Chapter 35 Light Beneath Ash #2
The air thickened until it hurt to breathe. The runes on the ground flared brighter, the smoke thickening into ropes that writhed around the edge of the circle. The wolves backed up, tails tucked, bodies low to the earth. Even Ulysses took a step away, lips drawn tight.
I pulled Mateo in, rocking him, but he didn’t resist. He just kept looking at the light, at the shapes that crawled through the smoke, at the world as if he’d never seen it before.
He whispered again, so soft I almost missed it: “It wants us to open the door.”
The runes underfoot flared in response, light lancing through the cracks in the earth. The clearing vibrated; a low hum shaking every leaf, every bone in my body. It felt like the sky itself might crack open.
And still, somehow, I held on.
But the ground itself trembled, the runes flaring too bright to look at. And then…
Everything turned inside out.
The sky folded inward. Gravity lurched.
Then everything snapped back, violently.
I crashed onto the ground with Mateo landing squarely atop me. The impact jolted through my body; his weight pressing me into the cool soil stole every thought from my head except one: Don’t let go.
When I finally opened my eyes, I found the world transformed.
The clearing was a war zone; chunks of scorched grass lay uprooted, smoking in the early dawn. Trees at the perimeter leaned, cracked, and half-toppled. The wolves lay scattered in the dirt.
Emily was gone, or I couldn’t see her.
Ulysses was slumped against a tree, one shoulder denting the bark, his head hanging forward, blood streaking down the side of his face.
Aiden was a blur of motion; he’d shifted mid-snap, fur sprouting from wounds and muscle swelling in real time. He looked pissed.
And then there was Kyle.
The world hadn’t even stopped ringing when he moved. He’d landed on his feet somehow, and he was already weaving through the chaos, eyes fixed on Mateo and me.
I tried to scramble upright, but my legs weren’t listening. Every nerve was jelly. Mateo was dead weight in my grip, eyes shut again. I screamed at myself to move, to run, but all I managed was a weak crawl.
Kyle reached us. His hand shot out, fingers curling around my wrist. He yanked hard, nearly dislocating my shoulder. I twisted using my own body as a shield and snarled, a sound so guttural it didn’t even sound like me.
He didn’t hesitate; he drove his knee into my ribs, igniting a pain so hot I almost blacked out. Mateo slipped from my grasp, and Kyle lunged for him.
I saw red.
Every ounce of fear, every scar, every humiliation this man had ever branded onto me. I channeled all of it into my hands. I clawed at his face, but he was faster. He caught both my wrists in one hand and slammed them to the dirt, pinning me, while his other hand went for Mateo.
He was going to take him. He was going to win.
Something snapped in my head.
I lunged forward, teeth bared, and bit down on Kyle’s forearm hard enough to break skin. He howled, jerking back, but I clamped down, refusing to let go even as my jaw ached and the taste turned my stomach. He tried to shake me off; I dug my heels into the ground, every muscle straining.
My lips tore free, and I spat his blood in his face.
“You’re not taking him!” I screamed raw and wild. “Not ever!”
Kyle’s eyes went wide just for a moment, and he faltered. That was all I needed. I twisted my hands free, raked my nails down the side of his neck, and shoved him off balance.
Before he could regain his footing, Aiden slammed into him, all muscle and fury. The collision cracked like thunder. Kyle rolled, already shifting mid-spin. He rose, snarling, blood dripping from his jaw.
Aiden was on him before he could steady, their bodies a blur of fur, teeth, and rage. They hit the ground hard, snarls and growls ripping through the clearing louder than my own hammering heart.
“Josie, move!” Ulysses’ voice cut through the chaos. He was suddenly there, his body a barrier between me and the fight. “If Kyle gets him…”
“He won’t.” My arms tightened around Mateo, though my body trembled.
Another crash drew my eyes back. Kyle’s claws raked Aiden’s flank, but Aiden didn’t falter. He snapped back, teeth clamping onto Kyle’s shoulder, dragging him down into the dirt.
The ground shook again as the runes pulsed harder, the glow crawling up Mateo’s skin, burning through my sleeves.
His body jerked against mine, teeth clenched. “Make it stop,” he gasped. “It’s loud, Mom. Too loud. The dark is shouting…”
I scrambled toward Mateo, pulling him onto my lap and twisting my body to shield him completely from sight. I could hear Kyle and Aiden fighting behind me, could feel the magic still thrumming in the air.
But none of that mattered.
I had Mateo. I had my son.
And I was not going to lose him.
Not to Kyle, not to the Source, not to anyone.
All around us, the world howled and burned.
But for one single, perfect heartbeat, the only thing that mattered was the knowledge that he was still alive.
Then Ulysses bent down, jacket flapping around him like a cape, and offered me a hand. I flinched, thinking he meant to take Mateo, but he just shook his head.
He looked up at the wolf fight, then back at me. “We need to go. Now.”
I nodded, not sure I could trust him, but too desperate to do anything else. He slipped an arm under my shoulder and half-lifted, half-dragged Mateo and me away from the edge of the fight.
We moved fast, a blur of motion that left the carnage behind. Every step sent knives of pain up my side, but I held Mateo tighter, burying my nose in his hair.
We ducked behind a fallen log, then Ulysses dropped me to the dirt with a grunt. He glanced down at my son, then at me. “You need to keep him conscious. Do you understand? If he passes out again, it will be harder to bring him back.”
I nodded, blinking tears and sweat from my eyes.
Then I saw her.
Emily.
She was on her side, arms curled in tight, face turned away. There was so much blood I almost didn’t recognize her, but her hair, the chestnut I’d known since childhood, was still visible in the early dawn light.
