Chapter Seventeen – The Girl Who Shouldn’t Exist

Mira didn’t move.

She couldn’t.

The girl in the clearing looked no older than seven. Dressed in a simple white shift, barefoot in the frost-bitten grass, her silver eyes shimmered with eerie familiarity. Her voice, when she said “Mother?”—had cracked something deep and primal inside Mira’s chest.

Grey and Liam burst through the trees behind her.

“Mira!” Grey called, tense. “What did you….”

He stopped when he saw the child.

Liam went still, too. “Is that…?”

“I don’t know,” Mira said. Her voice sounded far away, even to herself.

The child stepped forward, her lips trembling. “I dreamed of you. You smell like fire and moonlight. You’re… mine.”

“No,” Mira said softly, her heart hammering. “That’s not possible. I don’t have a child.”

Ash appeared at the edge of the clearing, his usual calm cracked. “She’s not supposed to be here.”

“What do you mean?” Mira snapped. “Who is she?”

He stared at the girl. “She’s from the vault. One of the contingency prototypes. They called her Echo.”

The child blinked. “That’s not my name.”

“What is it?” Mira asked.

The girl tilted her head. “I don’t know. They never gave me one. Just a number. Thirteen-dash-One.”

Mira staggered back like she’d been slapped.

“No,” she whispered. “That’s… my number.”

Ash nodded grimly. “Echo units are created from genetic echoes. Fragments of a subject’s bloodline, compressed and accelerated. They’re not clones. They’re living prophecies.”

Liam growled. “So she’s some kind of test?”

“No,” Grey said darkly. “She’s a warning.”

The little girl was staring at Mira now, like a puzzle piece searching for its missing match.

“I woke up when the moon turned red,” she said. “And I heard your scream. You were hurting.”

Mira knelt slowly. “Who sent you?”

The girl shook her head. “No one. I… escaped. The others didn’t. They’re still in cages.”

Mira’s blood turned to ice.

“How many are there?” she asked.

The girl looked at her. “I don’t know. I didn’t count them all. But I saw a boy who looked like him.” She pointed at Liam. “And a girl with silver hair and eyes like mine.”

Ash muttered a curse. “They’re activating more. She’s not the only one.”

Grey stepped closer. “This isn’t just about prophecy anymore. It’s about legacy. They’re creating an army.”

Mira looked down at the girl—her eyes, her scent, her power and something inside her twisted.

Not a bond.

Something deeper.

Recognition.

And with it, fear.

Because if this child was real…

Then the line between Mira’s blood and the Circle’s design had blurred more than she’d ever imagined.

“We need to get her out of the open,” Grey said.

But before anyone could move….

A shot rang out.

The tree beside the child exploded into splinters.

Mira grabbed her instinctively, shielding her with her body.

Liam drew his blades. Grey lunged toward the sound.

“Sniper!” Ash shouted. “Run!”

They bolted, Mira carrying the girl, her shoulder burning as a second bullet grazed past.

Whoever was shooting wasn’t aiming to kill.

They were herding.

Mira made it to the tree line just as another round blasted the ground behind them.

The girl trembled in her arms.

“Are you real?” the child whispered. “Or am I just a copy of something that never existed?”

Mira tightened her grip.

“You’re mine,” she said. “And I’m going to protect you.”

They reached the cabin again. Grey slammed the door behind them, throwing up the last salt ward they had.

“Someone wants her dead,” he panted.

“No,” Ash said grimly. “They want her returned. She wasn’t supposed to wake up yet. Someone’s panicking.”

Mira sat the girl down gently. Her heart still raced. Her thoughts scrambled.

If the Circle had created this child, this Echo, from her…

Then what had they seen in Mira’s blood that she hadn’t yet?

And what would they do to reclaim it?

The girl looked up at her.

“I’m scared,” she said.

Mira brushed a strand of white hair from her cheek.

“So am I.”

But her wolf wasn’t.

Her wolf was wide awake.

Watching the Blood Moon rise.

And growling for war.

End of Chapter Seventeen

…………………………

A child from Mira’s bloodline, a rising Blood Moon, and a sniper hunting echoes. The Circle’s secrets are unraveling faster than Mira can catch them and someone is desperate to clean up the mess before the Luna ascends. But war is no longer a question. It’s a countdown.