Mira Ashwood's POV
The power inside me exploded outward.
I screamed as white light shot from my hands, my chest, my eyes. It felt like my body was being ripped apart from the inside. Shade flew backward, crashing into a bookshelf. Books tumbled down around him like rain.
The light kept coming. I couldn't stop it. It poured out of me in waves, each one stronger than the last. The strange mirror cracked down the middle with a sound like thunder.
"Make it stop!" I shouted. "I don't know how!"
Shade pushed himself up, his face twisted in pain. But instead of looking angry, he looked... excited? His tattoos were glowing so bright they lit up the whole room.
"Don't fight it," he said. "Let it flow."
"I can't control it!"
"You don't need to control it. Just feel it."
That was the stupidest advice I'd ever heard. But I didn't have any better ideas. I closed my eyes and tried to feel the power instead of fighting it.
The moment I stopped resisting, something clicked inside me. The wild, scary energy became... calm. It still flowed out of me, but now it felt more like a gentle river instead of a tsunami.
The light softened. Then faded. Then disappeared completely.
I opened my eyes. The room looked like a tornado had hit it. Books everywhere. Furniture knocked over. The mirror was completely shattered, pieces of glass scattered across the floor.
And Shade...
He was staring at his arms. The tattoos that had been glowing were now completely dark. Not dim dark. Like someone had turned off a light switch.
"The voices," he whispered. "They're gone."
"What voices?"
He looked up at me, and for the first time, I saw something other than coldness in his eyes. Hope. "The death-echoes. The screams of my fallen warriors. They've haunted me for two hundred years." He took a step toward me. "You made them stop."
I backed up until I hit the wall. "I didn't mean to do... whatever I did."
"You're a Mirror-Touched wolf." Shade's voice was rough. "You can reflect power. When you touched me, you reflected my curse away from me."
"That doesn't make sense. I'm just an omega. I don't have any power."
"You've always had power. Someone just made sure you never knew it." He gestured to the broken mirror. "Your sister. Your pack. They kept you weak on purpose."
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. All those years of being told I was worthless, being ignored, being treated like I didn't matter it was all a lie?
"Why?" My voice cracked. "Why would they do that?"
"Because if you knew what you were, you'd be too dangerous to control." Shade ran a hand through his dark hair. "The cult your sister works for they've been hunting Mirror-Touched wolves for centuries. They use your blood for dark magic. Your heart for eternal youth. Your bones for"
"Stop!" I pressed my hands over my ears. "Just stop. This is crazy. This is all crazy."
But deep down, I knew it was true. All those weird moments in my life suddenly made sense. Like the time I touched Mrs. Chen's hand and suddenly knew how to bake perfect cookies. Or when I high-fived Tommy after his soccer game and could suddenly kick a ball twice as far as normal.
I wasn't copying their skills. I was mirroring their abilities.
"I need to go back," I said suddenly. "I need to warn someone. If there's a cult in the village"
"There's no one to warn." Shade's voice turned cold again. "Your entire pack knew. Why do you think they laughed when Silas rejected you? They were celebrating. The weak omega was finally going to be useful."
No. That couldn't be true. Not everyone. Not Tommy. Not Mrs. Chen. Not...
I thought about how they'd all turned away from me at the festival. How quickly they'd started throwing flowers. How no one not one single person had tried to help me.
My knees went weak. I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor.
"They all knew," I whispered. "This whole time, they all knew what was going to happen to me."
Shade crouched down in front of me. "Your sister made a deal with the cult. Silas would reject you at the festival. You'd run away in shame. The cult would be waiting in the forest to grab you. Clean. Simple. No witnesses."
"But I didn't run into the forest." I looked up at him. "I drove into it. In a truck. I crashed. Your wolves found me instead of the cult."
For the first time, Shade almost smiled. Almost. "You ruined their entire plan by being reckless."
"I wasn't being reckless. I was running away."
"Same thing."
We sat there in silence for a moment. Outside, I could hear wolves howling. The fog pressed against the windows like it wanted to get in.
"What happens now?" I asked.
Shade stood up and held out his hand. "Now you train. If the cult wants you, they'll come for you. And when they do, you need to be ready."
I stared at his hand. Part of me wanted to take it. But another part the part that had been hurt too many times hesitated.
"Why are you helping me? A few hours ago, you were going to exile me."
"A few hours ago, I didn't know what you were." He kept his hand extended. "I'm a king without a kingdom, Mira. My rogues are wolves that other packs threw away. We're all broken here. All hiding from something." His silver eyes met mine. "But you? You're not broken. You're powerful. And if I help you unlock that power, maybe you'll help me get my revenge on the people who cursed me."
"Revenge?" I frowned. "I thought you just wanted the voices to stop."
"The voices stopping is just the beginning." His jaw tightened. "The pack that cursed me? They're the same pack that's been helping your sister's cult for decades. They're the ones who've been hunting Mirror-Touched wolves. They're the reason you spent your whole life thinking you were worthless."
My heart started pounding. "What pack?"
Shade's hand was still waiting for mine. "The Oakheart Pack. Your pack."
The room spun. My pack? The people I'd grown up with? The people I'd loved?
Before I could respond, a howl split the night. But this wasn't like the other howls. This one was wrong. It sounded like a scream mixed with a growl mixed with something that definitely wasn't a wolf.
Shade's head snapped toward the window. "No. They can't be here already."
"Who can't?"
He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. "The cult. They tracked you."
Another howl. Closer this time. Then another. And another.
They weren't just coming.
They were already here.