“Between the Shadows” Part One

LYRA:-

The fall was endless.

Darkness swirled like ink, thick and humming with something alive. There was no ground. No sky. Just her, suspended in a world that felt too still and yet too loud—buzzing with whispers she couldn’t understand. She reached for something—anything—but her fingers sliced through nothing. No air. No gravity. No wolf.

Her wolf.

It was gone.

Or hiding.

For the first time in her life, she felt it severed. Not quiet, not sleeping. Absent. Like the bond had snapped.

The hollow pull of the void didn’t feel like death. It felt worse. Like being forgotten. Unwritten.

Then—light.

A single sliver split the dark, curling at the edges like fire swallowing parchment.

Lyra fell toward it.

And crashed.

But not into stone or earth. Into memory.

She stood suddenly in the middle of a clearing, moonlight bathing her skin. A child’s laughter echoed—hers—chasing fireflies through tall summer grass.

Then the laughter cut short.

And the moon split in two.

She turned.

Her child-self stood frozen, eyes wide, hands glowing with the same silver fire she’d seen in the Hollowed Ones’ chamber. A man approached—robed, ancient, and yet… familiar.

“Your blood is divided,” he whispered to the child Lyra. “But it will unite what was broken.”

Child-Lyra trembled. “I don’t want to be the Gate.”

“You don’t get to choose.”

“I want to go home.”

“You are home,” he said, placing his cold hand on her glowing chest. “You are where it all began.”

The memory burned away.

And Lyra awoke.

This time it was real—painfully real. Her lungs heaved in sharp gulps. Her body ached. She lay sprawled on a surface like glass but warm, like breath. Above her, the sky was a color she’d never seen before—violet-black, streaked with rivers of light that twisted like serpents.

She wasn’t in the ruins anymore.

This place was… wrong.

Not of her world.

The trees nearby—if they could be called trees—reached with silver branches toward a sky that blinked. Their trunks pulsed faintly with veins of glowing blue, like blood beneath bark. The air smelled electric, thick with static and something ancient.

She rose slowly.

Somewhere far off, a howl rang through the air—not a wolf’s howl. Not natural. It was distorted. Like something imitating a wolf without knowing what one truly was.

Her wolf still didn’t stir.

And worse… she couldn’t feel Kael.

They had a bond. She’d always known it. Thin, invisible, but always there like a thread tugging her toward him.

Now it was just… void.

She was alone.

Completely.

KAEL:-  Pain. That’s all he knew when he woke. It tore through his chest like fire, the bond he’d used to track her now burning out like a dying ember. He tasted blood. His vision swam with red and shadow. Around him, the Hollowed Ones’ chamber lay in ruins—shattered stone, split runes, the air heavy with magic and ash.

But Lyra was gone.

He’d seen her fall into the void.

He should have gone with her.

Kael staggered to his feet, one arm cradling his ribs. The Hollowed Ones were nowhere in sight. The seal they’d opened had collapsed. But the scar on his palm still burned—the one that matched the crescent mark on Lyra’s chest.

Their blood was tied.

Which meant she wasn’t dead.

Just… lost.

Trapped.

He moved quickly, scanning the room for the basin, for any remnant of the magic that had taken her. But it was all cracked stone and whispers now. Except—at the center, something pulsed. A shard of silver embedded in the floor, half-buried beneath dust and bone.

He reached for it.

And his vision went white.

He stood in a forest of thorns.

The air was thick with the scent of moonlight and blood. A woman stood before him—not Lyra. Not now. But someone from before.

“Kael Thornwyn,” she said, voice echoing through him. “Your line was forged to guard the Gate, not love it.”

“I’m not my father,” Kael snarled.

“But you carry his mistake,” she said, stepping forward, touching the place over his heart. “You love her. You always have. And that will doom you both.”

“I won’t let her die.”

“Then you must become what you fear.”

Kael blinked. “What?”

“Open the Hollow in your blood.”

He gasped, falling to his knees as the vision faded.

The shard had vanished.

But something inside him had awakened.

He looked down at his hands—claws longer, darker. His wolf stirred violently, pushing at the edges of his skin. His blood screamed.

He could feel her.

Distant.

Like a cry through a storm.

“Lyra…” he whispered.

And with a growl that shook the broken chamber, Kael opened the Hollow in himself—and stepped into the realm of shadows.

LYRA

The trees whispered.

They knew her name.

Not her given name. Her true name. The one burned into her bones. The Gatekeeper. Daughter of balance. The one who would choose which world lived.

She stumbled forward through the strange woods, the sky above pulsing with eerie light. The ground beneath her feet shifted with every step, sometimes grass, sometimes bone, sometimes starlight.

She couldn’t tell if time was moving or standing still.

She passed ruins—arches of stone floating mid-air, old torches burning with colorless fire. In one, she saw a wolf etched into the wall. Not just any wolf.

Her.

Or what she might become.

Fangs bared. Eyes silver. Alone.

“You were never meant to be saved,” a voice whispered behind her.

She spun.

Nothing there.

“You are the lock and the key. There is no rescue.”

Lyra gritted her teeth. “Kael will find me.”

The shadows laughed.

“No one escapes the Hollow.”

KAEL

He emerged into nightmare.

The shadow realm tore at him instantly, testing his form, his sanity. It wanted to unravel him. To dissolve the parts that made him real. But Kael held fast. For Lyra. For the promise he’d never made aloud but always lived by:

Where she goes, I follow.

He took his wolf form—not fully, but enough to anchor himself. His claws bit into the ground. His eyes burned gold. Every breath he took in this place tasted like old fear and forgotten truth.

He ran.

He didn’t know where, only that the bond tugged him forward.

And then—

He smelled her.

Her scent cut through the Hollow like light through fog.

Still alive.

Still fighting.

Kael didn’t hesitate.

LYRA

The sky cracked.

She looked up just in time to see a figure fall through it.

Golden fire. Silver eyes. And fury.

Kael.

She ran toward him, her voice strangled with relief.

He landed hard, stumbled, then caught her in his arms.

“You found me,” she whispered, burying her face against his chest.

“Always,” he murmured, holding her like he’d never let go.

But before their relief could settle, the trees screamed.

Dozens of shadow-born creatures slithered from the forest—twisted versions of wolves, eyeless and dripping shadow. The Hollow had found them.

Kael shoved her behind him, claws raised, breath ragged.

“We end this,” he growled.

And together—they faced the darkness.