The descent into the lower levels of the Obsidian fortress felt like entering the gullet of an ancient beast. The air grew thick with the smell of damp stone, sulfur, and that cloying, honey-sweet rot that signaled the end of a shifter's life.
Kaelen's hand was a heavy weight on the small of my back, guiding me through corridors where the torchlight flickered and died. We stopped before a massive set of iron-bound doors engraved with weeping moons.
"The Chamber of Tides," Kaelen whispered. "It was built over a natural lunar spring. It's the only place where the veil between our world and the Moon Mother's grace is thin enough to breathe."
He pushed the doors open.
The room was circular, centered around a pool of glowing, iridescent water that pulsed in time with the moon above. But the beauty was marred by the sight of three stone slabs. On two of them lay warriors, their bodies contorted, skin turned the color of bruised ash. On the third was the guard from the gate. He was shivering violently, black veins spider-webbing across his chest toward his heart.
"The Rot doesn't just kill the body," Vara said, appearing from the shadows with a bowl of silver-leaf herbs. Her eyes were red-rimmed. "It eats the wolf first. It hollows them out until there's nothing left but a shell of pain."
Kaelen turned to me. The Savage King was gone; in his place was a man drowning in the weight of his crown. "The healers have tried everything. Blood transfusions, lunar salts, ancient rites. Nothing stops the spread."
I walked toward the pool. The water hummed, a frequency that resonated deep in my bone marrow. My palm,the one Kaelen had cut,began to throb.
"What do I do?" I asked, my voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
"If you are the Oracle," Kaelen said, stepping up behind me, "your blood is the bridge. It carries the pure light of the moon, unfiltered by the sins of the pack."
I looked at the dying guard. His name was Elias; I remembered it from the training pits. He had been one of the few who hadn't laughed when I arrived. I reached out, my fingers hovering over the black veins on his neck.
"Don't touch the rot!" Vara warned, stepping forward. "It'll jump to you. It'll claim you in seconds."
"Let her," Kaelen commanded, his voice a low vibration. "The bond will protect her. Or it will claim us both."
I ignored them both and pressed my hand against Elias's cold, clammy skin.
The reaction was instantaneous. A jolt of agonizing ice shot up my arm, turning my vision white. I saw flashes of a dark figure standing over a cradle, a whispered curse, and a shadow that had been cast over the Obsidian pack for a hundred years.
The Rot wasn't a disease. It was a debt.
*Give it back,* a voice echoed in my mind. Not Kaelen's, but something older. *The light belongs to the moon. The dark belongs to the earth.*
I grabbed the edge of the stone slab, my knuckles turning white. I felt the Oracle blood within me surge, reacting to the corruption. My white-glow eyes returned, more brilliant than at the river. I didn't push the rot away; I pulled it.
I became a conduit.
The black veins on Elias's neck began to move, slithering toward my palm like ink in water. I screamed as the darkness entered my body. It felt like swallowing needles. My own veins turned black, the shadow climbing toward my shoulder, heading straight for my heart.
"Elara! Break contact!" Kaelen roared. He moved to grab me, but a shockwave of lunar energy threw him back against the wall.
"Stay... back!" I gasped, my teeth gritted.
I turned my other hand toward the glowing pool. I reached into the water, and the moment my fingers broke the surface, the Chamber of Tides erupted in light. The pool hissed, the water turning from iridescent to a blinding, pure silver.
I channeled the rot through my body and out into the spring.
The black ink poured from my fingertips into the water, where it was instantly dissolved by the lunar light. The pressure in my chest eased. Elias's breathing slowed, the grey tint leaving his skin, replaced by a healthy, flush pink.
I slumped against the slab, my breath coming in ragged gasps. My arm was still trembling, but the black veins were gone.
Silence descended on the chamber.
Vara dropped the silver-leaf bowl, the herbs scattering across the stone floor. She looked at Elias, then at me, her face pale with shock. "She... she actually did it. She took the Rot."
Kaelen was at my side in a heartbeat. He didn't check the guard. He grabbed my face in both hands, his thumbs frantically wiping away the silver tears that had leaked from my eyes.
"Are you hurt?" he demanded, his golden eyes searching mine with a desperation that bordered on madness. "Elara, look at me."
"I'm... tired," I whispered. "It wasn't a sickness, Kaelen. It's a curse. Someone planted it in your bloodline. It's a tether."
Kaelen's expression darkened, the savage King returning with a vengeance. "I suspected as much. But now we have proof. And we have the one thing the person who cursed us feared."
He helped me stand, his arm firmly around my waist. He turned to Vara. "Tell the council. The Oracle has awakened. The Obsidian Pack is no longer dying."
Vara bowed,not a slight nod of the head, but a full, deep bow of a warrior to her superior. "Yes, Alpha."
As we walked out of the chamber, Kaelen leaned down, his lips ghosting over my ear. "You saved him. But you nearly killed yourself. Don't ever do that again without telling me."
"I thought Alphas liked sacrifices," I teased weakly.
"Not when the sacrifice is mine," he growled.
We reached the upper levels, but as we stepped into the Great Hall, a scout burst through the main doors, covered in mud and gasping for air.
"Alpha! The Silvermoon... they aren't waiting for the Council's ruling."
Kaelen stiffened. "Speak."
"Jace and a vanguard of fifty warriors have crossed the lower pass. They've brought a witch with them,a woman in white. They claim Elara has bewitched you with dark magic, and they're here to 'purify' our land."
Kaelen's grip on my waist tightened until it was almost painful. He looked at me, a dark promise in his eyes.
"Selene," I whispered.
"They want a war of magic?" Kaelen's voice echoed through the hall, a chilling, predatory sound. "Then we'll give them one. But they've made a mistake. They think they're fighting for a girl."
He looked at me, his gaze sweeping over my glowing eyes and the newfound power radiating from my skin.
"They're fighting a Goddess. And Goddesses don't grant mercy to those who rejected them."