Kira's POV
"Jake, no!" I screamed as our loyal Beta stepped toward the falling dimensional tear.
But he was already moving, his face set with grim resolve. "Someone has to fix the dimensions. It might as well be me."
"You don't understand!" I lunged after him, my healing magic reaching out frantically. "If you become the anchor, you'll be stuck between worlds forever. Not dead, not alive, just... living in endless pain."
Jake stopped for just a second, and I saw the fear flicker in his eyes. But then he straightened his shoulders like the brave Beta he'd always been.
"Better me than all of you," he said simply.
"There has to be another way!" Zander fought against the possession still clawing at his mind. "Jake, I order you to stop!"
"Sorry, Alpha," Jake said with a sad smile. "For once, I'm not following orders."
He took another step toward the dimensional tear, and I felt something inside me snap. Not break - snap into place, like a puzzle piece finally finding where it belonged.
The healing power that had been suppressed for ten years by Morgana's curse suddenly exploded through my entire body. But this wasn't the limited power I'd had before, only able to heal people who were almost dead.
This was pure life force, strong enough to fix anything. Even measures.
"Wait," I breathed, understanding flooding through me like sunshine. "I know what we have to do."
Everyone turned to look at me, including Morgana, who was still chanting her destruction magic.
"The curse is broken," I said, surprise filling my voice. "When Mira chose to come back as a spirit to help us, it shattered the last of Morgana's hold on my power."
"Kira, what are you saying?" Papa asked.
"I'm saying I can fix the dimensional tear. Not anchor it, not give myself to hold it together - actually heal it so both worlds are safe."
Hope sparked in Jake's eyes. "You can do that?"
"I can try," I said. "But I'll need help. Death magic and life magic working together right this time, not fighting each other."
I looked at Zander, whose silver eyes were still flickering between his real self and the possession.
"Can you fight her influence long enough to help me?"
"I don't know," he said honestly. "She's been in my head for so long, I don't know where she ends and I begin anymore."
"Then let us help you," Jake said, moving back toward us instead of toward the tear. "All of us. Pack bonds, mate bonds, family bonds - use them all to remember who you really are."
Zander looked around at all of us - his pack, his mate, his new friends - and I saw something shift in his expression. The cold stranger who'd been practicing dark magic faded away, replaced by the Alpha we all knew and loved.
"Grandmother," he said to Morgana, his voice calm and strong for the first time in months. "Get out of my head."
"Never!" Morgana screamed, pouring more power into the possession. "You belong to me!"
"No," Zander said simply. "I belong to them."
He reached out and took my hand, and the moment our skin touched, everything changed.
Our mate bond burst with power, but this time it was balanced. Life and death magic swirling together in perfect harmony, producing something neither of us could have achieved alone.
Pure healing energy flowed from us toward the dimensional tear, and I watched in wonder as the collapsing space began to stabilize.
"It's working!" Elder Seraphine called out. "The dimensions are healing!"
But Morgana wasn't finished. With a scream of rage that shattered the air around us, she abandoned her destruction spell and poured every bit of her collected power into one final attack.
Not at us. At the ghost army.
"If I can't destroy the dimensions," she snarled, "I'll send all of you back to the afterlife permanently!"
Dark magic lashed out at the spirits like whips, and I watched in horror as Mira and the other ghosts started to fade.
"No!" I reached out with my healing power, trying to protect them.
But protecting the spirits meant letting go of the dimensional healing spell. The tear began collapsing again, and Jake stepped forward once more.
"I have to anchor it," he said. "There's no other choice."
"Yes, there is," little Mira said, her ghostly form flickering but determined. "Kira, remember what I told you about death being like falling asleep?"
"Mira, what are you doing?"
"Something I should have done ten years ago," she said with a seven-year-old's simple knowledge. "I'm going to put the mean witch to sleep."
Before any of us could stop her, Mira flew straight at Morgana with her small arms spread.
"Time for bed, scary lady," she said in her sweet child's voice.
The moment Mira touched Morgana, the old witch's eyes went wide with shock.
"What... what are you doing to me?" Morgana gasped.
"Death isn't scary when you're ready for it," Mira explained gently. "You've been fighting sleep for so long, you forgot how peaceful it can be."
Morgana's terrible power began to fade as something strange happened to her face. The old evil melted away, replaced by exhaustion so deep it was almost human.
"I... I'm so tired," Morgana whispered, sounding like a regular old woman instead of a monster.
"I know," Mira said kindly. "That's what happens when you carry too much darkness for too long. But it's okay now. You can rest."
"But my power... my plans..."
"They're not your job anymore," Mira said strongly. "Someone else will take care of the magic now. Someone who knows that life and death are supposed to work together, not fight each other."
Morgana looked around at all of us with eyes that were suddenly, incredibly sad instead of evil.
"I forgot," she said quietly. "I forgot what it felt like to just... be human."
"It's not too late to remember," I found myself saying, my healing power reaching out to touch the broken places in her old heart.
And as the most powerful witch in existence finally allowed herself to fall into the peaceful sleep she'd been avoiding for ages, the dimensional space around us began to stabilize naturally.
The hole sealed itself. The ghost army smiled peacefully as they faded back to their eternal rest. The void filled with starlight and potential.
But just as I thought we were safe, Morgana's eyes snapped open one last time.
"There's something you need to know," she gasped, using her final moments of consciousness to give a warning. "I wasn't the only one. There are others like me, older and more dangerous. And they know about you now."
Her ancient eyes fixed on mine with desperate haste.
"The Shadowlands Council has been watching. They know about your united power. And they're coming."
Then she closed her eyes and finally, after centuries of fighting against it, allowed death to take her.
But her warning rang in the sudden silence like a promise of darker threats to come.
We'd won this fight, but the war was far from over.