Page 11

CHAPTER 11

T he altar cracked beneath my body, a deep groan ripping through the clearing as the ritual circle ruptured outward, shattering the symbols carved into the earth. Magic flared wild and uncontrolled, surging through the ground, the trees, the stones. The acolytes staggered back, their chants breaking into panicked shouts.

The apple slipped from her trembling hand, but I caught it before it hit the ground, my fingers closing around the gnarled, pulsing fruit.

The sickly green glow of the ritual circle flickered… then ceased entirely.

The bonds connecting me to my mates roared to life. No longer a whisper. No longer distant. They flooded me, seven distinct threads weaving tighter, closer, stronger. Garrett's rage. Ronan's defiance. Kade’s relentless focus. Evander’s sorrow-turned-fury. Cassian’s wild glee. Leif’s sharp, cutting urgency. Nikolai’s cold, unwavering devotion.

They were here. They were mine.

My stepmother stumbled backward, face blanching as she watched the ritual she had crafted for two decades crumble before her eyes.

"You don't know what you're doing," she gasped, voice breaking. "You're going to destroy yourself."

"Good," I said, voice low, raw, burning from someplace far deeper than my throat.

Without hesitation, I lifted the apple to my lips. I bit deep.

The taste hit instantly… fire and rot, ash and sugar. It spread through my mouth, down my throat, into my bones. The world tilted around me as magic flooded every vein, not siphoning away my power, but multiplying it. Twisting it. Strengthening it.

I heard her scream.

The bond flared first… sharp, urgent, a crack of lightning across my nerves.

From the treeline, they burst into the clearing together, seven forces of nature cutting through the smoke and wreckage. Garrett led, massive paws slamming into the ground, his bear form barreling toward the altar. Ronan was a blur of gray fur and bared teeth, low growls vibrating in his chest. Kade slipped between the broken runes like a living shadow, the sleek, black ripple of his panther form nearly invisible against the shattered darkness.

Above them, Leif shrieked, a golden hawk slicing through the smoke. Cassian’s fox form darted between fallen acolytes, sharp and precise. Evander’s stag body crashed through the outer edge of the clearing, antlers lowered like a battering ram. Nikolai slithered low and silent along the altar stones, a pale serpent glinting in the moonlight.

All of them surged toward me. Toward the altar.

Ready to fight.

Ready to bleed for me.

And then they saw what was happening.

They froze.

The bond between us spasmed, confusion and fear slamming into me all at once.

I wasn’t helpless. I wasn’t chained.

I stood upright on the cracked altar, blood streaming from my wrists, the black apple in my hands… partially eaten, pulsing with magic so dense it made the air vibrate.

I wasn’t the girl they'd raced to save.

I was something else.

Their forms shifted mid-stride, half-shifting in flashes of muscle and magic… Garrett’s paws slamming into bare earth, Ronan snarling as he staggered into human shape. Cassian dropped into a crouch, half-shifted, fox ears flickering before vanishing.

“What—” Garrett’s voice cracked across the bond, raw and bewildered.

I raised my head, meeting their eyes one by one.

And then I took another bite of the apple.

Magic flared so violently it flattened the broken ritual circle, shoving the acolytes' bodies aside like dry leaves.

The force of it staggered them backward, scattering them around the edges of the clearing as they struggled to keep their footing, fighting the sheer weight of the power now pouring out of me.

They didn’t move toward me again.

They couldn’t.

Not when every instinct inside them screamed that whatever I had become was no longer something to be protected.

I was the storm now.

I was the end.

I bit again, devouring the dark magic she had hoarded for herself. Every bite tore another shred of stolen life from her body.

Her skin blistered. Her hair whitened. The glamour she had woven over herself for years peeled away in strips, revealing the shriveled, blackened husk beneath. She stumbled, sagged to her knees, clawing at the air as if she could pull the magic back.

"You wanted to steal my life," I said, my voice rising with the magic surging through me. "You wanted my blood. My soul. Now you can have it… every poisoned drop."

I took a final bite.

The remains of the apple disintegrated into ash in my hand, the last of its power rushing into me like a drowning wave. I screamed, the sound ripped from my chest, too full of rage, of magic, of vengeance to contain.

