Chapter 83 Eighty Three

Chapter 83 Eighty Three
WALTER’S POV

The golden light passed through the shadow tentacles that's tied around my ankle, dissolving them into smoke that smells terrifically and stings my nostrils making my eyes water.
I scramble backward on the cracked earth, my bad leg almost making me almost give up as I put weight on it too fast, the pain was intense in a way that makes me bite back a scream. 
For a split second, clarity cuts through the fog in my mind, I hear Lila’s voice, cutting through the darkness that’s been coiling around my heart.

Weakness is part of strength.

But the words slide off me like water off a rock. I can feel the darkness already inside me, can feel its cold fingers wrapped around my bones and whispering in a voice that sounds exactly like my own. You couldn’t protect her before the accident. You can’t protect her now. Let me take over. Let me be strong enough for both of us.

I look up at what’s left of her, a formless light and earth, wavering like heat haze. Even scattered to the wind and woven into the very land, she looks at me with eyes full of nothing but love, and that’s what breaks me. Because I don’t deserve it.

I deserve the darkness.

My hand drifts toward the golden stream pouring from the Moon Well, toward the part of her that still feels tangible. The green glow in my eyes burns brighter, and I feel my fingers curl into claws, while my human nails hardens into obsidian. 
“You don’t understand,” I say, my voice echoing with two tones now, mine, and the shadow’s.
“Strength is sacrifice. And you’ve been holding me back since.”

From the treeline, I hear Caelum shouts my name, he sounds raw with panic, his voice cracking as he fights off two of Draven’s warriors who’ve circled around the flank. 
“Walter! Don’t listen to it! Fight it!” But his words sound far away and muffled. All I can focus on is the light in front of me, the power that could make me whole again, if only I’d take what’s being offered.

Draven crawls to his feet a few yards away, his face twisted with a mix of agony and triumph. 
The green light from the stone wolves has left black veins spiderwebbing across his pale skin, but he grins anyway, running a hand over the long scar on his cheek.
“Yes,” he rasps, pushing himself upright with his sword. 
“Let it in, Walter. Let the darkness show you what real power feels like. For together, we’ll take everything she has to give us. The pack lands. The Star Born’s magic and everything other thing that should have been ours.”

I take a step forward, my leg moving without pain for the first time since the accident, but the lack of ache feels all wrong and hollow. 
The shadow is mending me with its own corrupted magic, turning my bones to cold stone and my blood to something alien. I raise my hand, and dark tendrils curl from my fingertips and reached for Lila’s light. 

“Walter, please,” she whispers, and I see her form flicker, golden sparks flaking off like dead leaves in winter.
“This isn’t you. You know it isn’t.”

The darkness laughs in my mind. Isn’t it? You hated her for two years. Blamed her for your broken body and life. This is just the truth you’ve been hiding from yourself.

I tried reaching for her, my fingers closing around a strand of golden light. It burns like molten silver against my shadow-touched skin, but I don’t let go. I pull, feeling the power flood into me, it was warm at first, then turning cold as it mixes with the darkness in my veins. 
Lila cries out, and her form shrinks, the golden glow dimming across the entire estate until the stone wolves’ green eyes seem to burn brighter.

The wolves let out a chorus of howls and surged forward toward the wounded pack members that are huddled near the great hall. Mirabel stands her ground, unrolling the ancient scroll and chanting words that make the air shimmer with silver light, but even her magic wavers in the face of my new power.

I feel invincible. Unstoppable and utterly empty.

As more light flows into me, I look down at my hands, they're no longer human, but a shifting mix of flesh and shadow, I turn toward the Moon Well, where the last of Lila’s form hovers like a dying star, and raise my hand to take it all.

But then I feel something warm against my waist, it tucked into my trousers, half-hidden by shadow, it's the faded blue ribbon Caelum had returned to Lila weeks ago. The one she’d worn in her hair the day we met at the engagement party. 

The ribbon glows with a soft silver light, warm against the darkness in my skin and in that glow, I see a memory I’d buried so deep I’d almost forgotten it existed, from when we were children, playing in the woods behind the Fairmoon estate long before either of us knew what we were.

“You’re not weak,” little Caelum had said, pressing a wild white clover into my palm. His hair was tangled with leaves and pine needles and his eyes bright with unguarded laughter. 
“You just need someone to help you stand sometimes. That’s not weakness, because even the strongest trees grow better when they’re close together.”

The darkness in my mind stutters, its whispers faltering. No. That’s a lie. A trick she played on you to make you soft.

But I know better now. I’ve known all along.

I let go of the light, and the shadow in my veins recoils with a shriek that shakes the ground. I stumble backward, clutching my head as the green glow in my eyes flickers and dies. The stolen power drains from me in a rush, leaving me weak and gasping for air, while my bad leg buckles under my weight so hard I crash to my knees in the dirt.

