Chapter 223 – Perfect For His Plans

Chapter 223 – Perfect For His Plans

Lucian

"Shit, he knows we’re coming,” I said, too quietly for comfort everyone.

There was a conversation about turning back since he found out about our plan.

“We fight.” I said walking forward to where Marcus sanctuary was.

The ground makes sound under my boots as I walked.

Shadowmere presence was conforting. This is his work. The old words bite like teeth.

We moved in pack. Keal’s was near me in the middle. Ronan was on my left, Elias on my right. Liora walked behind me, frost shining faint on her shoulders like silver dust. She looked small and bright in the dark. My heart was beating too fast. The rune under my skin pulsed slow. It felt like cold fire.

The walked in the room. It was a bowl of black soil. At the center, a raised stone ring held a shallow pit. From the pit a slow dark flame rose. Shadows moved inside it like smoke with teeth. Around the ring, tall stones carried writing older than our oldest songs. Marcus’s voice echoed low, singing the old tongue.

He stood inside, palms raised. His hair damp. Smoke tried to curl at his feet but he pushed it aside with a look. He smiled when he saw us. Calm. Like he was waiting for us.

“So,” he said. His voice echoed in the stone room. “You brought me a whole pack. How polite.”

The air smelled of burning herbs. I could taste the dried nettles he used to feed the rune. My claws trying to come out of my hands.

The rune under my collarbone pulsed against my bone. It felt like a second heart, hungry and wrong.

Shadowmere growled. He made you a map. He wrote with your blood.

I stepped forward and the stones around the ring glow brighter. The runes feeds off me. His eyes were on me.

“You dared to come,” he said. “You dared to bring the pack you betrayed.” He laughed, small and cold. “How brave for you, Lucian. Or foolish.”

Heat covered my body. All I feel was ....Rage. I wanted to tear him open.

I wanted to rip the rune from my skin and fling it at his feet.

I wanted Derek back in any heartbeat, even if it hurt. I want to wipe my mistakes.

“I’m here to stop you,” I said, but my voice shook.

Marcus’s smile did not falter. He turned one slow circle, his fingers touching the air like a conductor. “Stop me? You think you can stop the law you helped build?” He looked at me as if I were a toy. “You have been useful. Too useful.”

The rune at my throat pulsed. I tried to feel it less. It was stupid. It was me, and it was not me. It is the chain, Lucian. Break it, Shadowmere whispered. Break it and bleed truth.

“You made me into this,” I said. The words spilled out, rough. “You used my hate. You fed me lies. You told me Elara stole my mother’s crown. You lied about my blood. You lied about Misty.”

Marcus lifted his hands again. And changed the chant and the flame in the ritual pit turned from black to a red.

What's he doing?

“You are my son,” he said slowly. “Yes. Misty’s son. But do not twist it into softness. Blood answers blood. You were born to finish what your mother started.”

I was speechless. My palms went cold. I did not know how to fit the words in my head.

Shadowmere roared. He tied your blood to her like rope. He wrapped both of you to his altar.

Marcus laughed at the sound of my silence. “You see the veins?” He gestured. The runes on his stones pulsed. A thin thread of light leaped from his palm, across the stones, and struck the rune at my collarbone. The line of light ran through the ground and struck something in the pit. It was a thread that hummed. I felt a tug at the place between my ribs. It felt like someone drawing at a puppet string.

My knees went weak. My mouth tasted bitter.. “You linked me to her,” I said. It came out like a small animal sound. “You tied my blood to Liora.”

Marcus nodded like a judge. “Once your heart is bound to hers, the rite will draw her to me. I'll use her silver wolf's power. And be powerful.” He smiled as if he already won. “You will live, my child. As my shadow forever.”

The word hit hard. I could feel Shadowmere's teeth press to mine. You are not shadow, Lucian. You are wolf, he said.

My hands flung its claws. The world shrank to that one man and the burning rune. “You lied to me,” I screamed. My voice split. “You used my life as you want.”

Marcus raised one calm hand toward me. His voice came soft. “I did what needed doing.” He looked at the pit and the dark flame. “You are bound to me by blood. You hate Elara's bloodline and we made a perfect plan. Without you, Liora would never have been near enough.”

The ground under my feet felt thin. I saw faces in the pack... the men and women who had trusted me. I saw Derek’s smile at Liora. For a breath I imagined his eyes, warm and bright, and then they were full of blood and gone.

Rage flooded everything. And everywhere. My claws burst from my fingers. Shadowmere shifting. Fur and sound and a fierce white light filled me. I became all fangs and claws.

“Then die,” I said. The words came from a place between my ribs. “Die for what you did.”

Marcus did not move. He looked at me with something like tired pride. “Kill me, and you break the ritual now. The river goes dry. But do you think death ends this? I already read scripts thats are older than any wolf.” He pointed at Liora. “it's almost time for your friends to fall. Liora will be mine.”

My eyes went red fromrage. My heart hammering hard. The rune in the pit flashed. Links of light tightened.

Keal’s voice came like iron behind me, sharp and bright. “Lucian, stop!” He spurred his claws. “We strike now!”

But Marcus’s chant rose louder, making the runes answered with a chorus. The thread into my chest pulled tighter. Pain was everywhere in my body.

I charged.

My legs moved before I think. And landed in front of Marcus. Marcus’s face was calm. He did not flinch. He did not fear.

“You brought me exactly what I needed,” he said softly as my shout cut the air.

For a second, before the impact, before the world broke itself into a thousand burning parts, I felt a strange, sharp thing... not like pain, but like the truth. Marcus was smiling. He had waited for this. He had planned every step. He had taken us inside his hand and closed it tight.

And as my body hit the stone and the runes flared white and black and red, Marcus’s laughter spilled like water over rocks.

“You are perfect,” he said to me and the night. “Perfect for my last plan. To open the last gate.”

The blade of light cut me, and the world went white.

I did not know if I was still a man or only a .

Shadowmere’s voice was the last thing I heard before the stone swallowed the sound.

Do not let him finish. Do not let him make you small.

Then everything exploded into ice and flame.