Liz’s POV
“There’s something wrong with Liz,” he choked out, his breath ragged. His hand pressed harder against his chest like he was trying to keep something inside from shattering.
Carlos frowned. “What do you mean?”
I took a step closer, my ghostly form hovering just behind them, but suddenly…
Everything felt off.
The room blurred. Their voices became distant, muffled—like I was underwater. I tried to focus, to listen, but their words slipped through my grasp, fading into nothingness.
Panic tightened in my chest.
I couldn’t hear them.
I always heard them.
Something was wrong.
A strange sensation crawled over my skin, like static in the air before a storm. My fingertips tingled, my body growing lighter and unsteady.
I looked down.
My hands were flickering.
No.
No, no, no—
I tried to move, to speak, to do something, but my body wasn’t obeying me.
I was fading.
Disappearing.
And I had no idea why.
My vision darkened at the edges, a crushing weight pressing in on me. It was suffocating, pulling me down into an abyss of nothingness. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
Then, all at once—light.
A blinding, radiant glow swallowed me whole, so bright it seared my eyes even though I was already dead. The weight vanished. The pain eased.
For a moment, there was nothing but silence.
Then, a voice.
Soft. Powerful. Ancient.
“Elizabeth Campbell.”
I gasped.
The glow around me dimmed, and I saw her.
The Moon Goddess.
She stood before me, more beautiful than anything I had ever seen. Silver hair flowed like liquid light down her back, her eyes endless galaxies filled with wisdom. A soft glow radiated from her, warm and soothing yet commanding.
I tried to speak, but my throat felt tight.
The Moon Goddess smiled gently as if she understood my turmoil. “You are at a crossroads, child.” Her voice was like the night sky—vast, infinite, filled with power. “Between life and death.”
I swallowed hard. Between life and death?
Was I… coming back, or was I dying?
I shook my head, my hands balling into fists. “I—No. I can’t. Not yet. I haven’t avenged myself. I haven’t made them pay for what they did to me. To my pup.” My voice broke on the last word, but I forced myself to keep going. “I can’t leave yet.”
The Moon Goddess’ expression turned solemn. “That is why I have come.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
“If you wish to live, you must uncover the truth behind your death,” she said. “Only then will the path to resurrection be revealed.”
My breath caught.
Truth?
What truth?
I had some thoughts on who it could be.
Judy.
Robert.
Those traitors.
And Lumian—he let it happen. He may not have driven the blade into me, but he had killed me all the same.
Hadn’t he?
Doubt crept in, unsteady and unfamiliar.
I clenched my jaw. “I don’t care what it takes,” I said fiercely. “I’ll find the truth. I’ll make them pay. I swear it.”
The Moon Goddess watched me for a long moment before nodding. “Then fight, Elizabeth.”
The light surrounding her grew brighter, consuming everything.
“Fight for the truth. Fight for justice. Fight for the second chance that awaits you.”
The world exploded into white—
And then, I was back.
My body was solid again.
I gasped, my ghostly form stabilising. The flickering stopped. The suffocating weight was gone.
I was here.
And I had a mission.
I wasn’t going to disappear.
Not until I found out the truth.
Not until I made them all pay.
