All Chapters of THE BURDEN OF BLOOD: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
51 chapters
Chapter 31: Beau’s Offer
At dusk, the emissary arrived by himself on a horse so thin that shadows were produced by its ribs. He was dressed in the colors of Shadowed Pine, which are blood-crusted, tattered, and silver. His spear fluttered a white cloth, yet something darker than blood flowed from the spearhead itself. When he approached the outer pickets, he dismounted and knelt, both hands raised empty.With Savannah on his left, Jasper to his right, and Scarlett's bow already drawn behind them, Heath met him beyond arrow range. Silver glinting, fifty wolves circled the clearing. The emissary sounded like he had been screaming for days. "There is a Lord Beau," he croaked. "He extends an offer and a greeting." Winter steel was Heath's laugh. Beau's body cooled while in my grasp. His neck snapped, and I felt it. The man raised his head. He had a slight green glow in his eyes (not completely gone, but touched by the umbrella). “He lives,” the messenger repeated. When you killed the body, the Umbral retain
Chapter 32: The Trap Sprung
At precisely midnight, they selected the hallowed grove where Heath had first taken Savannah from silver shackles six years prior. The air itself was heavy with old blood and old promises; there was no moon or stars. A memory that no one could ignore, the ancient oak still had scars from the shackles, pale against the black bark. Heath arrived with just 10 wolves: Scarlett had silver-tipped arrows at her belt but her bow was unstrung, Jasper was silent and stern, and Savannah was shrouded in living shadow. Silver-armed and breath-held, Vance and the other allied packs waited in a three-mile-wide ring concealed in the trees.Lila waited by herself under the oak. Tall, scarred, and with one side of her hair shaved to expose the brand he had burnt there as ownership, she had formerly served as Beau's battle chief. Now, black veins crawled beneath her skin like living tattoos, and her eyes flashed sickening green. She had her arms outstretched, no weapons in sight, and a smile too big f
Chapter 33: The Vision of Blood
Less than an hour had passed since they entered the Hollow when she had the vision. Savannah's spine went rigid as she was walking next to Heath, shadows scanning the horizon like docile dogs. Suddenly, a crimson sheet of blood spurted from her nose. Her eyes rolled white (pure blinding white) and she dropped to her knees on the black crystal floor.Before her skull cracked against the stone, Heath grabbed her. Savannah! " After two convulsions, her body became abnormally motionless. The shadows around them halted mid-motion, as though time itself had paused. Then, although it wasn't her voice, she spoke. The sound was ancient, layered, and simultaneously screamed by all the White Wolfes who had ever lived and died. "I see it... the last ceremony... he believes he can still win... With the silver mark blazing hot enough to burn through his shirt, Heath held her close to his chest. “Fight it,” he growled. “Come back.” She did not hear him. The vision had her totally. Above, b
Chapter 34: The March to the Grove
At the first sign of dusk, they departed the valley, five thousand wolves moving as one. With their silver swords catching the last of the sun's red light, Crimson Howl and Ironwood marched side by side. At dusk Silently, hollow scouts ghosted down the flanks. Bone rattles sang quietly and mournfully as Mist Marsh shamans strolled barefoot. With eight banners whipping in the chilly wind and eight thousand paws rattling the ground like war drums, all the other allied packs had responded to the call that Stone Fang had rejected.With Savannah at his side on a white mare that appeared to have been carved out of the moonlight, Heath rode at the head on a black warhorse that had previously belonged to Beau himself. The slight pulse of the same mark, now seared into Savannah's left palm, was answered by the silver wolf-mark on his bare chest, which shone beneath exposed leather. The second heartbeat between them was louder than any drum, and the tether throbbed (alive, enraged, unbreakable
Chapter 35: The Transformation
The grove was now a crucible of blood and gloom without stars. Beau stood nude on the dais at its center, his arms extended toward the lifeless moon. Beneath him, the broken pieces of Standing Stone beat like a dying heart. Silence was louder than a scream as four Umbral alphas knelt at the cardinal points, their lips stitched shut with black sinew and their yellow eyes burning. The ceremony was maintained by the hundreds of silver-chained wolves who bled into the great oak's roots.And Savannah hung in the very center, hanging above the altar on chains of living shadow. She was unconscious, her chest rising in ragged, weak breaths, her white-gold hair matted with blood. Black runes swarmed like ants across her skin, and the chains had sunk deep into her ankles and wrists. Heath became enraged. With a single, unadulterated shout, he attacked the dais while brandishing his silver blade. But Jasper and three hundred Ironwood warriors smashed through like a battering ram, axes singin
