Chapter 35 The Thirst of the Moon
The Northern Pass was a jagged throat of stone and ice, and we were sliding down it like a desperate prayer. The storm wasn’t just weather; it was a wall of white noise designed to swallow us whole. Beside me, Cassian was a towering shadow of fur and muscle, his horse’s hooves striking sparks against the frozen rock. I could feel his fury through our bond, a hot, jagged pulse of "mine" and "protect," but beneath the fire, there was doubt. For the first time, the Sun King seemed unsure if he could burn bright enough to see the way home.
"Aria! Look at the tracks!" Cassian shouted, his voice nearly torn away by the gale.
I squinted through the blinding swirl of snow. The trail left by the Silver-mane squad was bizarre. Instead of hoofprints or the deep ruts of sled drags, the snow looked smoothed and erased, as if a giant snake had slithered through the pass.
"That’s not mist," I called back, my frozen fingers gripping the reins. "It’s a Mist-Wraith. Selene didn’t just send scouts she sent a binder."
The Silver-manes were ancient masters of the low-hanging clouds, but binding a wraith was forbidden magic. The creature was made of vapor and hunger, capable of hiding a small army and suffocating anyone who tried to follow.
I closed my eyes, reaching for my shadows. Usually, they rose like old friends, eager to serve. Today, they felt sluggish and heavy. When I tried to pierce the storm with them, a sharp tug hit the center of my chest. It wasn’t the bond with Cassian. It was the "snowflake" mark miles away in the nursery, pulling at my very essence.
I gasped, nearly slipping from the saddle. "Aria?" Cassian was at my side instantly, his large hand steadying me. "What is it? Are you hit?"
"No," I panted, white clouds puffing from my lips. "It’s Silas. He’s drinking, Cassian. He’s pulling from me."
The realization hit like ice. The obsidian mark wasn’t just a countdown; it was a root system. As he grew, speaking those ancient words, he needed fuel. And since I had walked the In-Between, I was the richest source of power he could find.
"We have to get Leo," I said, my teeth gritted against the sudden, hollow weakness. "We find the scholar, we find answers, or Silas will hollow me out before the week is through."
The Cage of Vapor
We found them at the mouth of the Bitter Gorge. The Silver-mane squad rested there, confident the wraith had covered their tracks. In the center of the camp, a small, iron-bound cage held Leo. He looked crumpled like discarded parchment, his glasses gone and his face bruised, his hands frantically scratching symbols into the frost on the cage floor.
"They have him pinned," Cassian whispered. "Ten warriors, one binder, and that thing."
The "thing" pulsed like a jellyfish made of smoke, hovering above the camp. Its tendrils fed the guards a false sense of calm while masking their presence from the world.
"I’ll take the binder," I whispered. "If I break the connection, the wraith will scatter. You take the cage."
"Aria, you’re weak," Cassian argued. "Let me go first."
"You’re a torch, Cassian. I’m a ghost. Let me do what I was born for."
I slipped from the ledge, falling silently into the grey gloom. Silas pulled at me again, a constant, thrumming hum in my blood, but I shoved it down. I was not a mother in this moment. I was a reaper.
The Translation of Blood
Inside the cage, Leo wasn’t just scratching symbols. He was crying not from fear, but from the terrifying weight of discovery. Forty years of studying the Eternal Pack hadn’t prepared him for the word Silas had spoken: Vah-ka-rum.
"It’s not a name," he muttered to the cold. "It’s not a summons. It’s a countdown to the Great Alignment."
A guard kicked the bars. "Shut up, old man. Alpha Selene will ask the questions when we arrive. She wants to know why the 'Monster Prince' speaks the language of the Dead Kings."
"You don’t understand," Leo rasped. "It means ‘The Sixth Sun.’ When the sixth point of the star turns black, the veil doesn’t just open it vanishes. The mountain won’t be a fortress anymore; it will be the front door to the abyss."
The gorge shadows stretched. The guard didn’t even have time to scream before I was behind him, my dagger finding the narrow gap in his armor.
The Breaking of the Storm
Chaos erupted. Cassian hit the center of the camp like a falling star, his broadsword wreathed in golden fire. The Mist-Wraith shrieked, a sound like metal on bone, as its heat evaporated its form.
"Get Leo!" Cassian roared, holding off three warriors at once.
I moved for the cage, but the binder, a thin woman with milky, sightless eyes, stepped into my path. Mist formed into jagged lashings around my wrists and ankles.
"The Shadow Queen is fading," she hissed. "The boy is eating you alive, isn’t he?"
I stopped resisting. Instead, I channeled Silas, letting his insatiable hunger flow through me and into the binder. Her eyes widened, her pupils shifting violently purple as a sound tore from her throat. She couldn’t contain the void. The mist lashes shattered, and the Wraith dissolved into a harmless drizzle.
The Truth in the Ice
I sliced the iron lock with a gold-tipped dagger. Leo tumbled out, clutching my cloak with trembling fingers.
"Aria! We have to go back," he gasped. "The word Vah-ka-rum... It’s not just a date. It’s a requirement."
Cassian grabbed Leo as we began the climb back up the ridge. "We’re going. The horses are just up the ridge."
"No!" Leo shouted. "The Sixth Sun requires a King and a Queen at the altar, and the blood that made the bridge as a sacrifice."
I froze, the wind whipping my hair across my face. "What are you saying, Leo?"
The scholar’s eyes held a pity that cut deeper than the cold. "The mark isn’t just growing on Silas. It’s waiting for the moment it can take the Shadow back to the Dark. When the sixth point turns black... It’s you, Aria."
I looked at my hands. They were pale, almost translucent. The drain on my power, the thirst wasn’t Silas being greedy. It was Mark preparing me.
"I’m the sacrifice," I whispered.
"We’ll change it," Cassian growled, taking my hand in his. His grip was desperate, as if he could hold my soul in place with sheer physical force. "We’ll rewrite the prophecy. We’re the Eternal Pack. We own the light and the shadow."
I looked back at the Northern Pass. The storm was clearing, leaving the mountain standing tall and lonely against the stars. Silas’s heartbeat synced with mine in a rhythmic, insistent pulse: Vah-ka-rum. Vah-ka-rum.
The sun was rising. But the mother was beginning to fade.