Chapter 5 The Cascades

We stole another car-this one a matte-black Charger that growled like it was born angry-and pointed it east, toward the mountains that had once been home.

The Cascades rose ahead of us like the spine of some ancient sleeping beast. Snow already capped the highest peaks even though it was barely September. The bond between Selene and me had settled into a constant, low thrum, like a second heartbeat just under my ribs. Sometimes it purred. Sometimes it snarled. Right now it was screaming.

Because every mile we drove closer to Blackthorn territory, the Hunger got louder.

It wasn't just inside Selene anymore.

It was inside me.

I could feel it licking at the edges of my mind, tasting memories, whispering promises:

Give me one heart. Just one. I'll be quiet for days.

I'll let you kiss her without fear.

I'll let you sleep.

I kept both hands on the wheel so tight my knuckles went white.

Selene hadn't spoken in two hours.

She sat curled against the passenger window, knees to chest, staring at the forest sliding past like it might bite her. The black feather Nyx had given me was clutched between her fingers so hard the quill had started to bleed shadow.

"We're walking into a trap," she said finally, voice hoarse.

"I know."

"My father-he's not-he can't be-"

"I know."

She turned to me, violet eyes glassy with tears she refused to let fall. "If he really is the first Alpha... that means he's over three hundred years old. That means everything I thought I knew about my family is a lie."

I reached over and pried the feather from her death grip, laced our fingers instead.

"Then we burn the lie down and build something true on the ashes," I said. "Together."

She laughed, wet and broken. "You make it sound so easy."

"It's not. But dying is easier, and I'm done with easy."

The Charger ate the miles.

We crossed the invisible border into Blackthorn land just after midnight.

The wards hit us like a slap-ancient magic that tasted of pine needles and old blood. The car shuddered. The radio screamed static shaped like wolves howling. Selene's back arched; black veins spidered across her throat so fast I almost veered off the road.

"Pull over!" she gasped.

I slammed the brakes, skidding onto the shoulder. She was out the door before the car stopped rocking, vomiting black bile onto the frost-rimed gravel. The bond convulsed; I felt every heave like it was my own stomach turning inside out.

When it passed, she stayed on her knees, forehead pressed to the cold ground.

"It knows we're home," she whispered. "It's... happy."

I crouched beside her, slid my arms around her waist, pulled her back against my chest.

"Then let's give it something to be afraid of."

She turned in my arms and kissed me-desperate, filthy, tasting of darkness and tears. We made out on the side of the road like the world was ending tomorrow.

Because it probably was.

We ditched the Charger two miles from the main compound and went in on foot, cloaked in stolen enforcer jackets and the kind of silence only predators know. The forest was too quiet. No night birds. No insects. Just the wind moving through pine needles like a warning.

The pack village looked abandoned.

Windows dark. Doors hanging open. Blood on the porch steps, still wet.

Selene went rigid.

"Leander's birthday banner," she said, pointing with a shaking finger.

A faded blue banner still hung across the alpha lodge porch: HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY, LEE!

It had been twelve years.

She started running.

I followed.

We found the first body in the square.

An elder. Throat opened. Heart gone.

Then another.

And another.

Twenty-three in total. Arranged in a perfect circle around the ceremonial bonfire pit. Their chests carved open with the same surgical precision I remembered from the old mill.

But this time, the hearts weren't eaten.

They were displayed.

Strung up on silver wire like grotesque garlands, still beating.

Selene made a sound like a dying animal.

In the center of the circle stood Alpha Caelan.

He hadn't aged a day since I last saw him. Tall, broad-shouldered, silver-streaked hair tied back, violet eyes glowing in the dark.

He smiled when he saw us.

"Hello, daughter," he said gently. "Welcome home."

Selene's knees buckled.

I caught her before she hit the ground.

Caelan's gaze shifted to me. "And Elara. My son's mate. How poetic."

The bond exploded with rage so pure it nearly blinded me.

Selene lunged.

She was fast-faster than I'd ever seen-but Caelan was faster. He caught her by the throat one-handed and lifted her clean off the ground like she weighed nothing.

"Still fighting," he sighed. "After all these years."

Selene clawed at his arm. Black veins raced across her skin, down her arms, trying to infect him. He just laughed.

"You can't curse what's already cursed, child."

He flung her sideways. She hit the ground hard, rolled, came up coughing blood.

I shifted without thinking-silver wolf, bigger than I'd ever been, fueled by the bond and pure terror. I went for his throat.

