Chapter 25

Sophia

"Cyrus," I breathe. But then my eyes catch something else. On top of another white wolf, to his left, I see Elsa, and in her arms is my mother.

"Elsa!" I cry out in alarm, and for a moment, my concentration almost wavers. It's Logan, who grabs me by the shoulders, ordering. "Focus!"

Karina doesn't look too pleased. "Why is the Central Alliance getting involved with the affairs of the North Alliance?"

"Because the child you are threatening is of the Central Alliance," my grandfather snarls. "Did you think that the Central Alliance would turn it back on its own blood?"

Karina grinds her teeth. "When Robert Black had your daughter in his custody, you didn't remember her. Why is this girl so important?"

I see Cyrus flinch, but he narrows his eyes. "I made a mistake. I don't plan on repeating it."

Hearing my arrogant grandfather admit to a mistake is mind-boggling.

Karina is furious. "The Central Alliance has always stayed neutral. Your granddaughter is the leader of the South Alliance. You have no business getting involved in our fight."

"You mean the war that you are about to start?" Cyrus demands. "We will not let this war happen. My grandchild will not suffer for my mistakes. And the Central Alliance will protect the Silver Wolf, no matter what her identity is inthe eyes of the world."

He jumps off the wolf and approaches the barrier, looking at me. "Are you hurt?"

I shake my head, not knowing what to say.

"Go," he says, gruffly. "I'm here now. Grandpa will handle this."

Grandpa?

I nearly choke.

There is regret in his eyes. "You are no longer alone. Help is here."

Despite how much I dislike the man, I feel stark relief.

"What is my mother doing here?"

My grandfather is quiet as he glances over at Elsa, who is clutching my mother, her face pale. "I regretted my actions. You were right. I didn't want to face Grace. I didn't want to see what was left of her because of my arrogance. The South was being attacked when we reached the border. We dealt with the attackers and called reinforcements. They are coming as well. We didn't have many witches with us, so the portals will take time."

I look at my grandfather, and then back toward Elsa, and then at all the white wolves. "I don't understand. The soldiers from the South are coming?"

Cyrus gives me a small smile. "Yes. The South is coming. And we are here."

Karina looks furious now. "I will not allow you to interfere in this! This is between me and the Queen of the South Alliance!"

Cyrus ignores her and looks over at Elsa. "Bring Grace inside the barrier. She should be safe here."

Karina immediately intervenes. "Capture the other Silver Wolf!"

However, before her people can move, the white wolves surround my mother and Elsa, creating a terrifying wall of teeth, saliva, and snarls. Elsa hurries over and is helped by another soldier as I lift a part of the barrier to let her in. Logan and the others slip out now, eager to join the fight. The fighting has already begun as a result of Karina being unable to capture my mother.

Her soldiers now go after Cyrus' soldiers. The fighting is brutal and I look around with a tense expression. My grandfather doesn't linger. He shifts and jumps into the fray with a battle howl.

I look at Elsa, shaken. "What happened? When we left…"

"If you had stayed a few more minutes, none of this would've happened," Elsa tells me. "Cyrus arrived with his soldiers minutes after you left. They had witches with them. Strong ones. Cyrus…" Elsa looks down toward my mother. "Cyrus gave Grace the cure, Sophia."

My eyes widen, but I don't get the opportunity to speak, because Elsa lowers her gaze. "It didn't work."

"What?" I stammer. "You said…you said it would work. You were sure of it. She drained herself, right? You said the other Silver…"

"I thought it would as well, and so did Cyrus, but she only got worse." Elsa looks distraught.

I sink to the ground, defeated. "What are we going to do now?"

Elsa just looks at me. "I don't have an answer. I wish I did."

Logan and the others have already joined the fight. It's just me and Elsa in here. The witches are still attacking the barrier and I struggle to my feet. "We'll deal with this later. First, we have to get rid of these witches."

Together with Elsa, I attack the witches. As the soldiers from the South begin to arrive, we are definitely turning the tide, but Karina's soldiers are great in number. Now that they're fighting, I see how vicious her soldiers are. Both white and brown wolves are being overwhelmed all around us. It's obvious that my grandfather didn't bring the full force of the Central Alliance. I don't know if more are on their wayor if this group is all he was willing to bring to the fight. It doesn't help that the witches are interfering in the fight.

Karina is angry, but she doesn't look very concerned. The witches have increased the intensity of their attacks on the barrier as well, determined to break it now.

"I can't…" I breathe heavily, struggling. "I don't think I can hold onto the barrier for much longer, Elsa!"

Elsa is also infusing her magic into the barrier, but it doesn't help. Things are not looking good for our side now that the witches attacking our soldiers as well. I see Dorian facing off against Nathan, and my heart sinks. I've seen the Alpha in his wolf form far too many times to not recognize him. I look at the sky but there's nothing.

