Chapter 5: The Trial of Shadows.

Lyra’s POV

“Don’t move, Lyra… It’s watching you.”

Kael’s voice was low, almost drowned out by the storm of growls around us, but I heard it. Felt it. His words crawled under my skin, heavier than the moonlight.

My eyes were locked on the thing that had peeled itself from me, my shadow come alive. The Hollow Wolf.

It circled slowly, its body made of smoke and hunger, each step leaving the earth blackened beneath its paws. Its white eyes cut through the clearing like knives. It looked at me, not at Kael, not at my father, not at the Elders. Only me.

My chest heaved as its lips peeled back into a grin that wasn’t a grin, its jaw stretching too wide, teeth glinting like shards of bone. My blood turned to ice.

The pack backed away, pressing together in a circle that looked more like a cage. Some were half-shifted, their claws scraping the earth. Others whispered prayers under their breath.

The Elder raised her staff, her voice hard as stone. “The prophecy is awake. The Hollow Wolf walks. The Blood Oath must be carried out... tonight.”

“No!” my father barked, his blade flashing as he held it up. “It should be ended now. She should be ended now.”

His voice cracked like a whip through the night, and wolves howled in agreement.

But the Elder’s gaze cut to him, sharp as broken glass. “Silence, Dorian Vale. You dare speak of ending her, when it was you who forged the Oathblade?”

The ground dropped from under me. My father froze. My breath snagged.

The Elder’s words sank into the clearing like poison. “Do not think your secrets are hidden from us. The runes that the blade carries are of your own hand. Years ago, before the girl was even of age, you sought the means to kill her.”

My knees almost gave. The crowd rippled with shock, voices hissing like snakes. I searched my father’s face, desperate for denial, for anything but truth. But he said nothing.

He had made the blade himself. He had made the blade that was meant for my heart.

“You… you planned this,” I whispered, my voice tearing at the edges. “From the very beginning, you planned to kill me.”

His jaw clenched, his silence louder than any words.

Something inside me snapped. The little hope I had clung to burned away. I wasn’t his daughter. I was his curse to manage and his mistake to erase.

The Hollow Wolf let out a sound that wasn’t quite a growl and wasn’t quite a laugh. It paced closer and I felt it inside me, tugging at the thread of my soul, as though it was mocking me.

Rowan’s voice split the air, eager and venomous. “You hear it! You see it! She isn’t one of us; she never was. If Kael kills her, maybe the curse dies with her!”

The pack roared, caught in his frenzy. “Kill her! End it!”

The Elder’s staff struck the ground, the noise silencing the madness. “The law has been spoken. The Blood Oath trial will decide her fate.”

Her words dropped like stones. Trial by combat or execution. The same law that had slaughtered cursed bloodlines before me.

I stood frozen, my claws biting into my palms, when Kael moved. He stepped forward, his voice a blade slicing through the chaos. “I will face her.”

The clearing erupted.

Gasps, shouts and snarls. My chest hollowed out. “What?” I choked.

Kael didn’t look at me. His gaze was fixed on the Elder, his face carved from shadow and fire. “If she is the Hollow Wolf, I am sworn to kill her. If she is not, then the bond binds us. Either way, prophecy is fulfilled.”

My breath shattered. Bound to him… or buried by him.

The Elder’s eyes narrowed, studying him, then me. “So it is written,” she intoned. “So it shall be done.”

The pack howled, the sound curdling the night air.

Kael turned, his black eyes catching mine. For a heartbeat, something flickered there, not cruelty and not mockery. Something darker, something I couldn’t name.

“Prepare yourself,” he murmured, low enough only I could hear.

I couldn’t breathe. My father’s silence strangled me, Rowan’s grin burned into me and Eira’s tears stung like fire. The world was folding in, walls closing, shadows pressing.

The trial would kill me. Either Kael would, or the pack would, or the Hollow Wolf would tear free and finish the job itself.

I stumbled back into the trees, my chest heaving. I needed air, I needed to run, but he followed me.

Kael’s hand caught my wrist, spinning me to face him. His grip was strong and unshakable, but his voice was low and rough. “Listen to me.”

I bared my teeth. “Why? So you can tell me how you’ll slit my throat in front of everyone?”

His jaw tightened. “If I wanted to kill you, Vale, you’d already be bleeding at my feet.”

“Then what do you want from me?” I spat.

For the first time, he hesitated. He glanced back toward the clearing, then back to me. His hand loosened on my wrist, but he didn’t let go. “You can’t win this trial. Not the way they want you to. The pack is against you. Your father is against you. Even your friend…” He paused, his lip curling slightly. “Even she has betrayed you.”

The words struck, sharper than any blade. Kael’s eyes locked on mine, hard as iron. “So I’ll give you a choice. Trust me, and I’ll make sure you live.”

My breath caught. “Trust you? You just claimed me like I was some prize to steal. You said you would kill me if I lost control.”

“And I meant it,” he said, voice flat. “But I won’t let them tear you apart like animals. If you let me, I’ll fake your defeat. I’ll claim you fully. Then the trial ends. The pack can’t touch you without declaring war.”

I stared at him, my pulse pounding. My heart twisted between rage and something else, something I didn’t want to feel.

“And if I say no?” I asked.

His dark gaze didn’t waver. “Then you bleed.” My throat tightened. His offer wasn’t mercy. It was chains, but chains were better than a grave.

I hated him... Like, I hated myself more for even considering it.

“Why?” I whispered. “Why help me?”

His jaw clenched, something raw flickering in his eyes. “Because if anyone is going to end you, Lyra Vale, it won’t be them. It’ll be me.”

The words slashed me open, but before I could answer, the Elder’s voice thundered across the clearing. “The trial begins!”

Torches blazed, flames climbing higher and shadows stretching long. The pack gathered in a wide circle, their faces masks of hunger and hate. My father stood at the front, with Oathblade glinting in his grip. Eira stood behind him, her hands trembling, her lips pale.

The Hollow Wolf slithered back into my skin, sinking into me like tar. My veins burned and my body shook. It was waiting for blood.

Kael stepped into the circle opposite me; his eyes were unreadable, while his every move was precise. The Elder raised her staff, her voice echoing through the forest. “Let the cursed one be judged!”

The air thickened and the silence was crushing. My claws flexed, my breath was sharp and my heart was a war drum.

Kael lunged, a blur of motion and in the instant his claws slashed near my throat, his mouth brushed my ear.

“Survive this, Lyra,” he whispered, voice fierce, “and I’ll give you the truth your father never will.”

His body crashed against mine, claws meeting claws, sparks flying as the pack roared around us. The trial had begun and my fate had never been more tangled.

Beneath the Blood Moon, power surged through every strike, every desperate breath. The ground shook beneath my feet, claws raking soil, sparks of silver flashing in the shadows. My lungs burned; my pulse was a war drum that would not quiet.

Then the voice came again, not my father’s, but the Elder’s. It thundered through the clearing, older than time, soaked in judgment and finality. My skin prickled, every instinct urging me to run, though there was nowhere left to go.

“Again... let the cursed one be judged!”

The world stilled. Warriors froze; even the forest seemed to hold its breath and then all eyes, every single accusing and piercing gaze, turned to me.

Air ripped into my chest as I staggered back, my heart thrashing against my ribs like it could claw its way free. My hands shook, not with fear alone, but with something darker, something I’d spent my whole life trying to cage.

Why me? Why now? The truth coiled like a serpent in my gut: I had already been marked. No matter how hard I fought, no matter who stood beside me, I was already bound.

And the question that burned sharper than the blade at my throat: Would Kael truly save me… Or had I just stepped into another trap, one I could never escape?