Chapter 17The Shattering

The tunnel walls bled moisture. Rissa pressed her palm against the cold stone, following the pull of the fragment in Vance's pocket—a thread of blue that only she could see, tugging her deeper into the compound's gut.

Dorian moved beside her, one hand pressed to his ribs where Kellan's claws had found purchase. His breathing came wet and uneven.

"She's in there," he said. Not a question.

Rissa nodded. Through the thread, she felt the Moonstone's pulse—a low, rhythmic throb that matched the beat of her heart. Beneath it, smaller signatures. Elara. Others. All chained to the same altar.

"Kellan?"

"Out cold. I didn't—" He stopped. Swallowed. "I couldn't kill him."

"You don't have to apologize for having a conscience."

Dorian's laugh was bitter. "A conscience almost got us killed."

They rounded a corner and the tunnel opened into the chamber. Rissa's breath caught.

The Moonstone dominated the space—a jagged shard of obsidian and starlight, taller than a man, its surface crawling with veins of cold fire. Chains hung from the ceiling, each ending in a collar around a prisoner's neck. Elara was among them, her face bruised, her eyes empty.

And in the center, waiting, stood Vance.

"I wondered when you'd arrive." He smiled, and the expression didn't reach his eyes. "I've prepared a welcome."

Dorian stepped forward. "Let them go. This is between us."

"No." Vance's voice was soft. "This is between me and the woman who betrayed her pack. The woman who thought she could steal from me." He reached into his pocket and held up the tracking fragment. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"

Rissa's blood went cold.

"I knew the moment you planted it," Vance continued. "I let you believe you were clever. Do you know why?"

She didn't answer.

"Because I needed you here. Willing or not, your blood will feed the stone tonight."

He pressed a button on a device strapped to his wrist. The chains tightened, lifting the captives off their feet. Elara choked. The others screamed.

"One wrong move," Vance said, "and the current flows. They'll be dead before you blink."

Rissa's mind raced. The tracking fragment—useless if he knew about it. The frequency generator—still with Kellan's unconscious body. The blood sacrifice—

She looked at Dorian. He was already moving.

He lunged for Vance, not with claws or fangs, but with his body—a tackle that sent them both crashing into the stone. The remote flew from Vance's hand, skittering across the floor.

"Now!" Dorian shouted.

Rissa dove for the remote. Her fingers closed around it just as a hand grabbed her ankle.

Lorna.

The elder's face was unreadable. "I'm sorry, child."

She wrenched the remote from Rissa's grip and pressed the trigger.

Electricity screamed through the chains. The captives convulsed. Elara's back arched, her mouth open in a silent scream.

Rissa moved without thinking.

She threw herself between Elara and the chain, grabbing the metal with both hands. The current hit her like a freight train—white fire in every nerve, her muscles locking, her vision going white.

Somewhere, she heard Dorian roar.

The current poured through her, but it didn't pass through to Elara. Rissa's body became a conduit, absorbing the shock. Her wolf struggled to surface, but the electricity scrambled her senses, left her nothing but raw pain.

And beneath the pain, something else.

The fragment in her pocket. The one she'd taken from the mine. It was warm now, pulsing, feeding on the current like a parasite.

*No. Not feeding. Communing.*

The voice wasn't hers. It came from the stone, from the fragment, from every crack and crevice of the chamber.

*Willing blood. You promised.*

Rissa's teeth clenched. She hadn't promised. She'd refused.

But the current was changing her. The corruption she'd felt before—the creeping frost in her veins—it was accelerating, spreading like ink through water. She could feel her wolf retreating, not dying, but *separating.*

*Let go,* the stone whispered. *Give in. Save them.*

She opened her eyes.

Dorian had smashed the generator. Lorna lay crumpled against the wall, blood trickling from her temple. Vance was shifting—his body cracking and reforming, bones snapping, fur ripping through skin.

He became a wolf the size of a horse, his eyes burning with the same cold fire as the stone.

Dorian ran to her. "Rissa. Rissa, stay with me."

She couldn't speak. Her mouth wouldn't work. The current had stolen her voice, her strength, everything but the will to hold on.

"I've got you." Dorian grabbed the chain, ignoring the residual shock, and pried her hands free. She fell into his arms, limp and trembling.

The stone pulsed.

Vance lunged.

Dorian rolled, putting himself between Rissa and the alpha. Vance's jaws closed around his shoulder, and Dorian screamed.

"No!" Rissa's voice came out as a croak.

She crawled toward the frequency generator, still lying where Kellan had dropped it. Her fingers found the dial. The phrase Dorian had discovered in the journal—the frequency that could shatter the stone—it was etched into the casing.

*Ithiran ka'veth, morath teth.*

But it needed blood. Pack blood.

Dorian's blood was already on the floor, pooling beneath him as Vance tore into his flesh. It was enough. It had to be.

She pressed the generator against the stone and activated it.

A low hum filled the chamber. The Moonstone vibrated, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. Vance howled, releasing Dorian and turning on her.

"You'll kill us all!"

"Better than letting you live."

She looked at Dorian. He was bleeding out, his eyes fluttering, his hand reaching for her.

She understood.

The sacrifice needed to be willing. Not coerced. Not forced. *Willing.*

She pulled the fragment from her pocket and slashed it across her wrist.

The blood welled, dark and thick. She pressed her wrist to the stone.

"Ithiran ka'veth, morath teth," she whispered.

The stone drank.

Light exploded from the cracks—white, blinding, pure. The Moonstone screamed, a sound that wasn't sound, a frequency that vibrated in her bones. Rissa felt something tear inside her, a thread snapping, a door closing.

Her wolf.

It was gone.

The stone shattered.

The shockwave threw her across the chamber. She hit the wall and slid to the floor, her ears ringing, her vision swimming. Dust filled the air, thick and choking.

When it cleared, the Moonstone was nothing but rubble.

The chains had fallen. The captives lay on the ground, gasping, alive.

Vance was human again, on his knees, staring at the ruins of his power.

And Dorian—

Dorian lay in a pool of blood, not moving.

Rissa crawled to him. Her hands found his face, cold and pale. "No. No, no, no."

His eyes flickered open. "Did it work?"

"The stone is gone. Dorian, stay with me."

He smiled, weak and broken. "You did it."

"Don't you dare leave me."

But his eyes were closing, his breath slowing.

And from across the chamber, Vance laughed.

It was a hollow sound, broken and mad. "You think this ends it?" He pointed at her, blood dripping from his mouth. "The stone's consciousness was never in the rock. It was in the fragment. The one you swallowed. The one that's been living inside you since the mine."

Rissa's blood went cold.

"You are the new Moonstone, Rissa." Vance's smile was a rictus of triumph. "And now, you'll carry it forever."

She looked down at her hands.

The veins were black.