Ember's POV
Everything hurt.
I opened my eyes and saw the bad ice lady standing over Papa-Thaddeus. Dark red power poured from her knife into his chest. Papa-Thaddeus was screaming. Mama was crying. Daddy-Dante's shadows were fighting the bad lady's forces.
But I could see something nobody else could see.
The threads.
Red threads linked Papa-Thaddeus to the ice lady. They were ugly threads—twisted and sick, like infected wounds. The threads were sucking all the pretty golden light out of Papa-Thaddeus and into the bad lady.
And the bright light was mine. The power Papa-Thaddeus gave me to make me better. The ice lady was taking it.
"Stop," I whispered. But nobody heard me over all the shouting.
I tried to sit up, but my body wouldn't move right. Using my Eclipse power to kill the monster king had made me so tired. Everything felt heavy and wrong.
The ice lady laughed. "By dawn, all this power will be mine. The War Council will have no choice but to make me Supreme Commander."
"Lyanna, please!" Mama begged. "He's your husband. How can you do this to him?"
"He was never my husband," the ice lady—Lyanna—said coldly. "He was a tool. A way to gain power. And now he's giving me more power than I ever dreamed." She looked at me with mean eyes. "Once I drain the Commander dry, I'll take the child next. Imagine what I could do with Eclipse powers."
No. No, she couldn't have my power. My power was meant to help people, not hurt them.
I looked at the threads again, trying to understand. There were so many threads in the room now.
Green threads linked Mama to Daddy-Dante—warm and gentle like summer grass.
Bright red threads linked Papa-Thaddeus to Mama—burning hot and desperate.
Silver threads linked Papa-Thaddeus to Daddy-Dante—old and deep, from when they were young.
And golden threads linked me to all three of them—Mama, Papa-Thaddeus, and Daddy-Dante.
But the sick red threads linking Papa-Thaddeus to Lyanna were choking all the other threads. Making them weak and dying.
"The bad thread is killing the good threads," I said, my voice small.
Dante heard me. He stopped fighting for a second and looked at me. "What did you say, little flame?"
"The blood-bond thread," I explained, pointing at the ugly red link between Papa-Thaddeus and Lyanna. "It's choking the Eclipse threads. If we don't cut it, all the threads die. Everyone dies."
"She's right," Papa-Thaddeus gasped. His face was so pale. "The blood-bond is tainted. Lyanna twisted it. As long as it exists, she can drain us both."
"Then we kill her," Mama said, her voice scary-calm. She stood up, and her hands started shining with healing light. "I won't let you take my family."
Lyanna's troops moved to protect her, but Mama's healing light turned sharp and cutting—like knives made of sunshine. She'd turned her healing power into a tool.
"I can cure infections," Mama said quietly. "And you, Lyanna, are an infection that needs to be removed."
The fight got bigger and louder. Daddy-Dante's shadows fought Lyanna's forces. Mama's light-knives cut through the air. But Lyanna just kept taking Papa-Thaddeus's power, getting stronger and stronger.
I needed to help. But I was so small. So tired. What could a four-year-old do?
Then I remembered what the old voice inside me had said: "Three threads must burn as one."
I didn't understand it before. But now, looking at all the posts, I finally got it.
The Eclipse binding wasn't just linking three people. It was joining three different kinds of love.
Mama's fierce, protective love.
Daddy-Dante's gentle, healing love.
Papa-Thaddeus's passionate, burning love.
And me—I was the center where all three loves met.
If I could grab all the threads and pull them together, maybe they'd be strong enough to break the bad blood-bond thread.
I reached out with my Eclipse power, even though it hurt so much. My little hands started glowing gold again.
"Ember, no!" Mama shouted. "You're too weak! You'll kill yourself!"
But I had to try. I grabbed the green thread linking Mama and Daddy-Dante. It felt warm in my hands, like a cozy blanket.
Then I grabbed the red thread linking Papa-Thaddeus and Mama. It burned hot, but I held on tight.
Then the silver thread joining Papa-Thaddeus and Daddy-Dante. It felt old and strong, like ancient trees.
I pulled all three threads together in my hands and twisted them into one big rope of light—green and red and silver all woven together.
The Eclipse binding burst to life.
Power rushed through me so fast I screamed. But this time I wasn't alone in my head. I could feel Mama's fierce drive. Daddy-Dante's clever shadows. Papa-Thaddeus's warrior power.
We were all linked. All one person. All one power.
"Impossible," Lyanna breathed, her face going white. "A full Eclipse triad. It hasn't been seen in two hundred years."
The twisted thread in my hands turned into a whip of pure light. I didn't even think—just snapped it forward at the ugly red blood-bond thread joining Papa-Thaddeus to Lyanna.
The Eclipse whip cut through the blood-bond like it was made of paper.
Lyanna screamed as the link broke. All the power she'd stolen came rushing back to Papa-Thaddeus and me in a golden wave.
"NO!" Lyanna shrieked. "You can't do this! I'm the Commander's wife! The blood-bond is permanent!"
"Was permanent," Daddy-Dante corrected, his shadows wrapping around Lyanna's men. "Ember just broke what you spent years building."
But breaking the blood-bond did something bad to Lyanna. Without it grounding her, all the dark magic she'd been using started eating her from the inside.
Her skin turned grey. Her eyes went blank. She stumbled backward, her mouth open in a quiet scream.
"What's happening to her?" Mama asked.
"The corruption," Papa-Thaddeus said, getting to his feet. He was still hurt, but the returned power had made him stronger. "She's been using Feral corruption magic to amplify her powers. Without the blood-bond filtering it, the corruption is eating her."
Lyanna's soldiers backed away from their Commander, fear on their faces as they watched her transform.
"Help me," Lyanna whimpered, reaching toward them. "Please, help—"
Her words cut off as black lines spread across her skin. Her body started moving and changing.
She was turning Feral.
"Everyone out!" Papa-Thaddeus roared. "NOW!"
But we were too late.
Lyanna ended transforming into a Feral—but not a normal one. The corruption and Eclipse power she'd stolen mixed together inside her, forming something new. Something worse.
Her eyes glowed red and gold at the same time. Corrupted Eclipse power.
When she spoke, her voice was all wrong—layered with dark magic: "If I can't have the Eclipse Child's power, then I'll destroy everyone who kept it from me."
She threw back her head and howled. And this time, the howl carried dark Eclipse magic.
Every Feral in the entire Borderlands heard it. Heard the call of a twisted Eclipse being.
Through the broken windows, I saw hundreds of red eyes lighting up in the forest. Not just the Ferals from before. All of them. Every corrupted dog within fifty miles was coming straight toward us.
And at their head was Lyanna—a Feral Queen with Eclipse powers.
"We need to run," Daddy-Dante said, his face gray with fear. "Right now."
But Mama was looking at me with scared eyes. "Ember, the Eclipse whip. Can you make it again?"
I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. I was so, so tired.
"I don't think so, Mama. I'm all used up."
Papa-Thaddeus pulled me into his arms—the first time he'd ever held me. "Then we fight. As a family."
Outside, Lyanna's corrupted scream rose higher. And the Feral army answered, rushing toward our cabin like a tsunami of death.
We had no power left.
No exit route.
And an army of hundreds coming to kill us.