Novels by Layomi

EPILOGUE: Where Light and Shadow DanceELARA'S POV"Mama, do I look okay?"I turned from the window. Twenty-two years. My daughter stood before me. No longer the glowing baby we'd found in that dark chamber. A woman now. Beautiful. Powerful. Ours."You look perfect, sweetling," I said. The old nickname still fits somehow.She wore white. Traditional for bonding ceremonies. Her dark hair cascaded down her back. Those silver eyes sparkled with nervous excitement. Light and shadow danced beneath her skin. Balanced. Beautiful. Everything we'd hoped she'd become."I'm terrified," she admitted. Laughed shakily. "Is that normal?""Completely normal." I walked to her. Took her hands. "I was terrified at my bonding ceremony too.""You had two mates though." She grinned. "That's twice the terror."Twenty years. Twenty years since we'd sealed the wound. Since we'd learned to love imperfectly. Since we'd built this life.The valley had grown. Our small sanctuary had become legendary. Wolves came

ELARA'S POV"Mama, watch this!"Our daughter stood in the garden. Six months since the mountain. Six months of healing. Growing. Becoming.She raised both hands. Light blazed from her right palm. Shadow swirled from her left. Then she brought them together.The magic merged. Created something entirely new. A flower bloomed between her hands. Half silver-light. Half midnight-shadow. Absolutely breathtaking."Beautiful, sweetling," I called. I meant it completely.She grinned. Ran to show the other children. Five of them now. All with difficult magic. All sent here by desperate parents. All thriving under our teaching.We'd become something unexpected. A sanctuary. Not just for light magic. Not just for shadow. For everything in between. For the complicated. It's frightening. The difference.Kael taught them structure. Control. How to channel power through discipline and focus.Ronan taught them patience. Gentleness. How to nurture magic instead of forcing it.I taught them wisdom. Bala

COMING BACK HOME RONAN'S POV"Look! She's in the garden!"Mara pointed as we approached the house. I could see our daughter from here. Sitting cross-legged in the dirt. Hands outstretched.We ran. All three of us. Desperate to reach her. To hold her. To prove she was really okay.She didn't notice us at first. Too focused on what she was doing. Creating something with her magic.Flowers bloomed around her. But not normal blooms. Half were made of pure light. Glowing silver-white. Beautiful. The other half were made of shadow. Dark but not evil. Elegant. Mysterious.She was weaving them together. Light and shadow flowers growing side by side. Creating patterns. Making beauty from both.No fighting. No opposition. Just harmony."Sweetling," I called softly. I didn't want to startle her.Her head whipped around. Those silver eyes went huge. "You came back!"She scrambled up. Ran toward us. We met her halfway. Dropped to our knees. Caught her together.She crashed into us. Sobbing. Cling

KAEL'S POV"We will try again today."I said it as dawn broke. Third morning on this cursed mountain. But something felt different. Lighter somehow.Ronan nodded. No argument. "Together this time. Really together."Elara stood. Stretched. I looked at both of us. "Not trying to fix each other. Just accepting each other."Simple words. But they meant everything.We'd talked through the night. Really talked. About our fears. Our failures. Our fundamental differences. And somehow, in admitting we were all broken, we'd started becoming whole again.The walk back to the wound site felt different. We walked side by side. Not ahead. Not behind. Together.The corruption had spread overnight. The chasm was wider. Darker. Hungrier.But I wasn't afraid anymore. Not the same way."Ready?" I asked."Ready," they answered together.We formed our triangle. Joined hands. This time I didn't try to force my way. I didn't try to make them follow my discipline. My structure. My methods.I channeled warrio

ELARA'S POV"Message incoming!"The shout jolted me awake. Dawn is barely breaking. I'd finally fallen asleep after hours of lying awake in guilt and fear.A messenger bird circled overhead. Valley markings. Urgent flight pattern.Kael caught it. Unrolled the tiny scroll. His face went white."What is it?" I scrambled up. My heart is pounding.He handed it to me. Hands shaking. The words blurred. I had to read them twice.*The baby is sick. Burning with fever. Magic consuming her from inside. Light and shadow fighting. She's crying for you. Keep asking why you left. Come home. Please. —Mara*"No," I breathed. "No no no."Ronan grabbed the scroll. Read it. Made a sound like he'd been punched. "We have to go back. Now.""We can't," Kael said. Voice tight. Controlled. "The corruption is spreading. If we don't seal it—""Our daughter is dying!" Ronan shouted. Got in Kael's face. "Nothing else matters!""Everything else matters!" Kael shoved him back. "If we don't fix this, there won't be

RONAN'S POV"We have to go back."Kael's voice was flat. Final. No room for argument.Our daughter looked up from her breakfast. Those silver eyes went wide with fear. "Back where?""To the mountain," Elara said gently. Knelt beside her chair. "Where we found you. Where the Guardian fell. We need to see what's happening there.""No!" Our daughter grabbed Elara's arm. Desperate. "Don't go to the dark place. It's calling me there. It wants me."My blood went cold. "What do you mean it wants you?""In my dreams. The voice says come home. Says I belong there. In the dark." Tears streamed down her face. "Don't go there. Please don't go.""We have to, sweetling," I said. My heart is breaking. "To fix what's broken. To stop the corruption.""Then I'm coming too!" She stood on her chair. Defiant despite the tears. "You can't leave me again!""It's too dangerous," Kael said. Firm. Alpha command creeping into his voice. "You're staying here.""No! I won't! You can't make me!" Her magic flared.

