Chapter 189

The whispers started at dawn.

Nyra was sitting by the window of her room, watching the sun rise over the village, when she heard them for the first time. Soft at first barely audible, like the distant murmur of a stream. But they grew louder, more insistent, until they were impossible to ignore.

Blood.

She stiffened. Her hands tightened on the windowsill.

Blood. So much blood. Spill it. Taste it. Drink it.

“No,” she whispered. “No, I won’t.”

You want to. You know you want to. It’s what you are now. It’s what you’ve always been.

“I’m not—I’m not a monster.”

You are. You’re a monster. And monsters need to feed.

She closed her eyes and pressed her hands against her ears, trying to block out the voices. But they were inside her, not outside. They were part of her now. Part of the darkness that had taken root in her soul.

Blood. Blood. Blood.

She screamed.

Corvin heard the scream from across the village.

He was in the square, talking with Ragnar and the others, when the sound cut through the morning air like a blade. He spun toward the inn, his heart pounding.

“Nyra.”

He ran.

He burst through the door of her room and found her on the floor her body trembling, her hands pressed against her ears, her eyes squeezed shut. She was muttering something words he couldn’t understand and there was something wrong with her voice. Something dark. Something terrible.

“Nyra!” He dropped to his knees beside her. “Nyra, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

She opened her eyes.

They were red.

Not the moonlight silver he had known not the bright, beautiful eyes of the woman he loved. Red. Deep, burning red. The color of blood. The color of fire. The color of something dark and terrible and utterly, completely wrong.

“Get away from me,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Get away from me!” Her voice rose sharp, desperate, afraid. “I can’t control it. I can’t—”

She convulsed, her body arching off the floor, her hands clawing at the air. The dark energy around her intensified a cold, suffocating presence that made Corvin’s skin crawl. The whispers grew louder not just in Nyra’s mind now, but in his too. He could hear them. Faint, but unmistakable.

Blood. Blood. Blood.

“Nyra, listen to me.” He reached for her. “You’re stronger than this. You can fight it. I know you can—”

“NO!” She scrambled away from him, her back hitting the wall. “Stay back! Please! I don’t want to hurt you!”

“You won’t hurt me. You could never hurt me.”

“You don’t know that!” Tears streamed down her face but they were not normal tears. They were tinged with red. “I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know what I’ve become. I’m losing myself, Corvin. I’m losing everything.”

“You’re not losing anything. We’ll find a way—”

“There is no way!” She screamed. “There is no way! I’m going to destroy everything. I’m going to destroy everyone. I’m going to—”

She stopped. Her body went rigid. Her eyes—those terrible red eyes fixed on something behind Corvin.

He turned.

Ragnar, Roderic, Marek, Maureen, and Jasper stood in the doorway. They had followed him. They had heard the screams. They had come to help.

But when they saw Nyra, saw the red eyes, the dark energy, the fangs that had begun to protrude from her gums they froze.

“Nyra?” Ragnar’s voice was barely a whisper. “What’s happening to you?”

“Stay back,” Corvin said. “All of you, stay back.”

“We can’t just—”

“I said stay back!”

But it was too late.

Nyra lunged.

She moved faster than any of them could react faster than human, faster than wolf. She reached for Corvin and in the blink of an eye and sank her fangs into his neck.

He didn’t move.

He didn’t scream.

He just held her.

His arms wrapped around her, pulling her close, pressing her against his chest. He could feel her teeth in his skin, could feel the blood flowing from the wound, could feel the darkness radiating from her body like heat from a fire.

But he didn’t let go.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

The others screamed. Ragnar lunged forward, but Roderic held him back. Maureen buried her face in Jasper’s shoulder. Marek stood frozen, his face pale.

And then—

Nyra tasted the blood.

The darkness receded. The whispers faded. The red in her eyes flickered and for just a moment they were silver again.

She pulled back.

Corvin’s blood was on her lips warm and red and terrible. She stared at it, at him, at what she had done.

“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no—”

“It’s okay,” Corvin said again. “I’m okay. You didn’t hurt me.”

