Chapter Twenty-three

A Trial of Fear

The shadows carried me.

Lucien had bound my eyes before we began, wrapping a strip of cloth so tight around my head that no sliver of light could break through. I stumbled forward, his hand a cold weight on my shoulder, guiding me deeper into the cavern. The air grew damp, heavy with the scent of earth and iron.

When he finally stopped, he pressed his hand against the cloth. “You see nothing, little wolf,” he murmured. “But that is how you must fight. Blindness strips away lies. Sight deceives. Fear reveals the truth.”

My wolf shifted uneasily in my chest. What is he doing to us?

Lucien’s voice sharpened. “Now—survive.”

The cloth vanished.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

I spun, heart racing, but there was nothing—no walls, no floor, only blackness stretching into forever. The cavern was gone. Lucien was gone. I was alone.

Then I heard it. A whisper.

“Kimberly.”

The voice was low, familiar, wrapped in cruel tenderness. Derrick.

I whirled toward the sound, shadows flaring instinctively. Shapes formed in the black—a silhouette tall and broad, amber eyes burning. He stepped closer, smirk sharp and unforgiving.

“You thought you could run from me?” His voice dripped with venom. “You belong to me. You always will.”

The words struck like chains. My chest tightened, old wounds ripping open. My wolf growled, but fear pressed heavier.

“No,” I whispered, forcing the shadows to flare brighter. “I don’t.”

The silhouette lunged. I struck with my blade, but it dissolved through him like smoke. His laughter filled the dark, echoing until it was everywhere, until it was inside me.

“You can’t kill me,” Derrick sneered. “Because you still love me.”

The words burned worse than claws. My body froze, my breath shallow. Did I? Some fractured part of me still remembered the mate bond, still ached for the boy he had once been before cruelty twisted him.

“No,” I said again, louder, fiercer. Shadows roared from me, swirling in a storm. “I loved who I thought you were. That boy is dead.”

The figure snarled, but this time, when I struck, the blade sank deep. The shadow-Derrick shattered into smoke, scattering across the void.

I barely had a heartbeat to breathe before another shape emerged. Mona.

Her golden hair gleamed even in the dark, her lips curved in a triumphant smile. She wore the crown, the gown, everything I had been denied.

“You were never enough,” she whispered, her voice sweet and poisonous. “You never will be. That’s why he chose me.”

Her laughter echoed, sharp as glass, until it cut through bone. I clutched my ears, but it only grew louder.

“Stop!” I screamed, shadows thrashing wildly. But the more I fought, the louder she became. The darkness itself seemed to chant with her: Not enough. Not enough. Not enough.

Tears stung my eyes. The words sank into the cracks of every old wound, every scar I carried. For a moment, I wanted to collapse, to give in, to let the dark close over me.

Then I remembered Hannah’s embrace. Louis pressing the pendant into my hand. My father’s trembling voice telling me I was strong.

And my wolf’s voice, fierce and unyielding: We are more than enough.

The shadows steadied. I rose, blade gleaming black and silver. “You may have stolen my place. But you’ll never steal who I am.”

I slashed, and Mona’s image shattered like glass, the echoes dying in silence.

Breath ragged, I turned, waiting for the next illusion.

But this time, what emerged was not Derrick, not Mona.

It was me.

The girl I had been. Frail. Silent. Always bowing her head. She looked at me with hollow eyes, voice soft and broken. “Why are you fighting? You’ll only lose again.”

My chest constricted. That girl had been real. She had been me.

“I know,” I whispered, stepping closer. “But I won’t be her anymore.”

Her lips trembled. “If you kill me, you kill yourself.”

Tears slipped down my cheeks. My blade shook. “No. If I kill you, I finally live.”

With one swift strike, I cut through her. She dissolved into light, not smoke.

The darkness shattered.

I collapsed onto the cavern floor, sobbing, shaking. The blindfold fell away, and Lucien’s face swam into view. His coal-dark eyes studied me, sharp and unreadable, though a flicker of something softer hid beneath.

“You faced your fear,” he said. “Derrick. Mona. Yourself. And you destroyed them.”

I wiped my tears, chest still heaving. “No. I destroyed who they made me.”

Lucien’s lips curved in approval. “Better. You are beginning to understand.”

I lay trembling, the shadows curling gently around me now, no longer wild, no longer hostile. They felt… loyal. As though I had finall

y earned them.

But in the silence, I wondered what else I might have lost to claim them.