SAGE POV
The crystal ball burst in my hands.
Glass cut deep into my hands as purple smoke filled my study. I stumbled backward, knocking over bottles of flowers and spell ingredients. The vision I’d been trying to see disappeared like smoke.
"What the hell?" I mumbled, picking glass from my bleeding fingers.
I’d been watching Lily through my crystal ball for three days straight. Ever since she sacrificed herself to save her pack from the Devourer, sothing incredible had happened to her. She wasn’t just a werewolf anymore. She wasn’t just a dinsional anchor. She’d beco sothing entirely new.
And that scared more than any monster I’d ever faced.
My study door burst open. Marcus, the Silver Peak Alpha, stood there looking worried.
"Sage, we need you downstairs," he said. "Sothing’s wrong with Lily."
I grabbed my dicine bag and followed him. We ran through the pack house, past worried wolves who whispered as we passed. They all knew sothing big was happening, but they didn’t understand what.
Neither did I, and that scared .
We reached the basent where they’d been keeping Lily since her change. The door was shining again, but this ti it wasn’t the dark energy of the Devourer. This light was bright and warm, like moonlight.
"She’s been like this for an hour," Caleb said. His voice shook with worry. "The light keeps getting brighter."
Through the reinforced window, I could see Lily floating in the middle of the room. Her body flashed between solid and transparent, like she couldn’t decide which form to take. Most shocking of all, her eyes were open, but they weren’t the black eyes of the Devourer. They were silver, sparkling like stars.
"Has she said anything?" I asked.
"She keeps repeating numbers," Aiden answered. "Coordinates, I think. But they don’t match anywhere on Earth."
My blood went cold. "What kind of coordinates?"
"Listen," Brock whispered.
Lily’s voice drifted through the door, soft but clear: "Dinsion 7-Alpha-9. Portal opening in seventy-two hours. They’re coming ho."
"Who’s coming ho?" I whispered, but I was afraid I already knew.
I pressed my hands against the door, trying to feel the energy coming from Lily. What I found made my heart stop. She wasn’t just connected to other worlds anymore. She was becoming a bridge between them.
"We need to get her out of there," I said quickly.
"Are you crazy?" Marcus replied. "She could be dangerous."
"She’s not dangerous," I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure. "She’s changing. The offering didn’t just save her from the Devourer. It changed her into sothing new."
"Into what?" Caleb asked desperately.
I turned to face them, my mind racing with options I didn’t want to believe. "I think she’s becoming a Guardian."
"What’s a Guardian?" Aiden asked.
"In the old texts, Guardians were beings who protected the barriers between dinsions," I explained. "They were neither human nor monster, but sothing in between. They could move between worlds and keep dangerous things from crossing over."
"But those are just legends," Marcus said.
"So were dinsional anchors," I answered. "Until Lily beca one."
The light from the room suddenly pulsed brighter. Lily’s voice carried through the door again, but this ti she sounded urgent: "The Void Walkers aren’t gone. They’re reforming. And they’re bringing friends."
My stomach dropped. "We need to talk to her. Now."
"Absolutely not," Marcus said. "We don’t know if she’s still our Lily or sothing else."
"There’s only one way to find out," I said, grabbing for the door handle.
"Sage, don’t," Caleb warned.
But I was already opening the door.
The mont I stepped inside, the excitent hit like a wave. It wasn’t painful, but it was intense. I could feel links to dozens of different dinsions, each one unique and strange. And at the center of it all was Lily, no longer quite human but not quite anything else either.
Her silver eyes focused on . "Sage," she said, and her voice sounded like music from another world. "I’m so glad you’re here. We don’t have much ti."
"Ti for what?" I asked, stepping closer.
"To prepare," she said. "The Devourer was just the beginning. When I beca its anchor, I saw into the space between dinsions. There are things there, Sage. Ancient things that have been waiting for a way into our world."
"The Void Walkers?" "Among others," Lily nodded. "They’ve been watching us, learning from us. And now they know how to make their own anchors."
My heart beat. "What does that an?"
"It ans they don’t need to possess soone like the Devourer did," Lily stated. "They can build their own doorways. And they’re planning to open a permanent link in exactly seventy-two hours."
"Where?" I asked.
Lily’s form flickered, becoming more transparent. "That’s the trouble. The link won’t open in one place. It will open everywhere at once. Every major city, every pack territory, every place where humans and supernatural beings et."
"That’s impossible," I breathed.
"Not anymore," Lily said sadly. "My transformation caused ripples across all dinsions. I accidentally showed them how to connect multiple anchor points. They’re using my own energy signature to power their attack."
I felt sick. "So this is your fault?"
"Yes," Lily whispered. "I saved the pack, but I dood the world."
The light around her pulsed again, and I could feel her pain like a physical thing. She’d sacrificed everything to protect the people she loved, only to find that her sacrifice might destroy everyone.
"There has to be a way to stop them," I said.
"There is," Lily answered. "But you’re not going to like it."
"Tell ."
Lily looked straight at , her silver eyes full of sorrow. "I have to go to their world and destroy the portal from the other side. But once I cross over, I can never co back. And worse..."
She paused, her voice breaking.
"If I fail, I’ll beco their support instead. I’ll be the doorway they use to invade every world in existence."
Before I could reply, alarms started blaring throughout the pack house. Through the small window, I could see the night sky beginning to crack like broken glass.
"Sage," Lily said quickly, "it’s starting early."
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