An End to Shadows

A shriek—guttural, wild, and metallic on bone—ricocheted through the trees. The Ruins erupted out, savage purpose trailing behind them on their grotesque mangled bodies as they leapt toward the party, talons swirling. Serena’s heart was pounding so loud in her ears, but she stood rooted to the ground while Kaelen and the rest unleashed everything they had against them. The effects were immediate and brutal; the sulfur sweetness of blood and soil pervaded the air.

Something weighed war in her like the battle-evolved shudders of her Onyx wolf. The electricity in her skin, begging for release. She could sense its rage, its desire to obliterate. But she had never let it all go wild, not wild enough, anyway, to lose control of what she was doing and the shadier territory of her own person. Not now. “This was not the time for that.”

Kaelen felt his chest give, leaving his lungs losing air in his breath. The creatures charged at him, dodging all that Kaelen threw at them, and he stabbed his sword in the chest of one and the next. With a guttural screech, the creature crumpled in a heap of charred tissue. Serena made a sound, sucking in oxygen through her throat. The Ruins were worse than anything she’d known. They weren’t even beasts; they were corseted husks of a distant abomination, and the sight of them made her quail.

Lucian stayed next to her, his eyes scanning the dirt road and the surrounding field. But she could hear his breath quickening and see the tension on his face and the curling of the fingers he couldn’t keep away from the weapons at his sides. And every time he swung his sword, the gravity of what they were up against seemed to settle more heavily over him. She knew it was more than the battle that was weighing on him. It was fear of her, and them, and all of them.

“Stick together,” shouted Lucian, snapping through the noise like a whip.

Serena was nodding; her hand instinctively leapt for her dagger. It wasn’t a lot, but it was all she had, for now. The other three had been holding a thug, but all she saw was the beast that stalked her, black eyes glittering like embers fired beneath the moon.

A Ruin stalked near, body contorted in a way that turned it grotesquely inhuman, limbs far too long, nasty knife-like claws curling towards it. Serena’s heart started pounding, but she held her ground. The Onyx wolf within her knew nothing but to attack and to feel that power, and for one brief breath—one moment of desperation—she contemplated doing it. Not yet.

The being snarled in a thick, grating voice. Serena felt its hunger, the need to destroy her, but she was not about to submit. Not now. Not after all she had lost. She edged up, not taking her eyes off the creature, and waited.

The Ruin lunged, a bone-chilling arc at speed, but Serena was faster. She ducked under its claws, her dagger glinting in the moonlight as it paralleled its arm. The beast howled with hatred as it stumbled backwards, its malicious gaze glowing anew as its anger took hold. Serena didn’t hesitate. She charged, biting down on it once more, this time on the creature’s throat. The blade cut flesh, and the creature let out a terrible screech before tumbling dead to the ground.

Serena gasped over Top, the corpse of whom was still steaming up from the ground, and pounded her heart on her chest. She had done it. She had killed one of them. Even the Onyx wolf in her snarled its approval, but she shoved it in the deepest shadow of her thoughts. This was her win, not its.

But the fight wasn’t over. It expanded into a larger, more grotesque ruin. It had eyes like gouged pits of blackness, an abyss of darkness in its gaze, and it moved with horrific speed.” For Serena, there was little time to react as it plunged at her, its claws slashing inches from her face.

Lucian appeared, sword thwapping into the beast’s arm, hitting bone, steel sparking. The Ruin hissed but remained where it was. But it was a force of nature and intent on tearing down.

“Get back! Move,” Lucian roared, shoving Serena aside just as the beast swung at him again.

But Serena didn’t back down. She couldn’t. Her Onyx wolf was now awake, desperately banging its body against the bars she’d constructed to keep it trapped. The sensation of power didn’t suffocate her so much as it was at last something that she never could refuse.

She sprinted, screaming, to meet the beast on her territory, knife grip shifted. The Ruin blinked at her, its eyes wide with surprise, but it was already too late. Serena was already upon it. The blade drove into its flank, and the thing roared, strangled, and backed away, blood gushing from the wound.

But it wasn’t enough. Not yet.

Serena stabbed it in deep and twisted, as though to go for the Ruin’s heart, but its arm lashed out and seized her by the throat, lifting her and the knife off the ground. As the air in the corset forced her lungs out, her visual field shrank and shut like the eyepiece of a dark room. The Onyx wolf was thrashing within her, angry, wanting out, wanting to fight back—but Serena was doing her best to hold it down.

“Lucian!” She shrieked in terror as the beast pursued her.

Lucian, who had been there, was throwing his entire weight onto the monster’s arm. He heard the roar echoing through his very bones from the sword he had plunged deep into the ruin’s gut. The creature spit Serena out, staggering away, the wound draining its strength and movement.

Serena dropped to the dirt and thumped hard, but she never eased off. Legs trembling from the effort, she pushed up and charged again. This time, she wasn’t going to wait for the monster to draw near. And struck out with all the fury, the grief, and the terror she displayed then. She heard the Onyx wolf howling in her, and this time she surrendered.

In a single fluid movement, she drove her dagger into the ruin’s chest; it collapsed, a pile of rubble, dead. Serena towered above it, sweating profusely, breath rattling through her lungs. The battle was over.

But when the dust settled and the pack turned toward her, Serena already knew that the battle had just begun. They’d won this battle, but it was only one battle. The ancients were still out there, and they weren’t going to let up until they got what they wanted.

Serena looked through the pack until her eyes came upon Kaelen, Lucian, and Elias. All bruised and battered but alive. She wasn’t alone. Not anymore.

But she could feel the weight of the decision she was considering as heavy on her shoulders. And now, she was in another world, and she couldn’t come back. The Onyx wolf in him was stirring, and his family was gone. Whether she could, at this point, heal the shards of time was an open question, but try she was going to bloody well do.

For Isolde. For herself. And for the future we all fought for.