Thaddeus's POV
I ripped Ember away from Rowan before the bond could drain my daughter completely.
"No!" Ember fought against me, her small hands hitting my chest. "I have to save Mama!"
"Not by dying," I said, holding her tight even as she fought. Through the Eclipse bond, I could feel Ember's life force—it had dropped to half strength. Another minute and she would have been gone forever.
Rowan fell on the ground, black veins still spreading across her skin. The rot was winning again without Ember's power to fight it.
"We need another solution," Dante said desperately. His shadows wrapped around Rowan, trying to slow the corruption's spread. "There has to be another way."
But I knew the truth. I'd seen Feral corruption consume fighters before. Once it got this deep, there was no fix. The infected person either died or turned into a dumb monster.
Rowan was going to turn Feral. And when she did, I'd have to kill the woman I'd spent four years looking for.
"There is one way," a weak voice said.
We all turned. Lyanna sat up slowly, the evil drained from her body. She looked almost like the woman I'd first met—before ambition and dark magic had turned her into something cruel.
"The Eclipse binding can transfer more than just power," Lyanna said softly. "It can share conditions. Injuries. Sickness. Even corruption."
"What are you saying?" I asked.
"Someone else can take the rot from Rowan. Absorb it into themselves instead." Lyanna met my eyes. "It would kill them. But it would save her."
The world went dead. I looked at Dante. He looked at me. We both understood what Lyanna was really saying.
One of us had to die to save Rowan.
"I'll do it," Dante and I said at the exact same time.
"No." Rowan's voice came out as a growl, half-human already. "Neither of you—will sacrifice—yourself for me."
"You don't get a choice," I said, kneeling beside her. "You're the mother of my child. You're the woman I've loved for four years even when I tried to stop. I won't watch you turn into a monster."
"I raised your daughter," Dante argued, his jaw tight. "I held Rowan when she cried over you. I built a life with them. If anyone has the right to save them, it's me."
We glared at each other—two blood-brothers about to fight over who got to die.
"Stop it," Rowan gasped. Her eyes were starting to turn red. "I won't let either of you—"
Her words cut off as she convulsed. The rot was spreading faster now, crawling up her neck toward her face.
"We're out of time," Lyanna said. "Decide now, or she turns Feral and you'll have to kill her anyway."
Ember broke free from my arms and threw herself between Dante and me. "NO! Nobody else dies!"
"Ember, move," I said gently.
"NO!" Her eyes blazed gold again—that ancient power rising despite her weariness. "The Eclipse binding links four people now. Not three. FOUR. That means four people can share the evil, not just one!"
Dante's eyes widened. "She's right. If we split the evil four ways instead of one person taking it all—"
"We might survive it," I finished. "Our combined strength could burn it out."
"Might?" Commander Sienna stepped forward. "That's a bad plan. You could all die."
"Better than definitely dying," I said.
I grabbed Rowan's hand. Dante took her other hand. Ember put her small hands on top of ours.
Through the Eclipse bond, I felt our four life forces connect—really connect this time. Not just power sharing, but becoming something more. One consciousness split across four bodies.
I could feel Rowan's pain. Dante's fear. Ember's drive.
And they could feel mine—four years of desperate searching. Four years of knowing I'd ruined the best thing that ever happened to me. Four years of trying to find a way back to the family I'd abandoned.
"Together," Ember said in her small voice. "We do it together."
The corruption started pouring from Rowan into the rest of us. It felt like eating razor blades. Like fire and ice at the same time. Like darkness trying to eat my soul.
But split four ways, it was bearable. Barely.
Black veins appeared on my arms. On Dante's face. On Ember's small hands. But they weren't spreading like they had in Rowan—they were fading as our united power burned the corruption away.
"It's working," Dante said through gritted teeth.
Rowan's eyes cleared from red back to her normal brown. The black veins on her skin started fading. She was coming back.
But then Lyanna screamed.
We all turned to see her body convulsing again—but no rot was visible. This was something else.
"What's happening to her?" Commander Sienna asked.
