Chapter 81 Eighty One
Chapter 81 Eighty One
WALTER’S POV
The golden sparkles drift down around me and settled on my skin, my hair, and the cracked earth I was standing on.
For a moment, I can still feel Lila’s weight in my arms, it's warm, solid and real. Then she’s gone, just like that, dissolved into the light that seeps into the ground and rises up into the sky, leaving only the scent of wildflowers and moonlight in her place.
“Lila!” I shout again, my voice was raw and hoarse, and it echoes across the silent grounds. I clenched my hands into fists with my nails digging into my palms hard enough to draw blood. The pain in my leg is back, the pain is sharper than before, but I barely feel it. All I can think about is the way she smiled at me, the way her eyes glowed with starlight even as her body cracked apart like fragile glass.
Behind me, I hear footsteps crunch on stone. I don’t turn around, but I know who it is.
“Walter.” Mirabel’s voice is quiet and heavy with exhaustion and grief.
“She’s not gone. I’ve read every line of those scrolls a hundred times now. When a Star Born gives everything to purify the land, they don’t die. They become part of it. But…” She trails off, and I hear as she swallow hard.
“But they don’t come back the same. If they come back at all.”
I finally turn to face her. The estate behind us is still smoking with black marks on the stone walls, broken timbers stick out from the great hall roof, and even the air tastes of ash and burnt wood. But the violet darkness is gone. In its place, the silver moonlight glows from the Moon Well, softly, spreading warmth across the grounds.
Draven's standing a few feet away, his sword raised and his scarred face twisted with rage as he watches the light fade. His warriors have regrouped at the treeline, their eyes wild with bloodlust as they circle the estate.
“Fool,” he sneers, taking a step forward.
“You think this changes anything? You think your little light show has won you victory? All you’ve done is wake something far older and more powerful and it will consume everything you hold dear.”
I turn on him, my hand flying to the hilt of my sword. My leg screams as I shift my weight, but I stand tall despite the pain, bracing myself between Mirabel and the enemy who has brought nothing but destruction to my home.
“Your games are over, Draven,” I growl. “You’ve tried to steal power you don’t understand, corrupt magic you can’t control, and destroy everything we’ve built. But now you’ll pay for it.”
He laughs, mockingly. “Pay? I’ve already won. Look around you, Walter. Your estate is in ruins. Your pack is wounded and scattered. Your precious Star Born is nothing but dust in the wind and whatever’s waking up beneath us will finish what I started.”
A low rumble shakes the ground beneath our feet, it was subtle at first, then growing louder until the well’s water ripples and sloshes over the stone edges. From the treeline, a sound rises up that makes my blood run cold, it a low, grinding growl.
The green shoots around the well begin to wither and turn black. The silver light fades to gray, then to a sickly green and from the shadows between the trees, wolves begin to emerge, they made of stone, their eyes glowing with the same green light, moving with an unnatural stillness.
“Ancient guardians,” Mirabel breathes, her hand flying to the scroll at her waist.
“The old texts spoke of them, the beings bound to the land to protect it from corruption. But if the land itself is tainted, they turn on everything living.”
The stone wolves fan out around the estate, moving silently toward the buildings, toward the wounded and toward us.
One steps into the open, a massive creature with claws like rock and teeth like sharpened flint fixes its green eyes on me, and I feel a wave of cold wash over me.
It knows me. It knows what I am. What I almost let happen.
“Walter,” Caelum says, joining us at the well. He’s covered in dirt and blood, his shirt torn open down one side.
“We can’t fight these things, they’re part of the land itself. If we destroy them, we will also destroy the very ground we’re standing on.”
Draven steps forward, his sword glinting in the sickly green light.
“Then let them destroy you,” he says, his voice triumphant.
“I’ll wait in the shadows while this power cleanses the land of your weakness and when it’s done, I’ll take what’s left for myself.”
He turns to flee into the trees, but one of the stone wolves cuts him off, its massive form blocking his path. Draven raises his sword to strike, but the wolf simply steps forward, and the green light from its eyes washes over him. He drops his weapon with a cry of pain, clutching his head as the light seeps into his skin.
“NO!” he screams, stumbling backward. “I control the darkness! I am the darkness!”
The ground beneath us cracks open, and from the depths, a pair of eyes glows green, the eyes are huge, endless and full of hatred. The stone wolves throw back their heads and howl, and the well’s water turns black as pitch.
A voice booms through the air, deep and ancient, echoing in every mind present:
I AM THE SHADOW THAT FEEDS ON WEAKNESS. YOU LET IT GROW IN YOUR HEARTS.
WALTER FAIRMOON WITH YOUR PRIDE, DRAVEN HARLAN WITH YOUR GREED, AND ALL OF YOU WITH YOUR DOUBTS. NOW YOU WILL ALL BE CONSUMED.
The stone wolves charge forward, and I raise my sword to meet them, even as I feel the ground giving way beneath my bad leg. From the well, a geyser of black water erupts upward, and in its midst, I see a figure taking shape, it's Lila’s form, but twisted and dark, her eyes are glowing green as she reaches for me with hands made of shadow.