CHAPTER 90: THREADS OF FATE

Chapter 90: Threads of Fate

The True Shadow’s words hit Liana like ice water. Worlds eaten. Universes eaten.

And now these monsters were free. "No," she whispered, then louder, "NO!" Something deep inside her snapped awake.

Not her wolf. Not her guardian skills. Something bigger. Something that had been sleeping since the universe started.

Golden threads appeared in the air around her—thousands of them, millions, stretching in every direction. They weren’t just linking her to the wolves below. They were joining everything. Every tree, every rock, every star in the sky. "The fabric," her mother breathed in wonder.

"You can see the fabric of reality itself." Liana reached out and touched one of the threads. Instantly, she could feel the damage the True Shadows had caused. Reality was torn in a hundred places.

Their world was bleeding into the dark realm, and the dark realm was poisoning everything it touched. But she could fix it. She could reweave the tears. "I can repair this," she said, her voice filled with new confidence. "I can send them back."

The largest True Shadow turned its burning eyes on her. "Impossible. We have already taken root. Your world feeds us now." "Then I’ll starve you out." Liana grabbed the nearest thread and started to weave. Where her fingers touched, the golden lines blazed with light. The dimensional crack above them started to shrink.

Pain burst through her body. It felt like every cell was on fire. Blood ran from her nose, her eyes, her ears. But she kept weaving. "Liana, stop!" Kael shouted. "You’re killing yourself!" "If I stop, we all die anyway," she gasped. The True Shadow lashed out at her with a tendril of pure darkness.

Before it could hit, Jace appeared in front of her, his twin blades cutting the blow in half. "You want her?" he snarled. "Come through us first." Rowan stepped up beside his brother, his healing staff shining. "I can keep you going," he told Liana.

"But not for long." Kael took place on her other side, his golden sword creating a dome of light around them. "Do what you have to do. We’ll hold them off." The mate tie between all four of them suddenly blazed to life. Through it, Liana could feel their power flowing into her. Their love.

Their total faith that she could save them all. The pain faded slightly. She grabbed more threads. Above them, Voidheart was facing three True Shadows at once, his newly cleansed silver light cutting through their darkness. But he was losing.

For every dark tendril he destroyed, two more took its place. "I can’t hold them much longer!" he called down. Liana wove faster. The first dimensional crack snapped shut. Then the second.

But closing each one sent fresh pain through her body. She could feel her life force burning away like a candle in a storm. "There are too many," she whispered. "I can’t... I can’t close them all." That’s when her mother—the spirit of light—made a choice that would change everything. "Yes, you can," she said softly. "Because you won’t be alone."

Before anyone could stop her, Liana’s mother flew straight at the biggest True Shadow. Instead of fighting it, she wrapped her arms around it and started to glow. "What are you doing?" Liana screamed. "What I should have done eighteen years ago," her mother responded. "I’m taking them with me."

The light around her grew brighter and brighter. The True Shadow she was holding began to scream as her cleansing energy burned through its essence.

"If you want to devour something," Liana’s mother said, her voice booming across the mountain, "devour this." She exploded. The blast of pure light was so bright it turned night into day for three states. When it faded, the biggest True Shadow was gone.

So was Liana’s mother. But her sacrifice gave Liana the chance she needed. With tears streaming down her face, she grabbed every thread she could reach and started weaving like her life depended on it.

Because it did. One by one, the dimensional cracks snapped shut. The dark realm began pulling back from their world. The remaining True Shadows found themselves being sucked back into their jail.

"This isn’t over!" the last one shrieked as it disappeared. "We will return! We will feed!" The final crack sealed with a sound like thunder. Liana fell to her knees, blood pouring from her wounds. She had done it.

She had saved their world. But as she looked around at the celebration starting below, she felt something wrong. A coldness in the air that shouldn’t be there. Voidheart landed beside them, his silver light dim but steady. "You did it," he said. "You actually did it." "Did I?" Liana asked softly.

"Something feels..." "Wrong," Talia finished, her seer eyes wide with fear. "Something’s still here. In our world. Hiding." Elder Mira, who had been silent through the entire fight, suddenly stepped forward.

Her old face was pale with understanding. "The creature’s physical form is gone," she said softly. "But its core... its soul... it’s still here. Looking for a new body to enter."

