Lily POV
The silver light burst from my hands just as the possessed wolf lunged at . I watched in fear as the creature flew backward, crashing into three other wolves. They all scread the sa terrible sound - like nails on glass mixed with crying kids.
"Lily!" Caleb’s words cut through the chaos. "What did you do?"
I stared at my hands, which were still glowing with that strange silver fire. "I don’t know! It just happened!"
Around us, the fight for Silver Peak was getting worse. More possessed dogs poured out of the forest like angry ants. But sothing weird was happening. Every ti I used that silver light, they backed away from like I was poison.
"The nursery!" Elder Iris yelled from across the street. "They’re heading for the nursery!"
My heart stopped. All the little pups were hiding there. I’d told them it was safe.
I ran as fast as I could, pushing past fighting wolves and jumping over broken pieces of houses. Behind , I could hear Caleb yelling my na, but I couldn’t wait. Those kids needed .
When I reached the nursery, I found sothing that made my stomach twist. Five possessed dogs stood in a perfect circle around the building. They weren’t attacking it. They were just... waiting.
"That’s not normal," I whispered to myself.
Elder Iris appeared beside , breathing hard. "They’re not trying to get the pups," she said, her old voice shaking. "They’re guarding the building."
"Guarding it from what?"
"From you."
I looked at her in confusion. "What do you an?"
Elder Iris pointed at the ground around the nursery. In the dirt, I could see a dim silver glow making lines and circles. It looked like the sa light that ca from my hands.
"Lily, everywhere you’ve been in the past three months, you’ve left marks," she said softly. "Silver marks that only show up when the Void Walkers are near."
I thought about all the places I’d visited since the Winter Moon Festival. The nursery, where I taught healing. The pack council building, where I helped make choices. The Moon Pool, where Caleb and I liked to walk. The library, where we studied together.
"Oh no," I breathed. "I’ve been marking targets for them."
"Not targets," Elder Iris corrected. "Feeding stations."
My legs felt weak. "What do you an?"
"The Triple Moon sacrifice you made during the festival," she explained quickly while more explosions happened around us. "It didn’t just change the pack. It changed you. You’re leaking magical energy everywhere you go."
I rembered that night when I’d given up my claim to all three brothers to save the pack’s balance. There had been so much light, so much power flowing through . But I thought it was over.
"The Void Walkers feed on strong emotions," Elder Iris continued. "But they’re hungry for magical energy. Your leftover power is like honey to bears."
"So this is all my fault?" I asked, feeling sick.
"No, kid. But it ans you’re the key to stopping them."
Before I could ask what she ant, one of the possessed dogs guarding the nursery turned toward us. Its black eyes focused on , and it smiled with too many teeth.
"There she is," it said in a voice like breaking glass. "The Triple Moon bearer."
The other four possessed wolves turned too. All of them were looking at now, and I could feel their hunger like cold fingers on my skin.
"They want the source," I realized. "They don’t just want to feed on my extra energy. They want ."
"Run," Elder Iris whispered.
But I couldn’t. If I ran, they would follow . And that would lead them away from the nursery, but also away from all the other survivors who were counting on to organize their defense.
"I can’t," I said. "If I run, everyone else dies."
"If you stay, everyone dies anyway," Elder Iris answered. "You’re the source of their power now."
The possessed wolves started walking toward us slowly, like cats playing with mice. I could hear more fighting in the distance, but it sounded farther away. Were we losing?
"There has to be another way," I said desperately.
That’s when I noticed sothing strange. The silver marks on the ground weren’t just shining randomly. They were making a plan. Lines linked the nursery to the council building to the Moon Pool to the library. From above, it would probably look like...
"A summoning circle," I breathed. "Elder Iris, I haven’t been marking feeding spots. I’ve been drawing a giant summoning circle across the entire pack area."
Her eyes went wide. "Summoning what?"
I looked at my still-glowing hands, then at the possessed wolves getting closer, then at the pattern of silver light spreading across Silver Peak like a web.
"I don’t know," I admitted. "But sothing big is coming."
The possessed wolf in front smiled wider. "Oh yes," it hissed. "Sothing very big indeed. And when it cos, your little pack will beco the first dish in a feast that will consu every wolf territory on this continent."
Thunder roared overhead, even though there were no clouds in the sky. The silver marks on the ground pulsed brighter, and I felt sothing vast and hungry turning its attention toward Silver Peak.
Elder Iris grabbed my arm. "Lily, what did your sacrifice actually do during the Winter Moon Festival?"
I tried to rember that night, but it was all mixed up with bright lights and strong feelings. "I gave up my claim to the triplets to restore balance to the pack," I said.
"No," she said quickly. "What exactly did you say? The exact words?"
The possessed dogs were only twenty feet away now. Thunder rumbled again, louder this ti.
I closed my eyes and thought back to that night by the Moon Pool. What had I said when I made my sacrifice?
And then I rembered.
The words I’d spoken in that mont of pure despair, when I thought the pack was going to tear itself apart over .
Words that now seed like the stupidest thing I could have possibly said.
"I wished for the pack to find perfect balance," I whispered. "Even if it ant sacrificing everything we were to beco sothing new."
Elder Iris went totally white.
"Oh, Lily," she breathed. "You didn’t restore balance. You invited it in."
The ground beneath our feet began to crack, and sothing with too many eyes began pushing its way up from below.
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