Dorian glances in my direction, and my jaw tightens.

I can see the question in his eyes, the concern, but I have no answer for him right now. My eyes drift toward the sky again, as I try to maintain the barrier. Howls, snarls, and death rattles fill the air. The smell of blood is everywhere. Death is everywhere. Karina is still just a spectator, having decided not get her hands dirty.

I lift my eyes, looking at the sky and Elsa asks, "What are you looking for?"

I can't answer her. Karina overhears and laughs. "Praying to the Goddess isn't going to help. She's not the one with your life in her hands. I am!"

But just as she utters the words, a single firework shoots out of the trees into the sky. It is followed by eight more fireworks, all from different locations, all magnified by one singular witch.

I can feel the barrier cracking, but I can't help the smile that spreads across my face.

"Sophia! The barrier!" Elsa shouts out.

But I have no more power left.

I slump to the ground and start laughing, a hysterical sound filled with relief.

Karina looks wary and I flip her off. "Up yours, bitch."

As soon as I say that, the Northern Alphas stop fighting and turn around. They go for the throats of Karina's soldiers.

The North has finally joined in.

Their children are safe.

"What is going on?" Elsa asks, bewildered.

At the same time, Karina shrieks, "What are you doing?"

It's not just the Alphas who have turned on Karina's soldiers. It is every soldier who arrived with the Alphas of the North. Karina's soldiers are being pushed back with this new assault. It is now the entire three alliances against Karina's pack. I see the alarm in her eyes. It is the first time I've seen fear in her eyes since the attack began. She had anticipated everything but this.

"Have you lost your minds?!" she shouts. "Your children will pay the price…"

I laugh. "No, they won't. You can't touch the children anymore."

Both Elsa and Karina look at me.

"You!" Karina spits out, immediately concluding that I had something to do with this. "What have you done?"

"What were those fireworks, Sophia?" Elsa asks.

I look at Karina, exhausted but smug. "Did you think I would just come here with only the soldiers from the South Alliance? No. I spent two days reaching out to the Alphas of the North. I created barriers for their children."

I let Elsa help me to my feet, enjoying the look on the Queen's face. "It wasn't easy, considering the distance, but I managed to contact a few witches. A few very strong witches. Friends of a friend, you could say."

Marlene had been more than willing to give me the information for the few remaining witches in the North who did not belong to any coven. Contacting them had been a struggle, and convincing them to help me had been even harder.

"They were willing to act as a conduit," I say. "You're right. You know a lot more about magic than I do. But the Silver Wolf has a different type of magic. I can create magic out of nothing. So, I took a very big risk. The barrier that you just broke right now? I built multiple barriers of the same kind around every nursery within each pack. Even if the nannies and the soldiers die, their link to the children will not affect them. Only I can enter those barriers and break the link once I'm inside. The Alphas of the North need me alive now. I am the only one who can unlink the lives of their pups from your people. They agreed to this. The last barrier just went up now. And the signal was sent. You can't use the children against them anymore, Karina. It's over. You've lost your last bit of leverage over them."

The only reason Karina had strength in numbers was because she had the soldiers from every pack on her side. That's why it was so easy for her to watch them die. But now her fighting force has been cut down by more than half. While her own personal army is still large, they are nothing against the might of all three alliances combined.

The tide of the battle has changed and not in Karina's favor.

Karina seethes. "You think you've won? You foolish girl! Your barrier is down. Now nothing stands in my way!"

The witches launch another attack on me but while I can no longer sustain the barrier, I'm not completely depleted. I block the attack with a massive fireball. The screams of the witches and wolves echo in my ears, and I harden my heart. "I am not as defenseless as you think."

Karina snarls, and then screams at the witches, "Capture her and her mother. That is an order!"

The witches turn their full attention on me, but I am ready for them.

They shoot their flaming arrows at me and I keep blowing them up. Elsa looks shocked by the strength of my attacks. "When did you…?"

"You need to stop looking so surprised," I grunt. "I am not a complete dimwit."

With Karina's soldiers on the losing end of the fight and her inability to get close enough to me to capture me, she should be on the verge of giving up. However, she just looks mildly annoyed now. "I didn't want it to come to this, but I guess everything happens for a reason."

She turns her head to face the witches. "Turn the soldiers."

For the first time, there is a hint of hesitation from the group, but Karina doesn't have any patience. "I said, turn them!"

Her instructions make no sense to me. Turn the soldiers? Turn them where?

Suddenly the witches are no longer looking in my direction. Instead, they are now focused on the battlefield. I don't understand what is happening, but then the soldier closest to Karina, one of her own soldiers, begins to seize, almost as if he is having a fit. He collapses to the ground, foaming from the mouth.

