Not like this,I thought, pressing my palm flat against ground that had witnessed too much violence.Not useless again.
And something answered.
It started as warmth, spreading up through my palm and into my arm like electricity made of sunlight and growing things. But it grew stronger, deeper, until it felt like the forest itself was reaching through the earth to touch something I'd never known I possessed.
The ground beneath my hand began to tremble, and I felt roots stirring far below the surface, ancient networks that connected every tree in the forest to every other living thing. They pulsed with life that had been flowing through this place since before humans learned to make fire, and they were waiting for direction.
Waiting for me.
Thick, gnarled roots exploded from the earth around Calder's feet, wrapping around his legs and chest with enough force to crack bone. He snarled, thrashing against bonds that held him with implacable strength, but more surged up to replace any he managed to tear free.
Wind whirled through the clearing, howling like the voices of every wolf that had ever died defending this territory. The sound made the rogues falter, spooked by whispers they couldn't understand but felt in their bones.
I lay there in Evan's arms, one hand still pressed to the earth while the other tried to hold my throat together. Blood seeped between my fingers, warm and thick, but underneath the copper tang of it, I could taste something else. Something wild and ancient and absolutely fucking impossible.
My voice, when I found it, was layered with harmonics that didn't belong to human vocal cords. The words scraped out ofmy damaged throat like they were being carved from stone, each syllable carrying weight that made reality shiver at the edges.
“You don't belong here,” I said, and the forest around us responded like it had been waiting centuries for someone to finally speak its language.
The forest answered with a shuddering groan, branches cracking overhead as ancient trees leaned in to witness judgment being passed on someone who'd violated their sacred space. Leaves fell, and the very air seemed to thicken with disapproval that had been building for decades.
At the edge of the clearing, Gideon went pale as marble, magic flickering around his fingers as he stared at me with something that might have been terror or awe or both.
“Impossible,” he whispered, voice shaking with implications that rewrote everything he thought he knew about the world. “Druids are extinct. Have been for centuries.”
But I wasn't thinking about impossibility or extinction or the way everyone was staring at me like I'd just performed a miracle. All I could focus on was the rage burning in my chest, the fury of someone who'd watched the person he loved most get torn apart by a monster that thought violence was the answer to everything.
Calder ripped against the roots that bound him, snapping some with sheer brute strength, but they regrew faster than he could destroy them. His movements grew frantic, desperate, as he realized that for the first time in twenty years, he wasn't the most dangerous thing in the forest.
“No forest will bind me!” he roared, jaws snapping at roots that stayed just out of reach. “I am apex predator! I am evolution perfected!”
But the earth disagreed, and the earth was older than his ambitions, stronger than his hatred, more patient than his need for dominance.
Evan couldn't move from where he knelt beside me, one hand still pressed desperately against my throat while the other tried to shake me back to consciousness. His face was streaked with tears and blood, golden eyes wide with panic.
That's when Daniel burst into the clearing.
The Alpha moved like a force of nature, shifting mid-stride as his wolf exploded outward in shades of silver and steel. Behind him came Gideon, magic crackling around his hands like captured lightning, and the rest of the pack that had been fighting on the perimeter.
“Now!” Daniel snarled, launching himself at Calder's flank while the massive rogue was still tangled in my roots.
Gideon's power joined mine, blue-white fire wrapping around the bonds that held Calder, strengthening them until they glowed with heat that made the air shimmer. “The cliff!” he shouted. “Drive him to the cliff!”
Together, they slammed into Calder from multiple directions. Daniel's jaws found his throat while Gideon's magic burned through his defenses. My borrowed forest power wrapped tighter, roots responding to the combined will of three forces that refused to let him escape.
Calder thrashed against the bonds, snapping some with sheer brute strength, but they regrew faster than he could destroy them. His movements grew frantic, desperate, as he realized that for the first time in twenty years, he wasn't the most dangerous thing in the forest.
“You cannot!” he roared, claws raking against stone as they drove him backward. “I am the future! I am?—”
His words cut off as his feet slipped on stone made treacherous by blood. He teetered at the cliff's edge, massive form balanced on the knife's edge of gravity and momentum.
For one perfect moment, he hung suspended between safety and the abyss, pale eyes wide with something that might havebeen fear if he'd been capable of feeling anything beyond rage and hunger.
Then Daniel and Gideon gave one final coordinated push, and Calder plummeted into darkness with a roar that echoed off the canyon walls like thunder.
The clearing fell silent except for the sound of labored breathing and the distant whisper of wind through pine needles. Rogues scattered without their leader, melting back into shadows that had spat them out, leaderless and directionless and no longer a threat.
“Nate!” Dad's voice cut through the sudden quiet, raw with terror I'd never heard from him before. “Nate, where are you?”
