Dante's POV
I pulled shadows from the darkness and wrapped them around our cabin like armor.
It wouldn't stick. Not against hundreds of Ferals lead by a corrupted Eclipse Queen. But it might buy us thirty seconds. Maybe a minute if we were lucky.
"Daddy-Dante?" Ember's small voice shook. "Are we gonna die?"
"No, little flame." I knelt beside her, pushing my voice to stay calm even though my heart was breaking. "I won't let anything happen to you."
Thaddeus stood at the window, watching the Feral mob charge closer. His troops had scattered—only five remained, and they looked ready to run. Cowards.
"We need a plan," Thaddeus said.
"The plan is we're dead," I said simply. "Unless you've got an army hidden somewhere."
Rowan grabbed my arm, her fingers digging in tight. "There has to be something. Your shadow-walking—can you get us out?"
I shook my head. "Shadow-walking takes concentration. With this many Ferals? I'd lose focus halfway through and we'd be stuck between realms. We'd die even faster."
"Then we fight," Thaddeus growled. His body started changing to wolf form. "If we're dying anyway, we die protecting our daughter."
Our baby. Not his kid. Our baby.
Something in my chest twisted hearing those words from Thaddeus's mouth. For three years, Ember had been mine. I'd changed her diapers, sang her songs, taught her to walk. I'd been her father in every way that mattered.
And now Thaddeus waltzed in and suddenly got to share her?
"You don't get to call her 'our daughter,'" I said, rage burning hot. "Where were you when Rowan was dying in childbirth? Where were you when Ember had fever so bad I thought we'd lose her? Where were you for three years of scraped knees and dreams and first words?"
Thaddeus flinched like I'd hit him. "I was searching. Every single day, I was—"
"You were following a duty you chose over them," I interrupted. "I didn't choose Rowan and Ember. I found them broken and bleeding, and I put them back together. That's what dads do."
"Stop it!" Rowan shouted. "Both of you! There's a Feral army about to kill us and you're fighting about who's the better father?"
She was right. I knew she was right. But three years of fear came spilling out—fear that Thaddeus would show up and take my family away. Fear that the Eclipse bond meant I'd never really had them at all. Fear that I was just the replacement until the real father came home.
The Ferals hit my shadow shield with the force of a battering ram. The shadows held, but I felt them cracking already.
"Twenty seconds," I said. "That's all I've got left."
Thaddeus's surviving soldiers formed a line at the door, weapons ready. Lieutenant Graves looked at his Commander with sad, faithful eyes. "It's been an honor, sir."
Ember started crying. Not loud—just quiet tears running down her face. "I don't want everyone to die because of me."
"This isn't your fault, baby," Rowan said furiously, holding her tight.
"Yes it is." Ember's eyes glowed faint gold—just an echo of her previous power. "The bad queen wants my Eclipse blood. If I go outside and let her have it, maybe she'll leave everyone alone."
"Absolutely not," Thaddeus and I said at the exact same time.
We looked at each other—blood-brothers who'd become foes over the same woman and child. For a second, I saw past all the anger and hurt. Saw the man who'd once been my best friend. The brother who'd trained beside me, fought beside me, almost died beside me during that Eclipse Ritual eight years ago.
"I'm sorry," Thaddeus said quietly. "For everything. For not being here. For not finding them sooner. For—" His voice cracked. "For failing them."
"You're here now," I said. "That's what matters."
My shadow shield shattered.
Ferals poured through the broken windows and smashed-down door. Lieutenant Graves and the troops were torn apart in seconds—brave men dying to buy us heartbeats of time.
I pulled Rowan and Ember behind me, shadows forming into blades in my hands. Thaddeus stood beside me in full wolf form, snarling defiance at the horde.
Two blood-brothers. United again. About to die together.
A Feral jumped at Ember. I cut it down. Three more replaced it. Thaddeus's teeth ripped through corrupted flesh. But there were too many. Way too many.
Claws cut across my back. I stumbled. Another Feral hit me from the side, driving me to the ground. Its jaws opened wide, going for my throat— An arrow punched through its brain.
The Feral fell. I looked up, confused.
More arrows rained down, each one finding a Feral target with perfect precision. The horde screamed in confusion as fighters dropped from the trees—warriors I didn't recognize, wearing no Covenant markings.
"The Borderland Militia!" Rowan gasped. "They came!"
A woman landed beside us, her bow already firing again. "Get up, shadow-walker. This isn't over yet."
"Who are you?" I demanded, getting to my feet.
"Commander Sienna Ashcroft. I lead the free troops who refuse Covenant law." She shot three Ferals in quick succession. "We've been watching your town. When we saw the Eclipse Child's power signal, we knew something big was happening."
"You came to help us?" Thaddeus asked, changing back to human.
Sienna's eyes were cold. "We came for the child. Eclipse abilities could free the Borderlands from Covenant rule forever. But we can't exactly claim her if she's dead, so—" She shrugged. "Here we are."
More Borderland fighters poured in, fighting the Ferals with desperate skill. But even with reinforcements, we were still overpowered.
And Lyanna hadn't even joined the fight yet.
The corrupted Eclipse Queen stood at the edge of the fight, watching with those horrible red-gold eyes. When she smiled, her Feral fangs glinted in the moonlight.
"How touching," Lyanna called out. "The Borderland rebels coming to save the Eclipse Child. Too bad it won't matter."
She raised her hooked hands, and dark Eclipse magic gathered around them—wrong magic, twisted and sick.
"I've figured out what makes Eclipse power so special," Lyanna continued, her voice carrying over the fight. "It's the power to bind souls. To join life forces. To make three into one." Her smile widened. "And if it can connect three people—it can connect three hundred."
She thrust her hands toward the Feral horde, and corrupted Eclipse magic burst outward in a wave.
Every Feral the magic touched suddenly stopped fighting. Their red eyes flared brighter. And then they all moved as one—turning to face us with synchronized, terrifying accuracy.
"No," I breathed. "She's controlling them. She's turned the entire crowd into one hive mind."
Three hundred Ferals, all ruled by a corrupted Eclipse Queen.
Sienna's face went pale. "We can't fight that. Nobody can fight that."
The hive-mind Ferals advanced as one unified force, moving with perfect coordination. No chaos. No random strikes. Just cold, planned hunting.
"Fall back!" Sienna ordered her soldiers. "Retreat to the forest!"
But Lyanna's laugh echoed across the battlefield: "There is no escape. I've surrounded the entire settlement. Every man, woman, and child in Ashenvale is about to die. And it's all because you saved the Eclipse Child from me."
Through our cabin window, I could see families running in fear as the coordinated Ferals closed in from all sides. Children screaming. Parents trying hard to protect them.
Hundreds of innocent people about to be killed because we were here.
"We have to do something," Rowan said desperately.
Ember pulled away from her mother and walked toward the door on shaky legs.
"Ember, no!" I grabbed for her, but she slipped through my fingers.
"If I let the bad queen take me, she'll stop hurting people," Ember said in her small, brave voice. "That's what heroes do, right? They save people."
"You're four years old," Thaddeus said hoarsely. "You're not supposed to be a hero. You're supposed to be safe."
"But I'm the Eclipse Child." Ember looked at all of us with those too-old eyes. "This is what I was born for."
She stepped outside, into the killing field where Lyanna waited with three hundred Ferals.
The corrupted Queen'
s smile was winning. "Finally. The little lamb comes to slaughter."