Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Riven’s Truth

The morning after her full transformation dawned cold and clear, but Lyra felt like she was walking through fire.

Riven.

A name she had never heard before now clawed at her thoughts, demanding attention. A supposed half-brother. A stranger carrying her mother’s pendant — the one she’d believed lost in Bloodfang’s flames.

She was no longer the girl who shied away from the unknown.

So when Elara summoned her to the inner sanctum, where the scouts had brought the newcomer, Lyra met the news with a calm mask and a burning curiosity.

The sanctum was quiet, the air heavy with old incense and silence.

He stood there—taller than she'd expected, lean and wiry, with coal-dark hair falling into eyes that mirrored her own: a striking storm-gray. His scent was unfamiliar, but not threatening. In fact, it stirred something unsettling in her. Recognition. Echoes.

Elara watched silently from the corner, arms crossed.

“You’re Lyra,” the boy said.

She stared at him. “And you’re claiming to be my brother.”

“I’m not claiming. I am.”

He reached into the pouch on his hip and held out the pendant — a small crescent moon carved from motherstone, strung on a silver chain. The same one Lyra’s mother used to tuck beneath her collar before bed.

Her throat tightened. “Where did you get that?”

“She gave it to me. That night she sent me away.”

Lyra narrowed her eyes. “She only had one child.”

“That’s what they told you. That’s what they wanted you to believe.”

Riven stepped forward, slowly. “I was born first. But they hid me. Because I wasn’t like the others. My wolf… he’s different.”

“Different how?” Elara asked sharply.

Riven glanced her way. “He has no scent. No heartbeat when I shift. They called it a curse. Said I’d bring ruin if I stayed with the pack. So our mother sent me into hiding.”

Lyra didn’t blink. “Why come back now?”

“Because you were poisoned. And I knew who was behind it.”

The room shifted. Lyra stepped forward. “You knew?”

Riven nodded. “I’ve been inside the Crimson Circle. Not as one of them. As a shadow. I’ve followed their movements. And I know they ordered Celeste to deliver you. To bind you. And eventually—” his jaw tightened— “to end you.”

Lyra’s pulse pounded. “Why?”

Riven looked at her with something close to reverence. “Because your wolf isn’t just Moon-Blessed. She’s something older. Something they fear.”

Elara broke her silence. “What exactly do you mean by older?”

Riven turned toward her. “There are ancient bloodlines. Ones tied to the Moon herself. Only a few born each century carry her mark. They don’t just shift. They shape the balance.”

Lyra’s fingers curled at her sides. “You’re saying I’m a weapon.”

“No,” Riven said. “I’m saying you’re a reckoning.”

Lyra turned away, pacing. Her thoughts spun — bloodlines, hidden siblings, a conspiracy older than her own betrayal. She suddenly felt as though she was standing on the edge of a vast, invisible cliff.

“I need proof,” she said finally. “Not just stories.”

“I have it,” Riven said. He stepped toward her again, slower this time, and pulled a folded parchment from inside his tunic.

He handed it to her.

Elara moved to her side as Lyra unfolded the aged paper. It was a letter. The script is delicate and flowing. Her mother’s handwriting.

My dearest Lyra and Riven,

If this is ever read, then the darkness I feared has come to pass. You are both Moon-Blessed. You are both hunted. But together, you can do what I could not—bring an end to the Crimson Circle and restore the balance they shattered.

*Riven, forgive me for sending you away. Lyra, forgive me for not telling you he existed. I did it to protect you. To give you a chance to grow.

Your father was one of them. He betrayed me the moment he discovered what you both were. I only wish I had more time to prepare you.

But blood remembers. And the Moon watches.

Trust each other.

Find your fire.

–Mother

The parchment trembled in Lyra’s hands.

She didn’t cry. She didn’t scream.

She folded it carefully, pressed it to her chest, and looked at Riven with a steadiness that was no longer uncertain.

“You said you were inside the Circle,” she said.

Riven nodded. “I have names. I have maps. I have weaknesses.”

“Then we plan,” she said. “And when we’re ready, we bring them down.”

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I knew you’d say that.”

But before Elara could speak, the door to the sanctum burst open.

A scout stumbled in, his tunic torn, blood smeared across his arm. “High Luna! There’s a message—marked with Bloodfang’s seal. Delivered at the southern ridge. It’s for Lyra.”

The room froze.

Elara took the scroll from the scout and passed it to Lyra.

She unrolled it, heart pounding.

The writing was unmistakable.

Kade’s handwriting.

*Lyra,*

I don’t know if you’re alive. I don’t know if this will ever reach you. But if it does — please know that I didn’t know the truth. Not all of it.

Celeste has taken control. She’s aligned with something dark, something none of us saw coming.

Bloodfang isn’t safe. The elders are dying. She’s poisoning them, one by one.

If you’re alive, if you remember anything at all — I beg you to come back.

Not for me.

For the pack.

 *For what’s left of it.*

 *—Kade

Lyra’s hands curled around the scroll until her knuckles turned white.

She looked at Elara. “We don’t wait anymore.”

Elara raised a brow. “Are you certain?”

“I am,” Lyra said. “We prepare. We gather. And then we remind Bloodfang exactly what they tried to bury.”

Riven stepped beside her. “Together?”

She looked at him — this strange, sharp-edged sibling pulled from the shadows of her past — and nodded.

Together.

---

Far away, in the highest room of the Bloodfang tower, Celeste leaned over a basin filled with dark water. Her reflection shifted — revealing Lyra’s silver wolf.

“She’s coming,” she murmured.

A tall man behind her grunted. “Let her.”

Celeste turned. “You don’t understand. She’s not the same girl you poisoned.”

The man smiled with teeth too sharp to be human. “Good.”

Celeste’s eyes gleamed red. “Let her come home. I’ll bury her there myself.”