The air grew colder as we ran.
Veran and I crossed the frostline under the moonlight, our paws hitting stone and earth quietly. The world blurred around me I didn't care about the forest, the trees, or the sky anymore.
All I could feel was her, Amalric.
She called me without words, pulling me toward the storm.
We reached the mountain ridge by dawn, the Crimson Maw's temple lay below carved into the rock like a scar.
Smoke rose from the stone vents, the scent of blood and burning sage filled the wind.
Veran shifted first, his body shook as his fur receded and skin returned. I changed seconds later gasping as the cold air hit my skin.
"Deucalion's guards will be watching," he said crouching behind a broken statue. "They won't expect us this soon but they're ready."
I kept my eyes on the temple. "We don't need to fight them, i only want her."
"Del…"
"She took everything," I whispered. "My name, my blood, my mother's face." Veran touched my arm. "If you kill her during the ritual you might become what she was meant to be."
"Or I'll destroy us both."
He didn't deny it instead, he looked into my eyes. "Then I'll go with you."
I paused then nodded.
"Together."
We crept into the temple through the low tunnels.
The walls were wet with moss and moon symbols, i didn't know of the language but the meaning was clear. It was old magic, hungry type.
"Do you feel that?" I whispered.
Veran's eyes narrowed. "Yes it's started already."
The deeper we went, the more the walls throbbed like they were alive breathing with the blood of dead wolves.
Then we heard the voices chanting in a low steady and strange tone.
We reached a wide chamber with no ceiling, the full moon stared down bright and full.
And there she stood. Amalric, wrapped in black silk and red paint, her arms out stretched as wolves circled her. Deucalion stood behind her whispering into her ear. A silver blade hovered above her heart, she looked divine and untouchable.
But her power wasn't hers, it belonged to the moon and I was done letting her steal what was mine.
Deucalion's voice boomed. "Let the moon drink the blood of its daughters! Let the bond be broken and be reborn."
I stepped forward into the light.
"Then let her drink from me."
Gasps filled the temple as Amalric turned slowly, then she saw me. Her smile was sharp like a blade.
"I knew you'd come," she said sweetly.
"I always do."
Veran stepped beside me sword drawn. "We're not here for games."
"Oh, but that's all this is, isn't it?" Amalric purred. "A game we started in the womb, only one of us was meant to survive."
I stared at the silver blade.
"She'll make you into something you can't control."
"Or maybe," she said stepping toward me, "she's making me into what I was always meant to be."
I took a deep breath. "Then take it."
Amalric flicked her eyes."What?"
I lifted my chin. "Take the power, take all of it but know that the moment you do, you'll never be human again."
Her lips shook for just a second then she laughed.
"I stopped being human the day Father chose you over me."
The circle opened and Deucalion held out the blade.
"Both sisters must bleed," he said. "Only then will the Moon choose."
Amalric turned to me, her voice was low.
"Are you brave enough to bleed beside me?"
I stepped forward and held out my hand. "I already have."
She sliced my palm and I felt this sharp pain but I didn't flinch.
Then she sliced her own, blood was dripping from our hands onto the stone.
The temple shook, light bursted from the ground, silver and red wrapping around us both.
I felt my bones scream, my blood burned and my soul stretched like I was being pulled between two paths.
I fell to my knees, Amalric did too.
Our hands still dripping as our eyes locked, the moon spoke. Not in words or sounds but in memory.
I saw her as a child alone in her room listening to Lady Vivienne whispering poison into her ear.
"You must be better than her you know, You must make Father see."
I saw myself locked in the cellar hungry and forgotten, begging to the stars for someone to save me.
The same pain and wound, two girls made into weapons. Two wolves who were raised to fight.
I gasped collapsing as the light receded, the chanting had stopped and the moon dimmed.
Deucalion stared, shocked. "It's done."
Veran ran to me catching me as I fell.
My vision blurred. "What… happened?"
He looked toward Amalric, she stood up slowly her eyes glowing bright, silver just like mine.
Deucalion's face twisted. "No! The Moon should've chosen!"
"She did," Amalric said voice calm.
I rose slowly wiping blood from my lip. "She chose both of us."
The temple erupted into screams as wolves turned on each other, power flowed through the stone.
Veran grabbed my arm. "We have to go!"
But before we could move Deucalion threw something to the ground, a dark orb that cracked the earth.
A portal, a tear in the air. Wind roared and shadows spun out. Amalric jumped in without hesitation, Veran pulled me back swiftly but I stepped forward because I could still hear her voice.
"You're not the hero of this story you're the sacrifice."
And now i needed to know where she went.
I looked at Veran one last time.
"I have to follow her."
His grip tightened. "You might not come back."
"I'm not supposed to."
Then I leapt into the darkness. The world vanished i leapt into the portal.
No ground or sky only silver fog, cold wind and the weight of something old pressing on my bones
I fell through nothing and my body no longer felt like mine, my heartbeat slowed then quickened then stopped altogether.