"The blood-bond," I realized with fear. "When I broke it using Ember's Eclipse whip, the magic had to go somewhere. It's been dormant inside Lyanna, waiting. And now—"
"Now it's trying to reestablish itself," Dante ended. "Using the Eclipse binding as a bridge."
Dark red magic—the twisted blood-bond magic—started flowing from Lyanna toward me. It was trying to reconnect us. Trying to push the permanent binding back into place.
But I was connected to the Eclipse binding now. If the blood-bond reattached, it wouldn't just bind me to Lyanna—it would bind ALL FOUR of us to her. She'd become part of our family link whether we wanted it or not.
"Break the Eclipse binding!" I shouted at Dante. "Now, before the blood-bond—"
"If we break the binding now, the corruption kills Rowan instantly," Dante said. "We haven't finished burning it out yet."
"Then we're trapped," I said, watching the blood-bond magic creep closer. "Either Rowan dies or Lyanna becomes permanently connected to us."
"There's a third option," Ember said quietly.
We all looked at her. My four-year-old daughter stared at Lyanna with ancient eyes.
"The Eclipse binding can absorb other magics," Ember continued in that too-old voice. "If we pull the blood-bond magic into the binding instead of letting it rejoin, we can neutralize it. But—"
"But what?" Rowan demanded.
"But Lyanna would become the fifth anchor point," Ember said. "Forever. We'd all be bound together. All five of us. No way to break it without everyone dying."
My mind reeled. Lyanna—the woman who'd tried to kill my daughter, who'd turned herself Feral with dark magic, who'd planned all of this—permanently bound to my family?
"Absolutely not," I said.
"Then Rowan dies," Lyanna said, her voice sad. "Because that blood-bond magic is coming whether you like it or not. And without the Eclipse binding to control it, the backlash will kill her."
I looked at Rowan—this woman I'd searched for desperately, who I'd loved even when I tried not to, who'd given me a daughter I didn't deserve.
Then I looked at Dante—my blood-brother who I'd despised and been jealous of, but who'd saved my family when I wasn't there.
Then Ember—my daughter who I'd only just met but who already owned my entire heart.
"What if I want to be bound to you?" Lyanna asked quietly. "What if—after everything I've done, all the darkness I've embraced—I want a chance to be part of something good?"
"You tried to kill our daughter," Rowan said simply.
"I know." Lyanna's eyes filled with tears. "I was consumed by desire and dark magic and jealousy. But absorbing all that corruption—feeling it nearly kill me—it burned away the darkness. I can see clearly now." She looked at me. "Thaddeus, I know you never loved me. I knew it even when we blood-bonded. But maybe—if you gave me a chance—I could learn to be someone worth loving."
The blood-bond power was almost upon us. Seconds to decide.
"Rowan?" I asked. "It's your life we're saving. You should choose."
Rowan looked at Lyanna—really looked at her—and I saw something shift in her face. Understanding, maybe. Or pity.
"Make her the fifth anchor," Rowan said. "Everyone deserves a chance to change."
The blood-bond magic slammed into our Eclipse connection.
Pain burst through all of us as five life forces suddenly connected. Five thoughts. Five lives. All crashing together into one impossible link.
I could feel everything. Rowan's fierce protectiveness. Dante's quiet power. Ember's innocent knowledge. And Lyanna's— Lyanna's desperate, aching loneliness. Years of it. A lifetime of choosing power over relationship. Of pushing away anyone who tried to get close. Of becoming the monster everyone expected her to be.
"I'm sorry," Lyanna whispered, and through the bond, I knew she meant it. "I'm so, so sorry."
The Eclipse bond settled into place. Five anchor points. Permanent and unbreakable.
Then Ember gasped and pointed at the sky.
The moon—which had been normal just moments ago—was turning black. Not from air. From something else. Something that made my warrior senses scream danger.
"The Prophecy," old Archon Mordecai's words echoed from the crowd. He'd appeared during the battle, watching everything. "A five-point Eclipse binding hasn't appeared in a thousand years. The old texts say it appear
s only when—" The black moon turned blood red. "—when the Wolf God awakens."