The thing wearing Serenity's face crawled out of the crack in the floor like a nightmare made real. Everyone froze. Even the dying dogs stopped howling.
"What is that thing?" Briar whispered.
The thing stood up slowly. It looked exactly like Serenity—same silver eyes, same black hair, same small body. But something was badly wrong. Its skin was too pale. Its smile too wide. And when it moved, shadows followed.
"I'm the real Serenity," it said in her voice. "The one the prophecy was actually about."
"That's impossible," Elder Thalia breathed. "The scrying spells showed—"
"Showed what you wanted to see." The shadow-Serenity tilted its head. "Did you really think the ancient powers would make it that easy?"
Riven backed toward the wall, his hand on his crossbow. Something about this creature made every sense in him scream danger. But as he moved, fractured memories flickered through his thoughts.
A cage in a dark basement. A little girl crying. Blood on his hands as he broke the lock. "Please don't let them hurt me anymore."
"I won't. I promise." The memory hit him like a physical blow. He stumbled, catching himself against the stone wall.
"Riven?" The real Serenity noticed his sadness. "What's wrong?"
But he couldn't answer. More memories were rushing back. Memories the Syndicate had tried to erase. Running through a bush, her small hand in his. Teaching her to hide her smell from trackers. Watching her sleep by a campfire, knowing he'd die before letting anyone hurt her.
"You remember," the shadow creature said with attention. "How touching."
"Remember what?" Kael demanded.
Riven's golden eyes met Serenity's silver ones. "We were children. You were maybe seven. I was ten."
"I don't remember—"
"They made you forget too." Pain lanced through Riven's skull as more memories emerged. "The Syndicate had caught you. They wanted to study your blood. Find out what made Nightborn Wolves special."
Elder Thalia's face went ashen. "That's impossible. The Syndicate was created to protect supernatural beings."
"Was it?" The shadow-Serenity laughed. "Or was that just what they told you?" Riven pressed his hands to his temples.
The memories were coming faster now, like a dam breaking. A room filled with cages. Children screaming. Scientists in white coats taking blood samples.
"Subject 7 shows remarkable healing properties."
"Increase the dose. We need to understand how her power works."
"They were torturing kids," Riven whispered. "Dozens of them. All young magical beings."
"The Syndicate doesn't hurt children," Briar objected. But her words lacked conviction.
"The current Syndicate doesn't," the shadow creature agreed. "But the old one? The one that started your precious organization? They were monsters."
Serenity stared at Riven. "You saved me from them?"
"I tried to." More memories crashed over him. "I was part of a group that broke into their building. We freed as many kids as we could."
Alarms blaring. Guards shooting. Children running in terror. Serenity's hand slipping from his as gunshots rocked the building.
"But we got separated," Riven continued. "The building fell. I thought you were dead."
"I survived," Serenity said softly. "Somehow I got out. But I don't remember any of it."
"Memory magic," Elder Thalia said sadly.
"The trauma was too intense. Your mind blocked it out."
"And the Syndicate wiped mine," Riven added. "Made me forget I'd ever met you. Turned me into their perfect killer."
"How convenient," Sable snarled. "The killer develops feelings for his target."
But Riven wasn't listening to her. He was looking at Serenity, remembering everything now. The promise he'd made in that burning building.
"I'll find you. No matter what happens, I'll find you." "Promise?"
"I promise."
"I kept my word," he whispered. "I found you."
"Only because they sent you to kill me," Serenity pointed out.
"Maybe. Or maybe something deeper led me here."
Riven's hand moved away from his gun. "I could never hurt you. Not then. Not now."
"How touching," the shadow thing interrupted. "But we have bigger problems." Everyone turned back to the thing wearing Serenity's face.
"What are you?" Kael demanded. "I'm what happens when you meddle with prophecies," it responded.
"Every spell has effects. Every curse makes echoes." The creature pointed toward the crack in the floor. "When you stole the tablet, Alpha, you didn't just curse your pack. You tore a hole between worlds."
"What worlds?" Elder Thalia asked, though she looked like she already knew the answer.
"The land of shadows. Where all the dark power goes when it dies." The creature's smile widened. "I'm the shadow of what Serenity could become. The evil in her bloodline given form."
"That's impossible," Serenity said. "I'm not dark."
"Aren't you? You're the last of your kind. Born from an illegal union between wolf and fae. Your very presence breaks the natural order."
The shadow-Serenity walked closer. With each step, the temperature dropped. Frost spread across the floor.