My stepmother collapsed to the stones, robes puddling around her like empty skin. Her body crumbled into nothing… ash and mist carried away on the rising wind.

The forest itself seemed to sigh.

The chains binding me to the altar disintegrated, falling away in curling wisps of smoke. The runes carved around the clearing cracked and shattered, bleeding old magic into the soil. The weight that had smothered the clearing lifted, replaced by something raw and electric.

And then the curse broke.

The bonds between me and my mates snapped taut, surging with blinding force. I felt them all at once… every breath, every heartbeat, every emotion crashing into me like a second storm.

The cursed chains that had imprisoned them for centuries tore free like thread stretched too tight.

"Lunara," Ronan gasped, falling to his knees. His body convulsed, but not with the agony I had seen every time the curse forced their shifts. This was different. Smoother. Quieter. A shedding of chains instead of a tearing of flesh. "What did you do?"

Bones shifted. But not with pain this time. With freedom.

Garrett shifted, massive hands curling into fists, his mouth open in a silent roar of triumph. Leif stumbled, golden feathers rippling along his arms before cleanly fading away. Kade emerged from the shadows, sleek and human and whole, his dark eyes burning. Ronan shifted his stance, wolfish grin curling his mouth as claws slid back into human hands. Cassian whooped, fox ears and tail flashing into existence before vanishing again. Evander straightened, antlers rising from his brow in a slow, regal arc, then fading as he breathed deep. Nikolai lifted his hand, scaled skin smoothing back into pale flesh with deliberate control.

They were free. All of them. No more forced shifts. No more cursed chains. No more stolen forms.

Leif laughed, wild and disbelieving. "I can control it," he breathed, shifting his fingers to talons and back. "Gods, I can actually control it."

Kade said nothing, but the shadows bleeding from his fingertips told their own story… his wonder as he flexed control he'd never been allowed to have.

Cassian spun in place, his grin wide and reckless. "Fuck yes! Do you know how long I've wanted to do this? Centuries of pain, gone in an instant!"

Evander exhaled slowly, reverence shaping every line of his face. "The land feels different," he murmured. "The connection is... purified."

Nikolai watched me, scales flickering along his jaw before fading back into smooth skin. His voice was soft but full of terrible certainty. "You’ve rewritten the magic itself."

I staggered forward, the magic inside me pressing against every inch of my skin, desperate for more space than my body could give. My limbs shook, my vision blurring.

Garrett caught me before I could fall, arms closing around me with a choked sound, something broken and sacred all at once.

"It's done," he whispered, voice thick with disbelief. "You broke it."

I tried to smile. Tried to answer. Tried to tell them… something.

But the magic inside me wasn’t done.

It twisted. It clawed. It fought for space within a body not meant to hold so much.

"Something's wrong," I heard myself say, the words torn from my lips.

The apple’s magic, the blood ritual, the shattered curse… it wasn’t just inside me.

It was becoming me.

The apple core in my hand had crumbled to dust, its magic fully absorbed into my bones, my blood, my soul.

"Too much... I can't..."

My knees buckled. Darkness clawed at the edges of my mind.

Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground… Garrett, Ronan, Evander… all of them moving at once, frantic hands anchoring me as I sagged against them.

"Her pulse is wrong," Evander said sharply, already pressing his hand against my throat.

"She's burning up," Leif shouted, horror tightening his voice.

"Back!" Garrett barked, holding me tighter. "Give her space!"

Panic screamed through the bond… wild, uncontrolled.

But then another voice. Calm. Certain.

"No," Nikolai said, his words slicing through the chaos like a blade.

He knelt beside me, his touch cool against my searing skin, his eyes glowing with the same power that seethed in my blood. His voice dropped low, almost reverent.

"She's not dying."

He pressed his palm against my forehead, his power flaring softly around his fingertips, recognizing the magic boiling inside me not as a death sentence.

But as evolution.

"She's ascending," he said.

The last thing I saw before the darkness swallowed me whole was the seven of them leaning over me… bloodied, wild-eyed, illuminated by the light bleeding out from under my skin.

Then the world unraveled.

And the forest devoured me.