Chapter 12The Fragment Inside

The tunnel breathed around Rissa—dust and stone and the acrid tang of her own corruption. She dragged Elara's unconscious body through the dark, one hand gripping her sister's wrist, the other scraping against rough walls. Every step sent tendrils of darkness writhing under her skin, coiling around her ribs like serpent meat.

*Give in.*

The Moonstone's voice came from inside her chest now. Not a whisper. A certainty.

*You felt the power. You know what it offers.*

Rissa stumbled into a hollow where luminescent moss painted the walls in weak green light. She dropped to her knees, lowering Elara against the stone floor. Her sister's chest rose and fell—shallow, but steady. Unconscious. Alive.

The corruption pulsed.

Rissa pressed her palm to her sternum and felt something *move* beneath her skin. Not muscle. Not bone. Something that shouldn't exist inside a living body.

*You're already mine. The ritual was completed. Your flesh is just a delay.*

She screamed—not in fear, in fury—and slammed her fist into the wall. Rock cracked. Blood welled across her knuckles. The pain cut through the voice for half a breath before it returned, stronger.

Footsteps.

Rissa spun, teeth bared, hands shifting into claws without her permission. The corruption surged, darkening her vision, and she saw Dorian at the tunnel entrance with Lorna slumped against his shoulder.

His eyes went wide. "Rissa—"

She lunged.

He dropped Lorna and caught her wrists, using her momentum to spin her into the wall. Stone bit into her back. The impact rattled her teeth, and for a moment, the darkness receded.

"Fight it." His voice was low, fierce. His hands gripped her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. "You're still in there. I know you are."

The corruption hissed. Tried to rise again.

Rissa focused on the line of Dorian's jaw, the fleck of blood on his cheek, the way his pulse beat against his throat. Human things. Real things.

"I'm here," she managed. The words scraped past her lips like broken glass.

Dorian held her gaze for three more breaths, then released her slowly. He turned to help Lorna, who had propped herself against the wall, pressing a blood-soaked rag to her side. The gash from the glyph ward was deep. Her face was the color of ash.

"You first," Lorna said, nodding at Rissa. Her voice was thin, but her eyes held that same stubborn fire. "The corruption spreads faster than my wound bleeds."

"There has to be something—" Dorian started.

"There is." Lorna coughed, spattering blood across her hand. "That's the problem."

Rissa slid down the wall until she sat across from the elder. The corruption coiled in her stomach, waiting. "Tell me."

Lorna's gaze drifted to the ceiling, to the faint cracks spreading through the rock. "The Moonstone wasn't just a source of power. It was a *being*. An entity that fed on blood fury for centuries, growing stronger, learning. When you shattered it, you didn't kill it. You broke its prison."

"Then it's inside me." Rissa's voice was flat.

"A fragment." Lorna met her eyes. "But fragments can grow. They can spread. Given time, it will consume your wolf, your mind, your body—and become a new Moonstone. A new prison. This time, with you as the walls."

Dorian stepped forward. "How do we destroy it?"

Lorna's laugh was wet, bitter. "The same way you destroyed the stone. The frequency. But it needs a conduit—a living wolf who has touched the stone's heart and survived. A wolf whose blood remembers the shattering."

"That's me," Rissa said.

"Yes." Lorna's voice dropped. "But the frequency doesn't discriminate. It will shatter the corruption *and* the wolf inside you. You'll lose your ability to shift. You'll become human. Permanently."

Silence filled the alcove.

Dorian's hand found Rissa's shoulder. "There has to be another way. We can find—"

"There's no time." Rissa felt the corruption pulse in agreement, a mocking rhythm. "If I don't do it, I become Vance. Worse than Vance. I become the stone itself."

"Then we find Vance's blood first." Dorian's grip tightened. "Fenris said we needed alpha blood to amplify the frequency. We use it to target the corruption without—"

Lorna shook her head. "Alpha blood amplifies the *power*, not the precision. If Rissa channels the frequency, it will burn through everything that makes her wolf. There's no shortcut."

Rissa looked at her hands. For a moment, her claws extended without her willing them—black, jagged, wrong. She imagined never feeling the shift again. Never running on four legs. Never hearing the forest through a wolf's ears.

Then she imagined the corruption spreading. Consuming Elara. Dorian. Everyone.

She looked up.

"I'll do it."

Dorian opened his mouth to argue, but before he could speak, a roar echoed through the tunnel. Deep. Guttural. *Close.*

The moss flickered.

Vance's voice rolled through the stone like thunder, distorted by the monstrous form he'd taken. But it wasn't the sound that made Rissa's blood freeze.

It was the answering howls. Dozens of them. Rising from every direction.

Dorian's face went pale. He turned toward the tunnel entrance, his body rigid, listening.

"He's not alone." His voice was barely a whisper. "I can hear the pack."

The corruption inside Rissa surged with hungry anticipation.

*Yes. Let them come.*

Rissa pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the writhing darkness. She grabbed Dorian's arm and turned him to face her.

"Get Lorna and Elara deeper into the tunnel. Find a place to hold."

"What about you?"

She met his eyes. "I'm going to buy us time."

The howls grew closer.

Dorian's jaw tightened, but he didn't argue. He lifted Lorna, careful of her wound, and gestured for Rissa to take Elara.

She shook her head. "I can't control the corruption around her. Take her."

For a moment, something unspoken passed between them—fear, regret, a promise neither of them could voice. Then Dorian nodded and disappeared into the dark, Elara's body cradled against his chest.

Rissa turned to face the tunnel.

The corruption spread through her veins, eager, waiting.

*You can't stop them. You can't stop me.*

She smiled, baring her teeth, feeling the shift crawl up her spine.

"Watch me."