LOGINJane's Point of View********The heartbeat continued.Once.Twice.Then silence.I stood frozen, my hand resting protectively over my stomach while Damion held me against his side.The sound had not come from the sealed door.It had come from somewhere beyond it.Somewhere deeper than the world we could see.And somehow, I knew it had been meant for me."Did you hear that?" I whispered.Damion's fingers tightened around mine."Yes."His voice was low, but I could feel the storm gathering inside him. Valir was awake, pacing restlessly beneath his skin.The stranger approached us, his golden and silver eyes fixed on the door."That was not the creature.""Then what was it?" Damion demanded.The stranger did not answer immediately.Instead, he lowered himself to one knee and placed his palm against the black-glass ground.The golden symbols beneath his hand flickered.Once.Twice.Then they disappeared.His expression changed."What is it?" I asked.He slowly stood."The seal has change
Jane's Point Of View********That answer frightened me more than any threat could have.Because he did not sound like someone trying to manipulate us.He sounded like someone who had once searched for another way himself.And failed.The stranger approached the door.With each step he took, the stars overhead shifted."Before the first pack existed, before wolves learned to distinguish Alpha from Omega, there were two forces that held the worlds together."He extended one hand toward the wolf-shaped marking."Will."Then he touched the symbol resembling an open hand."And restoration."The symbols glowed beneath his fingers."Will gave creation the power to endure. Restoration gave it the power to recover when endurance was no longer enough."I looked at the golden light surrounding him."You represent restoration.""Yes.""And the first Alpha represented will?""Yes."Damion's expression changed."You're saying our bond connects those two forces.""Your bond is their inheritance. Bu
Jane's Point Of View********That answer frightened me more than any threat could have.Because he did not sound like someone trying to manipulate us.He sounded like someone who had once searched for another way himself.And failed.The stranger approached the door.With each step he took, the stars overhead shifted."Before the first pack existed, before wolves learned to distinguish Alpha from Omega, there were two forces that held the worlds together."He extended one hand toward the wolf-shaped marking."Will."Then he touched the symbol resembling an open hand."And restoration."The symbols glowed beneath his fingers."Will gave creation the power to endure. Restoration gave it the power to recover when endurance was no longer enough."I looked at the golden light surrounding him."You represent restoration.""Yes.""And the first Alpha represented will?""Yes."Damion's expression changed."You're saying our bond connects those two forces.""Your bond is their inheritance. Bu
Jane’s Point of View**********The moment our hands touched, the world disappeared, there was no ground beneath my feet, no sky, no forest, no Damion, no First Guardian, Nothing.Only darkness.And a heartbeat.Boom.It wasn't mine.Boom.It wasn't Damion's.Boom.It was something older.Something enormous.Something that seemed to beat beneath every world at once.I tried to pull my hand away.I couldn't.The figure in front of me smiled.My face.My eyes.My voice.But not me."Do you remember now?""No."The word came out as a whisper.The Shadow Anchor tilted its head."You're still pretending.""I don't know you.""You know me better than anyone."Its fingers tightened around mine.Suddenly, memories slammed into me.A palace.A battlefield.A child running through a field of silver flowers.Damion laughing.Damion crying.Damion holding my face between his hands.A promise.A betrayal.A death.I screamed.The Shadow Anchor didn't let go."You abandoned me.""I didn't!""You ch
Jane’s Point of ViewCome home.The words remained inside my mind long after the voice disappeared.Come home.I didn't know that place.I had never seen it.I had never walked its streets, breathed its air, or stood beneath its sky.And yet some part of me recognized it.That was the terrifying part.Recognition.It wasn't curiosity.It wasn't imagination.It was the terrible certainty of remembering something I had never lived.My knees weakened.Damion caught me around the waist."Jane."His voice sounded distant.I stared through the gateway.Nothing moved beyond it.The darkness was still.Too still.The commander was gone.The corrupted creatures had disappeared.Even the ancient Guardian had vanished into the shadows surrounding the First Guardian.Only the golden light remained.And somewhere beyond that light...Something was waiting.For us.I tightened my grip on Damion's hand."I know that place."The words escaped before I could stop them.Damion looked at me sharply."Wh
Jane's Point of ViewThe world stopped breathing.Not metaphorically.Literally.The wind froze in midair.Ash drifted upward instead of falling.The scream of the gateway vanished so completely that the silence became painful.Even the commander remained motionless, its monstrous hand suspended halfway through the fracture as though time itself had wrapped chains around its body.Only one thing moved.The figure stepping from the heart of the golden light.Every footstep sent ripples through reality.Not destruction.Restoration.The cracked earth knit itself together beneath his feet.Dead grass burst into impossible green.The black corruption coating broken stones dissolved into glittering dust.The sky itself... healed.Tiny fractures sealed wherever his gaze passed.I couldn't breathe.He looked...Human.At least at first.Tall.Broad-shouldered.Dark hair threaded with silver.Simple armor that looked forged from living sunlight instead of metal.No crown.No weapon.Nothing t







