Chapter 37 Energy
"We need to go back to the alpha's room," I murmured. "That... cloak isn't just a remnant of an attack. It's something alive. Or what's left of it."
Conrad frowned.
"You felt something when you touched it, didn't you?"
I hesitated for only a second.
"I felt that they aren't killing for war. They're erasing out of fear."
"Fear of what?"
I looked up at him.
"Of me."
The sentence seemed absurd even to myself, but my whole body recognized the truth.
Conrad didn't laugh. He didn't doubt.
He just cupped my face in his hands.
"Then we won't let them hunt you alone."
I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued.
"I promised to hold up the world for both of us. I don't go back on promises made under the moon."
My heart pounded so hard that for a moment I forgot about the Void Hunters, the burning forest, the golden names.
I kissed Conrad as if my life depended on it, and that seemed to be a truth in my heart. Perhaps the Moon knew it was demanding too much of me and chose the best companion to stay by my side.
Protecting me.
Loving me.
To my surprise, Conrad had brought the alpha and the vials. Everyone was gathered in the office, too afraid to think about resting.
The vial with the cloak was on the table. But now, I saw something that had previously escaped me: small fissures of light opening within the darkness, as if that fragment was... reacting to my presence.
Conrad noticed instantly.
"What's happening with this?"
I took a step forward, feeling the symbol under my skin pulse in response.
"It's recognizing me."
The black powder in the other jar began to move slowly, forming circular patterns on the bottom of the glass.
The alpha paled.
"By the Ancestors..." he murmured. "What are you, my queen?"
I looked at Conrad for a brief second, searching for strength.
"I'm still figuring it out."
The silence that followed weighed like a stone.
The alpha took a step back, but not out of distrust. It was pure respect mixed with fear, the same fear I was beginning to recognize in the eyes of those who sensed something greater than titles or crowns.
"So what do we do now?" the Alpha, Eliot, asked.
I still stared at the glass. That black cloak seemed to breathe towards me, as if awaiting an order.
"You said the sorcerers couldn't hurt them," I said slowly. "But did they see?"
"Some... for seconds," the alpha replied. "Before they went mad."
My stomach churned.
"These things don't live on this entire plane," I murmured. "They slip through cracks. And when they touch someone... they erase what doesn't belong to their world."
Conrad gave me an intense look.
"How do you know that?"
"Because when I touched them, I saw where they came from."
The glass began to crack on its own, golden lines opening like luminous veins within the darkness. I took a step forward instinctively, feeling the ground vibrate beneath my feet.
"Maya, stop," Conrad whispered.
"No," I replied, my voice different, firmer than I recognized myself. "If I don't learn now, others will die."
I touched the glass.
There was no whirlwind this time. There was absolute silence.
Suddenly, we were all standing in the middle of a skyless plain, where the ground seemed made of suspended ashes. Floating shadows hovered in the distance, motionless, as if awaiting judgment. The alpha fell to his knees.
"This... this isn't real..."
"It's real enough to kill us," I replied, feeling my feet touch that solid nothingness.
One of the figures approached slowly. It had no face, but its presence burned like ice on my bones.
"Bearer of the Shattered Bond," the voice echoed inside my head, not in the air. "You shouldn't exist."
My heart nearly leaped out of my chest, but I remained firm.
"You shouldn't hunt entire peoples."
"What doesn't belong to the Moon must be erased."
The phrase tore something inside me.
"The world doesn't belong to the Moon," I replied, feeling the symbol on my chest throb with gold. "It belongs to life."
The shadow receded, as if touched by something it didn't understand.
Beside me, I felt Conrad's hand close on mine.
"If you want to pass through her," he said, staring into the void without blinking. "You'll have to pass through me first."
The plain began to tremble. Golden fissures spread across the ashen ground, forming the same path I had seen in the whirlwind.
The path of the hybrids.
And then I understood: this was not just a vision.
It was an invitation to war.
The ground cracked beneath our feet. We didn't fall.
We were thrust back into the world as if something had spat us out of that dead reality. The glass shattered into black shards that turned to smoke before hitting the floor, and the air of the pack's room enveloped us brutally again.
Eliot fell back, panting, his trembling hands resting on the carpet.
Conrad caught me before my legs gave way.
"Maya... what was that?"
I tried to speak, but my throat was too dry. The symbol still burned under my skin, a heat that didn't burn, but left a mark.
"They aren't creatures," I finally managed to say. "They are instruments in the hands of those who can control energy. They are pure energy, without feelings or will. They are executors."
"Executors of what?" the alpha asked, his voice almost inaudible.
"Of a world that decided we shouldn't exist."
The silence that settled in wasn't one of doubt, but of anticipatory grief.
Eliot stood with difficulty.
"So my Beta and my soldiers..."
"They were erased," I replied sadly. "Not killed. Erased from history."
Conrad clenched his fists, his jaw muscles throbbing.
"And why you?" he asked, staring at me with a painful intensity. "Why did they call you the Bearer of the Shattered Link?"
I swallowed hard.
"Because I shouldn't be here."
The words hung between us like a sentence.
The alpha took a step back.
"What do you mean by that, Your Majesty?"
I looked at Conrad. My mate. My king. The only face in that place that still anchored me to what was human.
"It means there's something in me that was erased from the world before I was even born," I murmured. "And somehow, it survived."
The symbol on my chest began to throb again, stronger than ever.
"The hybrids weren't exterminated," I continued. "They were hidden. Fragmented. Erased from the kingdom's memories."
"Then why now?" Conrad questioned. "Why did these attacks start now?"
"I must have awakened this already created energy somehow. By managing to read the book, by managing to perform its words, in the whirlwind or in the secret room. I only know that it was my fault."