CHAPTER 4

The fire snapped and hissed as Rowan stepped inside, rain dripping from his coat. His eyes flicked from Ava to Silas and back again, a storm of anger and relief crossing his face.

“Ava,” he said again, more quietly now. “What are you doing here?”

Ava rose slowly from the chair, the heavy book still in her hands. “I…I don’t know anymore,” she admitted. “Everything’s upside down.”

Rowan’s jaw tightened. “You disappeared. The whole station’s looking for you. Elias is ready to send out a search party.”

Silas leaned against the wall, arms folded. “Of course he is. Can’t have his prize wandering off.”

Rowan shot him a glare. “You stay out of this.”

“No,” Ava said sharply. “Both of you stay out of this for one second and just tell me the truth. Who’s been lying to me? Who’s actually on my side?”

The question hung in the air. Rowan’s face softened, but there was a tremor in his voice when he said, “I’m on your side. Always. That’s why I came.”

Silas’s golden eyes glinted in the firelight. “Then prove it. Tell her what Elias really is.”

Rowan hesitated. His gaze dropped to the floor. “It’s complicated.”

Ava’s heart twisted. “Complicated? People are dying. You’ve been sneaking around, taking calls you won’t explain, and you show up here like you know exactly where I am. Tell me the truth, Rowan. Please.”

He looked up, and for the first time she saw guilt in his eyes. “Elias asked me to track you. He said Silas would hurt you. I thought… I thought he was right.”

Ava felt as if the floor tilted beneath her. “So you’ve been spying on me.”

Rowan stepped toward her, hands out. “I was trying to protect you—”

“By handing me over?” she snapped. Her throat burned, but she forced the words out. “Do you even know what he plans to do at the Blood Moon?”

Rowan’s hands dropped. “I don’t know everything. I just know Silas is dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Silas’s laugh was low and sharp. “You’ve been living under Elias’s thumb for years, and you think I’m the danger?”

“Enough!” Ava shouted, the book shaking in her hands. The room fell silent except for the crackle of the fire.

She swallowed hard, her eyes stinging. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep being pulled back and forth between you two. Somebody needs to tell me the whole story, or I’m walking out of here and facing whatever’s out there on my own.”

Silas and Rowan exchanged a look—mutual distrust with a thread of something else, almost respect. Finally Silas spoke, his voice softer. “Then you should hear it. All of it. But you won’t like what you find out.”

Ava drew in a shaky breath. “Try me.”

Rowan dragged a hand through his wet hair, leaving it standing in spikes. He looked like someone about to step off a cliff.

“Fine,” he said. “You want the truth? Elias is the alpha. The attacks…they weren’t random. They were his orders. He’s been consolidating power for years, and your father was the only one who could stand up to him. When your dad died, Elias saw his chance.”

Ava gripped the back of the chair to steady herself. The cabin tilted again, the firelight swimming. “So Silas wasn’t lying.”

Rowan shook his head. “Not about that. But Silas isn’t a saint either. He broke from the pack and killed two of Elias’s men during his escape. He’s been hiding out ever since. That’s why everyone’s terrified of him.”

Silas’s eyes narrowed. “They tried to kill me first. And you know why.”

Rowan looked away. “Because of the prophecy.”

“The prophecy,” Ava repeated, the word tasting bitter. She hugged the book to her chest. “All this time I thought Dad was scribbling fairy tales. He was writing about me.”

Rowan’s gaze softened. “He was trying to keep you out of it. He begged Elias to leave you alone, but…once you came back…”

Ava’s voice cracked. “Once I came back, I walked right into the trap.”

Silas stepped closer, his tone low but steady. “You’re not trapped yet. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

Ava looked from Silas to Rowan. Two men, two sides of the same nightmare. Her throat ached with unshed tears. “What do you expect me to do with all of this?”

“Decide,” Silas said simply. “Who you are. What you want. Whether you’re going to let Elias write your story for you.”

Rowan’s jaw clenched. “Or you could come back with me now. We’ll figure out a way to stop Elias from inside. It’s safer.”

Ava barked a hollow laugh. “Safe? There’s no safe in this. Not anymore.”

The silence stretched. Outside, rain drummed harder against the roof. Thunder rolled again, closer this time.

Finally Ava said, “I need air.” She pushed past both men and stepped onto the cabin’s small porch. The forest was a blur of silver mist and black trunks. The crimson edge on the moon was deeper now, like a wound in the sky.

She drew in a shuddering breath. Her whole life she’d tried to be invisible, normal, and human. And now the world she’d tried to forget had swallowed her whole.

