Shadow’s roar shook the land, and with that one guttural, broken sound, I understood that what I’d done… the choice I’d made… was not going to end well for me.

Clearly, there was a reason none of them had tried to reinforce the fortress last time when she’d broken through with her fire energy. A reason they knew and I did not.

“Mera! Stop!”

“It will drain your energy!”

They were all shouting, but it was too late. There was no way to prevent this from happening; my palm was already fused to the golden light, the power that had been in my hold now a tether linking me to the fortress itself. A fortress sucking my power into itself, draining me in an instant.

It took from me what it needed to secure the prison, and I was helpless, unable to pull away or resist its strength. By the time Shadow got to me, there was barely even a shred of conscious thought in my head.

Exhaustion forced my eyes closed as the fortress of binding power did its job, binding my powers and using them to bolster itself. It stole the essence of my being, sucking it down greedily and without remorse for the life it stole.

In my desperation not to die, I clung to the bonds in my chest. Shadow. Angel. Midnight. The creatures. My connection to them was the one thing still tethering me to this world, but even with their immense power, it wasn’t enough to stop the inevitable.

I dragged them down as far as I could before understanding that this was killing them too.

Maybe under normal circumstances, the bonds would have saved me, but Shadow and Angel were weaker than they’d ever been, Midnight was no longer my mist, and the creatures were too far away. So, facing the risk of destroying us all, I found the strength to let them go. The strength to accept my fate.

Contentment flooded through me at the thought that at least Dannie would be stopped. My wolf howled one final time in my chest, and I hugged her soul to me so that we wouldn’t leave this world alone. Always together, I whispered. I love you.

She whimpered but didn’t fight. We knew that our energy, as it turned out, was exactly what they’d needed in their cage to truly secure Dannie. It was the last gift we could give the worlds. The last gift we could give our loved ones.

We could die for them, and I would hold no resentment in my soul for it.