6

Elara's POV

I didn’t even think. The moment Darius staggered through the castle doors with Kain slung over his shoulder, bloodied and broken, I ran to them.

Kain looked… destroyed. His skin was torn where silver had kissed it, deep gashes trailing down his chest, blood soaking into every inch of him. His head hung low, limp, and for the first time since I met him, he looked small. Mortal.

“He needs water,” I said, my voice cracking. “Bandages. Fire—he’s freezing.”

I didn’t realise Darius was still standing there, watching us. Watching me. But I felt it.

His presence was heavy, dark and quiet in a way that made the back of my neck prickle. When I finally glanced up, his eyes were unreadable and distant, like something inside him had cracked open. He didn’t say a word. Just stood there while I worked, while I whispered Kain’s name, and tried to stop the bleeding. The air between us was thick with something unspoken.

I could feel it building. And I hated it because I didn’t know what it was I felt anymore; who I wanted to protect, who I feared, or who I was becoming in the middle of all this.  Darius stumbled out of the room, his steps heavy, almost uneven and didn’t look back. The door thudded shut behind him, leaving me alone with Kain. The silence was heavy.

I turned back to Kain’s body. His skin was feverish to the touch, the wounds along his ribs leaking thick, black blood that sizzled slightly as it hit the bowl of water beside me. I dipped the cloth again and pressed it to his side.

And that’s when it happened.

The wound flared. A pulse of searing heat surged up my arms and shot through my veins like lightning, and the world fractured. The room flickered, then disappeared entirely. In its place: darkness. Wind whipped aggressively through my hair. A forest bathed in blood moonlight. Shadows moving like ghosts.

Then her voice came, clear but laced with grief. “Don’t let him break you.” I spun around.

There she was. Lyra, Radiant and her eyes glowing silver-blue, hair floating like she stood underwater. The mark of the Alpha blazed across her chest—Kain’s mark. But it was fading. “Who are you?” I rasped, though I already knew. She stepped closer, the space around her warping with power. “He’s hiding it from you. He buried me, Elara. Not just my body… but the truth.”

My knees gave out. Pain, obviously not mine, slammed into me. “Why show me this?” I cried. “Because you need to survive him,” Lyra said, voice breaking. “And because I didn’t.” Before I could ask further questions, the ground split beneath me, a scream echoing through the void as I fell—

And slammed back into my body.

I gasped, eyes flying open. The bowl of water had overturned, blood pooling across the floor as my hands trembled uncontrollably. My heart was pounding. Kain still lay unconscious, but I wasn’t sure I could look at him the same way again. I can't even fathom what I just saw.

Then came the knock.

The door creaked open, and a packmate peeked in, breathless. “Elara,” he said, eyes wide. “We tracked Mira’s scent. It leads to the Bloodfang border.” My stomach dropped. One name after another. One secret after another. And I wasn’t sure who the real enemy was anymore.

Lyra’s voice still echoed in my head as I stood, legs trembling, hands sticky with blood that wasn’t mine. “He’s hiding something… because I didn’t survive him.” The vision refused to fade—it clung to me like a second skin, making it impossible to meet Kain’s face as he lay unconscious.

My breath caught. “Bloodfang? Are you sure?”

He nodded, lips pressed into a grim line. “And… they’re moving tonight.”

Panic surged through me. I didn’t waste another second. I rushed through the corridor, nearly colliding with Darius outside the war room. “We need to go. Mira’s there. The Bloodfangs are on the move. She won’t survive this if we wait.”

Darius looked at me, jaw clenched, but didn’t speak. That silence said everything.

“What are you waiting for?” I snapped. “You saw what they did to Kain. Are we really just going to sit here while they kill my sister, too?”

“I’m not sending more soldiers to die on guesswork,” he said sharply. “The squad that went after her—they should’ve been back by now. They’re either dead or taken, Elara. Walking into that border blind is suicide.”

“So we’re just going to do nothing?”

“We’re going to wait for Kain to recover. He’s the only one who can command the full force of the army, and he’s the one they want dead. If we make the wrong move now, it’s not just your sister’s life on the line—it’s the whole damn pack.”

I turned away, fuming, but deep down I knew he wasn’t wrong. Still, it didn’t stop the ache in my chest or the helpless fury rising in my throat.

Behind us, thunder cracked across the hills.

War wasn’t coming. It had already started.