The Forgotten Pulse of the Bond-Chapter 138: Where the Shadows Open

"Stop," he murmured.

Magnolia froze. The hush snapped like a branch under too much snow.

"What?"

Beckett brushed past her, boots crunching frost. His eyes flicked to the trees ahead , a ring of birch, their trunks bent inward like ribs guarding a throat too hungry to spit out its secrets.

"There," he said. "Feel it?"

Magnolia closed her eyes. The wolf at her center pressed its snout to the hush , ears pinned, hackles bristling. Beneath the hush, something pulsed , faint but steady, like a heartbeat beneath frozen earth.

"Camille," she rasped.

Beckett’s grin was a flash of teeth in the gray light. "Or what’s left of her."

He shouldered his bow off his back, string creaking in the hush. "You ready?"

Magnolia huffed a laugh that turned brittle on her tongue. "No."

They stepped into the ring. The birches pressed closer the deeper they walked, their bark slick with frost that glimmered like the skin of something half-born. At the center, the snow was gone , a circle of bare dirt, black and wet, steaming faintly in the cold.

Magnolia crouched, fingertips brushing the mud. The warmth bit at her skin , too warm, too sweet. Camille’s echo slipped through the hush, a ghost brushing lips to her ear.

You found me.

Beckett’s boots scuffed the edge of the circle. He watched her with eyes that belonged to the wolf first, man second.

"She’s here," Magnolia breathed.

Beckett’s voice dropped low, as if the trees might overhear. "She’s the door, Mags." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Magnolia’s throat clenched. "Or the blade."

The ground pulsed. Magnolia jerked her hand back. In the mud, veins of black ash writhed like worms dragged up from a grave that never closed. She staggered back into Beckett’s chest. He caught her shoulders, steady as stone.

The hush broke , not with a roar, but with a sigh that brushed across the clearing like a lover’s breath.

A shape rose from the mud.

Not Camille. Not yet. A ripple of shadow draped in the memory of skin , eyes flickering open like coals raked through old ash.

Magnolia’s breath caught. "Camille?"

The thing tilted its head. The echo of her sister’s laugh drifted across the circle, sweet as a lullaby she’d sung to a baby who’d grown up to bleed for a pack that never deserved her.

Run while you still can.

Beckett’s hand tightened on her shoulder. "No."

The shadow flickered. Flesh gathered where the mud cracked. Magnolia saw Camille’s face there , eyes wide and dark, mouth twisted in something that might have been pain once, before it became hunger.

"You don’t have to do this," Magnolia rasped. She stepped forward, her boots sinking into the warm dirt. The hush closed around her like a throat.

"Don’t," Beckett hissed. But the bond between them thrummed , not pulling her back, but bracing her spine with his heartbeat where hers wanted to crack.

The echo’s mouth split in a grin too wide for Camille’s face. I never had a choice.

The ground cracked under Magnolia’s boots. Heat spilled up her legs, a pulse that felt like the Ash Child pressing its teeth to her thigh, testing the bite. Her wolf lunged at her ribs, snarling.

Beckett drew the bowstring back , the whisper of sinew over wood sharp enough to cut the hush in two.

"Now?" he growled.

Magnolia’s throat caught. "No."

The echo’s grin widened. "Too late."

The trees groaned. Roots tore through the mud, slick with black ash that steamed in the hush. Magnolia staggered as one wrapped around her ankle, the heat biting into her boot.

Beckett’s snarl rattled the clearing. He loosed an arrow , the shaft slicing through the echo’s throat. It passed clean. The thing didn’t flinch. It just laughed.

Wrong wolf, Beck.

The roots surged. Beckett lunged, tackling Magnolia as the ground split under their feet. Steam coiled around them , sweet, cloying, tasting like Camille’s laughter and the Ash Child’s hunger tangled into one terrible promise.

Magnolia shoved him off, scrambling to her knees. Her fingers scraped dirt that squirmed like something alive. "She’s in there , I can feel her, "

Beckett grabbed her wrist, the bond flaring. "You pull back, Mags. You promised."

She wrenched free. "Not yet."

She pressed her palm flat to the mud. The heat pulsed up her arm, the bond humming under her skin. Her wolf bristled , ready to tear, ready to run. Magnolia forced it down.

"Camille," she whispered. "Come back."

The echo’s grin twisted. Flesh flickered, half-formed ribs showing through the black sludge. "No."

Beckett’s boots scuffed behind her. She felt his blade kiss the base of her neck , a promise, not a threat.

"You break, I pull," he said.

Magnolia’s voice cracked. "I know."

The hush trembled. Snow sifted through the birch canopy like bone dust. Camille’s eyes , the echo’s eyes , found hers, soft and sharp at once.

Why did you live?

Magnolia’s breath hitched. "Because you let me."

The grin cracked. The echo flickered. For a heartbeat, the Ash Child’s teeth slipped behind Camille’s smile , something vast and hollow, a hunger that hummed under the hush.

Beckett’s voice roared in her skull through the bond: Now.

Magnolia snarled. Her wolf lunged, teeth sinking into the bond’s chain. She drove her palm deeper into the mud , the warmth turning scalding, the echo’s laugh splitting her skull like an axe through ice.

"You don’t get to wear her!" Magnolia screamed. "You don’t get to wear her bones!"

The clearing pulsed. The roots writhed. Beckett’s arms locked around her shoulders, yanking her back. The bond tore , not apart, but wider, a gate for the wolf to rip through.

The echo shrieked , not Camille’s voice, not the Ash Child’s. Something older. Something that tasted like cinders buried under skin.

Magnolia’s boots slipped in the mud. Beckett’s weight slammed her flat on her back, his breath hot at her ear.

"Done," he snarled. "You’re done."

She gasped, lungs burning with the hush that flooded her mouth like smoke. The echo shivered across the clearing , the shape flickering, half-formed bones cracking under the roots that curled tighter and tighter.

Magnolia’s throat cracked around a laugh that tasted like salt and blood. "She’s still in there."

Beckett’s hand cupped her jaw, forcing her eyes open. "So are you."

The roots hissed. The ground shuddered. The hush folded in on itself like a lung expelling its last breath.

Camille’s echo leaned forward , the grin gone, eyes wide and hollow. Run.

Magnolia snarled, spitting the hush back at her. "No."

The clearing split. Roots tore free, flinging dirt and steam into the trees. Beckett yanked her to her feet , their bond flaring so bright it tasted like fire pressed to her teeth.

They stumbled back as the shadow cracked open. A roar split the hush , not a wolf’s, not a man’s. Something older, deeper, coiled around the hush like ribs around a heart.

Magnolia’s hand locked in Beckett’s. Their eyes met , no words this time. Just the promise:

Drag me out if I drown.

The shadow lunged. The hush screamed.

And the forest’s throat closed around them.