I blasted golden light at the Ruby Wolf army, sending them flying backward.
"Stay away from us!" I screamed.
But they just got back up and smiled.
"You can't hurt us, Golden Wolf," the leader said. "We're already dead."
"What?"
"We died fifty years ago when the packs attacked us. But our spirits stayed here, waiting for you."
"Waiting for me to what?"
"To join us in revenge."
Before I could answer, someone grabbed my arm.
"Aria, this way!"
I turned and saw Tobias pulling me toward a crack in the wall.
"How did you get here?" I asked.
"Same way you did. Magic explosion." He looked at Dorian, who was still fighting the Shadow Master for control. "Is he okay?"
"No. The Shadow Master is inside him."
"I know. That's why we need to hurry."
Tobias dragged me through the crack and into another room. This one was filled with books and scrolls scattered everywhere.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"The Ruby Wolf library. I've been studying here for hours."
"Hours? But we just got here."
"Time moves differently in this place. I've learned so much, Aria.
He grabbed a thick book and opened it to a page covered with scary pictures.
"Look at this," he said, pointing to a drawing of a woman with golden eyes. "This is about the first Golden Wolf."
"That's me?"
"No, that's your ancestor. She lived a thousand years ago."
The picture showed the woman surrounded by dead bodies.
"What happened to her?"
"She went insane," Tobias said quietly. "The golden power was too much for her mind to handle. She killed everyone she loved."
"That's not going to happen to me."
"Are you sure? Look at the next page."
I turned the page and saw more pictures. Each one showed a Golden Wolf destroying everything around them.
"There have been seven Golden Wolves in history," Tobias said. "Every single one of them went insane."
"Why are you showing me this?"
"Because I found something else. Something worse."
He pulled out another book, this one bound in what looked like human skin.
"This is the prophecy book. The real one, not the fake one Rowan Vale has been using."
"What does it say?"
"It says the eighth Golden Wolf will either save the world or destroy it. There's no middle ground."
"Which one am I supposed to be?"
"I don't know. But I found the test."
"What test?"
Tobias flipped to a page written in red ink.
"The Golden Wolf must choose between love and power. If she chooses love, she saves everyone. If she chooses power, she destroys everything."
"That's easy. I choose love."
"It's not that simple. The test will make you think love and power are the same thing."
"What do you mean?"
"It means someone you love will be in danger, and the only way to save them will be to use your golden power. But using that much power will change you. Make you like the others."
I thought about what just happened with Dorian and the Shadow Master.
"What if I already failed the test?"
"What do you mean?"
"I used the golden power to try to save Dorian. Maybe that was the test."
"No, that was just the beginning. The real test is coming."
"How do you know?"
Tobias pointed to the last page of the book.
"Because it says the test happens when the Golden Wolf faces her greatest fear."
"What's my greatest fear?"
"Losing the people you love. All of them at once."
I went still for a moment.
"Tobias, what else did you find?"
"Something about the Shadow Master. He's not just possessing Dorian."
"What do you mean?"
"He's in all of us. Me, Dorian, Marcus. The binding runes weren't to protect us. They were to hide his presence."
"You're all possessed?"
"Not possessed. Infected. Like a disease that's been growing inside us for years."
"But you seem normal."
"Do I?" Tobias's eyes flickered, and for a second they looked just like Dorian's had. Silver and cold.
"Tobias?"
"I'm still me. For now. But the infection is spreading faster. Soon there won't be any of us left."
"There has to be a way to stop it."
"There is. But you won't like it."
"Tell me."
"You have to kill us."
"No."
"It's the only way to stop the Shadow Master. If his hosts die, he dies too."
"I won't do it."
"Even if it means saving the world?"
"Even then."
Tobias smiled sadly. "That's what I was afraid you'd say."
"What do you mean?"
"The prophecy says the Golden Wolf's love will either be her salvation or her doom. If you can't let us go, you'll choose power to save us. And that will turn you into the destroyer."
"There has to be another way."
"I've read every book in this library. There isn't."
"Then I'll make another way."
"With what? Golden power?"
I realized he was right. Any solution I could think of involved using my power. And using it would change me.
"This is impossible."
"I know. That's why I wanted to warn you."
"Warn me about what?"
"About what's coming next. The Shadow Master isn't just in us. He's in everyone."
"Everyone?"
"Your father. Alpha Raphael. Even Selene."
"That's impossible. Selene is my sister."
"Is she? Or is that just what the Shadow Master wants you to think?"
Before I could answer, the room started to fade around us.
"We're being pulled back," Tobias said.
"Back where?"
"To the real world. Where the final test is waiting."
The last thing I saw was Tobias reaching for another book.
"Aria, wait! There's something else about the Golden Wolf. Something important!"
But it was too late. The room disappeared, and I was back in the Great Hall.
Everyone was there. Dad, Alpha Raphael, Rowan Vale, Marcus, and Selene.
But they were all standing in a circle around something.
Something that made my blood freeze.
It was Dorian. But not the Dorian I knew.
His eyes were completely black now, and dark energy was pouring out of him like smoke.
"Welcome back, Golden Wolf," he said in the Shadow Master's voice. "Ready for your test?"
"What test?"
"Choose," he said, pointing to the circle of people I loved. "Save one of them, and I'll let the others live. Save all of them, and you'll have to use so much golden power that you'll lose yourself forever."
"That's not a choice."
"It's the only choice you get."
Dark energy shot out from Dorian toward my father.
I had one second to decide.
Use my golden power to save him and risk becoming the destroyer.
Or let him die and keep my sanity.
The energy was inches from Dad's chest when I made my choice.
Golden light exploded out of me, brighter than the sun.
But as it did, I felt something inside me break.
Something that might have been my humanity.
And in that moment of blazing light, I heard Tobias's voice echoing from the library:
"The Golden Wolf who saves everyone will lose herself."
"And the Golden Wolf who loses herself will destroy the world."
The light faded, and I looked at my hands.
They were covered in golden scales.
The transformation had begun.