Chapter 35 Light Beneath Ash
Light Beneath Ash
I sat in the dirt, knees skinned bloody, arms wrapped around Mateo. The world had narrowed to the dull thump of his heartbeat and the fine tremor in my own hands.
We were amidst the remnants of chaos.
The silence lingered in the clearing, oppressive and heavy. Not even the wolves dared to move. The air was thick with expectation, waiting for a cough, a cry, or a scream, but time simply crept forward, second by rigid second.
Mateo lay slack against my chest, breathing shallow and slow, his face tilted up as if he was sunbathing instead of barely alive in a crater of carnage. He looked peaceful, like he’d passed out after soccer practice, not after… this.
The clearing reeked of ash and iron. The sky above was changing. Dawn crept into the clearing, casting a muted glow that painted the world in a sickly pink. The remnants of night faded, revealing softly glowing runes etched into the ground.
Bodies were everywhere. Most lay where the blast had flung them, fur and flesh fused by raw magic. Every so often, a twitch would ripple through one of them before it went still again.
Closer in, to my right, Aiden’s pack was untangling itself. They pulled themselves up, one by one, shaking dust from their pelts, tongues lolling out as they panted through the pain. A few limped, shoulders caved, ears bitten or half gone. But none lay flat.
That was the difference between a real pack and a mob.
You didn’t leave your own behind, even if you had to drag them out by the scruff.
Aiden himself found his feet first. He crouched low, a streak of blood matting his hair, eyes locked on the far end of the clearing where Kyle had been standing.
His gaze didn’t even flicker my way. Not out of cruelty, but out of the animal instinct that said, “danger first, feelings later.” I found it reassuring, in a backwards kind of way.
To my left, Ulysses was already on his feet, not a hair out of place except for a single lock brushing against his forehead.
His suit looked pristine except for one perfect tear at the shoulder and a dark patch on the left sleeve.
He dabbed at it with a handkerchief, eyes scanning the field with cold detachment.
The two of them moved in tandem, circling wide around Mateo and me. I realized what they were doing before I saw the others. Only this time, I was the prey. Or maybe the prize. It didn’t matter.
I barely felt the movement, but my body knew what to do. I curled tighter around Mateo, shifting so his face was tucked into the crook of my neck. Every muscle screamed, but I refused to let him go.
A soft sound caught my ear, softer than the groans of the waking, softer than the drip of blood on grass.
Emily lay just a few steps away, sprawled on her back.
She’d taken the brunt of the blast; her shirt was torn, her face caked in blood and dirt.
For a second, I thought she was dead, but then her lips moved.
I didn’t have the strength to crawl to her. Even if I could, I wasn’t sure I’d make it back.
Instead, I squeezed Mateo tighter, watching as the survivors got their bearings.
Aiden’s wolves circled to my right, forming a rough semi-circle with their bodies.
While Ulysses took the opposite side, hands clasped behind his back.
He looked at me, really looked, and for the first time since I’d met him, I saw a sliver of something like admiration.
At the far edge of the clearing stood Kyle. He’d found a tree trunk to lean against, and he looked worse than I’d ever seen him: face cut open in three places, hair burned to stubble along the right temple. But his eyes were the same. Unbroken. Smiling, even.
The last of the wolves who fought for him crawled to his feet, bloody and mangled, and fell in line at his heel.
He didn’t look down at them. He only watched me, like he was already imagining the next move.
I didn’t know what game we were playing anymore, but I knew one thing: Kyle Grey never played for anything less than everything.
For a while, no one spoke.
The light kept leaking into the sky. The smell of burned grass faded, replaced by the scent of wet earth.
“Josie.” Emily’s voice was raw, barely above a whisper. Her hand reached out, fingers flexing.
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
“Well,” Kyle drawled. “That was… educational.”
Aiden snarled low in his throat, the sound guttural and feral. He crouched low, muscles coiling like a spring, fists clenched and ready. His eyes blazed with intensity, but Kyle’s eyes slid past him, straight to me, to the boy in my arms.
My grip on Mateo tightened.
“You’ve all fought bravely,” Kyle went on. “But we’re not after the same thing.”
“No,” I whispered, my voice hoarse and frayed. “We’re not.”
He tilted his head. “You don’t even know what you’re holding, do you?”
Aiden’s presence shifted closer and knelt beside us. For a second, I wanted to lean into him, but I stayed upright. I wasn’t ready to let go of control, not even for a second.
Kyle smiled faintly. “Let’s not pretend this is about territory. Or pride.” His gaze dropped to Mateo. “It’s about power.”
