Chapter Twenty-Four — Lyra’s POV

All I could do now was wait: wait for a fate I‘d spent six years running from, wait to know if I’d live to see another day, and wait to learn if I’d ever hold my son in my arms again. Just as she had said yesterday, Hecate returned at dawn, eager for my answer to her proposal. I’d spent the night turning her proposal over in my mind, dissecting every word she had spoken. She was very smart—I had to give her that. Cunning, deceptive, and powerful. All the warning signs that a woman like her was not to be trusted. And yet, when the moment came, I found myself saying yes to her proposal. Yes, I would kill Kaine if it meant unlocking my witch side. As long as she promised no harm would come to my son. The saying, “there’s nothing more dangerous than a desperate mother,” had never felt truer.

I spent the day staring out the window, and as evening fell, my heart began to race with the rising moon. Darkness fell upon the sky, and my entire body seized with tension about the unknown. Shadows thickened, and once the moon reached its apex, the door swung open. Four guards stomped in, their boots echoing against the concrete floor as they closed in. They unlocked the cage and dragged me through the corridors until we reached the ground that haunted my nightmares. It was the same place they’d brought me every week during the eight months I spent in captivity, where they’d slice my wrists and conduct their dark rituals. But tonight was different. This time, it wasn’t me on the tomb. It was my son.

My heart plummeted when I saw Leo struggling against the chains that bound him to the tomb.

“Leo!” I cried out, my voice cracking as I fought with every ounce of strength in me to break free from the guards’ grasp. But the chains held fast. The guards were too strong.

Thane stood before Leo, a wicked grin spreading across his face as he held a silver dagger in one hand. “How delightful of you to join us, Lyra. We were just about to begin.”

“You monster!” I thrashed against their grip, kicking and clawing, my fangs bared in a desperate snarl. “I’m going to kill you if you touch him. I swear, I’m going to kill you!”

Thane chuckled, shaking his head with a twisted amusement. “Look around, Lyra. Today is the day you die.” He turned to the guards. “Take her over there,” he ordered. “I want her to watch as I take her son’s life. And gag her or something—just get her to shut the hell up.”

Despite my relentless struggle to break free from the guards’ grip, knowing it was futile, they dragged me to the front of the tomb, right in front of Leo. Leo’s eyes met with mine, and the sight shattered my heart.

“Mo—mommy,” he whimpered, his gaze filled with tears. “Help,” he trembled, pleading for me to help, to save him. But as I stood there, I felt a wave of shame wash over me. I wanted to reach out, to do something—anything—but I… I couldn’t.

Tears streamed down my face as I watched my son, helpless. I couldn’t offer the reassurance I desperately wanted to—couldn’t tell him that everything was going to be fine, because it wouldn’t.

My gaze shifted when I heard footsteps, followed by Thane’s angry voice. “We’ve been waiting for you. Where the hell have you been?”

I looked up to see Hecate standing beside him, her presence cold and commanding. “A ritual like this requires substantial preparation,” she said, her tone dismissive. I caught the flash of anger in Thane’s eyes as he glared at her.

She turned to look at me, and I hoped to find some semblance of reassurance, knowing she was bound to honor her promise. But all I saw was an empty void in her eyes—devoid of emotion, cold and distant.

Hecate motioned for Thane to stand at the foot of the tomb while she took her position at the head. After one last fleeting glance in my direction, she raised her hand toward the sky and began chanting, her voice growing darker with each word.

“No!” I screamed, but the sound was muffled by the cloth gagging my mouth. Tears streamed down my face as I screamed and wailed, but it was as if my cries fell on deaf ears. Hecate was carrying out the ritual. After everything, I knew I couldn’t trust her. Rage, grief, and hopelessness overwhelmed me, a suffocating mix of emotions. A part of me wished more than anything that this was just another of my nightmares, that I would wake up any second. But when Thane raised the knife, poised to strike Leo, the brutal reality slammed into me like a punch to the gut.

Then, without warning, a surge of energy erupted, flinging everyone around me to the ground, including Thane. The blast sent me crashing into a tree, and I felt a bone in my body crack under the impact. But the pain in my back barely registered—I couldn’t focus on it. I scrambled to my feet, my heart racing, and I saw Hecate still standing at the head of the tomb, with Leo… unharmed.

His cry pierced through the silence, and I staggered toward him, limping with urgency.

“Leo, Leo,” I called desperately, frantically scanning his body for any sign of injury. “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”

“Mommy, please, don’t let them hurt me.” He shook his head, tears brimming in his eyes. I leaned down, pressing my lips to his skin, kissing him over and over, my heart both shattered and relieved.

“We had an agreement, Lyra,” Hecate said quietly. “Now it’s time for you to uphold yours.”

As if on cue, a deafening roar echoed through the night, and the ground beneath us trembled. I whipped my head up to see Kaine leading a pack of wolves, charging at us with incredible speed. Seeing the threat, the Blackwoods quickly recovered, baring their fangs and claws, reading for the battle. Thane shot a sharp, venomous glare at Hecate, having realized that she betrayed him, a look that promised death—both hers and mine. He grabbed a knife and began stomping toward us, but he barely made it a few steps before he was attacked from behind.

This was my chance to free Leo, and I turned to act on it, but then Hecate lifted the silver dagger, extending it to me. “Kill him,” she said, her eyes gleaming with a sinister intent. “Kill him and become the most powerful supernatural force the world has ever known.”