"The prophecy speaks of a choice," it continued. "A mate who will join or destroy the supernatural world. But it never said which version of you would make that choice."
"What do you want?" Serenity asked. "
To take your place. To be the real Serenity Vale." The creature's eyes blazed with hunger. "To claim the destiny that should have been mine."
"I will not allow this," Riven growled. He raised his crossbow, but the shadow-Serenity waved a hand dismissively. Darkness emerged from the floor. Tendrils of pure shadow wrapped around Riven's arms and legs, pressing him against the wall.
"Riven!" Serenity started toward him, but more shadows blocked her way.
"How sweet," the thing mocked. "The killer who remembers love. The girl who thinks she can save everyone. The cursed Alpha who pretends he still has a soul."
"Enough!" Elder Thalia stepped forward, her blind eyes burning with power. "I won't let you—"
"Let me?" The shadow-Serenity laughed. "You made me, old woman. Every manipulation, every twisted promise, every life you've ruined to get what you want. All of it fed the darkness."
"I was trying to prevent a war—"
"You were trying to control the future. And now the future has come to collect." The thing turned back to Serenity.
"Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to take your place. Become the real Serenity. And then I'm going to choose a mate."
"Which one?" Serenity asked, though she feared the answer.
"All of them."
The shadow-Serenity's smile was pure evil. "The curse will spread. The Syndicate will serve me. And the magical world will burn." "
I won't let you."
"You can't stop me. I'm everything you are, but without the weakness."
The creature pointed toward Riven, still trapped in shadows. "Without the foolish sentiment that makes you hesitate."
Serenity felt power growing inside her. Silver light began to glow around her hands. "Maybe. But I have something you don't."
"What's that?"
"People who believe in me." Serenity looked at Riven, fighting against his bonds. At Kael, whose gray eyes held a flicker of hope. Even at Sable, who looked truly frightened for the first time.
"Belief is weakness," the shadow thing sneered.
"Is it?" Serenity's power flared brighter. "Then why are you so afraid of it?"
"I'm not afraid of anything."
"You're afraid of being alone. Of being empty. Of being the shadow instead of the real thing." Serenity took a step forward. "That's why you want my life. Because you know yours is useless."
The creature's face twisted with rage. "Shut up!"
"You're not the real prophecy," Serenity continued. "You're just the darkness that comes from forcing fate. The rot that happens when people try to play god."
"I said shut up!" The shadow-Serenity raised her hand, and blackness exploded toward Serenity. But just before it hit, Riven broke free of his bonds.
"No!" He threw himself between them, taking the blast of shadow magic full in the chest. He collapsed, gasping. Black lines spread across his skin where the magic had touched him.
"Riven!" Serenity knelt beside him. "Are you okay?"
"Been better." He coughed, and blood dotted his lips. "But I kept my word. I protected you."
"Don't talk like you're dying."
"Maybe I am." His bright eyes met hers. "But some promises are worth dying for."
The shadow creature watched this conversation with disgust. "Pathetic. You'd throw away your life for her?"
"Without hesitation," Riven whispered.
"Then you're both fools." The creature raised her hand again. This time, the evil that gathered was ten times stronger. Enough to kill them both. But before she could strike, something unexpected happened.
Malric, Kael's youngest pack member, stepped out of the darkness behind the creature. "Sorry," he said quietly.
"But I can't let you hurt them." And he drove a silver knife into the shadow-Serenity's back.
The thing screamed. Not in pain, but in rage. The sound shattered every window in the house. "You have no idea what you've done," she growled, turning toward Malric.
"I know exactly what I've done." Malric's soft brown eyes were filled with purpose. "I've chosen a side."
"You've chosen death."
"Maybe. But it's my choice to make."
The shadow-Serenity pulled the knife from her back. Instead of blood, darkness poured from the hole. "This isn't over," she hissed at Serenity. "I'll be back. And next time, I won't be alone."
"What do you mean?" Serenity demanded. But the thing was already fading, dissolving back into shadows.
"The others are coming," were her last words. "My sisters. And they're hungry."
The shadows disappeared, leaving only silence. Serenity looked around the wrecked hall. At Riven, injured but living. At Kael, whose evil was still spreading. At Sable, who'd watched everything with cunning eyes.
"What others?" she asked Elder Thalia. "What sisters?"
But the old woman's face was white with fear. "I don't know," she whispered. "But if that thing was telling the truth..."
She never finished the sentence. Because at that moment, the castle began to shake again. And through the cracks in the walls, they could hear something that made everyone's blood run cold. Laughter. Dozens of voices, all similar to Serenity's. All getting closer.