Chapter 25: Twenty five

Chapter 24

Ella’s POV

Silence.

That’s the first thing I notice when I open my eyes.

No sound of fire crackling, no Sam shouting my name, no distant echoes from the collapsing tunnels, only an aching quietness that stretches into forever.

My body feels heavy, pinned to something cold and uneven. I try to move, but my limbs refuse to listen. For a terrifying second, I think I’m dead. Maybe this is the afterlife, a hollow space where even air doesn’t exist.

Then, a faint heartbeat hums beneath my skin. Slow. Weak. But there.

Alive.

I force my eyes open. A gray fog drifts around me, shifting like smoke underwater. The ruins of the chamber are gone. Instead, I’m standing, or floating, in what looks like an endless white field. There’s no sky, no ground, only light stretching in all directions. My breath catches.

Where am I?

“You shouldn’t have done it.”

The voice slithers through the mist, deep, broken, familiar. My stomach twists as the fog parts, and a silhouette steps forward.

My father.

Or whatever is left of him.

His face is pale and hollow, half-burned, his eyes black pits that flicker with ember light. He isn’t solid, just a shimmer of something that refuses to die.

“Father,” I whisper. “You’re supposed to be gone.”

He tilts his head, smiling in that cruel, loving way I once knew too well. “Gone? You can’t kill what was never meant to live.”

The words scrape against my bones. I take a step back, clutching my chest. The spot where my mark used to glow burns faintly. “You used me. You wanted Sam’s power, not me.”

“I wanted both.” His voice deepens, echoing around me. “You were born for more than love or guilt. You were meant to finish what I started, to bind the packs, to rule them.”

“No,” I breathe. “You killed children. You turned me into a monster in everyone’s eyes. I’ll never finish what you started.”

He chuckles, the sound sharp as glass. “And yet, here you are, between life and death. My blood, my vessel. The mark still ties you to him, and through that, to me.”

My pulse stutters. “Sam destroyed you.”

He leans closer, eyes gleaming. “He destroyed what you saw. But darkness hides in what remains unseen. You broke my cage, daughter. Now I am free, inside him.”

The air freezes around me.

“What?” My voice cracks. “Inside, no, ”

“Why do you think his wound spreads?” His tone softens almost gently. “You brought my curse back to him when you saved him that night in the woods. And when he marked you, he sealed it with love. Perfect symmetry, isn’t it?”

Terror claws at my throat. Sam’s pained expression flashes in my mind, the black veins creeping across his skin, the agony he tried to hide.

“Get out of him!” I scream, my voice breaking. “Leave him alone!”

My father’s ghostly smile widens. “Then stop me. If you can.”

He dissolves into the mist, and everything tilts.

A rush of cold air hits my lungs. I gasp violently, choking on smoke and dust. My eyes fly open.

I’m back in the ruins.

Rocks and fire surround me, the ceiling half-collapsed, the air thick with ash. My chest heaves as I sit up. Every muscle screams, but I don’t care, I’m alive.

Then I see him.

Sam lies a few feet away, sprawled across the dirt. His chest rises shallowly, but something’s wrong. Black lines creep across his veins, glowing faintly beneath his skin. His hand twitches, and a low growl rumbles from his throat, not human, not wolf. Something darker.

“Sam,” I whisper, crawling toward him. “Please, no…”

His eyes snap open.

They’re pitch-black.

I freeze. The same haunting black I saw in my father’s eyes now burns in his. For one terrifying moment, they flicker gold, his true wolf still fighting inside, but the darkness swallows it again.

He’s shaking, his claws half-shifted. “Ella…” His voice sounds broken, layered with another tone beneath his own. “Run.”

I grab his face, forcing him to look at me. “No. I’m not leaving you again.”

“You don’t… understand,” he grits out, pain twisting his features. “He’s here.”

The ground quakes. The air hums with a familiar, poisonous heat.

My father’s laughter rises from somewhere unseen. “Did you think you could destroy me by dying, child? Death is where I thrive!”

Sam’s body convulses violently. I hold him tighter, tears blurring my vision. “Fight him, Sam! Please!”

His claws dig into the earth. “I'm trying, ” The voice that follows isn’t his. “You can’t save him.”

I pull back, my mind racing. The mark, the mark that once tied us. My father said it connected them. If it’s still there, maybe I can use it again. Reverse it.

I tear at my collar, exposing the faint golden scar on my neck. It flickers weakly, pulsing to the rhythm of Sam’s labored breaths.

“I bound you once to save you,” I whisper. “Maybe I can do it again.”

I press my hand over the mark, forcing energy into it. Light blooms under my palm, spreading down my arm like wildfire. It burns so hard I almost scream, but I keep going. The mark brightens, connecting to the veins on Sam’s neck.

His body jerks. The black veins pulse, recoiling against the light. My father’s growl thunders through the chamber. “No!”

“Get out!” I cry, the light intensifying. “You can’t have him!”

A blast of power surges through us both. The walls crack, flames flaring higher. Sam’s roar fills the air, a sound of pain and defiance, and the blackness begins to peel away from his skin like smoke in the wind.

“Ella!” His voice returns, clear for a heartbeat. “Stop, he’ll take you instead!”

“I can handle him,” I lie, even though I’m barely holding on. “You’re not dying on me.”

But the energy is too much. The darkness fights back, tendrils lashing around my wrist, dragging me closer. Pain shoots through me as my father’s voice echoes inside my skull.

“If you want him free,” he hisses, “you’ll have to trade.”

My breath catches. “What do you mean?”

“Let me in,” he whispers sweetly. “One last time.”

I shake my head, trembling. “Never.”

“Then he dies.”

The light flickers, my strength draining fast. Sam convulses again, his heartbeat faltering under my hand.

“No,” I sob. “No!”

I have no choice. I open the channel, just slightly, enough to draw the darkness away from Sam and into me. The mark flares violently. A wave of cold crashes through my chest, filling every corner of me until I can’t breathe.

Then, silence.

When I open my eyes again, Sam is lying still, the black veins gone. His skin glows faintly gold under the light of the dying flames. He’s breathing.

I, on the other hand, can feel the darkness crawling beneath my skin, whispering in my mind. My father’s voice, faint but constant.

You made your choice.

I force myself to my feet, swaying. My body feels alien, stronger, but colder. My fingertips leave small scorch marks where they touch the rock.

I look down at Sam. His chest rises slowly, his face peaceful, almost unaware of the storm inside me. I brush his hair from his forehead, my heart twisting. “I saved you,” I whisper. “But I think I just damned myself.”

From the collapsed ceiling above, faint voices call our names, Cole, soldiers, maybe even healers. I can’t stay. Not like this. Not when I can feel my father’s corruption whispering to me, urging me to finish what he started.

I kneel, pressing a soft kiss to Sam’s forehead. “Forgive me.”

Then I turn and walk into the smoke-filled tunnels.

Each step feels heavier. Each breath is colder. The farther I go, the stronger his whispers grow.

By the time I reach the edge of the forest, dawn is breaking. The first light touches the trees, painting the ashes gold. I stop and look back. The ruins of the old chambers lie hidden beneath the smoke, somewhere deep under Wood Valley land.

Sam will wake soon. He’ll come for me.

But when he does, he won’t f

ind the same Ella he knew.

Because the demon that haunted him now lives inside me.

And this time, I’m not sure I’ll be strong enough to fight it.