LOGINSelene pov I was floating. That was the first thing I became aware of. Not standing. Not lying down. Floating in a space that was neither light nor dark. It was gray. Endless gray in all directions. “Hello?” My voice echoed strangely. Like there were walls nearby but also impossibly far away. No response. I tried to move. I found that I could, but it didn’t really change anything. No matter which direction I went, the gray stayed the same. Was I dead? Is this what death felt like? “Selene.” I spun around. A figure was standing behind me. They were tall and wearing robes that seemed to be made of light itself. Their face was hidden in shadow, but their presence felt warm. Safe. “Who are you?” I asked. “A guide.” Their voices were gentle. Neither male nor female. “You’ve fought well, Selene. Across fifteen
Selene povWe’d won. We’d saved the world.But we’d also lost so much.I tried to stand, to go to Ryker, to offer some kind of comfort. But my legs wouldn’t hold me. The power was completely gone now, and all that remained was exhaustion and pain.“I’ve got you.” Kael caught me before I could fall. “I’ve got you, my love.”“Is it really over?” I asked. My voice sounded small. Childlike.“Yes.” He held me closer, his face buried in my hair. “It’s really over. No more lifetimes. No more curses. Just… us. Finally just us.”I wanted to believe him. Wanted to think that we’d finally broken the cycle, that this was the happy ending we’d been fighting for across five hundred years.But as I looked at the wasteland around us, at the bodies scattered across the battlefield, at Ryker grieving for his mate, I couldn’t help but wonder what we’d sacrificed to get here.The sun was setting. The fi
Selene povHe was crying. I could see the tears streaming down his face even from this distance. But he didn’t stop fighting. Didn’t slow down. He was a hurricane of grief and rage, destroying everything in his path.“Ryker!” Rayna shouted. “Move left! We need to push them back!” It was at the moment I remembered her. Rayna. Ryker sister and commander. She helped me in my fourth life and she was back again. My memory was returning.But Ryker didn’t seem to hear her. He was lost in his own world of pain, fighting with a desperation that bordered on suicidal.“Someone get him under control!” Rayna commanded. Two wolves broke from the formation and ran toward Ryker, trying to guide him back to the line. But he shook them off, diving deeper into the sea of shadow creatures.Above us all, Sylvester laughed. His shadow-form had grown enormous, blocking out what little sun remained. “An army? You brought me an army?
Selene POVThe silence that followed Keisha’s death didn’t last long. It couldn’t. Because the moment her body hit the ground, something inside me broke open.Not shattered. Not cracked. Broke open, like a door that had been locked for five hundred years finally being kicked down from the inside.Power flooded through me. Not the controlled, careful power I’d been using. This was raw. Ancient. The kind of power that had existed before the first wolf drew breath, before the first tree grew, before light and shadow had names.My body lifted off the ground without me choosing to fly. Purple light exploded from my skin, so bright that everyone around me had to shield their eyes. The air itself seemed to ripple and bend, reality warping under the weight of what I was becoming.“No.” My voice came out wrong. Too many voices layered together. The current me. The past me. All versions speaking as one. “NO MORE!”Sylvester laug
Selene pov“Impressive,” the thing in Sylvester’s body agreed. “You’re finally starting to remember what you can do. But it won’t be enough. You’re untrained. You’ll burn yourself out long before you can actually seal the breach.”It was right. I could already feel it. The power I’d just used had drained me significantly. I was shaking, my vision swimming, my stomach churning with nausea.“We need a plan,” Marcus said, shifting back to humans as well. He was covered in burns and cuts, blood dripping from wounds that had clearly gone too deep. “We can’t just keep reacting. We’ll all be dead in minutes if we don’t do something different.”“The barrier.” Lydia’s voice was weak, but determined. “Selene made it once. She can make it again. Trap the darkness inside while we figure out how to actually close the Void.”“I don’t know how!” The words came out as almost a sob. “I don’t remember making it the first time!”“The
Selene POVThe barrier shattered like glass, fragments of my own magic falling around us in glittering shards that dissolved before they hit the ground. Through the collapsing wall, Kael stumbled forward, barely managing to stay on his feet.He looked terrible. Gaunt and pale, with dark circles under those green eyes that had haunted my dreams. His clothes hung loose on a frame that had clearly lost weight during his imprisonment. But despite his weakness, he was moving toward me with determination.“Selene, get behind me!” His voice was rough, damaged from disuse or screaming or both.But I couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but stare at what was happening to the sky above us.The darkness wasn’t just inside Sylvester anymore. It was spreading. The thing that had been using him as a vessel was now pouring out into the world, rising up in great dark clouds that blocked out the sun.The temperature dropped so fast I co







