Chapter 5

Mother dragged Elara away from the silver door as she fought to look back, her voice hoarse.

“Lyra is still in there. She can’t survive this long! You promised we would let her out after the trial and take her to the Temple of the First Moon with us.”

“She knows where the spare key is,” Mother said, tightening her grip. “If she insists on hiding, she can stay there until she is ready to apologize. Your blessing will not be delayed for her.”

Elara looked to Father for help, but he only checked the silver lines around her wrist and ordered her upstairs to change. Ronan paused at the underground entrance and listened for any response from behind the door, then followed them.

Once the estate fell silent, the insulated silver door concealed the failed cooling system inside. Mother had come within a few steps of the truth, yet left it for another day. The body behind the door had no more days left.

That afternoon, my parents took Elara to the Temple of the First Moon. For three days after a coming-of-age trial, a new life mark could remain unstable, so they had arranged a blessing to strengthen hers and secure her place in Mooncrest Academy’s best class.

While Mother prayed for Elara to awaken a powerful wolf spirit and Father asked the Moon Goddess to guide her future, Elara requested another wishing lamp from the priestess. She wrote my name on its base and sheltered the flame between her hands.

“Lyra has suffered for eighteen years because of that prophecy,” she whispered. “I don’t care which class she enters, and I don’t need her to keep protecting my life mark. I only want her safe. I want her to live for herself.”

She set the lamp on the moon pool. It drifted toward the altar, but the flame suddenly turned blue. A crack split the glass, and the lamp sank beneath the water.

Elara rose so quickly that the prayer bench scraped the stone floor. “We have to go home. Something has happened to Lyra.”

Mother blocked her path. “The lamp was old. You have spent days turning every accident into a warning because Lyra wants you to feel guilty.”

“She hasn’t opened one of my messages in five days.”

“And the more you worry, the more useful she finds this performance.”

Before Elara could answer, Mother’s phone rang. The estate guard spoke over the roar of rushing water.

“Mrs. Blackwood, a cooling-system pressure alarm has triggered belowground, and the safety controls have failed. The pipes beside the winter store have burst, and water is coming up the stairs, but I can’t enter the sealed corridor without the master key.”

Mother’s face darkened. “Lyra must have tampered with the cooling system to force us home.”

Elara was already running toward the temple doors. This time Father did not stop her. He sent Ronan for the car, and they drove back through the night.

When Father opened the estate doors, alarm lights flashed along the entrance hall. Water poured from the underground level and spread across the stone floor.

Elara rushed downstairs. Near the winter store, a ruptured pipe sent water across the corridor while the safety light above the silver door flashed red.

Elara reached the locked door first and turned on her parents. “Open it. Now.”

Mother stared at the closed door. She had stood in the same place five days earlier and left without turning the key.

Ronan looked at the key in Mother’s hand, remembering how he had stopped her from turning it.

Mother forced the master key into the stiff lock. It caught twice before finally turning. Father gripped the handle beside her, and they pulled together as ice cracked inside the frame.

The door opened only a few inches before something stopped it. Mother seized the handle again and pulled until the frost binding my cloak to the floor broke apart. My body lost its support and fell slowly through the opening.

She caught me by instinct. The frozen cloth scraped her arms as she looked down at the blood sealed across my forehead, my injured knuckles, and the colorless face she had been accusing for five days.

Her wolf spirit released a piercing howl. Then my name tore from her throat.

“Lyra!”