The wind no longer carried the scent of the forest.
It carried omens.
As Kaelen stood, reborn in starlight and sorrow, the world around him seemed to bend—trees groaning beneath a force they didn't understand, birds fleeing in chaotic spirals, the earth itself quivering.
His silver eyes glowed, not with light, but with knowledge.
Terrible, unbearable knowledge.
"Elara," he said, voice ragged. "You have to bind me. Now."
She flinched. "What?"
"Before I lose control. Before the others awaken."
Aiden stepped forward, eyes narrowed. "What others?"
Kaelen didn't answer. He staggered backward, clutching his head. The runes along his skin lit like wildfire, and the sky darkened.
Not with clouds.
With shadows.
Elara rushed to his side. "Kaelen, talk to me!"
"I'm remembering," he gasped. "Lives before this one. Wars before this age. I wasn't the first Alpha. I wasn't even the first Betrayer. I'm... a vessel. We all are."
Aiden drew his blade. "What are you saying?"
Kaelen's gaze snapped toward him. "I was forged to trigger the End. Every choice we made—the prophecy, the war, the Hollow—it wasn't fate."
His voice broke.
"It was design."
Elara's breath hitched.
"By who?" she whispered.
Kaelen turned his eyes skyward.
"By the Forgotten Gods."
Centuries ago, before Selene carved the moon and offered wolves their bond, the world was ruled by Primordial Deities—beings of chaos and order, fire and thought, dreams and nightmares. They were cast out when wolves chose balance over power.
But they didn't vanish.
They sank beneath the Veil, sealed by the blood of the First Oath.
And now—because Kaelen had died, because the Hollow had chosen him, because Elara had loved him—they were waking.
Through him.
Aiden's jaw clenched. "We need to kill him. Before it's too late."
Elara stepped in front of Kaelen.
"You'll have to kill me first."
Kaelen's body convulsed.
A second heartbeat pulsed beneath his chest. Silver cracked into gold. The runes changed shape—no longer protection marks, but summoning circles.
"Elara, please," he gasped. "Use the pendant. Bind me."
But the pendant—the relic the Moon Seer had given her—was glowing hot.
Too hot to hold.
It dropped from her hand and embedded into the earth, pulsing like a beacon.
Suddenly—
The skies split again.
And this time, something came through.
Not Kaelen.
Not a god.
Something worse.
From the tear in the sky, a creature descended—a being made of liquid shadow, crowned in obsidian flame, eyes like pits of despair.
Its voice was every scream ever silenced.
"WE HAVE RETURNED."
The survivors of Lyria fled.
Elara stood frozen.
Kaelen dropped to his knees, his body resisting, fighting, screaming.
Aiden dragged her back. "We can't face that thing!"
Elara's voice trembled. "What is it?"
Kaelen looked up, barely breathing.
"It's my shadow."
"It's the first god I betrayed."
The creature landed, causing the ground to ripple like water.
Its presence rewrote reality—grass wilted, time slowed, memories bled into air.
It looked at Kaelen with something resembling affection—and hatred.
"You were always mine," it hissed.
Kaelen coughed blood. "I broke the Oath for love."
The god leaned down, smile like a knife.
"Then let love be the blade that ends you."
Elara reached for her blade.
Aiden stood beside her.
Kaelen rose—slowly, painfully—light flickering from his skin.
"We can't win," he said. "But we can buy time. There's a gate. Beyond the Vale of Bones. If we reach it, we can close the Veil."
"And trap that thing?" Aiden asked.
"No," Kaelen said. "Trap me."
Elara's eyes filled with tears. "Not again."
"I won't survive it," he said. "Not this time."
The god screamed, a sound that turned air into shards.
Elara grabbed Kaelen's hand.
"If we're doing this... we do it together."
He looked at her with an expression of both hope and despair.
"You'll lose yourself."
"I already did," she whispered. "When I lost you."
The three of them turned and ran as the god unleashed its fury.
The forest behind them turned to ash.
But ahead—hope.
A map carved in Kaelen's blood.
A gate no one believed was real.
And the end of the world waiting beyond it.