Chapter 36: Primal Fury
The weight of her made the grove shudder. Standing twenty-five feet tall at the shoulder, the White Wolf (no longer Savannah, or more than Savannah) was a mountain of muscle and moon-white fur, with living frost edging each strand. Like twin inferno, crimson eyes blazed. The frost crackled in the air around her, and beneath her claws, blood on the ground flash-froze into scarlet glass.Beau attempted to flee. He took three steps. She moved, but it wasn't a pounce or a lunge, just there. He was pinned to the shattered pieces of Standing Stone when one enormous forepaw struck his chest. He let out a moist cry as the collision forced the air from his lungs. Like charred paper, shadow flesh slipped from his bones. With nails that were stronger than steel against fur, he tore at her leg. "Mercy!" he said, his voice breaking into a tiny, human voice. "Sister, " The White Wolf's snout nearly touched his face as she lowered her head. Breath was released (ancient graves and winter storm)
Chapter 37: The True Enemy Revealed
The grove became silent. The wind died, too. Beau curled naked and helpless on the cracked dais, and the only sound was his ragged, mortal breathing. All of the wolves, both allied and corrupted, stood motionless, their hearts thumping against their ribs and their ears pricked.Then the earth started to turn dark. Beneath the old tree, it began as a flawless circle of soil that stretched out like spilled ink, changing into liquid shadow. Green mist boiled from the blood that had saturated the dirt. The roots snapped and wilted. The oak itself moaned, revealing blackness beneath its torn bark. The Umbral had left their hiding place. Silently, they emerged from the circle, dozens at first, then hundreds. Not echoes or puppets, but true Umbral: tall, living night figures with crooked joints, scythe-length claws, and yellow eyes that burn without pupils. Between wolf and something ancient, something that had never been wolf at all, their forms wavered. The world lost its ability to be
Chapter 38: The United Packs
The Umbral continued to arrive even after the circle beneath the oak closed. They poured from every shade in the grove, from the crevices in the air, from the hollows of broken trees, and even under fallen wolves. Hundreds turned into thousands. Hunger alone, a black tide with no structure.Less than 3,000 of the allied packs remained. Pressing his silver blade into her shaking palm, Heath pulled Savannah to her feet. Her eyes burned crimson once more, yet her human body was pallid and bleeding from a dozen claw-rakes. Her rage outweighed her tiredness. "Back-to-back!" Heath let out a shout. "Ironwood and crimson together! Hold on! Outward, the order spread. Wolves (former competitors, old enemies, now one pack under one moon) moved mindlessly. The center was made up of Ironwood and Crimson Howl, forming a perfect three-deep circle around the destroyed dais. Scouts from Dusk Hollow filled in the blanks. Ironwood berserkers and Mist Marsh shamans stood side by side. Blades of silv
Chapter 39: The Alpha’s Duel
The oak had vanished.The First Tree had been gone for a thousand years, leaving behind only a crater of frozen blood and broken crystal. The summoning's heart continued to beat even after the lesser Umbral was pulled screaming into the collapsing circle.From the center of the crater sprang the Umbral Alpha.It was 45 feet tall at the shoulder, with a crown of writhing shadow that scraped the dead moon itself in place of the antlers. Its body was an ever-changing mess of claw and night, its edges consuming stars with bleeding blackness. The ground lost its ability to be solid where it stood. No face, only a smooth emptiness that absorbed light and returned nothing.Each wolf experienced a decrease in pressure. Ears were bleeding. Knees gave way. Even the chants of the shamans ceased to be heard.It glanced at the three thousand survivors before concentrating just on Heath."ANCHOR.""Gravity crushing lungs" was the word.Heath took a step ahead.Where the mark on his chest contacted
Chapter 40: A Fragile Victory
Only the echo of their death scream and the smell of burned night remained as the final Umbral faded into the ground like smoke through crevices. The grove, illuminated by the first faint edge of a no longer-dead moon, was a cemetery of glass and frost. Three thousand wolves had entered on foot. Less than fifteen hundred were still alive.With his sword positioned point-down in the transparent glass that had once been quartz, Heath stood in the middle of the crater. The silver wolf-mark shone steadily, refusing to let him fall, even as blood spilled from wounds too numerous to count. With her bare skin painted crimson and black as shadows wrapped protectively around them both, Savannah clung to his side, human once more. Jasper then stumbled inside the circle. Shadow-claws tore the large Alpha's left arm, leaving it hanging useless. He had a dark, wet beard; a claw had sliced him open from collarbone to hip, exposing lung and bone. From the cut, black veins protruded (Umbral poison