Chapter 32: The Awakening Within

Darkness closed in around Ivy like a shroud—thick, oppressive, and absolute. For a few seconds, she couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t even think.

And then came the voice.

Not Isolde’s.

Not her own.

Something ancient, feminine, and terrifyingly calm.

“You’ve opened the gate, child. There is no turning back now.”

A pulse of heat rushed through Ivy’s chest as the chamber trembled. The pod that once held her clone shattered, releasing a torrent of energy that knocked everyone to their knees. Ivy opened her eyes to see the clone—eyes now glowing gold—stepping forward in eerie silence.

Killian tried to grab Ivy, but an invisible force flung him against the wall. Aiden raised his gun, but the metal twisted in his hand like it was made of clay.

Isolde stood smiling, her eyes drinking in the chaos. “Do you see now? She’s not just a backup. She’s a vessel.”

The clone spoke in a voice that was not hers: “You summoned me.”

Ivy staggered back, clutching the bone fragment. It was cold now. Lifeless.

“Who are you?” Ivy asked.

The clone smiled.

“I am Isla. And I’ve been waiting a long time to return.”

Ivy’s mind spiralled. Isla. In the clone?

But she was supposed to be the heir. The carrier.

Killian coughed from where he was pinned. “Ivy… you need to close the gate.”

“I don’t know how!”

Aiden, groaning, managed to crawl closer. “This was a setup. They wanted you to come here. To awaken her.”

Isolde gave a mocking nod. “You’re catching on, brother.”

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“She’s my brother,” Isolde said with a wicked smile. “From a world where you didn’t betray me. Where we ruled together.”

Aiden flinched, the colour draining from his face.

“What are you talking about?” Ivy asked.

Isolde stepped forward. “He was part of it. The experiments. The ritual. He thought he could stop fate by tearing us apart. But he failed.”

“I was trying to save her!” Aiden snapped. “You were out of control!”

Isolde tilted her head. “And now Ivy has to pay the price.”

Isla’s gaze settled on Ivy. “Two lives. One vessel. You opened the gate between them. Now the balance must be restored.”

“What do you mean?” Ivy asked.

“You must choose,” Isla said. “One will survive. The other… will burn.”

Ivy stepped back. “No. I won’t let you use me like a pawn.”

Isla’s gold eyes narrowed. “Then your child will suffer. You carry more than just blood, Ivy. You carry the last shard of me.”

Ivy’s breath caught. “The baby…”

“She is powerful,” Isla continued. “And she is mine—unless you give her up.”

Killian finally pulled himself to his feet, bleeding from the head. “Don’t listen to her.”

But Isla raised a hand and flicked her fingers.

A pulse of raw energy surged from Ivy’s womb.

She screamed.

The walls glowed crimson. The chamber cracked.

Isla’s clone body staggered suddenly. Her golden eyes dimmed.

“She’s resisting,” Isla murmured.

Then she turned to Ivy again. “Choose, child. Sacrifice yourself and give the child a normal life. Or stay alive… and she will become me.”

Ivy’s hands trembled. The bone fragment cracked in her palm.

Killian shouted, “There has to be another way!”

“There is,” whispered Aiden. “But it’s dangerous.”

Isolde growled. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Aiden pulled out a small vial from his jacket—a swirling red liquid.

Killian’s eyes widened. “Is that—?”

“The essence of reversal,” Aiden said. “It can separate Isla’s soul from the host—but it might also kill Ivy… or the child.”

“Give it to me,” Ivy said, voice low.

“No!” Killian stepped forward. “There’s too much at stake.”

“She’s mine,” Ivy said fiercely. “And I won’t let Isla take her.”

Aiden hesitated.

Then handed her the vial.

Isolde lunged, but it was too late.

Ivy drank.

At first—nothing.

Then Ivy collapsed.

A scream erupted—not from her, but from Isla’s clone. The golden glow dimmed, flickered, and then exploded into a black mist that engulfed the chamber.

Isolde screamed as the shadows swallowed her.

Aiden dragged Killian back, shouting, “The chamber’s collapsing!”

And then—it was gone.

Silence.

Ivy lay still.

The clone’s body crumbled to ash.

And in Ivy’s mind—she heard nothing.

Just peace.

She woke three days later in a hidden safe house.

Killian was at her side. So was Aiden.

“You’re alive,” Killian said softly.

Ivy reached for her belly—still there. Still kicking.

“She’s okay?” she whispered.

“She’s strong,” Killian nodded. “Like her mother.”

Ivy exhaled a shaky breath. “Isla?”

“Gone,” Aiden said. “The reversal worked. You burned her out.”

“But at a cost,” Killian added.

Ivy looked at them.

Aiden hesitated. “Isolde escaped. She wasn’t destroyed. The mist took her.”

“And she’s not done,” Killian said. “She’ll come for the child next.”

Ivy stared out the window, wind rustling through the cracked shutters.

“She won’t have her,” Ivy said, voice hard. “Not while I’m still breathing.”

But in the shadows of a distant city, a woman walked barefoot into a circle of fire.

Her eyes were black.

Her hands were coated in ash.

Isolde knelt before a stone altar and placed a single lock of Ivy’s hair—stolen from the vault—upon it.

“She chose her child,” she whispered. “But I choose war.”

She drove a dagger into her own palm—and smiled as the earth split beneath her.