ARIA POV
We ran toward the village as fast as we could. What I saw there made sick. Shadow creatures were everywhere, chasing frightened pack mbers. But these weren’t the sa shadow creatures we’d fought before. These were bigger. Stronger. And they moved like they knew exactly what they were doing.
"Help!" A little girl’s voice called out from behind a burning house.
I raced toward her, but a massive shadow creature stepped in my way. It was twice as tall as , with claws like knives and teeth that glowed red.
I raised my hand to use my Moon Alpha power, but nothing happened. The silver light that always ca when I called for it was gone.
"What?" I tried again, fear rising in my chest. Still nothing.
The shadow thing smiled, showing those horrible red teeth. "No moon magic today, little Alpha," it said in a voice like broken glass. "Haven’t you looked up at the sky?"
I glanced up and gasped. The sun was there, but sothing was wrong with it. A dark shadow was slowly moving across its face. A solar eclipse.
"The eclipse blocks moon power," the creature laughed. "Your precious Moon Goddess can’t help you now."
Without my powers, I was just a normal werewolf. I shifted into my wolf form and lunged at the thing, but it swatted away like I was a fly. I hit the ground hard, pain shooting through my ribs.
"Aria!" Zara ran toward , but three more shadow things surrounded her.
Through our network, I could hear the other Moon Alphas crying out in fear. None of them could use their skills either. We were all helpless.
"This is impossible," I gasped, trying to get up. "Solar eclipses don’t affect moon magic."
"They do when we make them," another person said.
I turned to see a figure walking out of the darkness. It looked like a person, but wrong sohow. Its skin was gray, its eyes were black holes, and when it moved, reality seed to bend around it.
"I am Malakar," it said. "First of the Shadow Lords, enemy of your kind since the beginning of ti."
"I’ve never heard of Shadow Lords," I said, backing away slowly.
"Of course not," Malakar smiled, and the look was terrifying. "We’ve been sleeping for a thousand years, waiting for the right mont to wake up. Your little network gave us exactly what we needed."
"What do you an?"
"Every ti you Moon Alphas connect your power, you create ripples in the magical world," Malakar explained. "Those waves woke us up. And now we’re going to finish what we started long ago."
"Which is what?"
"The complete destruction of werewolves."
More Shadow Lords erged from different directions. I counted at least twenty of them, each one projecting power that made the air itself feel heavy.
"Why?" I asked. "What did we ever do to you?"
"You exist," Malakar said simply. "Your kind was never ant to be created. You’re mistakes that need to be fixed."
"We’re not mistakes!" I shouted, anger giving strength. "We protect people! We help them!"
"You’re abominations," another Shadow Lord said. "Half person, half beast. You don’t belong in either world."
Through the network, I felt one of the Moon Alphas die. Her light just... went out. Then another. And another.
"Stop it!" I scread. "Leave them alone!"
"We’re not just killing the Moon Alphas," Malakar said lightly. "We’re killing every monster we can find. n, won, children. It doesn’t matter. You all have to go."
Terror filled my heart. Not just for , but for every monster in the world. For Kael, Jaxon, and Lucien back at ho. For little children like the girl who’d called for help.
"I won’t let you," I said, even though I had no idea how to stop them without my skills.
"You can’t stop us," Malakar laughed. "Look around. Your people are dying. Your skills are gone. Your precious Moon Goddess has abandoned you."
But as he spoke, I noticed sothing. The eclipse was moving slowly across the sun, but it wasn’t complete yet. There was still a thin piece of sunlight showing.
"The eclipse isn’t total," I realized out loud.
"Not yet," Malakar agreed. "But in ten minutes, it will be. And when the sun is fully blocked, we’ll have enough power to kill every werewolf on Earth at the sa ti."
My mind raced. Ten minutes. That’s all the ti I had to figure out how to save my entire species.
Through the network, I reached out to the remaining Moon Alphas. "Can anyone hear ?"
"Barely," ca Raven’s weak voice. "My area is overrun. I don’t think I can hold out much longer."
"The eclipse is the key," I said. "They’re using it to block our power, but it won’t last forever."
"But we’ll all be dead before it ends," another Moon Alpha answered.
"Not if we can survive long enough," I said. An thought was forming in my mind. A crazy, possibly impossible idea.
"What are you thinking?" Zara asked through the network. She was still fighting three shadow things, but barely holding on.
"The eclipse is moving," I said. "It’s not the sa everywhere at once. So places still have partial sunlight."
"So?"
"So if Moon Alphas in those places can still use so power, maybe they can help the rest of us."
I felt a spark of hope from the network as the others understood.
"It’s worth trying," Raven said.
But before we could do anything, Malakar raised his hand. "Enough talking," he said. "Ti to end this."
Dark energy started building around all the Shadow Lords. I could feel it pushing down on like a heavy blanket.
Then, through the network, I felt sothing that made my heart stop.
An attack on my ho land.
Not just ghost creatures this ti. Sothing much worse. I could sense Kael, Jaxon, and Lucien fighting hard against enemies they couldn’t even see clearly.
"No," I whispered.
"Yes," Malakar smiled. "We saved the best for last. Your precious twins are about to die, and there’s nothing you can do to help them."
The eclipse moved another inch across the sun. My powers sparked for just a second, then went out again.
But in that brief mont, I’d felt sothing through the network that changed everything.
The attack on my ho wasn’t random. It was a trap. And I was the real target they wanted.
"They’re using my family as bait," I realized with fear.
"Very good," Malakar said. "Co ho and surrender yourself, and we might let them live a few minutes longer."
Around , dark creatures closed in from all sides. The eclipse was almost complete. And sowhere far away, the three people I loved most in the world were fighting for their lives.
I had to choose: save myself and the other Moon Alphas, or rush ho to save my family and walk right into the trap.
But as I stood there, circled by enemies and cut off from my power, I felt sothing new stirring inside . Sothing that had nothing to do with the moon.
Sothing much older and much more dangerous.
The eclipse hit totality, and the world went dark.
Reviews
All reviews (0)