CHAPTER 127: CHAPTER 127: THE TRAP SPRINGS

LUCIEN POV

The mysterious barrier cracked like breaking glass around us.

I threw myself forward as chunks of invisible energy fell like dangerous rain. "Kael! Jaxon! Move now!"

My brothers didn’t need me to tell them twice. We raced toward the hole where Aria had disappeared with our dead father. The whole refuge was coming apart. Books flew through the air. Stone walls crashed down. Everything was chaos.

"She’s in trouble," I shouted over the noise. Through our bond, I could feel Aria’s fear mixed with determination. She was scared but trying to be strong. Just like always.

"I can’t reach her through the bond properly," Kael yelled back, jumping over a fallen bookshelf. "Something is blocking it."

That made my stomach drop. If Kael couldn’t use his Alpha connection to find her, we were in real trouble. My mending powers were strong, but they wouldn’t help us track anyone.

Jaxon grabbed my arm as another piece of the roof fell. "This way! I can smell her scent trail."

We followed him through the maze of destruction. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst. What if we were too late? What if Darius had already hurt her? What if the Shadow Lords had taken her?

Then I felt something that made me stop running.

"Wait," I said, putting up my hand. "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Kael asked, but then his eyes went wide. "Oh no."

Through our bond, power was flowing. Not from us to Aria like normal. From her to us. Way too much power.

"She’s using the book," Jaxon whispered. "The ceremony. She’s actually doing it."

"Without us?" I couldn’t believe it. We were going to do this together. Share the load. Keep each other safe.

But as the power kept coming, I realized something was wrong. This wasn’t the ritual we had planned. This felt different. Darker.

"Run faster," I said.

We burst through a hallway and found them. Aria stood in the middle of a circle of glowing symbols, holding the ancient book. Golden light poured from her like she was made of sunshine. But across from her, Darius was changing.

Not just his eyes were black now. His whole body was becoming something else. Something that wasn’t my father anymore.

"Too late, boys," he said in a voice that sounded like grinding rocks. "Your mate has just handed us everything we need."

"Aria!" I shouted. "Stop the ritual!"

She looked at me, and I saw tears in her eyes. "I can’t! It won’t stop!"

The book in her hands was shining so bright it hurt to look at. The figures on the ground were spinning faster and faster. And through our bond, I felt her memories beginning to slip away.

"She’s not doing the right ritual," Kael said, fear in his voice. "This isn’t the one we modified."

"What do you mean?" Jaxon asked.

"Look at the symbols," I said, my healer’s training helping me understand. "These aren’t for sending the Shadow Lords away. They’re for bringing them here forever."

Darius laughed. "Smart boy. The book showed her what she expected to see. But magic books can lie when the right person controls them."

My blood turned to ice. "You’ve been controlling the book this whole time."

"Not me," Darius said. "My masters. They needed a Moon Alpha to perform this process. They needed her to do it freely. And they needed her to be powerful enough to handle it."

"The bond," I breathed. "They wanted our bond to make her stronger."

"Exactly." Darius stepped closer to Aria. "Now she’ll bind the Shadow Lords to this world forever. They’ll never have to worry about dying worlds again."

Through the bond, I felt Aria fighting to stop the process. But it was like trying to stop a river with your bare hands. The power was too much.

"We have to break the circle," Kael said.

"If we do that while she’s channeling this much power, it could kill her," I warned.

"If we don’t, it’ll kill everyone else," Jaxon pointed out.

He was right. But I couldn’t lose her. Not after everything we’d been through.

That’s when I made a choice that would change everything.

"I’m going in," I said.

"Lucien, no!" both my brothers shouted.

But I was already going. I ran straight into the circle of spinning symbols. The power hit me like a lightning bolt. Every cell in my body screamed. But I kept going.

I reached Aria just as she fell. The book fell from her hands, still glowing.

"I’ve got you," I whispered, catching her.

But when I touched her, something unexpected happened. The practice didn’t stop. Instead, it pulled me in too. Now both of us were stuck in the magical circle, and the power was flowing through both of us.

"Lucien!" Aria gasped. "You have to get out of here!"

"Not without you," I said.

Through the bond, I felt Kael and Jaxon trying to reach us. But there was a wall of power between us now. They couldn’t get through.

Darius was laughing again. "Perfect. Now I have two roots instead of one. This is even better than my masters planned."

The marks on the ground started glowing brighter. The air above us began to tear open like fabric. And through the tear, I could see them.

Shadow Lords. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. All ready to pour into our world.

"The portal’s opening," I told Aria.

She squeezed my hand. "I’m sorry. I thought I was saving everyone."

"You were trying to," I said. "That’s what matters."

But as the first Shadow Lord started coming through the opening, I realized we needed a miracle. And fast.

That’s when I felt something new through our bond. Not just Kael and Jaxon trying to reach us. Something else. Something that felt like...

"Aria," I whispered. "I think there’s someone else here."

She looked up at me with wide eyes. "What do you mean?"

Before I could answer, a voice spoke from the dark. A voice I recognized but couldn’t believe I was hearing.

"Hello, children. Did you miss me?"