CHAPTER 86: ANCIENT SECRETS

Chapter 86: Ancient Secrets

Liana dove forward as Celeste’s arm whipped toward Talia. The shadow arm wrapped around Liana’s waist instead, burning like acid through her clothes. "Gotcha!" Celeste shrieked through her twisted lips.

But instead of fear, Liana felt something else rising. Power. Pure, ancient power that made her bones hum like tuning forks. "Let her go!" Kael roared, lunging forward with his claws extended.

The limb holding Liana suddenly froze. Steam rose where it touched her skin, and Celeste screamed in real pain. "What’s happening to me?" Celeste wailed, trying to pull away but unable to let go. Lyra’s eyes went wide. "Impossible. She’s burning dark magic with pure light." "Not impossible," the phantom wolf said quietly.

"Inevitable. Show them, young guardian." Liana didn’t understand what was happening, but she could feel old memories flooding through her mind. Not from the old Luna this time.

These were older. Much older. Her skin began to glow with silver light that hurt to look at. Where the light touched Celeste’s shadow form, the darkness cracked and peeled away like old paint. "You’re hurting her!" the First Shadow snarled, its calm face finally slipping.

"Stop this!" "I can’t!" Liana gasped. The power was pouring out of her like water through a broken dam. "I don’t know how!" Lyra stepped closer, her face pale but determined. "I do. Listen to me, Liana. Your ancestors weren’t just royal blood.

They were guards." "What does that mean?" Jace ordered, still ready to fight but unsure what to fight. "It means everything we thought we knew was a lie," Lyra said quickly.

"Omega position was never about being weak. It was about having the purest link to protective magic. Your family has been guarding the barrier between worlds for thousands of years." The silver light around Liana pulsed brighter. Celeste’s screams got louder.

"The First Shadow has been trapped in the space between worlds," Lyra continued. "But the walls have been weakening. That’s why the spectral dogs appeared. That’s why the predictions started coming true. Your family was calling you home." "Home?" Liana’s voice sounded strange, like multiple people speaking at once.

"This mountain. This is where the first guardian built the original jail. Where your great-great-grandmother died holding the barrier shut." The spectral wolf nodded seriously. "She was the last true defender. When she died, the magic scattered into her children.

Diluted, but not killed." "Until now," the First Shadow hissed. "Until you brought them all together in one place." Rowan suddenly understood.

"That’s why all three of us felt the mate bond. It wasn’t about romance. It was about combining our power with hers." "Four points of light," the phantom wolf confirmed. "Four souls sharing one ancient duty." Liana felt the power settling as understanding grew.

The burning feeling faded, and Celeste finally managed to pull her tentacle away. But something had changed.

Where Liana’s light had touched her, Celeste’s shadow form looked... cleaner. More like her true self. "The corruption," Talia whispered, her seer’s vision showing her what the others couldn’t see yet. "You’re burning away the corruption." "Enough!" the First Shadow roared.

The temperature around them dropped twenty degrees in an instant. "If I cannot have willing servants, I’ll take unwilling ones." The mountain shook. Cracks emerged in the rocky ground, and from those cracks crawled things that shouldn’t exist.

Shadow animals with too many eyes and not enough skin. Twisted dogs with backwards joints and inside-out faces. "It’s sending its army," Marcus growled, his Beta senses screaming danger. But the corrupted creatures weren’t going for them.

They were racing down the mountain toward the pack area. "No!" Kael’s face went white. "Our people. Our families." "That’s the point," the First Shadow smiled with pleasure. "Come after me, and watch everyone you love die.

Stay here and try to save them, and I’ll escape while you’re gone." Liana felt her heart tearing in two. Save the world or save her pack. Save everyone or save the people she loved most. "There’s another way," Lyra said suddenly.

"The ancient texts describe emergency protocols. Ways to speed up the guardian training." "How fast?" Liana asked. "Fast enough to matter. But dangerous enough to kill you if you’re not ready."

The spectral wolves were gathering around them now, dozens of them making a protective circle. "We will help," the silver female stated. "We have waited centuries to pass on what we know." "And us?" Rowan asked, looking at his brothers.

"What’s our role in this?" The phantom wolf’s eyes glowed. "You must forge new ties. Stronger than blood. Deeper than fate. The old brotherhood magic your ancestors used before the pack system existed."

"Brotherhood magic?" Jace’s eyebrows shot up. "That’s a real thing?" "Very real. Very strong. And very painful to learn." The wolf’s smile was not encouraging. "But important. Four guardians need four unbreakable links." Talia suddenly grabbed Liana’s arm, her eyes rolling back as a vision hit her hard and fast.

"Three moons," she gasped. "I see three moons in the sky at once. The mountain is breaking open. There’s fire everywhere, but also ice.

And..." She paused, her face going pale. "What else?" Liana demanded. "Celeste. She’s not the enemy anymore. She’s fighting alongside us. But someone else..." Talia’s voice dropped to a whisper. "Someone else fails us. Someone we trust." Everyone looked around the group curiously. "When?" Lyra asked anxiously.

"When do the three moons align?" Talia’s eyes focused again, but they were filled with fear. "Tomorrow night. The Convergence happens tomorrow night." "That’s impossible," Marcus argued. "The lunar calendar says—"

"The First Shadow is pulling the moons out of their natural orbit," the spectral wolf interrupted grimly. "It’s forcing the Convergence early. Tomorrow night, the walls between all worlds will be at their weakest."

"So we have less than twenty-four hours to learn ancient magic, save our pack from shadow creatures, and stop an entity that’s been planning this for centuries?" Jace summary. "Yes." "Great. No pressure at all."

Liana looked down the mountain where screams were already echoing up from the pack area. Then she looked at Celeste, who was curled up on the ground, still fighting the shadow rot in her body. "Can she be saved?" Liana asked softly. "Ask me in twenty-four hours," Lyra answered. "Right now, we have bigger problems."

The First Shadow’s laughter echoed across the hilltop as more creatures poured from the cracks in the earth.

"Train fast, little guards. Learn well. Because tomorrow night, I finally go home. And I’m taking your world with me." As if called by its words, a massive crack split the sky above them.

Through it, they could see another world entirely. A place of endless shadow where hungry things waited with infinite patience. "The prison isn’t just broken," Liana realized with growing terror. "It’s opening doorways." "To everywhere," the phantom wolf confirmed.

"Every world, every realm, every possible reality. Tomorrow night, they all become one. Under the First Shadow’s rule." The crack in the sky widened, and something enormous started pushing through from the other side.

Something that made the First Shadow look small by comparison. "And that," Lyra whispered, looking up at the thing trying to squeeze through the dimensional tear, "is just the beginning."