ELARA'S POV “How many days that you haven’t let your veggie be watered, Elara?”“What the…” I covered Callie’s mouth and looked around. Damn! “Will you please shut this mouth?” I said as I removed my hand from her mouth.For goodness’ sake, we’re inside of a fancy restaurant, full of well-known business royalties.“What?” Callie mumbled and smirked at me.“Will you please lower down your voice?”Callie rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I’m just asking you a question, right Vivi?” she asked Vivi who is busy on her phone.“Ha?” is all that Vivi uttered.“Seriously, Vivi? Is there something I need to fish out?” Callie asked and raised her left brow.“N-Nothing, of course,” Vivi answered and put down her phone at the table. “So, I heard Kael is in France. Why is that?” she then asked, seems to catch up to our topic.I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Business?”“You’re not sure? Aren’t you two dating?” asked Callie, with her mocking tone.“Says who? We go out just for a business thing,” I repl

ELARA'S POV “It’s impossible that I can make Kael fall for me,” I said, seeming hopeless.“What? Of course, you can,” said Callie as she sat down beside me.We’re inside my condo and it’s past three in the afternoon already. We just had a movie marathon and a girl’s talk. Callie and Vivi said that they will go home before five o’clock.“Why did you say that it is impossible?” asked Vivi.I reached out for the glass of juice and drank. I then put it back on the table. “Well, first, Kael hates commitment. And we all know that since the beginning. Second, I don’t know why he hates it,” I said and laughed.My friends threw a piece of biscuits in my direction. “Crazy,” Callie mumbled.“Of course, he was afraid to be hurt to be broken. Few think that if they enter a commitment, it seems like they are burying themselves. You know, they don’t want to be strangled,” Vivi explained.“Strangle? Those men have no balls,” said Callie, with bitterness in her voice. “They don’t know how to take a r

ELARA'S POV It was eight in the morning when Callie and Vivi picked me up. They invited me over for breakfast in Callie’s restaurant. My friends kept interrogating me. But I didn’t know what to answer or where to start. I just told them that I would answer after breakfast so they would stop. Besides, after it, we would be hanging out in my condo.My father called me over the phone and said that I had a trip abroad for business matters. I declined it but he blackmailed me and said that I would not inherit any single pound from our company. I just scoffed and laughed. As if he could do it. Knowing my mother? She wouldn’t agree with it. My mother loves me so much that she won’t let it happen.So, if Elara said no, then it’s a no. My father does the business thing on that trip.Yes. I’m hardheaded. But no one can blame me, I hate business. When I was young, I always wanted to be a doctor, but it turns out I became a businesswoman.There’s nothing wrong with being a businesswoman either.

ELARA'S POV I woke up groggy, a tickling sensation stirring the lower part of my body. Something warm seemed to caress me, sending shivers through my skin. “Hmm…” I mumbled, my eyes fluttering open. Darkness enveloped me, and I blinked to adjust my vision. My breath caught when I saw the silhouette of a man whose sharp features were unmistakable. It was definitely Kael.“What are you doing?” I asked, pulling myself up and leaning against the headboard. I cursed silently. For heaven’s sake, I was naked. My eyes darted to the digital clock beside the lamp.4:18 AMKael moved closer. I grabbed the duvet, yanking it over my body to cover my nakedness. He smirked, his eyes glinting in the dim light.“You don’t need to hide it. I’ve already seen it and touched it,” he said, his voice dripping with mockery. He crawled toward me like a playful child, and despite myself, I smiled. His brows furrowed. “Is something funny?” he asked.I sat up straighter, shaking my head. “Nothing.”He

KAEL'S POV I had no choice but to drive Elara home. Her arms crossed and her eyes fixed out the window like I didn’t exist. She was still pissed, probably replaying what I’d said to her friends about them ditching her so easily. I didn’t mean for it to sting her like that anyway, but damn, she looked super cute when she's furious. When I pulled up to her building, she didn’t even wait for me to kill the engine. She flung the car door open, slid out, and stormed toward the elevator like she was on a mission. I locked the car and followed her, catching her just as she pressed the elevator button. Her eyes widened when she saw me walking toward her, and I swear I saw a flash of panic mixed with that fiery annoyance.“What the hell, Kael? Go home,” she snapped, her voice sharp enough to cut glass.The elevator doors started to slide shut, but I slipped my hand in just in time, stepping inside with a smirk. Her arms crossed tighter, and she spun to face me, her dark eyes blazing.

ELARA'S POV The moment our eyes locked, my heart started pounding like a drum. It was definitely not love… God, no..but the nagging feeling that I’d done something wrong behind Kael’s back hit me hard. We had an agreement, sure, but as long as I wasn’t flirting with other guys, we were fine yeah? I was just having a drink with my girls, nothing more.So why did I feel like I’d crossed some invisible line?“Gals, I’m hitting the bathroom,” I said, trying to sound casual.Callista and Vivi nodded, barely glancing up from their drinks. I stood and weaved through the crowd, my skin prickling like someone was watching my every step. You know that feeling like eyes are boring to you? Yeah, that. I took a deep breath, shaking it off. He’s not my boyfriend, Elara. Chill.Relax, you got this, I whispered to myself, though my nerves were still on edge.I cursed under my breath when I realized I had no clue where the bathroom was. The club’s pulsing music didn’t help. I tapped the shoul