Chapter 125

Charles

I heard Grace's voice loud and clear, telling him to fuck off, and I grinned, happy to hear her so firm.

"Grace," I said gently. "You're doing well. We're on the right level, according to Seraphina and Amira... I can smell him."

I couldn't tell her that it was mostly blood I smelled, but that didn't matter. Adrenaline surged through me as we rushed forward. Someone confirmed that they were heading towards the marker I left, but we didn't wait. In the distance, I could hear faint voices and the soft groans of pain echoing off the hard rock.

Someone shrieked and leaped out. I caught the man in the face with the but of my gun, careful not to let it go off in the tight space. Beyond the sounds of the fight, further away or maybe just softer, I heard faint incantations of a ritual. My heart lurched. They were starting.

I slammed the man into the wall and knocked him out. Once he was bound, we continued down the dark path. I closed off Amira and Grace's connection to my communications.

"Status on disarming and explosive removal?"

"Going, but not gone. We're having a hard time removing them from the rock. It's like they're melted in."

"Melted?" I asked. "Blake? Seraphina?"

"I'm looking into it, but I think the bedrock under Mooncrest might have magical properties."

"Alchemy," I hissed. "They've been here for longer than we think then, haven't they?"

Maybe Alpha Shadow had been planning this since they were kids. Had he always known it would be Eason, or had he just been biding his time until he could figure out which one it was?

Did Grace have any magical potential herself? My head hurts just thinking about it. What about Cecil and Richard? I was going to have to get them all looked at sooner rather than later.

"How much further until you reach the target?" Seraphina asked.

"I don't know," I said. "It's muffled, and there's chanting, but it seems ever further away. Any idea what it is?"

"There's no telling without being able to hear the incantation."

I stopped in place, straining my hearing, but the sounds felt awkward in my mind before I could even get the words out.

"If we stop the incantation, will that buy us time?"

"Probably."

"Caelum..." my partner murmured. I turned to her. Her eyes widened. "Revelat... tenebras et lumen..." She tilted her head. "Porta Arcani... descende... ad astra..."

"Stop," Seraphina said. "I don't know if you have any magic, but spoken words are powerful. It's an evocation of a magical rift, probably on a recording that's been playing for a while. He's trying to speed up the awakening. There might even already be a rift open nearby."

"How do we close it? Is it dangerous?"

"It won't be large, but it-- Shit! It's lost half its sand."

I clenched my jaw and rushed forward towards the sound. It grew louder and louder, but it was still barely a whisper. I opened the public channel again to speak to Grace.

"Grace, we need more time. Insult him. Yell at him. Call him a bastard. Do whatever you have to, and don't be nice about it."

It wouldn't do a damn thing to help us. When the glass was full, he'd blow it, but Grace needed hope, and so did Amira. We hurried deeper into the underground passages, and I heard Grace's voice through the comms.

"Answer me!" Grace yelled. "All your talk about pure werewolf lines and mixed blood. What's your lineage? How does anyone ever know you're a werewolf? How could any werewolf want to murder so many of their own kind and not care?" She growled low. "And to everyone listening who is still so convinced that I'm to blame for everything that's happening, I admit that I was the catalyst. I admit that I stepped back and didn't think about it, but you all are no better. You were all complacent and complicit in what Devin's done to Mooncrest. Not one word to me about what was happening. No one called to have him kicked from the position. No one said anything until you couldn't be quiet anymore. Say what you want, but you're no better than me."

"Is she ranting or just buying us time?" My partner asked.

"Both," I said as he took another turn.

"No, you're worse! You're cheering on this psycho bullying a single mother and an entire city for his own ends, so you can all fuck off. As soon as this is over, I expect you all to be applying for transfer out. I'll have the transfers stamped in gold. Goodbye and good riddance."

I shook my head, listening to her. Her voice was hitching up with emotion, but she didn't seem panicked, just pissed off, and that's all we needed.

We were getting closer. I could smell Eason more clearly: pain, blood, and magic, but still alive. The air started to grow heavier with magic and lighter as if there was fresh air coming in from somewhere. Then, the darkness parted, and for a moment, I thought we had gotten to some sort of cave with an opening to the ground level.

"By the moon..."

I looked up, and my blood ran cold. The rift was an enormous, jagged tear through the rock above us. Magic spilled out like a thick mist above us, filling the air. It snaked off ahead of us. I went back to the private comms.

"Seraphina, it's gigantic." I opened the visual comms so she could see. "We're going to need someone to close it."

"Leave a marker, but if it's that big... you don't have a lot of time."

A cry of pain echoed down the corridor. We rushed forward toward the sound. The scent of blood was fresh and strong, mingling with the magic, and my stomach turned.

Alpha Shadow was craftier than we thought. He'd played us all. The platform was inscribed with glowing script and drinking in the magic flowing out of the rift, and on it was Kalen and a group of WSU members. He lifted Eason up and slammed his fist into Eason's face.

"Nothing to say for yourself, you little bastard?" Kalen screamed as Eason landed in a heap. His clothing was ripped. His skin was smeared with thick black and red streaks. His face was so swollen I couldn't even tell if he was conscious or not, but he was still breathing, and that was all that mattered right now.

"Undo it, you little shit, and maybe I'll let you off lightly."

I drew a dagger and aimed at Kalen, ripping through his shoulder and forcing him to stumble back. He looked up and over at me as I summoned the dagger back to my hand and swallowed.

The entire cavern was rigged with explosives. This was the center of the ritual.

Eason was a bloody mess, lying to one side, but the magic was shifting around him. The ritual circle pulsed like it was syncing with his heartbeat. Eason wasn't trained to resist the pull of the ritual, and he probably wasn't even entirely conscious.

"Get him off the platform," I said, turning to face the assholes coming towards me.

"You're a coward!" Grace yelled in my ear. "A sadistic, barbaric coward, and I am so sick of your bullshit. If my kids get PTSD from this bullshit, you're going to wish all you had to worry about was your next payday."

They fired. The scent of gunpowder grew sharp in the air. I heard others coming up behind me as I charged into the group of men with my shield.

"Fuck!" One of them cried, going down as the bullet ricocheted and hit him in the shoulder. Kalen didn't move, snarling down at me.

"Kill them!"

I was halfway to the steps when I saw the mist shift and swirl sharply. Darkness swirled around Eason, mingling with the light of the magic spilling out from the rift. His clothes melted. His skin vanished into the darkness, and the wind picked up around us.

"It's starting!" I yelled. "Seraphina, he's shifting!"

"What? He's not going to be conscious, Charles. There's no way. Get out of there!"

In Eason's place, a lycan with a coat the color of midnight and burning gold eyes appeared. He was as large as any beta lycan I had ever seen, but when Kalen turned around, I knew that it might be Eason, but it wasn't all him.

I leaped onto the platform, tackling Kalen to the ground as Eason leaped at him, mouth open in a snarl, teeth glistening with vicious intent.

Eason circled around as I got Kalen down and restrained, then I turned to face him, meeting his gaze and letting my power surge.

"Stand down, Eason," I commanded.

I saw an Enforcer behind him aiming at Eason with a tranquilizer.

Eason landed just in front of me. Shaking as our gazes met. It felt like an eternity before either of us moved.

Eason's eyes fluttered. His inky black coat vanished, and he collapsed in front of me. Relief surged in me until I saw the edges of the ritual circle lighting up.

"It seems as though you’ve run out of time… " Alpha Shadow began. The incantation grew louder, and I remembered that Ethan said that the incantation Alpha Shadow set up was a part of his speech, a phrase.

An hourglass appeared above the circle, and my heart lurched.

"Grace!" I yelled. "Stall him!"