All Chapters of Ascend or Be Consumed: Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

I closed my eyes, letting the memory of her strength and defiance mingle with my own. The path ahead was still dark, still lined with impossible choices, but now I felt more complete. Clarity softened the ache in my heart, if only slightly.The Magical Emperor, the Council of Five, the Apex Circle, Blackcroft itself… they would not dictate my story. Not this time.Not when I had Maureen’s journal as my map. This time, I would navigate from a place of understanding, of knowledge, of power I could finally trust.Corin’s voice broke the silence. “Naturally,” he said, almost casually, “if you came back as Maureen… you’ll be able to read her journal.”“Excuse me?”He smirked faintly. “You won't have lost your eyes to read your own journal, am I wrong?”His tone made me laugh aloud before I could stop myself, the sound lighter than I had realized I’d been holding back. Relief, disbelief, and a hint of joy poured out all at once.Willow stirred immediately, blinking awake. Confusion was cle

I told myself to breathe.That was the first thing I did when the world snapped back into place and we landed in the cold, massive stone chamber lit by pale-blue fire. The Nexus of Power. This was the place Corin had brought me after I received my Calling, and the moment my feet touched the floor, memory and magic tangled in my veins.Corin didn’t release my arm right away. He guided me forward as if I truly needed it, his grip gentle, deliberate. I let him. If anyone were watching, they would see exactly what they expected.Weakness.I could feel their piercing gazes on me, but none of them spoke yet. I held my breath, pretending to be blind, but I still caught the way Veylor was staring at my veil as if he was mocking my situation.I didn't care if he was, I just wanted him to unbind Eryx, so I could finally have peace of mind. The anticipation was killing me.For a nanosecond, the chamber wasn't filled with the presence of the most powerful men in Blackcroft. But with her—Maureen.

“The undying beasts you encountered,” he went on, “were only the beginning. Without the journal’s return, they would have torn through the boundaries entirely. Blackcroft would have been overrun. Not challenged. Devoured.”I stared at the sea, suddenly seeing it differently. As a boundary. A warning.“You did what was necessary,” Veylor said. “And you did it without handing power to those who would misuse it.”His eyes flicked to me. “That is why you will survive this.”I pressed a hand to my chest, the ache there stabbing and relentless. “But Lucan—” I whispered.Veylor’s voice hardened. “If he truly cares for you, he will endure this. If not, then better you learn that now.”The words hurt. But they rang with an ugly truth.I turned back to the Abyssal Verge, the wind whipping against my skin, and my fire stirring uneasily beneath my ribs.I had wanted answers. Power. Control.Now I had all three.And ten years alone with them.Veylor’s deep, commanding voice cut through the roar o

The deeper I went, the stranger it became.At first, it was subtle. A flicker of recognition that I had recognized back in the Void after watching her last days and witnessing a part of her life she had left behind—a certainty without memory. I would know how something felt before I remembered when or why. My hands moved with moves I had never trained. My heart reacted to names I had never heard spoken aloud.I knew things I could not remember learning.Memories surfaced that were not mine. Or rather, not supposed to be mine.Faces appeared when I closed my eyes. Voices followed me into waking hours. People I had never met, yet whose absence hurt like an old wound. I felt love, betrayal, devotion, rage, and longing layered so deeply that I could no longer tell where Maureen ended and Juno began. It was like I was waking up in my body, after a long sleep. It was haunting yet the truth. Reading Maureen Caldert’s memoir was no longer like reading another person’s words.It felt like rem

Silverclaw. The pack I had grown up in. The place that had shaped me before Blackcroft, before power, before loss. In Blackcroft, it was forbidden to return to your homeland until you became an Apex Initiate. The rule had been drilled into me until it felt absolute. But I'm no longer in Blackcroft. I mean, I didn't count as a student if I had been left behind here for over ten years. And there were questions I had never answered. About Eve. About my father’s bloodline. About what had happened to the people who once called my name with disdain, and pushed me around for being a half-blood. I stood at the edge of Silverclaw Pack’s border, the moonlight painting the forest in silver and shadow. My heart thudded in my chest, heavy with anticipation, and a strange ache I hadn’t felt in years. Nyx coiled around my shoulders, hissing softly as if she was reminding me that I wasn’t entirely alone. Then, the absence of my wolf pressed against me, more intense than ever. I missed her mo