Behind her, she heard the floorboards creak. Silas’s voice came quietly from the doorway. “You don’t have to decide tonight. But you have to start preparing.”

She turned. His eyes were still gold around the edges, but there was a flicker of vulnerability there too. “Why are you helping me?” she asked. “What do you get out of it?”

His mouth twitched. “Maybe I’m tired of running. Maybe I think you can do what no one else has.”

Rowan appeared behind him, face tense. “And maybe he’s just trying to use you for his own war.”

Ava’s chest tightened. “Stop. Both of you. Just…stop.”

A sound cut through the rain—distant howls, rising in eerie harmony. Ava’s stomach dropped. Silas stiffened. Rowan’s hand went to the gun at his belt.

“They’ve found us,” Silas muttered. 

The howls rose again, closer this time—not one voice but many, weaving through the trees like a warning. The hair on Ava’s arms stood on end.

Silas swore under his breath and crossed to the window. “Four…no, five,” he muttered. “Scouts first, enforcers behind.”

Rowan was already moving. He slammed the door shut and dropped the bar across it. “We can hold them off until dawn if we have to.”

Silas shot him a look. “You really think they’ll wait until dawn?”

Ava’s heart thudded. “They’re here for me.”

“No,” Silas said flatly. “They’re here for both of us. Elias can’t risk you choosing the wrong side.”

The first impact rattled the door. A low growl seeped through the cracks. Ava’s fingers tightened on the edge of the table. This is really happening.

Rowan drew his gun, but his hand was shaking. “If we fight them—”

“You’ll die,” Silas finished. “You’re not built for this.”

Rowan glared at him. “And what’s your plan? Run? Drag her deeper into your mess?”

Silas didn’t answer. He turned to Ava instead. “You’ve felt it before. The power. Can you call it?”

Ava’s stomach lurched. “I don’t even know what it is.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Silas said. “It knows you.”

Another crash—this time the window on the far wall shattered, claws curling over the sill. Rowan fired a shot. A snarl answered. Something hit the side of the cabin hard enough to make the timbers groan.

Ava’s breath came fast and shallow. Her whole body buzzed with static, like before at the creek. The book lay open on the table, the prophecy’s words stark in the firelight. Sever or seal.

She closed her eyes. Please, she thought. If this thing inside me is real, I need it now.

Heat pooled in her chest, then raced down her arms, tingling in her palms. When she opened her eyes, the room looked sharper, every color brighter, every sound separate and clear. The growls outside were no longer noise but meaning, a chorus of intent: take her, bind her, end him.

“Step back,” she said, her voice shaking but loud.

Rowan and Silas glanced at her—and then the door exploded inward. A huge shape filled the frame, half man, half beast, eyes burning like coals. Two more flanked it, teeth bared.

Ava raised her hands.

Light—not bright but deep, silver and blue like moonlit water—burst from her palms and rippled outward. The first attacker slammed into an invisible wall and was thrown back into the night. The others staggered, howling.

Rowan stared at her. “Holy—”

Silas grabbed her arm. “Good. Again.”

She drew another breath, reaching for that current, but it flickered like a weak signal. Sweat beaded on her forehead. “I can’t—”

“Yes, you can,” Silas said. “You’re stronger than you think.”

The pack regrouped outside. A massive shadow moved among them, bigger than the rest, radiating command. Elias’s voice floated through the rain, calm and cold:

“Ava. Come out. Don’t let the rogue twist you. It’s not too late.”

Her knees almost buckled at the sound. He was so close. She could feel the pull of him like a tide.

Silas’s grip tightened. “Choose now,” he murmured. “Fight or follow.”

Ava looked at Rowan. His face was pale, torn between fear and pleading. “Please,” he whispered. “Don’t do this.”

The pull inside her became a roar. Her father’s journal flashed through her mind. Sever or seal.

“I’m done being hunted,” she said, voice low.

She turned back to the door, raised her hands once more, and let the power surge.

A shockwave of silver light swept the porch, hurling the first rank of enforcers into the trees. The very air shuddered. The crimson edge of the moon brightened as if in answer.

Silas pulled her backward toward the rear door. “That’s our opening. Move!”

Rowan hesitated, then followed. They burst out into the rain and plunged into the forest, leaving the wrecked cabin behind. Behind them Elias’s voice rose, no longer calm but a snarl:

“Run all you want. She’s mine!”

Ava stumbled but kept going, breath ragged, the strange power still humming under her skin. Somewhere ahead, the trees opened into darkness. She didn’t know where Silas was leading her—only that she had crossed a line she could never uncross.