Chapter Four

Mona's POV 

The glow spread from my core outward, turning my skin translucent like living flame. Father jerked back, but kept the knife at my throat.

"Impossible," he snarled. "The collar—"

"Can't stop what's already inside her," a woman's voice rang out. A figure in Academy robes stepped forward, her silver hair gleaming in the moonlight. "Phoenix tears, I'm guessing? Clever girl."

"Professor Aria," Derek breathed, relief evident in his voice.

The woman's violet eyes fixed on me. "Happy birthday, little phoenix. Your true awakening begins now."

"Stop!" Father pressed the knife harder, drawing blood. "I'll kill her before I let her become—"

His words cut off in a gurgle. Everyone gasped.

Leon stood behind Father, his own knife buried in our father's side.

"Enough," my brother said quietly. "I've watched you torment her for eighteen years. No more."

Father stumbled, releasing me. But as I pulled away, he grabbed the collar around my neck and twisted something. A hidden mechanism clicked.

"If I can't control you," he gasped, blood frothing at his lips, "no one will."

The collar began to heat up, glowing red-hot. Not just suppressing now – destroying.

"Get it off!" Derek roared, shifting to human form and rushing toward me. "That's a kill switch!"

Professor Aria and several Academy wolves converged on me, but the moment they touched the collar, they were blown backward by dark magic.

"Only the one who placed it can remove it," Selena said, her voice oddly calm. "And Father's dying. In about thirty seconds, that collar will implode, taking Mona and anyone within fifty feet with it."

"You knew," Mother – Elena – whispered from the crowd. "You knew he had a kill switch."

"Of course I knew." Selena smiled. "I helped him install it."

The collar burned hotter. My vision blurred. Through the pain, I saw Derek fighting to reach me, held back by the magical barrier. Sophie was screaming. Leon cradled Father's dying form, begging him to remove the collar.

But Father just laughed, blood bubbling from his lips. "We die... together... monster..."

Twenty seconds.

"Everyone get back!" Professor Aria commanded. "Beyond the blast radius!"

"No!" Derek struggled against the Academy wolves dragging him away. "I won't leave her!"

Fifteen seconds.

The phoenix tears in my blood responded to my approaching death, surging with desperate power. My skin cracked like an eggshell, light pouring through the fractures.

"Interesting," Professor Aria murmured, not retreating like the others. "Do you know what happens when you try to kill a phoenix, dear?"

Ten seconds.

"They burn," I whispered, understanding flooding through me.

"They burn," she agreed. "And then..."

Five seconds.

I closed my eyes and let go.

The explosion should have killed everyone. Should have leveled the pack circle, turned everything to ash.

Instead, I became the explosion.

My body shattered into a million pieces of light and flame. The collar detonated, but instead of destroying, its dark magic was consumed by something far older, far more powerful.

Phoenix fire.

I was everywhere and nowhere. I was the flame that danced in every torch, the heat in every breath, the light of the stars themselves. I could feel every heartbeat in the circle, taste every fear, every hope.

And then, in the center of the inferno, I began to reform.

First bones, gleaming gold instead of white. Then muscles, woven from threads of fire. Skin that sparkled with embedded flames. And finally, opening my eyes, I found they now burned with eternal fire.

The collar lay in pieces at my feet, nothing but twisted metal and failed magic.

"Impossible," Selena breathed. "You should be dead."

"Phoenix Wolves don't die," Professor Aria said softly. "They resurrect. Stronger each time."

I stood slowly, naked but clothed in flames that didn't burn. My hair, once auburn, now cascaded in waves of living fire. When I spoke, my voice carried harmonics that made everyone shiver.

"Father?" I looked at Marcus, who lay dying in Leon's arms, his eyes wide with terror.

"Monster," he whispered.

"No." I knelt beside him, and he flinched. "Just your daughter. The one you poisoned, imprisoned, tortured. But still your daughter."

I placed my hand on his wound. Phoenix fire flowed from my fingers, but instead of healing, it did something else.

It showed him the truth.

Every memory he'd suppressed, every lie he'd told himself, every moment of my mother Lyra's life that he'd tried to forget. He saw her beauty, her power, her love for the child growing inside her. He saw his own jealousy, his fear that their daughter would surpass him.

He saw the moment he decided to suppress me.

"I'm sorry," he gasped, tears streaming down his face. "Lyra, I'm so sorry..."

"She's not here to forgive you," I said quietly. "But I am."

Phoenix fire poured into him, not to heal but to purify. The darkness in his soul burned away, leaving only the man he could have been.

Marcus Blackstone died with clarity in his eyes and my mother's name on his lips.

I stood, turning to face the crowd. Some knelt, recognizing the ancient power before them. Others backed away in fear.

"Mona," Derek stepped forward, the magical barrier gone. "Are you..."

"I'm still me," I said, though I wasn't sure that was entirely true. "Just... more."

"The awakening isn't complete," Professor Aria announced. "The phoenix has risen, but the wolf has not yet emerged."

"What do you mean?" Leon asked, still kneeling by Father's body.

"She means I haven't shifted," I said, understanding flowing through my new consciousness. "The phoenix is only half of what I am."

"The blood moon rises in three nights," Aria continued. "If you don't complete the transformation by then, the two halves of your nature will tear you apart."

"Then we have three days," Derek said firmly, moving to stand beside me. His presence calmed the raging fire under my skin.

"Three days to learn control," Aria nodded. "Three days to prepare for what's coming."

"What's coming?" Sophie asked, finally brave enough to approach.

Aria's expression darkened. "The ones who sent the rogues. They weren't trying to capture her – they were trying to force her awakening. Someone wanted the Phoenix Wolf to rise."

"Who?" I demanded.

"The Shadow King," a new voice spoke from the darkness. A figure emerged, cloaked and hooded. "He who collects rare wolves for his army."

"And you are?" Derek growled, stepping protectively in front of me.

The figure lowered his hood, revealing a face that made everyone gasp.

My face. Masculine, older, but unmistakably related.

"I'm Marcus Bloodmoon," he said, crimson eyes exactly like mine meeting my gaze. "Lyra's brother. Your uncle. And I've been searching for you for eighteen years."

"That's impossible," Elena whispered. "The Bloodmoon line was destroyed—"

"Not destroyed," Marcus Bloodmoon corrected. "Hidden. Waiting." He looked at me with something like hunger. "Waiting for the last Phoenix Wolf to finally come home."

"She's not going anywhere with you," Derek snarled.

Marcus smiled, and it was predatory. "Oh, but she is. You see, the Shadow King already has her scent. His hunters are less than a day away. And the only place safe from him is the Bloodmoon sanctuary."

"How do we know you're really who you say you are?" I challenged.

In response, he burst into flames. Phoenix fire, exactly like mine.

"Because, little niece," he said through the inferno, "you're not the last Phoenix Wolf after all."

The ground suddenly shook. In the distance, an inhuman howl echoed through the night – nothing like any wolf I'd ever heard.

"They're already here," Marcus said urgently. "The Shadow King's vanguard. We need to leave. Now."

Another howl, closer this time. The crowd scattered in panic.

"Mona," Derek grabbed my hand. "We should—"

His words cut off as a massive shape crashed into the pack circle. Not a wolf. Not entirely. It stood on two legs, eight feet tall, covered in shadows that moved like living things.

"Shadow Walker," Professor Aria breathed in horror. "He sent a Shadow Walker."

The creature's red eyes fixed on me, and it smiled with too many teeth.

"Found you, little phoenix."