Chapter 9 Ashes to Vera

Vera's POV

Six months had passed since that fateful night Selene died, and I was born. The safe house Darius had forwarded me to was my personal training area, where other slaves of the light taught me how to harness the power flowing within me. Now I stood on the edge of what was home before, looking over the pack lands I'd grown to know.

Crescent Pack looked no different from a distance, but my enhanced senses detected subtle variations. A stench of terror clung to the colony like a mist. Pack members moved about with restless energy, glancing nervous looks over their shoulders as if anticipating attack. Something had changed in this colony, and not for the best.

I had my nomad healer's pack slung over my shoulder and headed down the slope. My appearance was changed enough that even wolves that had known me well would take some time to recognise me. My hair was longer and darker now, my face shape had shifted in the change, and I moved differently as well. Where Selene had been quiet and innocent, Vera was cautious and vigilant.

Border guards stopped me at the border of the pack. Two young wolves I recognised, but who did not recognise me, their hands on swords.

"Speak your business," the taller snarled.

"I'm a travelling healer," I said, my voice steady. "I heard your pack was having some health problems. Figured I could help."

It was not entirely a lie. During training, I had heard whispers from other domains of bizarre sickness spreading among members of Crescent Pack. Wolves vanishing into inexplicable comas, others breaking out into violence. The attacks were akin to what Darius had told me of shadow realm manipulation.

"We don't need outside help," the second guard said, but I could sense doubt in his eyes.

I let a tiny slice of truth-forcing power into my words. "Your pack healer is overwhelmed, isn't she? Too many patients, too many questions with no answers. I could be of use."

The guards glanced at one another. My power worked quietly, suggesting the possibility rather than forcing it. They wanted to think that help was available.

"Wait here," the tall one said. "I will go inquire of the Beta."

My heart constricted at Kane's name, but I kept my tone even. "Of course."

I stretched out my senses to the pack community and waited. The familiar energy signatures were all there – Corwin's strong Alpha presence, the elderly council members, the families I'd known since childhood. But underlying it all was something else interwoven, something that caused my skin to prickle. Dark energy that had a flavour of hunger and chill.

The guard returned with permission to travel, but he would not let me go by myself. Crossing the settlement, I could see how many of the pack's members were ill. Pale faces, dark rings under their eyes, a general look of tiredness that spoke of sleepless nights and round-the-clock worry.

"Something's been going on here," I told the guard quietly.

"Odd things. Folks are getting ill for nothing. Others are violent, like they're no longer themselves."

He scanned the area nervously. "Some people say that it's a curse. Retribution for what happened to our old Luna."

The irony wasn't wasted on me. The pack believed they were being punished for killing an innocent woman, when in fact it was the man who'd set her up.

"Your old Luna?"

"Murdered the prince six months ago. Alpha had her done away with." The guard's voice was tinged with regret.

"But since then, nothing has been right. Makes you wonder if maybe she was innocent after all."

I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from responding. Kane's version of events was being questioned by people, and that could be my advantage. But I needed to be careful and not reveal too much too quickly.

The guard brought me to the pack infirmary, which was a plain wooden structure that had been expanded since I'd last visited. The old pack healer within was thin and grey-haired, with loose hair coiffed around a face furrowed into concern.

"Another healer?" she asked when she saw me. "Bless the goddess, I'm drowning in these cases."

"I'm Vera," I said, holding out my hand. "I cure unusual diseases."

"MARGARET," she said, reaching for my hand with gratitude. "And bizarre is not quite the term to apply to what we're treating."

She walked me through the medical ward, presenting me to patient after patient with unexplainable symptoms. Some were comatose so far down they would never respond. Others fought at restraints, rolling their eyes with unnatural rage. A few endlessly muttered in tongues that sounded non-human.

"When did it start?" I inquired, even though I already knew.

"Perhaps three months ago. Started with one or two cases only, but it's spreading." Margaret slapped her hands on her apron, leaving stripes of exhaustion. "I've tried everything – herbs, potions, old remedies. Nothing works."

Three months ago would have been approximately the time that Kane had started to accelerate his agenda. The timetable coincidentally matched what Darius had told me concerning shadow realm interference.

"Any other unusual occurrences? Unusual deaths, people acting out of character?"

Margaret's face fell. "The former Luna's execution was intended to mark the start of it all. And then the case of Prince Marcus's murder was reopened last month."

My heart froze. "Reopened?"

"Alpha Corwin found discrepancies in the proof. Started questioning whether his wife was really guilty." Margaret had a low voice. "Beta Kane tried to discourage the investigation, but the Alpha wouldn't give up."

I hadn't been looking for this news. Corwin was starting to doubt Kane's story. That would be useful, but it also meant things were riskier. Kane would be desperate to cover his tracks.

