Chapter 15 The Heart of the Shadow
The roof of the van ripped open like paper. My father’s hand, cold and gray, reached for my neck. His fingers were like iron. I couldn't breathe. I looked into his eyes, but the hazel I loved was gone. Only a flat, purple light remained.
"Dad... please..." I choked out.
Xavier slammed on the brakes. The van skidded sideways, nearly tipping over. The force threw my father back, but he didn't fall. He stuck to the roof with claws that grew from his fingertips. Julian stood behind him, laughing as the wind whipped his black hair.
"He can’t hear you, Elara!" Julian shouted. "His soul is the fuel for the gate. He is just a shell now. A tool for the Shadow King!"
Xavier shifted midair, his massive wolf form lunging across the seats. He tackled my father off the roof. They tumbled onto the asphalt road, a blur of fur and gray skin.
"Xavier!" I screamed. I climbed out of the passenger door, my heart hammering. I had to help him. I had to save my father, even if he was a monster now.
But Julian was faster. He dropped from the roof and landed in front of me. He didn't use a gun. He just raised his hand, and the shadows from the trees stretched out, wrapping around my ankles like snakes.
"The girl and the heir," Julian whispered. "The two pieces I need to finish the ritual. You have the silver light, Elara. And I’m going to bleed it out of you."
I felt the silver fire in my belly surge again. It wasn't just my power anymore. The baby inside me was screaming in rage. I reached out, my fingers glowing like white-hot metal. I grabbed the shadow snakes and pulled.
The shadows snapped. Julian gasped, his face turning pale. "How? You’re just a carrier!"
"I’m the mother of the King," I said, my voice echoing with a power I didn't recognize.
I ran toward Xavier. He was pinned down. My father’s gray hands were crushing Xavier’s throat. Xavier was trying to bite, trying to claw, but my father didn't feel pain. He just kept squeezing.
"Dad, stop!" I lunged forward and grabbed my father’s arm.
The moment I touched him, a vision flashed in my mind. I saw my father’s memories. I saw him being tortured in a lab. I saw him crying for me. Deep inside that purple heart, he was still there. He was screaming for help.
"I see you, Dad," I whispered. I pushed my silver light into his chest.
My father’s body jerked. The purple light in his eyes flickered. For one second, the hazel returned. "Elara... kill... me..." he wheezed. "Save... the... boy..."
"I won't kill you!" I sobbed.
"You have to!" Xavier roared, throwing my father off him. Xavier’s neck was bleeding, but he stood tall. "Elara, he’s a bomb! If that heart stops glowing, it will explode and take the mountain with it! Julian planned this!"
Julian was already walking away, heading up the stone steps of the temple. "Too late, brother! The timer has started! Your father’s heart is the key to the explosion that will tear the gate wide open!"
I looked at my father. His chest was pulsing faster now. The purple light was turning a violent red. He was a ticking clock. If I didn't stop it, Leo, who was inside the temple, would die in the blast.
"There has to be another way!" I yelled.
"There is," a voice said.
I turned around. My mother was standing by the wrecked van. She was covered in dirt, but her eyes were sharp. She held a small, silver needle. "The gold liquid I had... it wasn't a poison. It was a stabilizer. I have one more dose in the van's medical kit. It can stop the heart from exploding."
"Give it to me!" I ran for the van, but a blast of black fire hit the ground in front of me.
Julian was standing at the top of the stairs, holding my son by the hair. Leo was crying, his eyes glowing white as he tried to fight back.
"Choose, Elara!" Julian screamed. "Save your father and watch me take the boy through the gate! Or save your son and let your father blow you all to hell!"
The heat from my father’s chest was becoming unbearable. The asphalt under him was melting.
I looked at Leo. I looked at my father. I felt the baby kick, a hard, sharp reminder of the future.
"I'm not choosing," I whispered.
I looked at Xavier. He knew what I was thinking. We had the bond. We had the shared light.
"Go to the boy," Xavier said, his eyes burning gold. "I’ll handle the heart."
"You’ll die, Xavier!"
"Then I’ll die as an Alpha," he said. He grabbed the stabilizer from my mother and ran toward my father.
I didn't look back. I turned and sprinted up the stairs toward Julian. The silver light in my skin was so bright now it was blinding. Every step I took cracked the stone.
"Give. Him. Back!" I roared.
Julian raised his staff, but I didn't stop. I ran through the black fire, feeling it burn my clothes but not my skin. I tackled Julian, sending us both flying into the center of the temple.
Leo fell to the floor, scrambling away. "Mommy!"
I pinned Julian to the altar. I raised the silver dagger, ready to end it.
But then, the ground stopped shaking. The air went silent.
I looked down. Julian wasn't fighting back. He was smiling.
"You did it, Elara," he whispered. "The silver light... the blood of the mother... the rage of the Alpha... and the sacrifice of the father."
He pointed to the floor. The blood from my burned skin and the blood from Xavier’s wounds had dripped into the ancient carvings on the altar.
"The gate doesn't need a sacrifice," Julian laughed, his voice turning into a hollow roar. "It needed a bloodline to claim it. And you just gave it yours."
A massive, black hand reached out from the center of the altar. It didn't grab Leo. It didn't grab Julian.
It grabbed me.
The hand pulled me down into the stone. I felt the cold shadows swallowing my legs, my waist, and my chest.
"Xavier!" I screamed.
I looked toward the stairs. Xavier was standing there, holding my father’s hand. They were both alive, the red glow gone. But they were too far away.
As the shadows pulled my head under, I saw one last thing.
The director was standing in the shadows behind the altar. He wasn't dead. And he was holding a second baby, a child that looked exactly like Leo.
"One for the light," the director whispered. "One for the dark."
Then, the world went black.