Dante's POV
My shadows screamed a warning.
I stood frozen in Ember's doorway as Thaddeus—my blood-brother, the man I hadn't seen in eight years—knelt beside my daughter's bed.
No. Not my kid. His kid. But that didn't matter anymore. I'd been there when she was born. I'd walked her through her first steps. I'd kissed her cut knees and sung her to sleep. Biology didn't make him her father. Love did.
"Get away from my daughter," Rowan said, her voice deadly cool.
"Our daughter," Thaddeus corrected, standing up slowly. "And I'm not going anywhere."
Ember pressed herself against the wall, her small body shaking. That's what broke me. Seeing her scared.
My shadows expanded outward, filling the room with darkness. "You need to leave. Now."
Thaddeus's eyes locked onto mine. I watched shock, rage, and something else—hurt—flash across his face. "Dante? You're alive?"
"Disappointed?" I moved to stand between him and Ember.
"You deserted." His voice shook. "Eight years ago. We all thought you were dead. I missed you."
Guilt stabbed through my chest, but I pushed it down. "I had my reasons."
"What reasons could possibly—" Thaddeus stopped. His nostrils flared as he smelled the air. His eyes widened. "No. The Eclipse bond. You can feel it too, can't you?"
My blood turned to ice. He knew. Somehow, he'd figured it out.
Rowan looked between us, confusion and fear on her face. "What binding? What are you talking about?"
Before I could answer, war horns blasted outside. Then came the sound of many horses. Too many.
I ran to the window and my heart stopped. At least thirty soldiers circled the cabin. And leading them was a woman in silver armor whose face I recognized from Covenant news.
Lyanna Stormweaver. Thaddeus's blood-bound wife.
"You brought her here?" I spun on Thaddeus, anger burning through me. "Are you insane?"
"I didn't—" Thaddeus looked truly shocked. "She followed me. I didn't know she would—"
"ATTENTION INSIDE THE CABIN!" Lyanna's voice rang out cold and clear. "By order of the War Council, you are hiding an unregistered Eclipse Child and a deserter. Surrender now or we will take you by force."
Rowan grabbed Ember, holding her daughter tight. "Eclipse Child? What does that mean?"
I knew exactly what it meant. My worst fear was coming true.
"We need to run," I said quickly. "There's a tunnel under the cabin that goes to the forest. If we—"
"Nobody's running." Thaddeus moved to the door. "I'll handle Lyanna."
"You can't handle her," I said. "She didn't come here to talk. She came here to kill."
Thaddeus froze. "What?"
I'd known this moment would come eventually. The moment I'd have to tell him everything. But I'd hoped for more time. Years more time.
"Eight years ago, we did the Eclipse Ritual," I said quietly. "You remember?"
"Of course I remember. It was supposed to make us stronger fighters. You said it failed and then you left."
"I lied." The words felt like poison in my mouth. "It didn't fail. It worked perfectly. Too perfectly. The rite bound our life forces together, Thaddeus. If one of us dies, the other follows."
Rowan gasped. Thaddeus stared at me like I'd hit him.
"For eight years, the binding lay dormant," I continued. "I thought maybe it had faded. Then I found Rowan dying in the Borderlands three years ago. Pregnant. Alone. And the second I touched her—" My voice cracked. "The binding burst awake. She's the third anchor point. The missing piece that finished the ritual."
"That's impossible," Thaddeus whispered.
"Eclipse bindings need three life forces," I said. "Two brothers joined by blood ritual, and one person who can balance both. That's Rowan. And when Ember was born, she sealed the bond permanently."
Outside, Lyanna shouted again. "You have one minute to surrender!"
Thaddeus looked at Rowan. Really looked at her. "That's why I couldn't stop looking for you. Why every day without you felt like death."
"And that's why I fell in love with her," I added. "Not because I wanted to. Because the bond demanded it. We're all stuck in this together."
"The binding can be broken though, right?" Rowan asked desperately. "There has to be a way to—"
"There is," a new voice said from the window.
We all spun around. Lyanna stood outside Ember's window, a cruel smile on her face. How had she gotten there so quietly?
"The Eclipse binding breaks when one anchor point dies," Lyanna continued. "Kill the doctor, and both of you go free. Well—" Her smile widened. "Thaddeus goes free. You'd probably die, Dante. But that's okay."
My shadows lashed out, but Lyanna was already moving. She threw something through the window—a small crystal that burst in blinding light.
I heard Ember scream. Heard Rowan crying out. My shadow-walking skills went haywire, the light burning through my power.
When my vision cleared, Lyanna was gone. But she'd left something behind.
A note pinned to Ember's pillow with a silver knife.
Thaddeus grabbed it, his hands shaking. He read it aloud: "The War Council has declared the Eclipse Child a threat to Covenant life. Surrender her for execution, or we kill everyone in Ashenvale village. You have until dawn. Choose wisely, Commander."
Rowan's face went white. "They want to kill Ember? She's four years old!"
"She's also the most powerful being born in two centuries," Lyanna's voice drifted back through the window. "Her skills could save the Covenant. Or destroy it. We can't take that risk."
Thaddeus crumpled the note in his hand. "I won't let them touch her."
"You don't have a choice," Lyanna called. "I have thirty men. You have a deserter, a doctor, and a child. Do the math, husband."
Husband. The word made my stomach turn. I looked at Thaddeus and saw the same pain on his face.
"There's something else," I said quietly. "Something I learned about Eclipse bindings from old books. If all three anchor points are together in one place, their combined power is meant to be unstoppable. But—"
"But what?" Thaddeus demanded.
"But activating that power takes a sacrifice. One of the three has to freely give up their life to fuel the others."
Silence fell over the room. Rowan held Ember tighter. Thaddeus's face looked cut from stone.
Outside, Lyanna laughed. "Tick tock, Commander. Dawn is coming. And when it does, I'm coming for that kid. You can either hand her over quietly, or I'll burn this entire settlement to ash and take her from your corpses."
Ember whimpered in Rowan's arms. "Mama, the threads are burning. All of them. Something bad is coming."
As if called by her words, the little girl's eyes started glowing that eerie gold again. But this time, the light spread to her hands. To her whole body.
"Dante?" Rowan's voice shook. "What's happening to her?"
I'd seen this in the ancient books. Seen the drawings. Felt dread settle in my stomach like a stone.
"She's activating," I whispered. "The Eclipse Child power is waking up."
Ember's body rose off the ground, floating in midair. The golden light around her grew brighter and brighter until we had to shield our eyes.
When she spoke, her voice sounded old. Wrong. Like something else was speaking through her.
"The threads are breaking. The shadow grows. Three must become one, or all will fall to darkness."
Then the light burst outward in a wave that shattered every window in the cabin.
And when it faded, Ember fell in Rowan's arms—unconscious and barely breathing.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was what the light showed when it swept through the forest outside.
Dozens of bright red eyes stared back at us from the trees. Eyes that belonged to Feral dogs. Corrupted. Mindless. Deadly.
Lyanna's voice came one last time, now filled with real fear: "What have you done? You've called every Feral in the Borderlands straight to us!"
The red eyes moved closer. A howl split the night—the sound of hunger and madness.
And we were stuck between Lyanna's army on one side and a Feral horde on the other.
With my unconscious da
ughter in Rowan's arms and the Eclipse bond burning like fire in my chest.