Page 157 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

You are not alone, Alia,Shen said, his voice soft.

Your soul is mine, Daughter.The son’s gentle starlight surrounded me, and I felt my soul slowly heal despite the slices and battering it was taking from the unmetneedsaround us gettingthroughmy still upraised wall.

He was with me. And I realized Source and Torem Filius had been preparing me for this moment all along.

For the first time in my entire life, I let my walls fall from around my soul.

Theneedsdrove me to my knees.

There were so many. So, so many.

Daggers, pounding fists, slicing needles, and everything in between. The pain was unbearable. It shook my being until I didn’t even have a voice to scream.

Then Shen and Ran were suddenlythere.They surrounded my soul and took some of the pain so I could bear it. And Torem Filius touched us, healing us as soon as theneedscame and taking the pain on himself.

That was when I saw it.Beneath theneeds.Beneath the very souls around me, there was the burden. Why theneedswere there.

Tears pricked my eyes. Their souls were broken. They were meant to hold precious memories filled with love and joy and understanding. But instead, the vessels were shattered with harsh words, punishment, abuse, and lost dreams. And those memories affected theneedsbursting from the surrounding souls. How those around them provided those needs left them a spring able to provide for otherneeds,or they didn’t and were left with large holes where a wellspring should be. They tried to fill those broken chalices with faux love, expectations, addictions, and everything in between—and yet were left so very empty.

Some had been crushed during childhood by imperfect parents who couldn’t fill their chalices and only gave what they had—brokenness. Others had been loved deeply by parents only to be broken later by the betrayal of loved ones who’d used them and spat them out.

But then I saw something beautiful.

Shen’s soul.

It had been shredded in childhood by his mother and later by many betrayals in his life. Although it was scarred, it washealing.He had found himself and accepted himself. His chalice had threads of gold and pieces of starlight holding his glass together where there once were gaping holes.

Not one person on this field was left unscathed byneedsthat were long since unmet and had broken them. But there were many who—like Shen—were finding healing in their own ways. They were filtering and spreading into those around them, their souls reaching out with a tender touch, a kind word, or even a sacrifice of taking the blade for another on the field of battle.They knew what it was to be broken, and without even realizing it, they tried to spread healing to those around them.

In that moment, I realized the broken one’sneedscouldn’t touch what was healed.

And I realized I had it all backwards. For so long, I had tried to protect myself by keeping everyone out. I had thought it was safer. It made me strong, right? But no. It merely hurt the relationships I held.

In healing, you didn’t need walls to keep others out. You needed to heal so that you could handle what the walls kept at bay.

The daggers of pain and needles of discomfort slowly morphed. I saw them differently, saw them as things which could give me insight. I would no longer allow them to hurt me.

And in that moment, Ifeltthem all differently.

Including Kingpin’s.

I glanced at my grandmother, whose smile faltered.

CHAPTER 55

You Cannot Save All

ALIA

Kingpin took a step back as Fenbutt and I stepped forward, together, as if we were one entity.

Something odd flickered in her eyes.

Fear.

Off to the sides, the battle raged. Mom and Dad and my siblings were taking on two mages who were throwing acid at my archers who were picking off rogues with blasted good eye shots.

The hydra and sphinx were working together with my Reds to take down a group of fire-wielding mages. A Red stepped in front of the mother sphinx, taking the flame meant for the mother. The sphinx stared down at the human as theneederupted in my soul and then vanished as if it had never been.

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