<h4>Chapter 170: Chapter 170: The Price of Power</h4>


    The ground shook beneath their feet as Emma’s silver fire spread in every direction.


    "Emma, stop!" ra screamed, but her daughter couldn’t hear her. The five-year-old was floating three feet off the ground, her eyespletely white, while deadly silver mes poured from her tiny hands.


    The mes didn’t just burn the monsters. They made them disappear like they had never existed at all.


    "She’s going to kill us all," Jake whispered, backing away from his twin sister. For the first time in his life, the animals around him were running away from their family instead of trying to help.


    Kael lunged forward to grab Emma, but Lyra from the Crystal Realm caught his arm.


    "Don’t touch her!" the blue-skinned woman warned. "That power will erase you too."


    More creatures kept pouring through the sky tears, but now they were afraid to get close. Emma’s power was growing stronger by the second, and even the monsters could sense the danger.


    "How do we stop her?" Darian asked desperately, still holding baby Marcus. The possessed child was the only one who didn’t seem scared. He was pping his tiny hands and giggling.


    "Pretty fire," Marcus said in that horrible old voice. "But she can’t control it. Soon she’ll burn up everything she loves."


    "Shut up," Ronan snarled at the baby.


    Emma suddenly crashed to the ground. The silver fire went out, but now she was crying so hard her whole body shook.


    "I’m sorry," she sobbed. "I didn’t mean to. The power just came out by itself."


    ra ran to her daughter and pulled her into a tight hug. "It’s okay, sweetheart. We’ll figure this out."


    "No, it’s not okay!" Emma looked up with tears streaming down her face. "I saw what happens next in my vision. The power keeps getting stronger until I can’t turn it off anymore. And when that happens..."


    "What happens?" Lily asked softly.


    "I identally erase our whole family."


    The dimensional visitors exchanged worried looks. The tree-creature spoke first.


    "There might be a way to help her control it," he said slowly. "But it’s very dangerous."


    "We’ll try anything," ra said immediately.


    "Power like hers needs an anchor. Something to keep her connected to who she really is."


    "What kind of anchor?" Kael asked.


    Lyra answered. "A soul bond. But not with just one person. She would need to bond with everyone she loves most. Parents, brothers, sister... even the baby."


    "What’s the catch?" Tobias asked suspiciously. He’d been quiet since the sky tore open, but now his face showed he knew this wasn’t going to be simple.


    "If Emma dies, everyone bonded to her dies too," the water-creature said sadly. "And if any of them die, she loses control of her power forever."


    ra felt like someone had punched her in the stomach. "So we all live together or we all die together?"


    "Yes."


    Emma wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I don’t want to put you in danger."


    "Toote for that," Jake said, but his voice was gentle. "We’re already in danger. At least this way we can help you."


    Lily nodded. "We’re twins. We’re supposed to stick together no matter what."


    Before anyone could say more, a new kind of creature dropped from the sky. This one looked like a person, but its skin was gray and its eyes werepletely ck.


    "Void Walker," Lyra gasped. "Everyone get back!"


    But the gray creature wasn’t attacking. It was talking.


    "We bring message from the Darkness Between Worlds," it said in a voice like grinding stone. "Your children’s power has awakened something much worse than the Devourer."


    "What could be worse?" Ronan demanded.


    "The Creators areing."


    Every dimensional visitor wentpletely still. Even the baby stopped giggling.


    "What are Creators?" Emma asked.


    "The beings who made all the monsters," Lyra whispered. "They were banished from existence billions of years ago. But your power... it’s so strong it’s tearing holes in the barriers that kept them locked away."


    The Void Walker continued. "They are angry about their long prison. When they arrive, they will not just destroy your world. They will unmake it. Erase it from history so it never existed at all."


    "How long do we have?" Kael asked.


    "Three days."


    ra’s heart stopped. Three days to figure out how to save not just her family, but their entire world.


    "There’s more," the Void Walker said. "The Creators know about your children. They want to use their power to unmake other worlds too. They will not stop until everything is gone and only darkness remains."


    Emma grabbed her mother’s hand. "I have to do the soul bond thing. It’s the only way I might be strong enough to fight them."


    "But if something goes wrong—" ra started.


    "Then at least we’ll be together when it happens," Emma said with a sad smile that looked way too old for a five-year-old.


    The sky tears were getting bigger. More monsters were arriving every minute. And now they knew something even worse wasing.


    "We need to find somewhere safe to do the bonding," Darian said. "Somewhere the monsters can’t reach us."


    Tobias suddenly looked up. "I know a ce. But you’re not going to like it."


    "Where?"


    "The old werewolf burial grounds. The ones your grandfather sealed with blood magic decades ago. Nothing evil can enter there."


    "Those burial grounds are cursed," Ronan protested. "Anyone who goes in neveres out."


    "Actually," Tobias said grimly, "they were never cursed. Your grandfather just spread that story to keep people away. He hid something there. Something he thought your family might need someday."


    Kael stared at him. "What did he hide?"


    "The original pack bond. The one that connected every werewolf family before the great war split them apart. If we canbine it with Emma’s soul bonding..."


    "We might be strong enough to face the Creators," Emma finished. Her silver eyes were glowing again, but softer this time. "I can see it working. But..."


    "But what?"


    "Someone has to stay behind to hold the monsters back while we do the bonding. And whoever stays... they won’t survive."


    The family looked at each other in horror.


    "I’ll do it," Kael said immediately.


    "No," Ronan argued. "I’m the strongest fighter."


    "Neither of you understand," Darian said quietly. "It has to be me."


    Everyone turned to stare at him.


    "Why?" ra asked.


    Darian looked down at baby Marcus in his arms. The possessed child was staring at him with ancient, knowing eyes.


    "Because I made a deal," Darian whispered. "Three years ago, when Emma first started having visions, I was so scared of losing her that I made a deal with something dark. I promised it could have my life in exchange for protecting our family."


    "What did you promise it to?" ra’s voice was barely audible.


    Darian’s eyes filled with tears. "The Devourer. I’ve been its spy this whole time, feeding it information about Emma’s power. That’s how it knew exactly when to wake up."


    The family stepped away from him in shock. Even baby Marcus looked surprised.


    "You’ve been working with the thing that possessed our son?" Ronan’s voice was deadly quiet.


    "I thought I was protecting you!" Darian cried. "I thought if I gave it what it wanted, it would leave Emma alone. But I was wrong. I’ve been wrong about everything."


    Emma walked over to her father. Instead of being angry, she hugged him tight.


    "I forgive you," she said simply. "But now you have to fix it."


    "How?"


    Emma looked up at him with those ancient silver eyes.


    "You have to let the Devourer have what it really wants. Not just my power. Not just our family." She took a shaky breath. "You have to let it have you."