even survive long enough to dream again.
Damien comes fully into view, standing beside the source of the red glow.
Light spills upward from a massive, gaping hole in the ground.
I don’t look down.
I don’t step any closer.
I know deep in my bones where that hole leads.
“Damien?” I whisper, my voice barely holding together.
He sways, disoriented, and then a raw, broken wail tears from his chest. He collapses to his knees, clutching his head as though trying to hold himself together.
“I won’t let it take my son,” he cries. “I love my son.”
“Damien!” My voice rises, echoing through the cavern strong enough that even the shadows still for a moment.
I’m terrified. Every part of me is screaming to run to leave this place forever.
But I don’t.
I fight it.
For him.
I want to help him.
I want to save him.
“Bee, wait”
Maurice is suddenly behind me, alive, his arms locking around my hips as he pulls me back against his chest. His scent wraps around me, grounding me, steadying the panic threatening to rip me apart.
“I have to help him,” I whisper. “I have to do something.”
“It’s taken his wolf,” my own wolf breathes in horror inside my mind.
“What has?” I demand.
“The black shadow.”
Impossible.
“How do you know that?” I press her. “How could you possibly know?”
“I can feel it,” she replies softly. “Through the sibling bond.”
My chest tightens painfully. “Then how do we help him? How do we get him back? I can’t lose him.”
“We take it.”
“Take what?”
“The darkness,” she says quietly. “We take the darkness… or I do.”
Her voice fades resolute, distant.
As if the decision is no longer mine to make.