"What did the Alpha find?"

"I don't know all of it, but rumour has it, some of the witnesses recanted. They said they'd been coerced into lying." Margaret glanced around nervously. "Folks are afraid to discuss it openly. The Beta's been. Short-tempered lately. Quick to anger."

The rest of the day was taken up with examining patients and recording. The symptoms were all symptoms of shadow realm contamination – the comas, the flashbacks, the strange speech, all fitting what I'd learned during training. Kane was testing these people as laboratory rats, probably to open a wider doorway between worlds.

When night came, Margaret invited me to remain in the healers' quarters. I agreed, realising that I had to be inside the pack's defences to take in information effectively.

That night, I slipped out of the medical compound and cut through the dark settlement. My super senses guided me to where I'd felt the dark energy coming from previously. It led me to a building I'd never seen before – a stone structure that oozed evil as a fire gives off heat.

I circled the building carefully, noting the guards posted at regular intervals. Whatever was inside, Kane wasn't taking any chances with security. But I needed to know what he was hiding.

I used the shadow-walking techniques I'd learned back at the safe house, merging with the shadows and slipping by the first guard. The skill still felt uncharacteristic, as if becoming momentarily insubstantial, but it worked.

Inside, I found something that froze blood in my veins. The middle room had been converted into a kind of ritual chamber, with rings carved into the stone floor and filled with black liquid that stank of death. Candles made from what seemed to be human fat illuminated the walls with unhealthy light and were covered in symbols that throbbed to look upon directly.

But the middle room's cage made my breath catch.

Three pack members I had known were held in iron bars, but they were no longer themselves. Their eyes glowed with silver light, and dark things slithered beneath their skin as if alive. They'd been possessed by shadow world beings, been used as hosts for things that did not belong in our world.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" a voice I recognised said behind me.

I glanced back to find Kane standing in the doorway, his blue eyes aglow with victory. He was thinner, paler than I remembered – dark veins visible on his skin. The corruption was changing him, too.

"The transformation process is almost complete," he continued, stepping into the room. "I shall be able to transform populations as opposed to individuals soon."

I kept my face blank, but my heart was racing. "I'm just a travelling healer. I don't have the foggiest idea what you're talking about."

Kane laughed once more, the sound like breaking glass. "Did you really think I wouldn't recognise you, Selene? Or would you like me to address you as Vera these days?"

My blood turned icy. He knew me.

"The ritual changed your appearance, but not the signature of your soul. I've been waiting for you since the old crone set you free." Kane moved closer, and I could feel the craziness in his eyes building. "My new friends taught me how to pierce magical appearances."

"Your friends?"

"Bodies as strong and smart as your little brain could not comprehend them. They've shown me the truth – our world is weak, vulnerable, ready to be devoured by something larger." Kane motioned towards the possessed pack members. "These three are just the beginning. Soon, all the wolves in the territory will belong to the shadow world."

"Like you?"

"I'll be their general here. Commanding armies of turned wolves, their power extending over all the packs." Kane's smile was absolute insanity. "And you, lovely Selene, will be my first willing convert."

"I'll never be your servant."

"Won't you?" Kane held out a small crystal that hummed with dark energy. "This contains the concentrated power of shadow realm energy. One touch, and you'll know the loveliness of surrender."

He stepped up to me, the crystal glinting more brightly in his hand. I drew back, but there was nowhere to run. The crazed pack members trapped in the cage were straining through the bars, trying to grab me with claw-fingered hands.

"Don't fight it, Selene. Let the darkness take you. Let it show you how wonderful it feels to worry less about right and wrong."

The crystal was inches from my cheek when the building doors blew open. Corwin stormed in, surrounded by a band of his devoted warriors, his expression twisted with fury and betrayal.

"Back away from her, Kane!" he thundered.

Kane spun around, a flash of actual surprise crossing his face. "Alpha. How did you-"

"I pursued the stench of corruption." Corwin's eyes swept the ritual room, the pack members who were demon-possessed, the black glyphs scribbled on the walls. "Goddess save us, what did you do?"

"What needed doing?" Kane snarled. "What you were too weak to do yourself."

"Weak?" Corwin's words dropped to a killing whisper. "You murdered my brother. You used my wife. You've poisoned our pack with shadow realm rubbish. And you call me weak?"

Kane stood over him, the crystal held tight in his hand, its black light rising to wildly shining brilliance. "I say you're obsolete."

He flung the crystal at Corwin's feet, and it broke, releasing a cloud of unadulterated shadow which spread itself on the floor like living smoke.

"Run!" I shouted, but too late.

The shadow-smoke engulfed Corwin first, its fingers clamping about his ankles like hungry tentacles. His eyes grew wide with horror as darkness slithered up his body, hunting for his heart.