“I bit you!” She scrambled backward, her hands flying to her mouth. “I bit you! I drank your blood! I’m a monster!”

“You’re not a monster.”

“I am! I’m a monster! I’m everything I feared I would become!” She was sobbing now great, heaving sobs that shook her entire body. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—I couldn’t control it—”

“It’s alright.” Corvin stepped toward her slowly, carefully, his hand extended. “It’s alright. We’ll fix this. We’ll find a way.”

“There is no way! Don’t you understand? I’m not me anymore. I’m something else. Something dark. Something—”

“Enough.”

The voice came from the doorway.

The seer stood there ancient, weathered, her milky eyes fixed on Nyra with an expression of profound sadness. She had been summoned by the screams. She had come as quickly as she could.

But she was too late.

“It’s already begun,” the seer said quietly. “The darkness has taken root. It’s growing. It’s consuming her.”

“Can you stop it?” Ragnar demanded. “Can you help her?”

The seer was silent for a long moment. Then she shook her head.

“I don’t know how.”

They gathered in the main room of the inn Nyra, Corvin, the others, and the seer. Nyra was sitting in a corner, her knees drawn up to her chest, her face buried in her hands. She was trembling. She was crying. She was terrified.

Corvin sat beside her, his hand on her back. The wound on his neck had been bandaged by Maureen, but it was still bleeding a slow, steady trickle that stained his collar red his wolf was slowly healing it.

“I don’t understand,” Ragnar said. “What happened in the trial? What did she see?”

“The Trial of the Heart is the most dangerous of the three tests,” the seer said. “It doesn’t just test the heart—it breaks it. It takes the darkest fears, the deepest insecurities, the most painful memories, and it forces them to the surface. Most who face it are consumed by them.”

“But Nyra passed,” Jasper said. “She came back.”

“She came back. But a piece of the trial came back with her.” The seer paused. “A piece of the darkness. It has taken root in her soul. And it is growing.”

“Can it be stopped?” Maureen asked.

“I don’t know. I have never seen this happen before. The trial has never left a piece of itself behind. This is something new. Something dangerous.” The seer looked at Nyra. “The darkness will continue to grow. It will consume her—body, mind, and soul. And when it does—”

“She’ll become a monster,” Nyra whispered. “I’ll become a monster.”

“You’ll become something else. Something dark. Something that will destroy everything it touches.”

The room fell silent.

Corvin’s hand tightened on Nyra’s back. “We won’t let that happen.”

“How?” Ragnar demanded. “How do we stop it? There has to be a way.”

“I don’t know,” the seer said again. “But I will search. I will consult the ancient texts. I will do everything in my power to find an answer.” She rose. “In the meantime, you must keep her calm. The darkness feeds on negative emotions—fear, anger, despair. The more she feels them, the stronger it becomes.”

“So we keep her happy,” Roderic said. “We keep her calm.”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know.”

The seer left the room, leaving them alone with the terrible truth.

In the Moon Court, the Moon Goddess sat on her throne.

She had been her daughter struggle, watching the darkness consume her, watching the people she loved try to save her. She had seen the red eyes. She had felt the shift in energy. She had known, with cold certainty, that something had gone terribly wrong.

“I can’t sit here any longer,” she said.

Evelyn looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m going to the mortal realm. I’m going to see for myself what’s happening to my daughter.”

“But the laws—”

“The laws mean nothing. Not when it comes to her.” The goddess rose from her throne. “I will go to her. I will find a way to save her. Whatever it takes.”

“Then I’m coming with you.”

“No. You need to stay here. Someone must watch over the Moon Court while I’m gone.”

Evelyn wanted to argue. She wanted to insist. But she knew the goddess was right.

“Fine,” she said. “But bring her back. Bring her back safe.”

“I will.”

The goddess turned to leave but then she paused.

“There’s something else I need to do first.”

“What?”

The goddess closed her eyes. The moonlight around her flared. And when she opened them again, there was something different in her expression. Something soft. Something warm.

“Soren,” she said.