Her body lay near the rune circle, her wrists slick with blood, skin pale as frost. Her chest hitched shallowly, each breath weaker than the last.
“No… no, no, no.” I pulled Mateo tighter against me with one arm and reached for her with the other, my fingers trembling as they brushed her clammy cheek. “Stay with me, Ems. Please, stay with me.”
Her eyes fluttered, just barely.
Ulysses knelt suddenly opposite me, his presence sharp as a blade. His eyes flicked once to Emily, once to me. And in them, I didn’t see the cold indifference he always wore like armor. I saw something harder. Grimmer.
“She won’t last,” he said simply, voice low, tight. “You have seconds.”
“No.” My hands shook as I pressed down on her wound, not even sure where the bleeding started. “Then fix her!” I hissed. My voice broke, wild and desperate, but I didn’t care. “You’ve lived longer than any of us. There has to be something…”
His gaze cut to mine. “There is. But if I do it, she won’t come back the same.”
The implication slammed through me. “No. Not her. You can’t…”
“She will die otherwise.” He leaned closer, urgency coiling under every word. “You must decide. Now.”
Behind him, the fight surged louder. I couldn’t look. I couldn’t pull my gaze away from Emily’s lips, faintly moving.
And Ulysses, his eyes were locked on me, as if this choice was the truest measure of who I was.
“Do it,” I rasped. My tears burned hot trails down my cheeks. “God, Emily, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But please, stay with me.” I looked at Emily’s face, the pain and terror and trust there. “Just do it.”
He nodded, then leaned in and bit her, hard, right at the neck, but so fast and precise that she just shuddered, eyes wide, then relaxed into the dirt.
I watched as he drank, careful and clinical, then pulled back and bit into his own wrist. He pressed the bleeding wound to her lips, squeezing until the blood pooled, then rubbed her throat until she swallowed.
“Drink,” he commanded softly.
He held her there for a minute, waiting for the change to take hold, then laid her flat in the grass.
I clutched Mateo tighter, heart hammering so hard it felt like it might split me apart. The sight of her lips moving, the faintest swallow; it nearly undid me.
I sat back, knees buckling. “Will she live?”
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “If she’s lucky, yes. If not…” He shrugged. “The choice is no longer yours.”
I felt empty, like I’d bled out with her.
Aiden and Kyle were still at it, leaving a trail of ruin. But now the other wolves had joined in. Aiden was winning, but at a cost. He was covered in wounds, fur matted with his own blood, but he never stopped. Never once backed down.
Kyle was losing, and he knew it. He twisted, broke free, and made a last desperate lunge toward me.
I threw myself in front of Mateo, body ready to take the blow.
But Ulysses was there first. He caught Kyle by the throat, lifting him off the ground like a child, and bared his own fangs. “You don’t learn, do you?”
Then he tossed Kyle aside, hard. Kyle crashed into a tree, slumped to the ground, and didn’t get up.
The other wolves backed away, wary and beaten.
Aiden shifted back, collapsing to his knees in a spray of blood and fur, and crawled to my side.
He didn’t say anything. Just held Mateo and me and waited for the pain to stop.
I looked down at Emily, who was starting to breathe again, shallow and shaky, but real.
I looked at Mateo, still burning with impossible light.
And I looked down at myself, at my bloodied hands, my torn clothes, my shaking arms.
I wasn’t sure who had won, or what it even meant to win, but I was alive.
And so was my son.
That would have to be enough for now.
* * *
It wasn’t over. I could feel it in my gut, the thrum of something massive, old, unfinished.
Struggling to stand, I used a decaying log for support. My legs quivered, numb from the cold and recent events. My hands sank into the mud, then slid over a glowing rune etched into the wood. At first, I barely noticed the burn, the way my skin fizzed upon contact.
But then it hit me.
A line of light ran from my hand up my arm, crawling under my skin in a cold, relentless spiral. It seared through my shoulder, up my neck, and into the base of my skull. I gasped, falling back against the log as my vision filled with stars.
For a moment, I was nowhere and everywhere, every tree, every blade of grass, every body in the clearing, and every drop of blood spilled into the earth.
I felt the pack, all of them tangled together in pain and pride and something akin to love.
I felt Ulysses with his hunger and longing, his loneliness a constant hum beneath everything else.
I felt Aiden’s fury and faith and self-loathing wrapped around a memory of hope.
And I felt Mateo. Bright and burning, full of questions, terrified yet brave all at once. Not as a child or a vessel but as a link, a confluence, a point where ancient magic and new bloodlines clashed and merged into something that had never existed before.
The Source was more than power.
It was hunger certainly, but also possibility. It was the current that dragged you out to sea and the undertow that brought you home again if you dared to fight it.
I opened my eyes.
The clearing had changed. The runes on the ground blazed blue-white and gold, each one pulsing in time with my heartbeat.
Aiden stared at me, wonder and horror mixed in equal parts. “Josie,” he whispered. “What did you do?”
I tried to answer, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, I reached for Mateo, who was stirring again, his eyes opening to reveal the same impossible light.
Ulysses stood nearby, Emily peaceful in his arms. He met my gaze and gave a tiny nod as if to say, “You did it. You survived.”
But also: “Now what?”
I looked at Mateo and understood.
“I can feel it,” I said. My voice was flat, foreign. “The Source. It’s calling to both of us.”
The runes flared, and the forest groaned with the effort of containing the surge. The night sky bled away, replaced by the pale dawn light that didn’t resemble any sunrise I’d ever seen.
The light was wrong: sharper, hungry.
I held Mateo close. His long limbs made it difficult, but I did it anyway.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid.
I was awake.
And whatever world came next, I would meet it with my son by my side, our eyes burning together, bright enough to blind the dark.