Chapter 26

Chapter 26
The Breaking Point

It was too quiet in the forest. The kind of quiet that forewarned of impending storms and blood-and-bone wars. Now, every step I took was purposeful, like a war drum hammering through mud, leaves, and remorse.

The voice had darkened, and it twisted everything Kade had warned me against, echoing inside my head. More hungry. It stopped whispering. It demanded.

I was near. I sensed them. They made me into nothing more than a girl scrounging for crumbs of value, and they stripped me naked in front of the pack.

I wasn't crawling anymore. The storm was me.

My fingers shook with control rather than fear. The heat of my vengeance attracted shadows that flickered at the periphery of my vision. They surged stronger as I approached Shadowfang's ancient limits. Something ancient, not simply the darkness. Something is observing.

Jake's voice, which was now a trigger rather than a wound, continued to nag at the back of my consciousness. My spine was pricked like poisoned claws by Selena's laughing. Then his face.

My dad.

I shouldn't have experienced any emotions. However, it was present. A fragment of what may have been. Pushed hard into my chest muscle till it hurt like rotten flesh.

I felt nothing when I passed the warding stones that I had previously thought would keep me safe.

Since they weren't designed to protect me.

I was supposed to stay out of them.

And now? No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't stop me.

The trees became thinner. Through the fog, familiar shapes started to take shape. The practice area. The location of my humiliation. Compelled to kneel as the pack silently observed. The point at which he abandoned me.

Now, taller, I stood. More intense. Like a crown, shadows coiled about my shoulders.

I was advised to wait by Kade. That was a weapon of patience.

However, this was no longer about strategy. I came to this conclusion.

The earth began to crack at that point.

The breath left my lungs as a surge of energy tore through the clearing. Around me, the shadows snarled and flinched.

Another thing had woken up. I didn't own it. Slowly, I turned and saw him.

Not Kade.Not Jake. But him.

The one I dreamed about. The shadow-fire-clad guy, his face concealed by a mask of rage and bone. The clearing was cursed by his presence.

He stated, "You're early," through the mark that was pierced through my back rather than with words.

And suddenly I got it. My inner gloom wasn't the end. It was just the start.

They were the Shadow Lords.

And I had just entered their territory. In this place.

Near the border, the wind was colder than I remembered. It sliced through me like the recollection of Selena's smile when I fell, of Jake's back as he left, and of my father's quiet that day. I took deliberate steps and breathed evenly. The previous Lily would have been hesitant. The new me? I voluntarily stepped into the dark.

As I went by, the dimly pulsating glyphs etched into the trees responded to my approach. To my wolf, no. Not to my blood. To me. As if they suddenly recognized the shadow within me. Not all of the power I possessed was intended for this world. It would tug at the seams of reality, Kade warned me. He was not mistaken.

However, nothing could have forewarned me of what was beyond the trees.

He wasn't an outlaw. Not precisely. He appeared to be detached from the world around him as he remained still. Stitched from something that shimmered when you weren't looking at it directly, his cloak moved with a life of its own. However, his eyes weren't werewolf eyes at all.

They were empty spaces.

The words were not said, so he thought or whispered, "You've come." They were frigid and thick in my mind.

I didn't respond. Something ancient inside me roared back at my inclinations to flee. The voice I had once dreaded and resisted was now peaceful. Wondering.

The apparition remarked, "You bear his mark." "But you're not stirred by his power."

I took a step forward. The air felt heavy, as though time had stopped, but my body responded. He remained still.

I said, "I know what you are," but I wasn't sure if it was my own words or someone else's. "You belong to that group."

A pause. Then, with will rather than wind, the trees behind him bent outward. My breath caught.

"We are numerous. However, you are something fresh. You bear the breath of the emptiness and the blood of treachery.

I didn't wince. The shadows bent toward him like roots to rain, but not as he moved closer. He was a rough, old presence.

"You want retribution," he remarked. "However, you might have reigned."

My digits quivered. I couldn't tell if it was temptation or anger. The offer was expected. There was always a power cost.

I declared, "I don't want a crown." "Justice is what I want."

He cocked his head. For the weak, justice is reserved. Who is correct is decided by power.

Something broke inside of me. From the weight of the truth, not from fear. He was not mistaken. I was never saved by justice. My father was not deterred by justice. Jake made the decision to choose Selena despite justice. Power may.

The Whispering Shadow's tendrils throbbed through me like molten night veins, burning the brand on my back. He witnessed it. A flicker went through his empty eyes. Recognition.

"You're evolving," he said. I didn't inquire what.

He raised his hand in my direction, palm up. To awaken, not to hurt.

The world became hazy. Unlike before, a flood of blackness swept around me. There was no loss of control here.

This was a sign of acceptance.

Jake went on his knees, and I saw it. I witnessed Selena yelling. I witnessed the pack being ripped apart like old wounds.

And I saw a throne made of ash and bone rather than gold.

I opened my eyes. I hadn't closed them, though. The figure has vanished. Where he stood, only one word was still carved into the ground."Make a decision."

I couldn't decide what frightened me more. I had that already. or that I no longer had a choice.