Arthur’s POVI had dreamed of kissing her for so long.Every night I spent away from her, it haunted me. The thought of what it would feel like to finally let go. To stop pretending I didn’t want her more than anything I’d ever known. I imagined the way her lips might taste, the way her body might melt into mine like she was always meant to be there.And now that it had happened… I wouldn’t take it back.But I wished it hadn’t been like that.Not when she was falling apart. Not when her hands were shaking and her voice barely held together. Not when our first kiss dragged a memory out of her that shattered something inside her. I wanted it to be something she could hold onto, something worth keeping. Not a trigger for pain, so raw it left her trembling. Instead, it felt like another wound she’d carry. One more scar layered on top of all the ones we hadn’t even begun to understand.I didn’t speak as I led her back to my room.She didn’t speak either.When we stepped inside, she didn’t
Lumian’s POVI couldn’t breathe. Not the way a man gasps for air, no, this was worse.This was drowning. Suffocating and Endless.The moment I stepped into my room, the weight of everything crashed into me. Guilt, Grief, Loss and Regret. It didn’t knock, it shattered the door and buried me under it.I didn’t bother turning on the light. I didn’t need to see the room. I knew it by heart. The same bed where she used to sleep.The same walls that heard the silence between us grow louder every night.The same air I was still breathing, even though she wasn’t.I had no one to blame for any of it, no one but myself. I had caused her death by letting that monster believe that I still cared. I let Judy stay. I let her linger. I let her whisper things into the cracks of my life that Liz was too kind to seal. I didn’t shut the door when I should’ve slammed it in her face.I gave Judy space to think, there was still hope that I could love her. That I wanted her. I let her believe it, because I
Liz’s POVArthur kissed me back with a hunger that was intense and desperate, like he’d been holding it in for too long.His mouth moved against mine like he knew this was something fragile, something broken, but still wanted it anyway.I clung to his shirt, to his warmth, to the rush of something real in a world that stopped making sense.But then…Something slammed into me.My eyes flung open, and I let go of Arthur, stumbling back like I’d just been shoved by a ghost.The air shifted. My lungs squeezed tight. I couldn’t breathe.Everything around me tilted and went dark.Not emotionally.Physically.The room vanished. Arthur vanished. The stone floor beneath me dissolved. And suddenly, I was somewhere else.A cave, it was damp and Cold.I could feel the rough wall pressing against my back, the ache in my limbs like I’d been there for hours.My head lolled forward, too heavy to lift.Then I saw him.A man cloaked in shadows, face hidden beneath a deep hood. I couldn’t see his eyes,
Lumian’s POVI couldn’t take it anymore.The sound of Gabe’s voice. The way he said her name. The way he described it like it was just something that happened. A series of mistakes he couldn’t help. A story that didn’t belong to me. Or to her.I stood up before I realised I was moving. My chair scraped against the stone, sharp and jarring, and I muttered the only word I could get out.“Enough.”Then I was gone.I slammed the door behind me, hard enough to shake the walls. The corridor outside was cold and narrow, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t make it far.The second I turned the corner, it hit me. The pressure in my chest. The bile at the back of my throat. The sick, twisting in my gut that had started the moment Gabe opened his mouth and hadn’t stopped since.I staggered to the wall, bracing one hand against the cold stone.And then I threw up.My knees hit the ground, and I stayed there, gasping.Everything was spinning. The hallway tilted and narrowed until it felt like I was bei
Liz’s POVI didn’t want to be there. But something pulled at me. Not a voice. Not a vision. Just… a feeling. A low, heavy thrum in my chest like a thread yanking tight.You need to be there.Not because I wanted justice.Not because I wanted revenge.Because I needed to remember. All of it. Every breath, every detail, every ugly truth they tried to bury me under.So I came. I followed the sharp pull until I reached the room. Arthur and Lumian were there, but I didn't look at them. I looked at Gabe.My killer.I stepped through the wall just as Arthur said it.“Then explain.” His voice was low and cold. Steady in the way that made people shake.I felt Arthur’s eyes find me the moment I entered. But he didn’t say a word. He didn’t move.My eyes never left Gabe.I moved closer, until I stood behind Arthur’s shoulder, facing the boy who had taken everything from me. I stayed silent. Let the room press in. Let the guilt rise thick in the air.“I stabbed her,” Gabe said, voice cracking. “S
Arthur’s POV“I’m sorry,” he whispered, already shaking. “She tricked me. I swear she said Liz was dangerous. She said”“I don’t care,” I snapped.His lips trembled, eyes bloodshot, words fumbling over themselves as he tried to explain. “She said Liz would hurt her. That Liz had threatened her before. I didn’t know she just… she said if I loved her, I’d protect her.”He was crying now, sniffling, shaking like some pathetic little thing.“I didn’t know it would go that far. I thought I was just supposed to scare her.”“Enough.”I slammed my fist into the table.The sound cracked through the room like thunder.Gabe flinched hard, shrinking into himself.“There are no amount of sorrys that will bring back the lives that you took,” I said coldly, leaning over the table just enough to make sure he saw the weight of what he’d done. “Not Liz. Not the child she carried.”Gabe’s mouth opened, eyes wide. “I only killed one. I swear”“No.” My voice was sharp enough to silence the air. “You didn’t