Before anybody can react, the rest of the soldiers begin showing the same symptoms.

Elsa's fingers dig into my skin and she makes a choking sound. "No."

"What's wrong?" I ask, taken aback by the look of horror in her eyes.

"Their mouths." She gives me a little shake. "Look at their mouths!"

I do as he says, and for a moment, I see nothing out of the ordinary. I don't quite see what she means, but then I see the black veins spreading from their mouths.

"I don't understand," I murmur. "What is that?"

I've never seen Elsa look so frightened. "Dark magic. A very dangerous type of dark magic which has been banned for centuries."

She looks white as a sheet. "It was banned for a reason, Sophia. It transforms a living person into a walking corpse. She's killing her soldiers and turning them into mindless brutal fighting machines, ones that cannot be stopped or killed."

"She can do that?" I'm still trying to unsee the terrible dark lines that look revolting.

"Look for yourself." Elsa points at one of the soldiers, her voice shaking.

I've never seen Elsa so terrified ever. It tells me that something is really wrong.

Sure enough, the shifters stumble to their feet, their gait unsteady. When I look at their eyes, they are black. They go after their opponents, and my breath catches when I hear the terrible screams coming from the throats of the wolves at our side. Whatever Karina has done to her soldiersis frightening. They've become something monstrous.

I see three of them surround my grandfather, and while I have no great love for the man, I'm not going to let him get torn apart like the shifters at my side.

I attack the wolves, using my magic. But nothing works on them. I can see the dark tendrils of magic surrounding them, and I realize I have to do to them what I did to the children and the wolves who had once attacked us. They have been afflicted with dark magic, and there is no other choice.

I tear away at the threads of darkness lingering around the wolves. My attack is ruthless and I don't care if I'm hurting the wolves who have become unwitting victims of their own master's greed.

Two of them fall. The third one is persistent, desperate to end my grandfather's life.

Shifting into my wolf form, I run forward and sink my teeth into his neck. Dark blood spurts into my mouth and I spit it out. In my wolf form, my magic is stronger, but it's harder to use. It doesn't help that I've used up nearly every ounce of magic inside of me now.

I shred the wolf with my claws, destroying the darkness inside him at the same time. He collapses, and as he does, I hear Karina laugh. "How long do you think you can keep this up, Sophia? You've not even seen the full extent of what I can do. Watch."

To my horror, one of my grandfather's soldiers, who is badly injured, begins foaming from the mouth.

His eyes widen in fear and despair.

Without blinking an eye, my grandfather bites his throat, ripping it out. He looks at me and I know what he's asking me to do. I can see the darkness gathering around the soldier's heart and I rip it out. The soldier still has some life in him, and when he looks at me, blood bubbling from his mouth, he looks grateful. The light fades out of his eyes and my heart hurts.

"See?" Karina chuckles. "You can't defeat me. You can try, but you're not going to succeed."

I am weak enough that holding my wolf form is harder for me right now. I shift back to human form.

It is obvious to everybody around me that I don't have the strength to go on for much longer. Karina throws her head back laughing. "Look at you. You can barely walk right now. Do you really think you can take on my entire army? Don't be ridiculous. Even with all three alliances against me, I will win."

My grandfather nuzzles me, helping me up. When Karina realizes I am not going to give up, irritation, flickers in her eyes. "I've never met a more stubborn person in my life. Fine. You want to be this way? Then, I'll see how well you can withstand this attack. Kill the Silver Wolf's mother."

There is a smile on Karina's lips and the witches lift their arms, creating those fire bows again. Only this time, all of them are aimed at my mother.

I run.

Summoning every bit of magic left within me, I throw a barrier around her, just as the sky is filled with a thousand burning arrows.

My barrier fails.

I try to create another one and it doesn't work either.

I'm empty now.

Stumbling on my feet, I crash face down on the forest floor, and as I look up at the sky, I see thatit looks like it is on fire.

Dimly, I remember a faint voice saying, "When the sky is burning, then summon me and my coven."

When the sky is burning…

It looks like the sky is on fire.

My body is too weak and I can't get up. My grandfather is racing toward my mother and out of nowhere, my ears catch the faint sound of glass breaking.

My grandfather throws himself on my mother and the arrows land.

Only, they don't land on him, but on a barrier surrounding him, Elsa, and my mother.

Karina lets out a scream of anger, but I am barely listening.

My head turns in the direction where I heard the sound of the glass breaking. Familiar faces are standing in the middle of the battle, their eyes hard, their hands outstretched.

Marlene.

I let out a sob of relief.

But then Marlene steps aside, and another figure steps out from behind her.

Alex.