Chapter 8 The Guardians Burden

Ethan's dad was waiting when he got home. "You went back to the mill, didn't you?"Ethan nodded, too tired to lie. "I have to fix this, Dad. It's bigger than us."Tom's eyes were red. "Eleanor thought the same. It killed her.""I'm not her," Ethan said, though doubt gnawed at him.He met Marcus and Lila at the school, where they'd been researching the Circle. Lila found a reference to a failsafe-a way to destroy the shadow without a guardian. It required breaking the vial at the exact moment the shadow woke, during a lunar eclipse. The next one was in two days."We can do this," Lila said.

"But it's risky. If we mess up, the shadow could... spread."Ethan didn't care about the risk. He was done being scared. They planned to return to the chamber during the eclipse, armed with everything they knew. But Ethan kept one thing from them: the voice was growing stronger, urging him to accept the role of guardian.That night, he held the vial, its glow hypnotic. The voice whispered promises-power, purpose, a way to save everyone. Ethan's hands shook. He wanted to believe it, but he remembered his dad's words about Eleanor.He wouldn't let it win.