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Chapter 10 - The Threads Burn

Ember's POV

The threads were screaming.

I pressed my hands over my ears, but it didn't help. The threads didn't make sounds my ears could hear—they made sounds inside my head. And right now, with five people all linked, the threads were so loud I wanted to cry.

"Ember?" Mama knelt beside me. "What's wrong, baby?"

"The threads are too bright," I whined. "They're burning everything."

I could see them clearly now—five threads all twisted together in a messy knot. Mama's green thread. Daddy-Dante's metal thread. Papa-Thaddeus's red thread. My golden thread. And a new one—the ice lady's thread was dark purple, all twisted and hurting.

"The fifth thread doesn't fit right," I said, pointing at Lyanna. "It's trying to squeeze in, but there's not enough room."

"What happens if it doesn't fit?" Papa-Thaddeus asked, his voice worried.

I touched Mama's hand to show her what I could see. Golden light flowed from my fingers, and suddenly Mama gasped.

"I can see them too," Mama whispered. "The threads. They're beautiful."

"They're breaking," I corrected. "Watch."

Through my Eclipse vision, everyone could see what I saw now. Five threads all trying to join, but the purple thread—Lyanna's—kept pushing against the others, making them stretch and fray.

"The Eclipse binding wasn't meant for five people," old Archon Mordecai said. He walked closer, his old eyes sad. "Three points form a triangle—stable and strong. Four points form a square—still balanced. But five points?" He shook his head. "Five makes a star. And stars burn too bright. They swallow everything around them."

"What does that mean?" Daddy-Dante demanded.

"It means the binding will try to stabilize itself," Mordecai stated. "And the only way to stabilize a five-point star is—"

The blood-red moon suddenly blazed brighter, and everyone screamed.

I felt it through the threads—power rushing into all five of us from somewhere else. Somewhere old and dangerous and sleeping until now. "The Wolf God," Mordecai breathed. "It's channeling power through your binding."

"Why?" Papa-Thaddeus demanded. "What does it want?"

I knew the answer. The threads showed me everything. "The Wolf God has been asleep for a thousand years. It's been waiting for a five-point Eclipse bond to wake it up. And now—" My voice got smaller. "Now it wants to use us."

Through the golden light still linking us, I showed them what the threads revealed.

A vision of something huge and ancient, hidden deep under the Nightborne Fortress. A wolf bigger than mountains, made of pure magic and stars. Sleeping. Dreaming. Waiting.

And now it was waking up.

"The Wolf God created werewolves," Mordecai said quietly. "A thousand years ago, it gave people the gift of the wolf. But the gift was too strong. Too wild. So the Wolf God put itself to sleep and made the Eclipse binding as a lock. Five souls exactly balanced would be the key to wake it."

"We're the key," Mama said, fear in her voice. "We accidentally unlocked something that was supposed to stay asleep forever."

The threads pumped harder, pulling power from the blood-red moon and forcing it into our bodies. My skin started shining. So did everyone else's—five people all shining like stars.

"It hurts!" Lyanna cried, falling to her knees. "It's too much power!"

She was right. The Wolf God's power was pouring into us faster than we could handle. My small body felt like it was going to explode.

"We have to break the binding," Daddy-Dante said. "Now, before—"

"You can't break it," Mordecai interrupted. "Not without killing all five of you. And even if you could, the Wolf God is already awake. Breaking the bond won't put it back to sleep."

The ground started shaking. In the distance, I heard a sound like thunder—except it was coming from beneath. From the direction of Nightborne Fortress.

"It's rising," Mordecai whispered. "After a thousand years, the Wolf God is rising."

Through the threads, I saw another vision. This one made me start crying.

I saw the Wolf God burst from beneath. Saw it look at the world that had changed so much while it slept. Saw it get angry—so angry—that humans had turned its gift of the wolf into a weapon. Into war.

And I saw what it planned to do about it. " The Wolf God is going to take back its gift," I whimpered. "It's going to un-make all werewolves. Turn everyone back into normal humans. It thinks we've proven we don't deserve the wolf anymore."

"That would kill millions," Papa-Thaddeus said, his face white. "The wolf is part of our souls now. Ripping it away would—"

"Would destroy us," Mama finished. "We'd all die."

Commander Sienna pushed forward. "Then we fight it. We gather every warrior in the Covenant and—"

"You can't fight a god," Mordecai said sadly. "No tool can harm it. No army can stop it."

"Then what do we do?" Daddy-Dante demanded.

Everyone looked at me. At the four-year-old girl who could see threads and dreams and futures.

I wanted to tell them I was just a kid. That I didn't know how to save everyone. That I was scared and tired and wanted my bed and my stuffed wolf and everything to go back to normal.

But the threads showed me the truth. And the truth was terrible.

"The Wolf God will listen to only one thing," I said quietly. "The five-point Eclipse bond. We're the key that woke it. That means we're the only ones who can talk to it."

"Talk to it?" Papa-Thaddeus knelt beside me. "And say what?"

"We have to tell it that werewolves deserve to keep the wolf gift. That we've learned. That we can do better." I looked at all of them—Mama, Daddy-Dante, Papa-Thaddeus, and even Lyanna. "But the Wolf God won't believe words. It will only believe proof."

"What kind of proof?" Lyanna asked, her voice shaking.

The threads showed me. And I wished they hadn't.

"One of us has to give up our wolf permanently," I said. "Sacrifice it to show the Wolf God we understand the gift has a price. That we're willing to pay it."

Silence. Horrible, heavy quiet.

Giving up the wolf didn't just mean becoming human. For werewolves, the wolf was part of the soul. Giving it up meant becoming less than human. Empty. A shell.

"I'll do it," Papa-Thaddeus said instantly.

"No, I will," Daddy-Dante countered.

"You both need your wolves for fighting," Mama interrupted. "I'm a healer. I can survive without—"

"None of you understand," I said, tears running down my face. "It has to be me."

They all stared.

"The Wolf God won't accept an adult sacrifice," I stated. "It needs innocence. It needs someone who hasn't used the dog for violence or war. Someone pure." I touched my chest. "I'm the only one who qualifies."

"NO!" All four adults yelled at once.

"Ember, you're four years old," Mama said frantically. "You don't even have your full wolf yet. You can't—"

"The Eclipse Child carries wolf potential stronger than anyone," Mordecai said softly. "That's why her sacrifice would be important. But child—" He looked at me with old, sad eyes. "If you give up that ability before it manifests, you'll never be whole. You'll live, but you'll be empty inside. Forever."

I knew. The threads had shown me that too. Shown me a future where I grew up empty, watching everyone else shift and run and be wolves while I stayed stuck in human form. Alone. Different. Broken.

But I also saw the future if I didn't give. Millions dying. The Wolf God destroys everything. My family dying.

"When do I have to choose?" I asked, my voice very small.

Mordecai pointed at the blood-red moon. "When the moon sets at dawn. That's when the Wolf God fully appears. If you haven't made your choice by then—"

The ground shook harder. A crack appeared in the ground, running from the Nightborne Fortress direction straight toward us.

And from that crack, I heard a voice. Huge. Ancient. Angry.

"THE KEY HAS TURNED. THE LOCK HAS OPENED. I RISE TO JUDGE WHAT YOU HAVE BECOME."

The Wolf God was coming.

And I had until dawn to

decide if I was brave enough to save everyone by destroying myself.

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