CHAPTER 129: CHAPTER 129: THE NEXUS POINT

ARIA POV

The ground under my feet started shaking before I even saw them.

"Get down!" Lucien shouted, pulling me behind a fallen tree just as a blast of green fire shot over our heads.

My heart was beating so fast I thought it might explode. We had followed the magical trail here to stop the Shadow Lords from finishing their ritual. But now that we were here, I could see we were too late.

They were already doing it.

The junction point looked like a nightmare. Dozens of Shadow Lords stood in perfect rings around a huge stone altar. Dark power crackled in the air like lightning. And in the center of it all, a portal was getting bigger and bigger.

"There are too many of them," Kael whispered from beside me. His Alpha senses were screaming danger, just like mine were.

"We have to try," I said, even though my voice was shaking. "If we don’t stop them now, everyone we love will become their slaves."

Jaxon crawled over to us, his wild energy replaced by cold focus. "It’s definitely a trick. They knew we were coming."

He was right. The Shadow Lords weren’t shocked to see us at all. Some of them were even looking right at us and smiling. Like they wanted us here.

"Then why aren’t they attacking?" I asked.

That’s when I heard the voice. The same strange voice from the sanctuary. But this time, it was coming from the door itself.

"Because we need you, little moon child."

A figure stepped through the doorway. At first, I thought it was another Shadow Lord. But then I saw its face, and my blood turned to ice.

It looked exactly like me.

Same dark hair. Same green eyes. Same everything. Except this version of me was wearing Shadow Lord armor and had eyes that glowed with dark magic.

"What..." I couldn’t even finish the sentence.

"Surprised?" the other me asked with a cruel smile. "You shouldn’t be. After all, we’re the same person."

"That’s impossible," Lucien said, but his voice sounded unsure.

"Is it?" the dark version of me laughed. "Tell me, Aria, have you ever thought why you’re so connected to the Moon Goddess? Why you can do things other omegas can’t?"

I had wondered about that. A lot. But I never thought...

"You’re lying," I said.

"Am I? Then explain this."

She raised her hand, and I felt my own hand move without me wanting it to. When she took a step forward, my body tried to do the same thing. Only Lucien’s grip on my arm kept me in place.

"We’re connected," she said. "Two halves of the same soul. One light, one dark. The Shadow Lords have been waiting ages for someone like us to be born."

"Why?" Kael asked.

"Because only a being with both light and dark magic can open the final portal," she stated. "The one that will let our masters take over every world, not just this one."

My stomach felt sick. "I won’t help you."

"You already are," she said with that awful smile. "Every time you use your relationship to the Moon Goddess, you make me stronger. Every time you save someone, you give me the power to kill someone else."

"She’s lying," Jaxon said, but he didn’t sound sure either.

"Am I? Aria, think about it. When did your skills really start showing up? Right after the Shadow Lords first appeared in your world, wasn’t it?"

She was right. My dreams about the Moon Goddess, my ability to feel things others couldn’t, all of it had started around the same time the Shadow Lords began their invasion.

"The ritual we’re doing right now isn’t just to anchor my masters to your world," the dark me continued. "It’s to bring us back together. Light and dark. Omega and Alpha. Moon and shadow."

"What happens if you merge?" Lucien asked quietly.

"Then I become what I was always meant to be," she said. "A goddess. With the power to remake all the worlds however I choose."

The Shadow Lords around the altar began singing louder. The portal got bigger. And I could feel something inside me responding to it. Like part of me wanted to go to her.

"Fight it, Aria," Kael ordered in his Alpha voice.

But it was getting harder. My feet were moving toward the altar even though I was trying to stop them.

"You can’t fight yourself forever," the dark me said. "And deep down, you know I’m right. You’ve always felt different. Always felt like you didn’t fit. That’s because half of you never did belong in the light."

"That’s not true," I said, but my voice was getting weaker.

"Isn’t it? Remember when Elira used to bully you? Didn’t part of you want to hurt her back? Remember when Alpha Darius tried to have you killed? Didn’t part of you want him to suffer?"

She was right. There had been moments when I’d felt anger so strong it scared me. Moments when I’d wanted to make the people who hurt me pay.

"Everyone has dark thoughts," Lucien said desperately. "That doesn’t make you evil."

"But it makes me powerful," the dark me said. "And power is what we need to win this war."

The shouting was getting so loud now that it hurt my ears. The portal was almost big enough for troops to march through. And I could feel myself being pulled toward it like a magnet.

"Choose, Aria," the dark me said. "Merge with me freely, and I’ll spare your precious triplets. Fight me, and I’ll make sure they suffer before I kill them."

I looked at Kael, Jaxon, and Lucien. The three brothers who had changed my life. Who had shown me what love really meant. Who were ready to die to protect our world.

The pull toward the opening was getting stronger. My feet were sliding across the ground no matter how hard I tried to stop them.

"I..." I started to say.

But then something else happened. Something none of us expected.

The opening suddenly flashed bright white instead of dark green. The Shadow Lords’ singing turned into screams of pain. And a new voice spoke from inside the light.

"Not today, daughter."

The voice was warm and familiar. It was the Moon Goddess herself.

But the dark version of me just smiled bigger.

"Hello, mother," she said. "I was wondering when you’d show up."

Mother?

The Moon Goddess was our mother?

Before I could understand what that meant, the dark me raised both hands toward the portal. Dark magic and light magic clashed in the air between us with a sound like thunder.

And I realized with growing horror that this wasn’t just a fight between good and evil.

This was a family fight.

And I was standing right in the middle of it.