LOGINElara pov Some people spend their entire lives running from guilt only to realize too late that guilt never truly leaves. The moment Korran began chanting, the battlefield changed completely. Every corrupted wolf lifted their head together before charging forward at once. The hesitation disappeared from their eyes instantly. Whatever uncertainty remained inside them vanished beneath the force of Korran’s ritual. Panic exploded across the clearing. “Hold them back!” Jacob roared. The pack immediately rushed forward to intercept the surge, but the corrupted wolves moved faster than before. Their bodies jerked violently with unnatural aggression as they crashed into the defensive lines. Screams tore through the battlefield almost immediately. I turned toward Faye without thinking. The silver field around her had become unstable again. The light flickered violently while dark energy from Korran’s ritual pushed against it from every direction. Faye stood frozen with the baby held
Korran pov Control was slipping from my hands, and I hated how unfamiliar that feeling had become. The battlefield remained frozen around the unstable silver field while wolves stood divided between fear, loyalty, and exhaustion. Nobody moved carelessly anymore. Nobody trusted the next moment. But my attention stayed fixed entirely on Faye. The echo surrounding her had changed again. Not weaker. Different. I could feel it clearly now. The ancient presence inside the awakening was no longer fighting her as aggressively as before. The energy had become steadier and more focused, almost as though some form of balance had finally begun to settle between them. That was not supposed to happen. Faye was supposed to resist longer. She was supposed to break under the pressure of the choice. Fear should have driven her toward hesitation. And hesitation would have given me the opening I needed. Instead, she was adapting. The realization tightened every muscle in my
Faye POV Losing yourself sounded terrifying until the moment came when holding on became even harder. The voices around me sounded distant now. I could still hear the battlefield. I could still hear wolves arguing somewhere beyond the silver light surrounding me. But everything felt farther away than before, as though the echo had placed space between me and the rest of the world. The baby rested quietly against my chest. Her heartbeat stayed steady. Mine did not. The ancient presence inside my mind remained calm while chaos spread everywhere else. “You are afraid,” the voice said quietly. I closed my eyes for a second. “Wouldn’t you be?” The voice did not answer immediately. Around me, the echo pulsed softly again. I could feel its energy moving through my body now more clearly than before. It no longer felt wild or uncontrolled. It felt aware. Watching. Waiting. Korran’s voice reached me faintly from somewhere outside the field. “She cannot control it.” Then Jacob’s
Elara POV Some secrets destroy people slowly, and the worst part is that you keep convincing yourself that silence is mercy. The clearing had become unbearable to stand in. Wolves argued in low voices across the battlefield while fear spread through the pack openly now. Some stood behind Jacob. Others looked toward Korran with desperate uncertainty. Nobody trusted each other fully anymore. And in the center of it all stood Faye. Frozen. The silver echo around her kept flickering dangerously while the child remained held tightly against her chest. Every pulse of light made the wolves more afraid. I stared at her and felt guilt crushing my chest harder with every passing second. This was my fault too. Not because I caused the awakening. Because I stayed silent for too long. Jacob stood several feet ahead of me, still trying to hold the pack together even while anger and fear tore through his voice. “We are not giving him the child,” he snapped. “And what if we don’t surv
Jacob POV Fear was spreading through the pack faster than any corruption ever had, and the worst part was that I could not stop it. The battlefield had gone quiet again, but it was not the kind of silence that brought peace. Wolves stood in broken groups across the clearing, whispering to one another while keeping their eyes fixed on Faye and the unstable echo surrounding her. Nobody knew what to do anymore. Nobody knew who to trust. And Korran knew it. I turned sharply toward the wolf who had spoken earlier. My chest tightened painfully the moment I recognized him properly. Darian. I had fought beside him for years. We survived ambushes together. We buried pack members together. I trusted him enough to put him on the front lines during the Thorn war. Now he stood there looking at me with fear in his eyes instead of loyalty. “You cannot seriously mean that,” I said. Darian swallowed hard before answering. “Jacob—” “No,” I cut him off immediately. “Tell me I heard you wron
Jacob POV Faye wasn’t moving. That was the first thing I noticed as the echo around her began to shift again. One moment she stood with blinding silver light pressing outward from her and the child, and the next moment she looked like she had been pulled somewhere else entirely. Her eyes stayed open, but they weren’t focused on anything in front of her anymore. Her breathing had changed too. Slower. Uneven. Like she was fighting something no one else could see. I took a careful step forward without thinking. “Faye,” I called her name sharply, hoping to pull her back. She didn’t respond. The silver light around her flickered violently for a moment, then dimmed slightly before flaring again. The entire battlefield reacted to it immediately. Wolves flinched. Some stepped back. Others stayed rooted in place like they were waiting for something to happen. Korran didn’t move. He just watched her. That alone made my blood boil. He stood there like this was still something under
Faye pov“Faye Miller. Step forward and offer your blood. Let the runes judge.”Harlan’s voice rang out clear and firm across the small stone circle behind the pack house. The words hit me like a cold wind as I stood at the edge of the circle with Jacob right beside me. His shoulder brushed mine fo
Faye POV The pack house doors closed behind us with a heavy thud that echoed down the stone steps. Sunlight hit my face all bright and warm, but it didn’t touch the cold knot in my stomach. Two days. That was all we had until the full assembly. Two days to prove I wasn’t just a girl with glowing
Faye pov The silver glow on the stone had already started to fade by the time Harlan finished speaking, but the energy in the circle refused to settle. Wolves didn’t rush off right away. They drifted apart slowly, in twos and threes, with their heads bent close as they talked in hushed voices. Yo
Faye povI sat on the edge of my cot with my daughter cradled in my arms again. She nursed quietly, with her small mouth working in steady pulls that made my chest ache in the best way. Every time she fed it reminded me why I had stepped forward in the courtyard, and why I had offered my life witho







