Chapter 79 Seventy Nine
Chapter 79 Seventy Nine
WALTER’S POV
The blade at Mirabel’s throat reflects the sunlight, and every muscle in my body tenses so hard I think they’ll tear through my skin.
Suddenly my leg gives out again, sending me crashing to one knee in the damp grass, the pain shooting up my thigh so sharply it blots out everything but the sight of Draven standing there looking so calm and cruel as if he hasn’t just set half my estate ablaze.
I can smell smoke and blood on the wind, hear screams that's echoing from inside the great hall where my pack fights for their lives against his dark magic.
The violet light pouring from the center of the grounds pulses with every beat of my heartbeat and I feel the foundation of the Fairmoon pack beginning to crack under the weight of Draven’s dark magic.
“Let them go,” I growl, pushing myself up with my good leg, my hands trembling as I grip the edge of a low stone wall for support.
Even with Lila’s light purging the silver from my blood, the old injury still burns like fire, and I can feel myself swaying with my vision blurring at the edges.
Draven laughs and presses the blade closer to Mirabel’s skin. A thin red line appears at her throat, and she flinches but doesn’t look away from me, her dark eyes are fierce and defiant, even as tears streak through the soot on her face.
“Let them go? After everything you’ve done to me, Walter? After you looked down on me for years, treating me like I was nothing more than dirt under your perfect Alpha boots?”
He steps forward, keeping his eyes locked on mine as he gestures to the burning buildings behind him.
“This is what happens when you hoard power you don’t deserve. When you let a half-breed girl cloud your judgment and make you forget what it means to be a true leader.”
I look past him to Lila, standing a few feet away with her hands clenched at her sides. Her golden hair is matted with dirt and sweat, her dress torn and stained, but her blue eyes are fixed on Draven with a focus that makes my chest ache.
I can feel the power building inside her brightly, ready to burst forth, but she’s holding back, afraid to use it and also afraid of what it might do to me.
She still thinks her light hurts me, I realize, my heart twisting with guilt. After everything we’ve been through, after the bond snapped into place between us, she’s still carrying the fear that she’ll destroy the one person she’s trying to save.
“I never hoarded anything,” I say, my voice low and steady despite the pain that’s making my teeth chatter.
“The power of the Fairmoon belongs to every wolf in this pack. You’re the one who wants to take it all for yourself, you wants to twist it into something dark just because you can’t stand that someone stronger than you exists.”
Draven’s smile fades, replaced by a snarl of pure rage. He shoves Mirabel forward, and one of his warriors catches her roughly by the arm, holding her upright as he turns his full attention to me.
“Stronger? She’s not strong, she’s just a toy the Moon Goddess left lying around for the first wolf smart enough to claim her and you... you’re nothing but a cripple who got lucky once and thought he was king.” He takes a step closer, his eyes glowing with that twisted starlight gold he stole from Lila.
“Tell me, Walter, how does it feel to know that even with her power running through your veins, you still can’t stand on your own two feet? How does it feel to know that every time she looks at you, she sees weakness?”
The words hit me like a physical blow, and I stumble backward, my hand flying to my leg as if to hide the limp that’s been my constant companion for two years.
He’s right, even without the silver and with her light healing me from the inside out, I’m still broken. I’ll never be the same Alpha I was before the accident, never move with the same grace or speed.
But then I look at Lila again, and I see the way her shoulders straighten, the way her fingers begin to glow with soft golden light. She’s not looking at my leg or my limp, she’s looking at my face, at the fire that’s burning in my eyes, and I can feel her power reaching out to me, warm and steady as a heartbeat.
You’re not weak, she seems to say without speaking. You never were.
I straighten up, pushing off the wall and standing as tall as I can manage. My leg still burns and still threatens to give out, but I refuse to show Draven an ounce of not when everything we love is on the line.
“Even if I can’t stand,” I say, my voice ringing out across the smoke-filled grounds, “I can still fight and even if I fall, I’ll take you down with me.”
Draven roars in anger and charges forward, his sword raised high. I reach for a weapon, anything but there’s nothing within reach. I brace myself for the blow, ready to take it if it means giving Lila even a second to act.
But before his blade can strike, a blinding flash of golden light explodes from Lila’s hands. It doesn’t burn like before, rather it wraps around us both like a shield, and I feel a surge of strength course through my body that makes my leg stop aching for the first time in two years.
I look down in shock to see the golden light weaving through my veins, mending the old break in my leg, knitting bone to bone with a warmth that feels like sunlight on my skin. I take a step, then another and for the first time since the accident, I stand without pain, without a limp, without needing anything to hold me up.
Draven skids to a stop, his eyes wide with terror as he stares at me, then at Lila. “What have you done?” he whispers, his voice cracking.
But Lila isn’t looking at him. She’s staring at her own hands, her face pale with wonder as the golden light dances between her fingers.
“I… I didn’t know,” she breathes. “I never knew I could do this.”
From behind Draven, a shout goes up as more of his warriors pour out of the estate, their eyes wild with fear as they point toward the sky. I follow their gaze and feel my blood run cold.
The violet light from the Moon Well has stopped pulsing, it’s beginning to spread, creeping across the grounds like a dark tide, turning everything it touches to ash. And at the center of it all, rising from the well itself, is a figure made of pure shadow, it's tall, twisted, and impossibly familiar.
It looks exactly like me.
“The bond,” Draven gasps, stumbling backward as the shadow figure begins to move.
“You tied your life to hers, and now my magic has twisted it, it has created something that will destroy everything you love, starting with you.”
The shadow Walter steps forward, its eyes glowing with the same cold blue as mine, and raises a sword made of solid darkness.
“You were never strong enough to protect her,” it says in my voice, twisted and hollow. “You were never good enough. Let me show you what happens when you let weakness rule your heart.”
It lunges forward, and I raise my hands to defend myself, only to feel the golden light drain from my body as Lila cries out in pain. I look back to see her on her knees, clutching her chest as the shadow figure’s magic reaches out and wraps around her throat, cutting off her power.
“Choose now, Walter,” Draven shouts, his voice triumphant even as the shadow figure turns its gaze toward him. “Choose her… or choose them.”
I look from Lila, struggling to breathe as the darkness tightens around her, to Mirabel, Caelum, and Elara, bound and helpless as Draven’s warriors raise their blades.
And then I look at the shadow figure, at the darkness that’s beginning to consume the estate, and I realize with horror that Draven has lost control of his own magic.
The shadow isn’t just targeting me, it’s targeting everyone.