Lila’s form brightens instantly, the golden light flooding back across the estate and pushing the stone wolves back toward the treeline. But it’s not enough, the ground beneath the Moon Well is still splitting open in jagged cracks, and the massive green eyes from the depths are rising closer with their gaze fixed solely on her.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice cracking as I reach for her with trembling hands. 
“I’m so sorry, Lila. I almost let it win. I almost let it turn me into exactly what I’ve been fighting.”

She doesn’t speak, but her light wraps around me like a warm blanket and then, from the depths of the well, a roar shakes the sky so hard that roof tiles rain down and a new figure rises up, it's wearing my face, but twisted monstrously.

The shadow that was me, the one I thought I’d fought off, but still stands before us, its body made of solid darkness and its eyes glowing with pure, unbridled hatred.

“Fool,” it snarls, its voice rough.
“You think letting go makes you strong? It just makes you weak and I’m done being weak.”

It lunges forward, its dark claws aimed straight at Lila’s heart. I push myself up, reaching for my sword, but it’s too far away, and my leg won’t hold my weight for more than a few seconds. All I can do is watch as the shadow raises its hand to strike her down.

And then, from behind the treeline, a horn sounds... A sound that hasn’t been heard in the Fairmoon lands for a hundred years.

The horn of the Ironclaw pack. But it’s not sounding for war. It’s sounding for a rally.

As the note fades, figures begin to emerge from the trees, Draven’s warriors with their weapons raised high and at their head walks Nora, her dark curls tied back, her piercing eyes gleaming with malice.
And in her hand, she holds something that makes my blood run cold.

A silver dagger, identical to the one that shattered the cavern pillar. But this one is covered in dark runes that glow with violet light and pressed against her palm is Lila’s own blood, drawn through dark magic.

“Stop,” she shouts, her voice ringing across the grounds with unnatural clarity. 
“I know how to control it. But you have to listen to me. All of you.”

The shadow pauses, its claw inches from Lila’s light. The stone wolves freeze mid-leap. Even the massive eyes from the depths go still and stopped fixated on the dagger in her hand.

Nora takes a step forward, her lips curved in a cold smile.
“The darkness isn’t just in the land,” she says, her voice dripping with what must be false sincerity.
“It’s in all of us and the only way to master it, is for the Star Born to surrender herself to the one who can wield her power properly.”

She looks directly at Draven, who’s already moving toward her, his face alight with greed. 
“Me,” he says, his voice low and hungry. “You mean me.”

“Of course you,” Nora purrs, holding out the dagger. 
“You’re the only one strong enough to lead us all, to unite the packs under one banner and make us powerful enough to rule everything.”

But I don’t listen to them. I look at Lila’s light, at the way it’s beginning to fade as the shadow’s gaze returns to her.
I think of every moment we’ve shared, good and bad, painful and beautiful and I know what I have to do, even if it kills me.

I push myself to my feet, leaning heavily on my good leg, and take a slow step forward. Then another. Each one sends white-hot pain shooting up my thigh, but I keep moving, my eyes never leaving hers.

“I won’t let you take her,” I say, my voice clear and steady despite the sweat pouring down my face.
“I’ll die before I let you touch her again.”

The shadow laughs. “Then die,” it snarls, lunging forward.

But as its claw is about to strike, a new light flares to life, coming from the direction of the great hall. I turn to see Elara, standing in the doorway with a massive silver mirror held high above her head.

“The old texts,” she shouts, her voice high but strong. 
“They said light can be turned back on itself! Reflect it back!”

The mirror catches Lila’s golden light and sends it streaming toward the shadow figure. It howls and recoils, but Draven is already moving, he lunges for Elara with his sword raised to strike her down.

I dive forward, throwing myself between them despite the agony in my leg. His blade slices across my shoulder, tearing through cloth and skin, but I manage to knock the mirror from Elara’s hands before he can destroy it. It shatters on the stone steps, and each piece sends out a separate beam of golden light, some hitting the shadow, the stone wolves and then Draven and Nora.

But as the light spreads, I see something that makes my blood freeze. The broken mirror pieces are showing me visions—visions of Nora and Draven making deals with creatures from the depths of the well. 

And worst of all, I see a vision of myself, standing beside them, my eyes glowing green as I help them chain Lila to the Moon Well and drain her power dry.

The shadow laughs again, and this time, it sounds exactly like me. 
“You see? This is what you’ll become. This is your future and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

As the vision fades, Draven and Nora advance together, their weapons raised. The stone wolves surge forward. The massive eyes from the well rise higher, their green gaze fixed on Lila.

And in the dirt at my feet, where the mirror broke, a single piece reflects back an image that makes my heart stop.

Lila, bound in chains, her eyes are empty as she stares at me and in her hand, she holds a silver dagger pointed at my heart.