로그인Lyra's Pov Learning what you actually are is more terrifying than any enemy who has ever tried to kill you. Back at the Northern Territory estate, Calla was recovering in the medical wing but refused to rest. She sat up in bed, looking pale but determined, waving away the healers who kept trying to make her lie down. "There is too much to cover and too little time," she said, her voice steady. She patted the chair beside her bed. "Sit, Lyra. We start now." I sat down, my hands clasped tight in my lap. My heart was beating fast. I had been treating my visions like warnings I had to fight. Calla was about to tell me something different. "The first lesson is what Oracle sight actually is," she began, looking straight at me. "Not prediction. Not fortune telling. Not visions of fixed futures." I leaned forward, listening carefully. My gift had been chaotic and overwhelming. Now it felt like it was listening too. "Oracles see the weight of choices," Calla continued. "They see what be
Lyra’s PovShe is chained to a wall in an abandoned settlement, and she has been waiting forty years for us to find her.We reach the coordinates before dawn. The settlement looks like it died decades ago, roofs caved in, windows black and empty. But the dirt path leading to the main building is too clean. Someone has been walking it."Recently," Theron says. I feel it before I see it. The pull in my chest, sharp and insistent, like a hook dragging me forward. I follow it without thinking, past Theron's hand reaching to stop me, past Damon's warning look.The third conspirator is dead in the doorway of the main building. Throat open, blood barely dry. Whoever did this left less than an hour ago."Not us," Damon says quietly, checking the body. "Someone got here first."Theron's jaw tightens. "Someone who didn't want him talking."We move through the building carefully. Every room empty, stripped, dust thick on everything except a narrow path worn into the floor leading to a door at
Lyra’s PovThey put names on a list for children who do not exist yet, and that tells me everything about how long they have been planning this.After Margaret was taken to secure holding, Theron and I stood alone in the war room. The list sat on the table between us like a living thing. Neither of us spoke for a long time. I kept staring at it, at the handwriting Margaret had used to confirm what she had already told us. I thought about my mother. Mira had died because of what her daughter might one day become. That had always been the shape of the threat. Now there was another layer stacked on top of it. What our children might become. Not children we had. Children who did not exist yet, who might never exist, who were already written into someone's contingency plan like a problem to be solved in advance. The conspiracy did not just want the present dealt with. It was hunting the future before the future had even arrived.Theron finally broke the silence. "This started be
Lyra's Pov The only way to find a spy is to tell everyone a different lie and see which one travels.The morning after the discovery, Theron and I worked through the problem systematically in his office. Six people had been in that room when we made the plan. Theron, me, Damon, Sera and two Council guards who had been posted just inside the door the entire time, present for every word. We started by eliminating who it could not be.Sera was off the list immediately. She had given us the names. She had no reason to build a trap and then warn the people inside it. That made no sense. Theron and I eliminated each other without discussion. The bond between us made that simple. I would have felt it if he was hiding something that large. He would have felt it from me. We moved on. Damon was harder. Forty years of loyalty was not nothing. Theron had known him since childhood. But loyalty was not unbreakable, and the right kind of pressure applied over enough time could bend a
Lyra’s PovSera gives us seven names, and every single one of them is someone Theron trusted.Sera sat up in the hospital bed, she still looked fragile but stronger than she had been. The healer standing near the door had a vial of something ready, some medicine to help her sleep, but Sera shook her head at it. She did not want to sleep. She asked for paper and pen instead. Nobody argued with her. Damon found a notepad on the side table and handed it over without a word.Her hands shook as she wrote. I could see the effort it took her. But her eyes never wavered. She knew exactly what she was writing. She did not pause to think or second-guess a single name. When she finished she tore the page free and held it out to Theron. I watched his face as he read it. His expression did not change, which was worse than anger. Anger would have meant he was reacting. Stillness meant he was containing something too large to let out. His jaw tightened just a fraction. That was all.
Lyra’s PovSera Blackridge has been kept alive in darkness for nine years, and the people who did this are about to learn what the Beast does to those who hurt his family.Theron broke the chains with his bare hands. Metal snapped under his grip like it was nothing. Sera collapsed forward into his arms, and he caught her, holding her tight against his chest. Both of them were sobbing. I stayed back near the door, giving them the moment. My heart ached watching them. Theron's shoulders shook as he held his sister. I had never seen him like this. Sera’s voice came out weak but full of wonder. "I knew you would find me. I never stopped believing."She looked so fragile. Her body was thin from years of barely eating. Scars covered her arms, her body trembling from years of captivity. But she was alive. Theron held her like she might disappear if he let go. His hands moved gently over her hair, brushing it back from her face. I could feel his emotions through the bond — relief crashing in
Lyra’s PovI see her in my dreams every night: Theron's sister, alive, begging me to find her.The visions had grown stronger in the week since Magnus died. They came during the day now, sudden and clear, pulling me out of whatever I was doing. I would be in a meeting or walking the halls and sudde
Lyra's Pov Magnus thinks I'm easy prey, and I'm about to teach him how wrong he is.The basement of the border station was dim and crumbling, concrete walls cracked with age and dampness. Dust hung in the air from the fight above. My heart pounded hard in my chest as Magnus and I circled each othe
The forest doesn't care that my heart is breaking.I crash through the trees like something is chasing me, even though the only thing behind me is the image of Derek's teeth in Ivy's neck. My silver dress catches on branches and rips, but I keep running. Heels? I kicked them off miles back. Sharp s
Tonight, Derek finally marks me, and I can stop pretending I don't see the pity in everyone's eyes when they look at us. I stand in front of the small mirror in my bedroom, turning side to side. The silver dress catches the light with every movement. It is simple but pretty, the kind of dress that