It hit me now—the realization that the deal I had made was something I could never uphold. I had spent so much time worrying about whether Hecate would keep her word, but deep down, I knew with absolute certainty that I could never uphold my end of the agreement.

I stood frozen, Hecate’s hand still extended with the dagger in it, as she searched my eyes for any sign of compliance. My heart pounded in my chest, filled with dread.

“Kill him, Lyra,” Hecate repeated, her voice sharper this time, cutting through the chaos behind us, carrying with it a warning of what was going to happen if I didn’t comply.

With trembling hands, I reached for the dagger, but the moment my fingers touched it, my grip faltered and it slipped from my hand, clattering to the ground.

Hecate’s eyes narrowed, and she hissed, “I knew it. I knew I could never trust a shifter. Like the rest of the world, you have let your emotions cloud your judgment. And now, it’s going to be the end of everything you’ve ever loved.”

As I watched her eyes darken with rage, I realized with terrifying clarity that this plan, this deal, was doomed from the start. With a wave of her hand, an invisible force shoved me from the tomb, the impact throwing me a few feet away, to the ground. And Hecate grabbed the dagger, raising it with intent to slit Leo’s wrists.

“Hecate!” I shouted, my voice trembling with fear and desperation. “Stop! You swore you wouldn’t hurt him!”

“And you swore you’d kill Kaine Thornfield!” she retorted. “But I see now that you have no intention of honoring our deal.”

Her fingers tightened around the dagger, and in a single swift motion, she slashed Leo’s right wrist.

“No!” I choked, my voice hoarse, but the words barely left my lips. Blood began to pool around Leo’s wrists, his anguished cry slicing through the air, drowning the chaos behind me till all I could hear was the raw sound of his suffering ripping through me like a blade.

I pushed myself off the ground, storming toward the tomb with a fury that surged from deep within, a fury I hadn’t even known existed. I could feel my wolf tugging at my insides, begging for me to unleash her. At that moment, I didn’t care that she’d be wild and uncontrollable, didn’t care about the destruction she’d cause. Hecate had harmed my son, and I was going to rip her apart, limb to limb.

The next moment happened in a blur. As I charged toward Hecate, I suddenly found myself immobilized, her spell paralyzing me from the waist down. Through the haze, I saw Kaine leap from behind me, a blur of rage as he rushed toward her. But she was ready—a flick of her wrist, and the silver dagger in her hand flew through the air, burying itself deep in his chest.

My breath hitched, freezing me in place as I watched in horror while she twisted the dagger deeper into his chest. I opened my mouth to scream, but no words came out, my mind was barely able to comprehend the sight of Kaine crumbling to the ground with a knife stuck in his chest. His eyes locked onto mine, filled with shock as his hands clutched the hilt of the dagger, fingers trembling while blood soaked his gray T-shirt.

But Hecate wasn’t finished. Leo’s cries pierced the night, snapping my gaze back to the tomb just as she sliced his left wrist. Dropping the knife to the ground, she lifted her hands and eyes to the sky, chanting a torrent of spells that made the earth tremble with brutal force. She was doing the ritual. She was killing Leo.

I stood in the middle, watching my entire world crumble in a scene of unbearable agony unfolding before me. To my left, Leo was fading, his little body going limp as blood drained from his wrist. To my right, Kaine was dying, his breaths shallow and ragged as he struggled to pull the knife embedded deep in his chest. The two people I loved most, my entire world, were shattering before my very eyes. I wanted to go to them, to save them both, but I could only stand there, paralyzed in helplessness.

I faced Hecate, tears streaming down my face as I screamed through the storm swirling around us. “Please, Hecate, stop this!” My voice cracked. I was clinging to the last shred of hope. “I’ll do whatever you want—just don’t take them from me.”

Hecate’s smirk was cold, twisted with satisfaction, and my heart sank. “It’s too late, Lyra.”

The sky rumbled as the ground beneath me shook violently. I fought with every ounce of strength to move, but it was useless.

Suddenly, an excruciating, burning pain hit me, a pain unlike anything I’d ever known. It felt as though something deep within me was being torn apart, struggling to break free. My hands flew to my head, clutching it as a desperate scream ripped through my throat.

“Make it stop, Hecate! Please, make it stop!” I begged desperately, but the pain grew sharper, every nerve in my body set ablaze. I sank to my knees, the paralysis now gone, clawing at the ground, my fingernails digging into the dirt as I writhed in agony. The pain intensified, magnified by the fierce struggle of my wolf trying to break free. Tears streamed down my face, but when the metallic taste hit my tongue, I realized it wasn’t tears. It was blood. My body convulsed, every muscle suddenly seizing as if a thousand needles were being driven into me from every angle.

And then, everything stopped.

The chants, the chaos behind me, the searing pain coursing through my nerves, everything went still. I opened my eyes and the world had shifted. My vision was clearer, sharper. My senses expanded—each sound, each scent amplified a hundredfold. The air was thick with blood, and I could taste the fear around me. Magic pulsed in the atmosphere like a living, breathing thing.

I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a shard of broken glass. The warm brown in my eyes had been replaced by a swirling unnatural gold. I wasn’t just a werewolf anymore. I wasn’t even sure what I was. But I knew this much—I was something different. Something far more powerful.