_Lisa’s POV_ 

The air tasted like metal and ash. My chest felt like a drum. My legs would not stop shaking. 

Fenric stood there like a shadow made real. He smiled as if he liked the sight of our fear. 

“So,” he said softly. His voice rolled across the clearing. “You managed to come back. I did not expect this.” 

My throat worked. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to run to Rylan. But I needed to be brave and face him. I had to find a way to stop him. 

Sierra’s voice pressed cold and fierce against my mind. He’s powerful. We need to be careful. 

Fenric walked forward like he owned the night. The warlocks behind him parted like reeds. They smiled like they were hungry. 

“You freed those little lights,” he said. His voice was almost proud. “You loosened their chains. You are a clever girl. But clever does not unmake destiny.” 

I felt my hands curl inside my borrowed sleeves. My borrowed body stood at the border with that false smile. Katherine was inside my face. She wore my skin like a mask and she liked 

how it fit. 

Fenric looked straight at me. His smile widened. “You came back from a long trip to your mother’s arms. You have ghosts at your back. You think that they will help you.” 

Sierra growled low. He smells sharp. He relishes fear. He wants to make us suffer. 

“You will not win,” Fenric said. He lifted a hand. His warlocks answered like a chorus. The air 

tightened. Their magic flowed out like black water. It pressed at the trees. It touched the 

grass. 

Morana stepped forward. Her hands were bright and small spells snapped from her fingers like sparks. She had a shield forming. It shivered in the air. The blue light was thin but brave. 

“Keep the shield,” I shouted, though my voice was small in my own ears. “Hold it.” 

She held it with the last of her strength. Her face was pale. Sweat ran down her temple. Her mouth moved in steady words. She was chanting. I could see magic curl from her fingertips into the blue cage. 

But the warlocks‘ power was heavy. It pushed like a tide. Their spells hit Morana and the 

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Chapter 134 

barrier bent and squealed. Each time, she eased it back. Her shoulders shook. 

“Lisa!” Rylan cried. His voice ripped through me. “Stop this.” 

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I looked at him. His face was carved from worry. His hands trembled. He looked at my original body smiling with a hate he did not understand. I wanted to run to him and explain a hundred truths. I wanted to tell him how I had bled and crawled in a different time to make 

this happen. I wanted him to know my arms were empty without him. 

“You can’t channel your power,” Sierra told me. “Not in her skin. It rejects you. It will not take your wolf.” 

I pressed my palms to my chest and felt nothing but the odd hollowness of someone else’s heart under my fingers. I tried to reach for the quiet place where my magic lived. A small pinprick of fire was there, but it would not grow. The body was wrong. The channel was 

blocked. 

Morana’s chant broke. She cried out in a ragged hurry. “They are too many,” she warned. “I can hold a while, but not long.” 

Fenric laughed like a bell that cracks. “You took my playthings from me. You stole their voices. You are clever, young wolf. You are noble and foolish. The souls give you courage. They do not give you victory.” 

Sierra tightened. We have to do something. 

Then I saw them. The ones I had freed. The small faces of those who had no burial. The bright boy with the gold curls. The baby with closed lips. They circled me like moons. Their light was thin but many. They looked tired and angry in a way that made my chest hurt. They had the weakness of bodies, but they were many. 

“We were freed because of you,” the boy said with voices like windchimes. “We owe you. We cannot move on while he is whole. He keeps a part of us tied to his life.” 

“How?” I whispered. 

The souls‘ glow shifted. The air around them hummed. “He built his hold on stolen light. He fed on it. While the light was trapped, he never withered. Now you freed us. He weakens, but not enough. We must be one force.” 

I felt hope. It came sharp and bright. 

“But we cannot strike as we are,” another voice said. “Our bodies are gone and our energy scatters. We need a living channel. We cannot bind our strength into spirit only. The living must guide the flow.” 

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I looked down at Katherine’s body. I thought at once of using it. I thought of diving back, letting them pour through that vessel, and burning Fenric into ash. 

“No,” the boy said. The glow shifted like a pulse. “Not while your soul occupies it. The power is too great. It would shred you. It would shred your spirit.” 

My breath left me. The thought of dying like that scared me. My hands shook. 

Rylan grabbed my arm without thinking. His eyes were desperate. “You won’t do this,” he said. “I won’t let you.” 

Morana’s voice was dry like old leaves. “Lisa, you cannot. This is suicide. The souls cannot fit in you and not destroy you if you channel them out of the body that also houses your spirit.” 

I looked at Kael then. He stood with his men. There was rage written in the lines on his face. He was a mountain of muscle and storm. He had hurt me. He had taken and torn parts of my life. I could not unfeel that. But his jaw was set in a way that steadied me. 

Kael stepped forward. He did not shout. He did not boast. He said, plain and low, “I will do it.” 

The words cut the air like a sword. Everyone turned. Even Fenric paused like he lost interest for a second. Kael’s eyes found Morana. They had a conversation no one else could read. 

“You?” I asked. My voice was small with confusion and shock. 

Kael’s face was a map of guilt and something like relief. “I took an innocent life,” he said. “I was told it does not leave without price. I will pay. Take this from me and end this. Let the world be free.” 

Rylan barked his denial, but Kael stepped past him. He met Morana’s gaze. She did not look like she wanted this. She closed her eyes as if she tasted a bitter herb. Then, she nodded. 

“If you do this,” Morana said, “it will not be a quick end. It will shred you. The souls are many. They will burn a path through the living host. You will not wake again.” 

Kael’s reply was quiet. “Then I will not wake. That is the debt I owe.” 

Sierra whispered inside my head. She was stunned. This is too much. He is ready to give up his life. 

I wanted to scream at him to stop. I wanted to tell him it was not his to pay. But a small part of me, angry and ashamed, knew he had already made his choice. Perhaps, he wanted to play the hero. 

Morana began to chant. Her voice was low. The air smelled of iron and rain. I listened to her words because her words were the hinge that would turn fate. 

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“By bone and by blood and by breath of the lost,” she intoned. “By name and by debt and by promise crossed. Come down, little lights, and find this chest. Rest in this frame. Pass through this clay and take the dark from the world away.” 

She said Kael’s name then, over and over, like a tide. “Kael Blackthorn, stand as the hollow. Take the river. Be the passage. We bind you with the oath.” 

The lost souls gathered like rain. Their light pushed toward Kael. He reached out his hands and took them like a man accepting fire. It streamed into him. His skin shone white. His chest exploded with pale light. 

I could see the souls move like fish into a net. Their many voices braided into one. “Forgive us,” they said to him. “We free you, and you free us.” 

Kael’s face changed. For a breath he looked like a boy. Then the weight of a thousand sorrows closed on him. 

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