The hours stretched long in the library, every page turned, every book closed, the weight of Serena's decisions heavy on her chest. The words she had read echoed through her mind. "Either he's going to stand as a hero, or he's going to fall as a tyrant." Could that be her fate? Was she always going to pick one way over another? Her Onyx wolf in her was a savage, punishing force, raw and almost anticipating that she'd claim this choice, whoever she was.
She walked the aisles of the library, her shoes soundless on the stone floor, trying to sort her thoughts. There hadn't been an inherited curse in the Onyx wolf — the burden was hers now, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could bear it. Could she really control it? Or was her destiny to succumb to the shadow that always seemed to offer her strength the more she embraced it?
