Chapter 10 The Devourer

Elara's POV

The moment his name was spoken, the moonlight dimmed.

Even the stars above seemed to shrink away, hiding behind clouds that hadn't been there a moment ago.

The figure beside Rivan didn't move, but the air around him twisted. Bent. Warped like heat over fire. He raised a cloak of shadows and bone where his face should have been, there was only darkness beneath a crown of sharpened wolf teeth.

The Devourer.

My heart slammed against my ribs, but I didn't step back.

The Grove pulsed beneath my feet. The power I had awakened still surged in my veins, wild, ancient, terrifying.

"You are not real," I whispered, more to myself than to him. "You're a story they used to scare pups."

The Devourer tilted his head. And then, he spoke.

His voice wasn't a voice at all. It was hunger. Echo. Wind over graveyards. The sound of something long buried scratching its way back to the surface.

"I am every story," he said. "I am the thing beneath them. I am the end of the Moon's design."

Kalen stepped beside me, his hand finding mine.

"He's not a god," Kalen said lowly. "Just another wolf who wanted too much."

The Devourer's head turned toward him.

"And you are the proof she failed," he said, voice like cracked stone. "A cursed line. A broken heir. And now... a girl meant to bind your ruin with hers."

I tightened my grip on Kalen's hand.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

Rivan groaned behind the creature, coughing blood as he tried to rise to his knees. "I brought him," he rasped. "The packs wouldn't listen. They mocked me. But now... now they'll see what true power looks like."

"You fool," Kalen growled. "You summoned the one thing our kind buried for a reason."

Rivan bared his teeth. "Our kind is dying. I rather serve a god than rot like you."

The Devourer turned his attention back to me.

"You are Moonborn," he said. "But you are not hers. Not anymore."

"I didn't choose this," I snapped. "None of this."

"But you carry the key. The fire. The last spark of the true Alpha blood. You are the last doorway left to me."

Kalen stepped forward, putting himself between us.

"She is not a door. She is not yours."

The Devourer paused, then lifted one hand.

And Kalen screamed.

He dropped his knee clutching his chest. His body arched, shaking, eyes wide with pain. I moved to help, but an invisible force locked my limbs in place.

"You are hurting him!" I shouted.

"He bears the Curse," the Devourer said. "My mark. My chain. Without you, it consumes him. With you, I may claim it fully."

"No," I breathed. "I won't let you take him."

"You cannot stop me, little moonblood. The moment you touched his soul, you opened the gate."

I looked down at Kalen. He was shaking, teeth clenched, blood trailing from his nose. His eyes found mine, barely conscious and in them, I saw one word.

Fight.

The Moondust Sister's voices echoed in my mind.

"You must choose. To burn. Or to bind."

I closed my eyes.

And let the fire rise.

Not just the magic the witches had unlocked. but the memory of my mother's lullaby. The way Mira had held me when the night terrors came. The way Kalen looked at me like I wasn't just someone, but everything.

I stood tall.

The shadows recoiled.

And I spoke a name I hadn't remembered until now.

"Lirae Thorne."

The Devourer went still.

That was my mother's true name. The name I'd only heard once, hidden in a whisper before she vanished. The mate of Kalen's father. The one who sealed the first curse with her blood.

"You know it," I said.

"She betrayed me," the Devourer whispered. "And you are her echo."

"Then hear this," I said. "I am not your vessel. I am not your key. I am Elara. Daughter of the fire and the moon. And you do not own me."

The power surged from my chest in a wave of gold and silver.

It struck the Devourer like sunlight through shadow.

He screamed, not in pain, but in fury.

He recoiled, his form blurring, scattering like smoke in the wind. Behind him, Rivan collapsed fully, unconscious or worse.

The Grove shook. The moon above flared, then dimmed again, flickering.

And then... he was gone.

Just like that.

The silence after was deafening.

Kalen collapsed fully into my arms, unconscious but breathing.

I cradled him, shaking, heart pounding.

The Moondust Sisters reappeared around the stones, watching silently.

"You drove him back," the Crone said.

"For now," added the Mother.

The Maiden tilted her head. "But the bond has changed. You've awakened something neither of you can contain."

I looked down at Kalen.

"I will learn."

The Crone narrowed her eyes. "Will you? Or will you burn the world trying?"

I stood, even though my knees trembled.

"Then let it burn."

Ashen?" My voice cracked, disbelieving.

He stood in the doorway like a ghost made flesh, Mira's body limp in his arms, blood staining his chest. The grief on his face didn't match the violence of the scene.

"I don't mean to..." he whispered, his eyes glassy. "She wouldn't let me take you."

Kalen stepped forward, fury written across every tense line of his body. "You killed her."

"She tried to curse me," Ashen snapped, breathing hard. "She wasn't Mira anymore."

Tears burned my vision. "She was still mine."

Ashen lowered Mira gently to the ground, as if that made it better.

"I came to protect you," he said. "But you have let something ancient into you. I saw it in the Temple. You are not Elara anymore."

"Yes," I said, voice trembling but clear. "I am. And I'm done being protected."

Ashen's jaw clenched. "Then you leave me, no choice."

Suddenly, a whistle sliced through the air.

Kalen lunged, grabbing me just as an arrow shattered the stone behind us.

Dozens of wolves stepped from the shadows. Ashen's soldiers.

But before the battle could begin, the ground groaned and the Temple began to collapse around us.

From a distant peak, a silver flare lit the sky, the ancient Moon Temple, once sealed, now awakened.

And inside, a forgotten voice whispered Elara's name.

The final trial had begun.