He backhanded me out of the air like I was a pup.

I crashed through the birthday banner, splintered wood and pain exploding across my ribs. Shifted back human on impact, naked and bleeding.

Caelan walked over slowly, boots crunching on frost.

"You're stronger," he said, almost proud. "The bond suits you."

He crouched, cupped my chin, forced me to meet his eyes.

Up close, they weren't violet anymore.

They were galaxies.

Swirling black and starlight and ancient, endless hunger.

"You're not Caelan," I rasped.

"Oh, I am," he said. "I've been Caelan for two centuries. Before that I was Rowan. Before that, Elias. I wear my descendants like coats. When one body fails, I simply move to the next."

He released my chin, stood.

"The bargain was never for a vessel," he said conversationally. "It was for a cage. One strong enough to hold the Hunger forever. And every generation, I choose a daughter to test. To see if love can finally leash what fear never could."

Selene was on her feet again, swaying.

"You killed Leander," she said. Voice dead. "Your own son."

"He was weak," Caelan said. "Like all the others. But you, Selene... you brought me something new."

He gestured at me.

"An anchor willing to tear her own flesh to keep you sane. That's... unprecedented."

He spread his arms.

"So here we are. The final test. Kill me, and the Hunger dies with me. Fail, and I take your bodies, your bond, your love-everything-and wear it for another three hundred years."

Selene looked at me.

I looked at her.

We didn't need words.

We attacked together.

It was beautiful.

It was suicide.

Selene went high, claws and fangs and raw power. I went low, faster, meaner, fueled by every ounce of rage and love I'd ever swallowed. We moved like we'd been fighting side by side for centuries-like the bond had choreographed us before we were born.

Caelan laughed the entire time.

He broke my arm in two places. Shattered Selene's collarbone. Threw us around the square like rag dolls.

But we kept getting up.

Because every time he hurt one of us, the other felt it-and turned it into fuel.

At some point I lost track of time.

There was only blood and bone and the sound of Selene screaming my name like a prayer.

Then Nyx's feather-still clutched in my fist-began to burn.

White-hot.

I remembered her words: When the time comes, cut deep. Cut true. And do not hesitate.

Caelan had Selene pinned face-down in the dirt, one boot on her neck, hand buried in her chest.

He was going to take her heart.

I didn't think.

I just moved.

The feather elongated in my grip, becoming a blade of pure starlight-long, thin, humming with power older than the moon itself.

I drove it straight through Caelan's back.

Into the place where a heart should have been.

He froze.

Looked down at the blade protruding from his chest, silver and black light pouring out like blood.

Then he laughed.

Actually laughed.

"Well done, anchor," he said, voice distorting, layering, becoming a thousand voices at once. "You found the only thing that can kill me."

He turned, still impaled, and smiled with too many teeth.

"But you have to twist it."

Selene's eyes met mine across the square.

Tears and blood and love.

"Do it," she mouthed.

I twisted.

The world ended.

Light exploded outward-white and black and every color that had ever existed. The hanging hearts burst into ash. The bodies on the ground dissolved into silver dust. The bond between Selene and me ignited, a supernova behind my ribs.

Caelan-no, the thing wearing Caelan-screamed.

A sound that shattered windows for miles.

His body aged centuries in seconds-skin withering, hair going white, bones crumbling. The starlight blade ate him from the inside out until there was nothing left but a hollow man-shaped silhouette of ash.

Then the wind took even that.

Silence.

Absolute.

Selene and I lay in the ruins of the square, broken and bleeding and alive.

The Hunger was gone.

I felt its absence like a missing limb.

Selene crawled to me across the frost, leaving a trail of blood.

We met in the middle.

Collapsed together.

She touched my face with shaking fingers.

"Is it over?" she whispered.

I kissed her instead of answering.

Because I wasn't sure.

The bond was still there-quieter now, gentler. But something else lingered. A whisper at the edge of hearing.

A promise.

Or a warning.

We limped away from the village as the sun rose-two girls covered in blood and ash, holding each other up.

Behind us, the forest began to burn.

Not with fire.

With moonlight.

Every tree, every leaf, every blade of grass glowing soft silver.

And carved into the bark of the oldest pine, fresh and bleeding sap, were four words:

THE CAGE IS EMPTY

We didn't look back again.

But somewhere, deep in the Hollow beneath the mountain, thirteen ancient thrones began to crack.

One by one.

And in the silence that followed, something vast and nameless stretched.

Woke up.

And smiled.