LUCIEN POV
I pressed my hands against Marcus’s chest as his life slipped away, putting every bit of healing energy I had into his wounds.
"Stay with ," I whispered desperately. "Co on, Marcus. Your kids need you."
His eyes fluttered open for a mont, and I felt the relief wash over . That was the fifteenth pack mber I’d saved in the last hour. But I could feel my own power fading with each healing.
Around , the battlefield was chaos. After we’d escaped Elder Malin’s trap, the Shadow Lords had started a full attack on our territory. Pack mbers were spread everywhere, so fighting, others bleeding out on the ground.
"Lucien!" Mira’s voice was terrified. "Over here! Sarah’s not breathing!"
I stumbled toward her, my legs shaky from tiredness. Sarah, one of our pack moms, was lying unconscious with claw marks across her throat. Deep ones.
"I don’t know if I can—" I started to say.
"You have to try," Mira begged. "She has three little ones at ho."
Three little ones. I thought about those kids losing their mother, and sohow found the strength to kneel beside Sarah. I placed my hands over her wounds and dug deep into my healing powers.
The energy flowed out of like water through a broken dam. I felt my own heart rate slow as I gave Sarah mine. Felt my own breath grow shallow as I shared my life force with her.
But it worked. Her eyes opened, and she gasped for air.
"Thank you," she whispered.
I tried to smile, but everything was getting blurry. "Just... just keep fighting," I managed to say.
"Lucien!" Another voice. Another injured pack mber. Another life hanging by a thread.
I forced myself to stand, even though my knees wanted to fall. A young fighter nad Tom was crawling toward , leaving a trail of blood behind him.
"My leg," he gasped. "I can’t feel my leg."
A Shadow Lord had torn it nearly off. The cut was so bad that I could see bone. If I didn’t heal him quickly, he would die.
But I wasn’t sure I had enough energy left to save him and survive myself.
I looked around the battlefield, seeing so many others who needed help. Vampires from Queen Seraphina’s troops. Fae fighters who had joined our cause. Even so of Jaxon’s dragon friends who had been injured in the fighting.
All of them counting on . All of them believing that I could save them.
"Lucien, no," Aria said, appearing beside . Even in the middle of war, she’d noticed my condition. "You’ve done enough. You need to rest."
"I can’t rest," I said, already kneeling beside Tom. "Not while people are dying."
"But if you keep this up, you’ll die too," she said, her voice breaking. "And then what? What happens to everyone else who needs healing?"
She was right. I knew she was right. But I couldn’t just watch Tom bleed out when I had the power to save him.
"Maybe our mate bond isn’t real," I said quietly, putting my hands on Tom’s mangled leg. "Maybe Elder Malin was telling the truth about the shadow magic. But this is real. These people are real. Their lives matter."
"Our bond is real," Aria said strongly. "I don’t care what Elder Malin said. I know what I feel."
I wanted to believe her. But the question was there now, eating at . Had everything I’d felt for her been artificial? Had the Shadow Lords manipulated my feelings from the very beginning?
It didn’t matter right now. What mattered was saving Tom.
I poured my healing energy into his leg, feeling my own life force drain away. My view went dark for a mont, and I thought I might pass out. But Tom’s leg began to nd itself, bone and muscle and skin joining back together.
"There," I whispered. "You’re going to be okay."
But when I tried to stand up, I fell.
"Lucien!" Aria caught before I hit the ground. "No, no, no. Stay with ."
I could barely keep my eyes open. "Did Tom... is he...?"
"He’s fine," she said, tears running down her face. "He’s walking. You saved him."
Good. That was good.
"How many?" I asked softly.
"How many what?"
"How many people did I save today?"
Aria looked around at all the pack mbers who were back on their feet, fighting because I’d fixed their wounds. "Twenty-three," she said softly. "You saved twenty-three lives today." Twenty-three people who would go ho to their families. Twenty-three people who would live to see tomorrow because I’d given them so of my life force.
It was worth it.
"Lucien, you have to let help you," Aria said desperately. "Use your Earth Guardian link. Draw energy from the earth to heal yourself."
"Can’t," I mumbled. "Too tired. Used everything."
"Then I’ll give you so of mine," she said, pressing her hands against my chest.
I felt a warm glow as her Earth Guardian power flowed into . Not enough to make strong again, but enough to keep living.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"Don’t thank yet," she said grimly. "Because I just felt sothing through my earth link. Sothing that’s going to change everything."
"What?"
"The Prisoner isn’t just awake," she said, her face pale with fear. "It’s moving. It’s coming this way. And it’s bringing an army with it."
I forced myself to sit up, even though my body scread in anger. "How long do we have?"
"Maybe an hour," she said. "Maybe less."
An hour to prepare for a fight with the most powerful Shadow Lord that had ever existed. An hour to get ready for a battle that would decide the fate of not just our pack, but all the supernatural realms.
And I was so weak I could barely stand.
"Aria," I said quietly. "There’s sothing I need to tell you. About my healing powers. About why I’ve always been different from my boys."
"What?"
"I’m not just a healer," I said. "I’m sothing else. Sothing the Shadow Lords have been looking for almost as long as they’ve been hunting Earth Guardians."
Her eyes went wide. "What are you talking about?"
"I’m a Life Guardian," I said. "The last one. And if the Prisoner gets hold of , it won’t just be able to drain individual lives. It will be able to drain the life force from entire worlds."
Aria stared at in shock. "You’re telling this now?"
"I was trying to protect you," I said. "If you’d known what I really was, you would have been in even more danger."
"How long have you known?"
"Since I was twelve," I admitted. "Elder Malin told . He said it had to be our secret."
"Elder Malin knew?" Aria’s voice was barely a whisper.
"He’s known everything about both of us from the beginning," I said. "Earth Guardian and Life Guardian. We’re the two most powerful supernatural families that exist. And he’s been exploiting both of us for years."
"Which ans," Aria said slowly, "he’s been planning this final battle for a very long ti."
"And now I’m too weak to fight," I said sadly. "I used up all my energy saving everyone else, and now when they need most, I have nothing left to give."
But even as I said it, I felt sothing stirring deep inside . Not healing energy. Sothing else. Sothing I’d never accessed before.
"Lucien?" Aria said, backing away from . "Your eyes are glowing."
I looked down at my hands and saw light coming from my skin. Not the warm glow of healing magic. This was different. Brighter. More strong.
"What’s happening to ?" I whispered.
"I don’t know," Aria said. "But whatever it is, the Shadow Lords can feel it. They’re all turning this way."
And that’s when I heard the Prisoner’s voice in my mind, speaking straight to across the miles.
"Hello, little Life Guardian," it said with dark delight. "Ready to co ho?"
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