Luna. Chapter 119

(Lyra's POV)

I was just finishing lunch when Magnus arrived, and one look at him told me something was very wrong.

His head was wrapped in white bandages, dried blood visible at the edges. His left eye was swollen nearly shut, surrounded by deep purple bruises. He moved carefully, like everything hurt.

"My God, Magnus, what happened to you?"

"We need to talk," he said grimly, accepting the chair I pulled out for him. "All of us. Where's Kael?"

"Upstairs unpacking. KAEL!" I called, then immediately regretted raising my voice. Magnus flinched at the sound.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled."

"It's fine. Head injury makes everything louder."

Kael appeared in the doorway and stopped dead when he saw Magnus.

"Jesus. What the hell happened?"

"Ashwalkers," Magnus said simply.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

"When?" Kael demanded, moving closer to examine Magnus's injuries.

"Two nights ago. They hit our patrol just after midnight."

"How many?"

"Six of them. Against twelve of us."

I did quick math. "You outnumbered them two to one."

"Didn't matter. They're not like anything we've faced before, Lyra. They're stronger, faster, more coordinated than any intelligence suggested."

Kael was examining the bandage around Magnus's head with professional interest. "Can I?"

Magnus nodded and let Kael carefully lift the edge of the bandage. I caught a glimpse of stitches and angry red skin before Kael replaced it.

"Claws?" he asked.

"Claws, fangs, and something else. Something that burned when it touched skin."

"Burned how?"

"Like acid. Like they were poisoning us with their touch."

I felt sick. "How many casualties?"

"Three dead. Five more in critical condition. The rest of us..." He gestured to his own battered face. "Got lucky."

"Where's Sage?" I asked suddenly, realizing she wasn't with him.

Magnus's expression darkened. "Hospital. She took the worst of it trying to cover our retreat."

"How bad?"

"Bad enough that she hasn't woken up yet."

The world tilted sideways. Sage had been my closest friend for years, my confidante and support system.

"I need to see her."

"I figured. That's why I came myself instead of calling."

Kael was pacing the kitchen now, his expression murderous. "This was a test run."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They weren't trying to eliminate Magnus's pack. They were gathering intelligence. Testing our defenses, seeing how we fight."

"For what?"

"For the real attack. The one that's coming."

Magnus nodded grimly. "That's my assessment too. They were studying us, learning our patterns."

"Learning our weaknesses," Kael added.

"So what do we do?"

"We prepare for war," Kael said simply. "Because that's what's coming."

The three of us sat in heavy silence for a moment, contemplating the implications.

"Have you warned the other packs?" I asked Magnus.

"I've sent messages to everyone in the region. But Lyra, some of them aren't taking the threat seriously. They think the Ashwalkers are just another supernatural boogeyman."

"What about the Council?"

"The Council is scheduling meetings and forming committees and generally doing everything except taking action."

Kael snorted. "Typical. They'll form a task force to study the problem while we're all being slaughtered."

"So we're on our own."

"We're on our own," Magnus confirmed.

"Where's Asher?" I asked suddenly, realizing our conversation might be overheard.

"Playing in the garden with Elena watching him," Kael said. "He's safe."

"For now. But if the Ashwalkers are escalating..."

"We'll protect him," Kael said firmly. "Whatever it takes."

"How? We don't even know what we're up against."

"Actually, we do." Magnus reached into his jacket and pulled out a manila folder. "I brought photos."

He spread several crime scene photos across the kitchen table. I immediately wished he hadn't.

The Ashwalkers had left their victims barely recognizable as human. Or wolf. The damage was extensive and deliberate.

"They're not just killing," I observed with sick fascination. "They're sending a message."

"What kind of message?"

"That they enjoy this. That they want us to be afraid."

Kael studied the photos with clinical detachment. "These wounds aren't random. Look at the patterns."

He was right. Despite the apparent savagery, there was something methodical about the injuries.

"It's ritual," I realized.

"What?"

"The way they're positioned, the specific wounds, the arrangement of the bodies. This isn't random violence. It's ceremonial."

Magnus looked nauseated. "You think they're performing some kind of religious ritual?"

"I think they're marking territory. And sending a very specific message to anyone who finds the bodies."

"What message?"

I looked at the photos again, noting details I'd missed before. The positioning of the victims, the specific nature of their injuries.

"That children are next," I said quietly.

The kitchen fell dead silent.

"How do you know that?" Kael asked.

"Because of how they arranged the bodies. It's not random. It's a progression. Adult to adolescent to..." I couldn't finish the sentence.

"To child," Magnus completed grimly.

"We need to move Asher," I said immediately. "Tonight."

"Where?" Kael asked.

"Somewhere secure. Somewhere hidden."

"There is nowhere hidden from the Ashwalkers," Magnus said. "They have tracking abilities that make our wolves look like bloodhounds with head colds."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"I suggest we stop running and start fighting."

Kael and I looked at him in surprise.

"Fighting how? You just told us twelve of your best couldn't handle six of them."

"Because we were unprepared. We didn't know what we were facing. Now we do."

"Do we?"

"We know they're stronger than us individually. But they're still outnumbered. There are more of us than there are of them."

"Are there?" Kael asked. "How many Ashwalkers exist?"

"No one knows for certain."

"That's not exactly reassuring."

Magnus leaned forward, wincing at the movement. "Look, I know this is scary. But running isn't going to solve anything. They'll hunt us down eventually. Our only chance is to unite the packs and make our stand together."

"Unite the packs?" I laughed bitterly. "Half of them hate each other. The other half don't believe the Ashwalkers exist."

"Then we make them believe."

"How?"

"By showing them what I'm showing you. By making them understand that this is an extinction-level threat."

I looked at the photos again, studying the ritualistic arrangement of the bodies.

"There's something else," I said slowly.

"What?"

"These aren't just random killings. They're building toward something. Something bigger."

"Like what?"

"I don't know yet. But whatever it is, it requires a specific sequence of events. And I think we're getting close to the end of that sequence."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning we don't have much time."

Magnus started to nod, then stopped with a grimace of pain.

"So what's our next move?"

I looked at Kael, then at Magnus, then at the photos scattered across my kitchen table.

"We gather allies. We prepare for war. And we pray we're strong enough when the time comes."

"And if we're not?"

I thought about Asher playing happily in the garden, innocent of the danger circling closer every day.

"Then we make sure they remember what it cost them to come for our children."

The three of us sat in grim silence, contemplating a future none of us wanted to face.

But we would face it. Together.

Because that's what family did.

Even when the odds were impossible.