Chapter 17: The Breaking
1325 Words
The altar was cold against my knees.
The stone was rough. Uneven. Stained dark in places that made my stomach turn. I could smell it. Copper and something else. Something old. Something wrong.
The Circle circled me. Eleven of them. Their yellow eyes glowed in the firelight. They'd lit torches around the clearing. The flames cast dancing shadows on the red canyon walls.
The man with the scar stood before me. His name was Victor. I'd learned that from Carmen. Victor had been her mentor once. Before she left. Before she betrayed them.
"Lena Calderon," he said. "Daughter of Maria. Granddaughter of Isabel. The bloodline ends tonight."
"My bloodline ends when I say it ends."
Victor smiled. "You have your mother's fire. That's good. It makes the ritual stronger."
The Circle chanted behind him. Low. Guttural. The words were old. Older than English. Older than anything I knew.
I looked at the blade on the altar. My mother's blade. The one she'd taken from them. It glinted in the firelight. Waiting.
I looked past Victor. Past the Circle. To the edge of the clearing.
Cade was there. With Nellie and Damon. They were surrounded by wolves. But they were alive. For now.
Victor followed my gaze.
"Your friends. You care about them."
"Of course I do."
"Then you'll do what we say. To save them."
I looked back at him. His yellow eyes were calm. Patient.
"You're going to kill me anyway."
"Yes."
"Then why should I cooperate?"
"Because we can make it quick. Or we can make it slow. And we can make them watch."
He gestured to the wolves. They shoved Cade forward. He stumbled. His arm was still bleeding. His face was pale.
"Cade."
"I'm okay, Lena."
"You're not okay. You're bleeding."
"I've had worse."
Victor laughed. "He's brave. I'll give him that. But bravery doesn't stop the bleeding."
I looked at Cade. His eyes met mine. He shook his head. Just slightly.
Don't do it, he was saying. Don't give in.
But I couldn't watch him die.
"What do you want from me?" I asked.
Victor stepped closer. "Your blood. Your life. Your power. The ritual requires a willing sacrifice. You must give yourself freely. To save them. To save everyone."
I laughed. It came out bitter. Broken.
"You think I believe that?"
"It's the truth. The ritual works because the bloodline is powerful. But it only works if the sacrifice is willing. That's why we've been preparing you. The letters. Carmen's training. Your mother's memory. We wanted you to understand what was at stake."
I thought about the letters. My mother's words. Her love. Her fear. Her sacrifice.
She didn't die to bring me here. She died to save me.
And I was going to finish what she started.
"I'll do it," I said.
Victor smiled.
"But on one condition."
"What?"
"You let them go. All of them. They leave. Now. And they don't come back."
"Lena, no!" Cade yelled.
"Shut up, Cade."
"Lena, please."
I looked at him. His face was desperate. His eyes were wet.
"I'm sorry," I said. "But I can't let you die for me."
"It's not your choice."
"It is my choice. Just like my mom had hers. Just like Carmen had hers." I looked at Victor. "Let them go."
Victor studied me. "And if we refuse?"
"Then I fight. I fight with everything I have. I make sure the ritual fails. And I take as many of you with me as I can."
"Bold words."
"Words that mean something." I stood up. My legs were shaking. But I stood. "Let them go. Or I burn the blade."
I reached for the blade on the altar. My fingers closed around the handle.
Victor's eyes widened. "Wait."
"Let them go."
He looked at the Circle. At the wolves. At the blade in my hand.
"Release them."
The wolves backed off. Cade ran to me. Nellie followed. Damon was behind them.
"You're not doing this," Cade said.
"I have to."
"There's another way."
"There isn't. I don't have claws. I don't have teeth. All I have is this." I held up the blade. "And my choices. I choose to save you."
"We choose to stay."
"Cade…"
"We're not leaving you. We fight together or not at all."
"He's right," Nellie said. Her voice was shaking. But her eyes were steady. "I'm not leaving you."
Damon nodded. "I've lost too much. I'm not losing you too."
I looked at them. My family. My pack.
Tears burned my eyes.
"You're all idiots."
"We know," Nellie said. "But we're idiots who love you."
Victor clapped slowly. "Touching. Truly. But it doesn't matter. You're all going to die anyway."
"We'll see," I said.
I held the blade up. The firelight caught it. The silver blade gleamed. The carved handle was worn smooth by years of use.
"You have nothing," Victor said. "No power. No strength. No wolf."
"I have them," I said. I pointed to Cade. To Nellie. To Damon. "That's enough."
Victor shifted.
One second he was human. The next, a massive black wolf. His yellow eyes burned. Teeth bared. Fur matted with old scars.
He lunged.
I didn't think. I reacted. I dropped. Rolled. His claws scraped the altar where I'd been standing.
I scrambled up. Swung the blade.
It caught his shoulder. He yelped. Backed off.
Cade was beside me. Knife out. He stabbed at the wolf. Missed.
Damon shifted. His wolf was leaner. Faster. He hit Victor from the side. They tumbled across the clearing. Snarling. Biting.
Nellie swung her tire iron. Connected with a Circle member's skull. He crumpled.
I looked around. The Circle was closing in. Wolves on all sides. Yellow eyes. Teeth bared. They were everywhere.
"Lena!" Cade yelled. "The blade!"
He was right. I had to destroy it. Before they could use it for the ritual.
I ran to the altar. The blade was in my hand. I raised it high.
"STOP!" Victor yelled.
I turned.
He had Cade. His massive paws on his chest. His teeth at his throat.
"You don't destroy the blade, or he dies."
"Lena, don't," Cade said. "Finish it."
"Lena, please," Nellie whispered.
I looked at the blade. At Cade. At the Circle.
My mom's knife. Her legacy. Her sacrifice.
I couldn't let it be for nothing.
But I couldn't let Cade die either.
I lowered the blade.
"I'll give it to you," I said. "But only if you let him go."
"No." Victor's teeth pressed against Cade's throat. "You don't make demands. I do."
I looked at Cade. At his eyes. Desperate. Scared. But determined.
"Lena," he said. "Whatever you do. I love you. Always."
"I love you too."
I raised the blade again.
"I'm sorry, Cade. But I can't let him win."
"I know," he said. "It's okay."
I brought the blade down.
But not on the altar.
On the stone.
The blade shattered.
Metal screamed. Sparks flew. The pieces scattered across the altar.
Victor howled. A sound of pure rage.
The Circle froze.
The chanting stopped.
The ritual was impossible now.
Victor's eyes were wild. He released Cade. Shifted back to human. His face was twisted with fury.
"You fool!" he screamed. "You've destroyed everything!"
"Everything you wanted," I said. "That's all that matters."
"You'll pay for this."
"I already have."
Cade scrambled to my side. Nellie and Damon closed in around me. The Circle was between us and the canyon exit.
They surrounded us.
I looked at the shattered blade. At the pieces scattered across the altar. At my mother's legacy. Destroyed.
But it wasn't destroyed, I realized.
The blade was gone. But the blade was just a thing.
My mother's legacy was alive. In me. In my choices. In my love.
That was the real power.
"Now what?" Nellie asked.
I looked around the canyon. At the Circle walls closing in.
"Now," I said, "we fight."
The wolves lunged.
And the battle began.
- Writer