Aiden spoke first. “You’re not getting near him.”
Kyle shrugged off the insult. “You still don’t get it, do you?” He nodded at Mateo in my arms. “He’s the key. The only one who didn’t burn.”
The runes beneath us pulsed faintly brighter.
I clutched my son tighter. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Project Moonlight,” Kyle said. “Not a lab experiment. A selection process. Gene-splicing. Old magic. Failed hybrids.”
Aiden stiffened beside me. “You’re lying.”
But Ulysses spoke over him, cold and precise. “No. He isn’t.”
Ke flicked his gaze to Ulysses. “Your kind were phase one.”
Ulysses didn’t blink.
“Every one of them burned out,” Kyle continued. “Mad. Dead. Or both.” A small smile. “Except him.”
I tried to make sense of the words, but it was like someone had punched a hole in the center of my world.
“He’s just a boy,” I said, tightening my grip on my son.
Kyle shook his head, almost pitying. “Not anymore.”
Silence pressed in.
Ulysses cleared his throat, then stepped forward. “If what you’re saying is true, then you’ve already lost. The circle chose her.”
He nodded at me, and for once, I didn’t know if it was a compliment or a warning.
Kyle shrugged. “I don’t need the circle.” His eyes locked on me. “I just need my son.”
He pushed off the tree and strode into the open, his limp already gone, every step a statement of intent. He didn’t bother to check if his allies were still breathing. He only had eyes for Mateo and for me.
“I want my son,” he said, voice cold. No preamble, no pretense. Just hunger laid bare.
The wolves bristled, Aiden’s face set in stone. Ulysses rose, pivoting slightly so he stood between Kyle and me, more out of curiosity than defense.
I held Mateo tighter, feeling the heat of him, feeling the solid rise of his ribs under my forearm, too big now to carry like this, but I did anyway. My hands were numb, bloodless. But my voice came back, hoarse, yes, but clear.
“He’s not yours,” I said. “He’ll never be.”
Kyle’s smile thinned. “He never was yours to keep, Josie.”
Aiden moved to stand between us, blocking Kyle’s line of sight with his own battered body. “Try. Just try.”
Kyle’s smile grew, showing teeth. “You still think you’re the alpha here, Cross? That’s adorable.”
The wolves behind him tensed, baring fangs, but none stepped forward. Not yet. The clearing held its breath. No one moved. No one spoke.
I rocked Mateo gently. Whatever he was becoming, he was still my boy. I was still trembling, but I wasn’t going to break. Not now. Not ever.
I looked down at Mateo’s face. My arms shook harder, but I didn’t let go. Not for a second.
Aiden leaned close, his breath hot against my ear. “We can’t let him get to Mateo. You know that, right?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
The wolves circled tighter, and the world braced itself for round two.
I swallowed hard, pressing Mateo closer, willing him to stay asleep. Because if he woke now, if he heard all of this…
But before the thought could finish, I felt a stir against my chest. A shift of breath. A twitch. So small I almost missed it. Mateo’s hand jerked, his fingers fisted in my shirt, knuckles whitening, like he was bracing against a wave.
For a split second, panic and relief collided in my chest and left me empty. I couldn’t decide which to lean into, so I just held him, afraid that any sudden movement would shatter the delicate peace.
Mateo was waking.
His eyes opened.
They were just his eyes at first, blue, a little green. For a heartbeat, I almost believed in miracles. Almost.
He blinked once, slow and heavy, then looked right at me.
“Mom?” His voice cracked. “What happened?”
I tried to answer, but my throat closed up.
Then the color bled. A molten white-gold leaked out from the center, eating the blue until all that was left was a liquid sun, burning behind his pupils. The skin around his eyes went thin and luminous.
Mateo reached up and pressed his palm to my cheek. His skin burned, not with fever but with some other, less explainable heat.
“I dreamed I was inside out,” he said. The words hung, flat and strange. “And the sky climbed into me.”
Aiden and Ulysses both tensed. The wolves went silent, all at once, as if they’d heard something the rest of us missed.
Mateo shivered; a crackling hiss rose from the circle of earth beneath us, and the runes that had been fading moments ago burst back to life, lit from below with a blue-white fire. Smoke drifted up around us.
Mateo’s eyes flickered sideways as if he was listening to something I couldn’t hear. His lips barely moved.
“It’s loud,” he whispered, jaw tight like he was trying not to cry. “Something’s pushing. The dark wants to come through.”
The words turned my insides to ice.