Chapter Thirty Two - The Echo Left Behind ( Aria's POV )

The storm broke at dawn.

Rain fell in a steady whisper over the ruins, washing blood and ash into the cracks of the temple floor. Smoke still curled from the shattered stones where Ronan’s power had touched the earth, leaving black veins that pulsed faintly before fading into silence.

Kael stood at the temple’s edge, shirt torn, shoulders slick with rain. The glow of the fight was gone from his eyes, replaced by something quieter, fear wrapped in fury.

Lyra moved carefully around the altar, tracing her fingers along the cracks. Her runes no longer glowed, whatever power had answered her before was spent. “He’s not gone,” she said finally. “He’s tethered, pulled back, but not destroyed.”

Kael’s jaw tightened. “Then we find him and finish it.”

She glanced up sharply. “You can’t fight something that exists between worlds. What happened here burned through every protection I had left. If she hadn’t sealed the bond when she did...”

Her voice broke off. Both of them turned when I stirred.

The world came back in fragments, cold air, wet stone beneath my palms, the scent of iron. My body ached with a hollow, bone-deep exhaustion. The child inside me was still, quiet now, as if sleeping after the storm.

Kael knelt beside me instantly, his hand on my shoulder. “Easy,” he murmured. “It’s done.”

“Is it?” I whispered, looking toward the altar. The scorch mark was still there. The faint, rhythmic pulse I’d felt before was weaker, but not gone.

Lyra followed my gaze, her expression grim. “He marked it. Through blood or bond, he found a way to leave a piece of himself behind.”

Kael rose to his feet, muscles coiling with restrained violence. “Then we tear this place down.”

“No,” Lyra said sharply. “If you destroy the altar, you’ll break the seal too. And that bond, her bond, is the only thing keeping him from taking full control.”

He turned on her, voice low and dangerous. “You’re saying she’s carrying his power inside her?”

Lyra hesitated. “Not his power. His echo. Whatever thread connects him to the child, it’s alive. It won’t fade on its own.”

The world tilted slightly around me. “So what happens now?”

Lyra looked at me, eyes heavy with something like pity. “Now, we move. Before the Wraiths return.”

Kael didn’t argue this time. He lifted me effortlessly, ignoring my weak protest. “The pack will regroup at the river crossing,” he said. “We rest there.”

The others, what was left of them, waited outside the ruins. Five wolves, bloodied and silent. They’d felt the tremor of Ronan’s magic too. No one spoke as we left the temple behind, the fog closing over it like a shroud.

The forest bled into mist as the morning deepened. Every step seemed heavier, the ground soft from rain. Kael moved ahead, leading us north, his senses sharp even through fatigue.

When we finally stopped, it was at the edge of a river swollen from the storm. The water was dark and fast, roaring between jagged stones.

Lyra began setting small wards in a circle, whispering under her breath. Pale light flickered from her fingers and sank into the mud. “It won’t stop him,” she said, “but it might hide us long enough to breathe.”

Kael set me down near the fire one of the wolves managed to coax from damp wood. The heat was weak, but it chased some of the chill from my skin.

I stared into the flames, watching them dance and fade. “Lyra,” I said softly, “you said the bond is sealed. What does that mean for me? For the child?”

She crouched across from me, her eyes tired but steady. “It means you’re no longer bound to him by blood alone. The old gods recognized your claim. But…” She hesitated. “If his mark still lives inside the bond, it could grow. Like rot in the roots of a tree.”

Kael’s gaze snapped toward her. “You’re saying he can still reach her.”

“Not directly. But he’ll try. Dreams, visions, illusions, he’ll test every weak point until he finds one.”

A cold dread crept through me. “Then how do we stop it?”

Lyra’s expression darkened. “There’s only one way to cleanse a blood-bound mark. We’ll need to find the Veilstone.”

Kael frowned. “That’s a myth.”

“It’s not,” she said quietly. “It was forged from the first moon’s light, used to sever the link between living and dead. The last record of it was buried in the ruins of the Shadow Keep, Ronan’s old stronghold.”

Kael let out a bitter laugh. “So to break his hold, we walk straight into his territory.”

Lyra met his gaze. “If we don’t, he’ll take her before the next full moon.”

Silence settled between them like smoke.

I looked up at Kael, my voice barely a whisper. “We’ll go.”

His eyes softened when they met mine. “You don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Yes, I do,” I said. “He’s already inside me, Kael. If this is the only way to end it, then I’ll face it.”

For a long moment, he didn’t move. Then he nodded once, the decision sealing itself in the air.

Night fell quickly. The forest turned to shadow and sound, the crackle of the fire, the murmur of the river, the distant cry of something unseen.

The pack slept in shifts. Kael stayed near me, sharpening his blade even though it was already clean. The rhythmic scrape of metal was oddly comforting.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” I asked quietly.

He didn’t look up. “Tell you what?”

“That you were afraid.”

He paused, then sheathed the blade. “Because I can’t afford to be.”

“You’re allowed to,” I said. “You almost died for me back there.”

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “That’s what I do. I bleed so others don’t have to.”

I reached out, touching his hand. “You’re not just my protector, Kael.”

His eyes met mine, silver catching firelight. Something unspoken passed between us, raw and fragile. He leaned in slightly, the air between us charged. Then Lyra’s voice cut through the quiet.

“Kael.”

He straightened instantly. Lyra stood near the edge of the wards, her face pale.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Listen.”

The night had gone too still. No wind, no water, not even the whisper of leaves. The air hung thick, unnatural.

Lyra’s runes flickered once, then died.

“Something’s here,” she said.

Kael was already moving. He motioned for the pack to close ranks around me. The fire sputtered, its flames bending as though to flee.

Then came the sound, a low, distant hum. It wasn’t footsteps or growls. It was deeper, like the heartbeat of the earth itself.

Lyra’s eyes widened. “No… he can’t. ”

The air split open with a sound like tearing fabric. A shape emerged from the dark, neither man nor beast, a twisted echo of Ronan’s form. His shadow, given shape by the mark he’d left behind.

Kael drew his weapon, voice sharp. “Get her back!”

The wolves shifted, forming a wall of fur and teeth. Lyra raised her hands, summoning what little power she had left. The shadow laughed, a hollow, broken sound.

You can’t hide from a bond sealed in blood, it whispered.

It lunged.

Kael met it head-on, steel clashing with smoke. Sparks burst into the night. The others attacked too, their strikes cutting through air and shadow alike.

Lyra shouted a word I didn’t recognize, and light erupted from her palms. The shadow screamed, twisting violently before shattering like glass in a storm.

When it was gone, the silence returned, too fast, too complete.

Lyra collapsed to her knees, trembling. “That wasn’t him,” she whispered. “Just a piece… sent through the mark.”

Kael turned to me. “He’s testing us. Testing you.”

I nodded slowly, feeling the cold settle deep in my bones. “Then we don’t wait for the next one.”

Kael’s expression hardened. “At first light, we head for the Shadow Keep.”

Lyra met his gaze. “If we go there, none of us may come back.”

He looked at me, and I saw the fire return to his eyes. “Then we make sure it’s worth it.”

The river roared on beside us, drowning out the silence. Above, the clouds parted just enough for the moon to show its face, silver, watching, unblinking.

And beneath its light, the bond inside me stirred again.

Not in fear. In warning.