Lahat ng Kabanata ng Mate Rebound : Kabanata 141 - Kabanata 150

Lyra’s POV~The wind roared through the mountain pass, taking the snow along as it blew. This was not natural snow that covered a landscape. It bit and stung. But I did not hold back, not me; I was carving the final notch in stone frozen to hardness. Nox was at my side, softly muttering the word to the binding rites in a language I knew only faintly. It wasn’t Academy magic. It was older. He only looked at me once, in the middle of his chant. “These ruins refuse to sleep.”I didn’t respond. I already knew that. It was Elara’s choice to assign me to close the ruin after that stasis find. She had barely heard from Damien since. There was the way they eyed each other, which was the presence between heartache and worse. Jasmine had not arrived yet. Which left me and Nox. We were the ones to whom nobody else wanted to feel.There was a musty smell of power in the air. And then, as I passed the line we had marked, a warm tingle swept over my runes. I dropped to my knees and placed my hand u

Elara’s POV~When the shard first started glowing, I thought I was tripping on it. It had remained asleep since Sabrina died. But as I strode through the nursery rooms of Mirrorvale, it came back to me. A low hum under my skin. Not a heat of anger, or terror, or pain. Just… choice. And it was calling to me. Lyra caught it first.We were stripping the children’s bunks and creating a pathway for Winifred’s doctors. I slipped, and I bumped into a fragment of shattered rune tile from a broken floor — and the shard in my chest echoed back against my ribs. Lyra dropped her chalk. “Elara,” she whispered, “your eyes.”I turned toward her. “What?”“They’re glowing.” I froze. My fingers tingled. I looked down. The line on my palm that I’d thought must have turned silver had turned gold.“It's responding,” Lyra said. “But not the way it used to.” When we got back, they had all formed a circle around us in the courtyard, the oldest of the Forgotten looking as uncertain and lost as the rest of us.

Lyra’s POV~The Academy was the same when we returned. The stone walls remained, old and strong. The halls still whispered the musings of young wolves and ancient professors. The banners still lined the walls of the grand hall, embroidered with old house sigils. The air … the air felt very strange. As if it had been taught how to bear secrets.The first protest was on the following morning. A warning sketched in red ink along the west courtyard wall :“Crownless blood belongs in chains.”There were three more by midday. One professor would not allow Jasmine to take her class. Two students walked by me in the hallway, murmuring, “Monster in a mirror.” Another bowed.We weren’t students anymore. We were symbols. Worshipped or feared. And I didn’t want either. The council’s chamber was crowded that evening with the council meeting. Heads of departments. Surviving pack elders. And even a few from the Southern Alliance. There was a seat for everyone where they always sat—except for Sabri

Elara’s POV~Julian stood in the middle of the Blade Tower’s forechamber, his black blade’s dull light shining weakly in his hand. His voice broke the silence. “You were not supposed to find this room,” he said, his voice, once used for mild praises at colleagues, was now different.To my left, Jasmine held out her short sword. Her eyes never left Julian’s. “Has it been long? How long have you been in his service?”Julian laughed sarcastically and bitterly. “For the Warden? Don’t flatter yourselves. I served the cause before it was known. Before Silver Veil, before the Alpha War. I was in service for the birth of this line.”“The Forgotten Sons,” Lyra said the name as though it were poison.Julian turned his head. “Our ranks have been decimated, but why we joined is not. We’re sharper now, freer.”“Traitors,” Damien snapped, taking a step towards him with his sword half drawn. “That’s what you are.”Julian glanced over at Damien, thoughtful. “You of all people should not talk of betra

Elara’s POV~I had seen many skies. But I had never witnessed a sky bleeding. Not like this. The sun had broken. Not shattered—perhaps. It was as if a large black disk had appeared between the sky and earth and covered the light until it shattered soundlessly. And in the air, hung in the center of it all. A black sun. It radiated no heat. Only gravity. It pulled everything toward it. Even us. I stumbled forward. Then Jasmine caught me before I fell.Caspian clenched the hilt of his sword until his knuckles turned white, behind her. There was still blood on his face, from a slash across one cheek, but he bore it without showing the pain. Lyra stood, her shard dimly lit against the curve of her collarbone. Damien said nothing, as usual, and instead had put himself between the mess and the rest of us - his shield raised, his eyes scanning the sky. “What is it?” Lyra whispered. I swallowed hard. “A signal.”“From who?”“From whatever’s beneath us.” The courtyard wasn’t a safe place to be