Chapter 159

ACHILLES.

The moment Claudia's wolf form starts to turn black, everything in my world starts to crash.

I almost drop everything right then and there. It's like the eclipse, covering everything and turning everything dark, and at that very moment, it feels like there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Tristan is laughing in the distance. A whole chunk of his neck is missing and I can tell that he doesn't have long. He won't be able to survive this. But would his death really mean anything significant if Claudia goes down with him too.

I have to get her the antidote. Now.

He staggers away from her, smiling widely as he goes. "Just let the potion work its way around you. Everything will start making sense soon. Everything will be alright. You will continue my bloodline.."

With that, more rumbles start to echo around the cave. Our allies have marched onto the outside to find the Rogues and treat them, but it seems like things are not going according to plan. Rogues start to march inside the cave, crowing the possible exits. I rush towards Claudia but they all leap towards me.

I shift to my wolf form, taking them down in one single blow. I bury my teeth into one of them, scratching and slashing at the others.

"Stop that!" someone yells, and to my surprise, it's a mind-link from Claudia, who's now twitching in her spot. "Don't hurt them. It's what Tristan wants...."

I know that she's right, but the more they attack me, the more I forget. The longer I see her suffer, the more I forget.

"Don't come to me," Claudia continues to say. "Don't forget the real enemy."

Her words land on me like a huge boulder, descending with the heaviness of an asteroid. I stop in my tracks, merely flipping over the Rogues that come to me using their own speed and force. My body seems to be acting on its own. Even though Claudia told me not to come, I still force my way closer to her. But the funny thing is, the distance between us seems to be getting bigger and bigger until she's too far away.

"Alpha!" Carlos is calling out to me. "Inject the antidote! Make it to Claudia, quickly! I will cover you!"

I clutch the syringe in hand, but then I start to remember what Claudia just said. Don't forget the real enemy....

I change course. Instead of approaching Claudia like I planned to do, I head straight to Tristan.

My choice seems to have shocked him, but I don't let him process it. I ram my body at him the moment I get close enough, tackling him to the ground and grabbing his bloody and mangled neck. He continues to laugh at me, so I burrow my hands into the missing grooves in his neck.

He doesn't care anymore, and I can see that. I hate that I can understand why he doesn't care anymore. He's calling this a win, and maybe in a way, it is.

But I don't care.

I close my hands tighter and tighter around his neck. The blood vessels in his eyes start to pop, filling his corneas with a flush of red. His mouth is starting to fill up with blood too. He's basically choking on it, gargling it, but he still manages to laugh at me.

"My work here is done," he says. "It's all in her now. The venom I injected into her... is my own."

* * *

CLAUDIA.

I can hear every word Tristan is saying, and the last words he utters shake me to my very core. I knew something was off, somehow. I knew something wasn’t right. And this is just a confirmation of all of that.

The struggle against the venom is intense. I can feel myself slipping away. I’m hanging on by a thread, but as I roll over and look up at the cave ceiling, something descends on me.

I might be turning into a Rogue, but at the core of it, I’m still a Siren Wolf.

I remember that time Kiernan tried to kill me. I remember the wolf form I had, the power that flowed through me. I can still feel it in me now even with the poison, the hum of energy and pure strength.

I close my eyes, and I feel my body obeying me for the first time since I got infected. I start to shrink and turn away from my wolf form. My body gets smaller and smaller until I’m myself again, still fighting against the poison. I can feel it burning through my veins, but I force myself to stand up and push it back. The heat crawls all the way up in my throat, like it’s burning my voice. Like it’s getting rid of the very thing that makes me powerful in the first place.

But once I am up, I feel more like myself. I’m burning up from the inside but I’m myself.

Chaos is erupting all around me. Achilles is fighting Tristan, who’s somehow still managing to play with his mind even at his most vulnerable. The Rogues are swarming all over Carlos and Sahari. They’re also waiting on Achilles. I know that if Achilles deals the final blow, they would all swarm him and he would stand no chance.

So, I decide to use my Siren voice for one word. Perhaps even for the last time. One last thing to end all of this.

I sigh, and it’s not an inhale for strength. It’s a release. It’s all about letting go.

And I let go.

“Stop,” I say, my voice echoing in the cave and reverberating off the walls.

It’s the first word I said as a Siren wolf. Maybe one can say that it’s the word that got me into these situations in the first place.

The burning sensation gets more and more intense.

“Stop,” I say again, and the chaos around me ceases. A blue glow starts to emit off my skin.

Everyone in the cave is now frozen. Except for Tristan.

He falls to his knees as Achilles stops in his tracks. I notice that rocks and debris are also frozen midair, and right now it feels more like I stopped time itself.

Tristan looks up at me, bleeding more profusely. His eyes are full of both reverence and hunger, and as I hold his gaze, I realize that this is what he wanted all along. He wanted this kind of power. He didn’t want me, at all. He just wanted to be like me. He wanted this to be something he can just do when he pleases.

And he wants it because it’s something he never got. His mother tried. His father tried. He tried. He’s still trying.

It just never happened. It just would never work.

“I feel sorry for you,” I say, walking closer to him. My voice is husky, almost gone. It’s as though I’ve been screaming all night and I used up all I have. “Your dream… it just would never happen. You’re just not capable enough for it. No one is. Your people are gone, and they will stay gone. It was meant to happen. You can’t fight fate.”

“You can’t fight it either,” he whispers, more blood escaping through his mouth. “You’re losing your Voice.”

“As long as you lose along with it, everything will be good,” I whisper, reaching out to him and putting my hand on his forehead.

Something about the gesture and the position feels like it’s charity. Like kindness. But there is no hint of kindness in what’s happening. The heat in my throat spreads all over my body, but the light coming off my skin is also getting more intense. Cold and hot at the same time. Soothing and burning. Both sharpening to a dangerous boiling point at the area connecting us.

Tristan looks up at me, his eyes flashing red. But when our eyes meet, his irises start to turn white. He opens his mouth for a scream but no sound comes out. His skin starts to fall apart, chipping off him like old leather. The light continues to spread between us. His hair starts to get singed off. His lips crack. His eyeballs start to melt. He’s dying, disappearing, and I’m doing it to him.

It’s gruesome. It’s brutal.

But it’s the end.

At last, Tristan breaks apart into small pieces. Like ash. He disintegrates midair, leaving nothing but a trace of despair and pain.

Then he’s… gone.

And everything he has done didn’t matter in the end.

The people around me start to move. Carlos and Sahari sink to their knees. The Rogues are now slowly turning back to humans. Achilles gasps, his gaze roaming around until he finds me.

And he manages to catch me in his arms before I collapse, my entire world going black.