ログインSoren’s POVI’ve watched blood spill. I’ve seen men become monsters and monsters beg like men. But nothing—nothing—prepared me for the moment I saw Elixir float above the altar, eyes wide with celestial fire and pain tangled in her scream. She didn’t glow. She seared.And when she dropped, silent and trembling, the world tilted.Lucian hadn’t returned from his patrol. We thought he was delayed, distracted, maybe scouting the riverline. But I knew better. He was never late. Never careless.He was taken.Ewen was the first to admit it aloud. “The Order’s pushing harder. They want her distracted. Breaking apart her mind from the inside, and now—us.”He didn’t say Lucian’s name. He didn’t need to. The air choked with it.Maelis began warding the perimeter twice a night. Elixir refused sleep. And every time she closed her eyes, her face twisted—like Ash-Elixir clawed at the edges of her dreams.“Something’s changed,” I told Ewen as we walked the north tree line. “She doesn’t just see her n
Lucian's POVWaking up wasn’t the hard part. Remembering who I was—that was.I opened my eyes to darkness, and not the kind that belonged to night. This was silence given shape, humming just beneath the skin like it wanted to become something. The ceiling above me pulsed. Not visibly. Just enough that I knew it breathed.Not a prison. Not quite.Chains didn’t hold me. I held myself.My memories came back in pieces. The scouting ridge. The flicker of movement. A woman’s voice without lips. Then sleep.No. Not sleep. Something deeper.Elixir. That name held shape. Weight. It anchored me. I grabbed hold of it like it was the only real thing.The Order hadn’t tortured me. Not in ways flesh understands. They whispered dreams into my veins. Rewrote truths. Offered me a world without burden.They let Ash-Elixir sit beside me. Look like her. Sound like her. And she asked me questions not even Elixir dared.“Do you still love her?”I lied the first time. Told her yes with conviction. But it wa
Soren’s POVShe didn’t speak.Not when she stepped through the veil. Not when her eyes met Elixir’s. Not even when half the pack inhaled like they'd seen a goddess rise from smoke and shattered memory.And that silence screamed louder than war drums.I could feel her in my marrow—Ash-Elixir. That’s what I’d started calling her in my mind. A whisper of the real one, made of ambition and burn, not fire and choice. This wasn’t a copy. This was what Elixir could’ve become if she’d embraced the throne Virex left behind without question.She didn’t blink. Didn’t breathe. Just stood at the Grove’s edge like the trees had knelt to let her pass.Ewen flinched beside me. Not visibly. Not enough for anyone to notice. But I saw the twitch in his wrist, the flex of his jaw.He felt it too.The wrongness.Not evil. That would’ve been easier. This was something else.Familiarity, bent sideways.Lucian’s blade gleamed under the twilight. My own hand hovered over my runes, waiting for a sign. Any sign
Elixir’s POVThe raven dissolved into ash before my eyesBut the scroll in my hand remainedLight as paperHeavy as prophecyShe has not been buried. She has been crowned.It wasn’t a threatIt was a declarationAnd it didn’t come from VirexIt came from herThe one behind the veilThe one who hadn’t died in grief, or broken in silenceThe one who didn’t choose mercy when she was madeLucian stared at the scroll, jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth might crackSoren stood at my side, fingers twitching against the hilt of a blade carved from bone—not out of fear, but preparationEwen said nothingBut his eyes had narrowed the moment the raven appeared, like he’d known something we hadn’tAnd now the knowing had arrivedI walked back toward the altar, running my thumb along the scar burned into the stone“Not all reflections want to be healed,” I said. “Some are made to punish.”Lucian stepped beside me. “Is she another fragment?”I shook my head. “No. She’s a possibility. One I n
Elixir’s POVShe looked like me, but thinnerLike the world had starved her of belief for too longHer smile wasn’t cruelIt was calmLike she’d been waiting for this moment since I was bornSince I first chose to silence the part of myself that didn’t fit prophecy, power, or flameShe stepped from the circle barefoot, shoulders squared as if she still carried chainsI didn’t moveNeither did the AlphasLucian’s hand twitched near his bladeSoren’s fingers hovered over a protective runeEwen’s eyes burned with unreadable knowledgeNone of them knew what I’d just pulled into this worldNeither did IBut she wasn’t a demonShe was something far worseShe was true---“You left me in the silence,” she said, her voice quieter than mine, older somehow. “And now you wonder why I sound like regret.”My chest ached. “I buried you because you were breaking me.”She stepped closer, shadows folding around her like silk. “No. You buried me because I remembered what it cost to live. You didn’t wan
Elixir’s POVThe silence after war always feels heavier than the war itselfBecause it’s in the silence that grief becomes realIt’s where names echo without answersWhere you remember who didn’t survive, and who came back... wrongThe Grove still stoodBarelyTrees scorched, soil trembling beneath our feet, the scent of ash and old gods thick in the windBut we were aliveThe Alphas beside meThe rogue packs behind meThe veil no longer howlingBut watchingAlways watchingSoren was the first to speak after hours of eerie stillness“We won,” he said softly, not with pride but caution. “But it wasn’t a victory.”Lucian cleaned his blade beside the shrine, quiet, blood staining the wraps around his forearmEwen hadn’t spoken since the battle endedHe just stood beside the ruined altar, eyes locked on the sky like it might fall if he blinkedThey each carried their own acheNot of bodyOf spiritI did tooBecause something inside me still buzzedNot with powerWith absenceLike the thin