As if summoned by her words, a whisper of shadow started moving through the crowd of celebrating wolves below.

It was almost invisible, just a wisp of darkness searching for the right host. "It’s looking for someone strong," Mira continued. "Someone with power it can use.

Someone like..." The shadow suddenly changed direction. Instead of searching through the crowd, it started floating up toward the mountain. Toward them. "It wants one of us," Rowan said, raising his staff defensively. "No," Mira said, her voice filled with terrible confidence.

"It wants all of us. If it can possess someone linked to Liana through the mate bond, it can access her guardian powers. It can use her strength to tear open the walls again."

The shadow was getting closer. Liana tried to stand, to fight, but she had nothing left. The effort of reweaving reality had drained her totally. "I won’t let it touch her," Kael growled, stepping protectively in front of Liana.

"None of us will," Jace added. But Mira shook her head. "You don’t understand. It doesn’t need to touch her. If it possesses any of you, the mate bond will carry its impact to her automatically. And once it has her power..."

"The barriers will fall," Voidheart finished grimly. "And this time, there won’t be anyone strong enough to stop what comes through."

The shadow was almost upon them now. In seconds, it would choose its home.

That’s when Elder Mira did something that shocked everyone. She stepped straight into the shadow’s path. "You want a strong host?" she said quietly. "You want someone with power? Take me." "Mira, no!" Liana gasped.

But the elder smiled. "I’m old, kid. I’ve lived my life. And I know something this creature doesn’t." The shadow paused, sensing a trap. "I know how to build prisons from the inside," Mira continued.

"My grandma was a guardian too. She taught me the old ways. The ways to seal darkness so tight it can never escape." Understanding dawned on everyone’s faces. Mira wasn’t just offering herself as a host. She was offering to become a living jail, just like Voidheart had been.

"You can’t," Liana whispered. "The cost..." "Is mine to pay," Mira said strongly. "This is my choice. My effort. My gift to the future." The shadow, hungry and desperate, made its choice.

It poured into Mira’s body like smoke through an opening. For a moment, the elder’s eyes flashed pure black. When she spoke, her voice carried the sound of endless hunger.

"Too late," the thing hissed through her lips. "I have a home. I have power. Soon I will have everything." But then Mira smiled. And her smile was purely her own. "No," she said softly. "You have a prison." Golden chains burst from the ground around her.

Not chains that bound her body, but chains that bound her soul. Ancient guardian magic that her grandma had taught her. Magic designed to make unbreakable seals. The thing inside her began to scream.

"What are you doing?" it yelled. "Building walls," Mira replied calmly. "Walls you’ll never break. Walls that will hold you until the stars burn out."

The chains grew brighter, sinking into Mira’s skin, becoming part of her very soul. She was changing into something new. Something between human and guardian. A live lock with no key. "It’s working," Voidheart said in surprise. "She’s actually doing it."

But as the transformation finished, Mira’s body began to change. Her hair turned silver, then white, then began to fade completely. She was becoming transparent, like a ghost.

"The spell," she whispered to Liana. "It takes... everything. My body, my soul, my very life. I have to become the prison completely." "There has to be another way," Liana said desperately. "There is no other way," Mira said with infinite sadness.

"But don’t cry for me, child. I’ll still be here. Watching. Guarding. Making sure this thing never hurts anyone again." Her form grew fainter and fainter until she was barely visible.

"Remember," she said as she faded. "Power without understanding is destruction. Love without suffering is selfish. And sometimes... sometimes the best gift is knowing when to let go."

She vanished completely, leaving only a small silver pendant on the ground where she had stood. Inside the ring, barely visible, a tiny wisp of shadow writhed against chains of light. The creature was caught.

Their world was safe. But as Liana picked up the pendant with shaky hands, she felt a chill that had nothing to do with the mountain air.

Because somewhere in the distance, so faint she almost missed it, she heard the sound of slow, deliberate cheering. Someone had been watching the entire battle.

Someone who had seen everything. Someone who was very, very pleased with how things had turned out. And that someone was walking toward them through the darkness. "Well done," a familiar voice called out happily. "Though I must say, that was quite a bit more dramatic than I expected." Liana’s blood turned to ice.

Because she recognized that sound. It belonged to someone who was meant to be dead.