Chapter 17

Lyra & Kael

Lyra

I stumbled through the forest, gripping trees for support. Every step felt like moving through mud. Every swivel of my head made the world spin so violently I thought I was going to be sick.

I wasn’t supposed to be here. The antidote was coursing through my system now—I should have been asleep in bed, having nightmares about the night my family was killed.

But instead I was here.

In the restricted area.

The eastern forest.

If I got caught here, I could be expelled in the blink of an eye. I would never be able to return to Ravencrest, would never pass my Alpha classes, and probably could never avenge Silvercrest.

But I had seen Mia being dragged into this forest by her attackers, kicking and screaming with a pillowcase over her head, and I couldn’t just let them take her. I had to help her. Had to prevent the same thing that had happened in my past life from happening to her in this one.

No one ever told us officially what happened to Mia in my past life; all I knew was that she was in a horrible accident. That Cassidy “found” her in the woods, barely alive.

And after that… Mia never returned to Ravencrest.

She never walked again, either.

This second chance wasn’t just about me. I knew what was going to happen before it happened, which was a massive advantage—and was also precisely why I had to go after her.

But damn if it wasn’t hard. This antidote made me feel like I wasn’t even in my own body.

I pushed forward, following her screams. Up ahead, on the narrow path that led toward the old ruins where students liked to party before the forest became restricted, I saw her attackers drag her around a bend.

“Mia!” I shouted, stumbling faster. “Mia, I’m coming!”

I had nearly reached the bend when a flashlight beam cut through the forest behind me. Whipping my head around, I saw two figures approaching. One had a blonde ponytail.

“I think they went this way,” Cassidy’s voice said. “I saw them run off—”

Shit.

I gritted my teeth and continued forward, eventually coming across a spot where a recent struggle had happened. The leaves and dirt were disturbed, and I quickly followed the trail down a small slope.

“Mia!” I hissed, spotting a head of dark hair. She whirled around—she was alone. They had left her here, terrified and disoriented.

“Lyra—”

“This way.” I grabbed her wrist and yanked her down into the dirt, where the roots of a large tree were half-protruding from the slope, just as the flashlight beam flicked toward us. I pressed my hand over her mouth as we huddled close to the tree, making ourselves as small as possible.

Mia’s eyes were wide and full of tears, but I placed my finger over my lips, indicating for her to stay silent. She did.

Overhead, the footsteps stopped. The flashlight beam panned across the forest, and we slunk further into the shadows.

“I saw them around here,” Cassidy sighed. “I swear, professor, they ran off in this direction. I watched them.”

A moment later, an older male’s voice replied, “You just watched them run off into the restricted forest, which you know is dangerous, and you didn’t try to stop them?”

I could practically hear Cassidy’s eyes roll. “Of course I tried, but—”

“Furthermore, what are you even doing out at this time of night?” The flashlight panned away. “You should be in your dorm. Asleep. It’s the first day of school, for Luna’s sake!”

“But I swear—”

“Get back to your dorm, Cassidy. I’ll report this in the morning, but for now, I don’t see anyone.”

I heard Cassidy’s sigh of frustration, and the flashlight panned over the forest one more time before they both turned and walked away.

Only once I was certain they were gone, footsteps and voices fading into the distance, did I finally remove my hand from Mia’s mouth.

“Are you alright?” I whispered, grabbing her shoulders and checking her for injury.

She nodded, tearful but uninjured. “Y-Yeah. I’m fine. But what about you? You were basically drunk.”

I grinned. “Chasing someone down in the forest is a sobering experience.” I stood and helped her to her feet. “Now let’s get back before—”

“Um, Lyra…”

Mia shakily lifted her hand, pointing over my shoulder. Heart in my throat, I slowly turned to find the dark figure of a wolf standing mere feet away. It raised its hackles, lip curling to reveal yellowed fangs dripping with saliva.

“Mia,” I said, stepping backwards, “run.”

…

Kael

Lyra was dead.

I came home from my Alpha inheritance ceremony and went straight to her room, expecting to find her laying in bed, just as she had been doing for two weeks now.

“Lyra?”

Her curtains were open, the room bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, which was a surprise since she’d been keeping it dark in here for days. Maybe that meant she was feeling better. But when I looked around, I spotted her slender form laying still beneath the covers.

“Lyra.”

No response. I walked over to her and gently shook her. A pale, emaciated hand fell out from beneath the blanket, and glassy eyes stared up at me as I pushed her onto her back.

“Lyra!”

I leapt onto the bed, shaking her with all my might. She didn’t wake no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I begged. She truly was gone.

I couldn’t believe it; just two weeks ago, my mate was alive and well, and… Goddess, what a fool I had been. As I held her limp body, cradling her in my arms, my world narrowed to the pain and regret enshrouding me.

This was my fault. All my fault.

“Lyra,” I whispered, pushing a strand of thin, chestnut hair out of her eyes. “Lyra, I’m so sorry…”

“Alpha?”

I turned to find Lyra’s maid standing in the doorway, holding a tray of tea that fell from her hands when she saw the blood staining my mate’s white nightgown.

“You didn’t tell me she was this sick,” I barked, fury suddenly replacing my anguish. I gently set Lyra aside and rose, my hands curling into trembling fists at my sides, then stormed over to her. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

The maid immediately dropped to her hands and knees and pressed her forehead to the floor. “I-I’m sorry, Alpha!” she cried. “I-I wanted to, but Lady Bianca told me not to—”

Bianca.

I didn’t wait for the maid to say more. I swept out of the room like a cloud of rolling thunder and found Bianca in the parlor, humming to herself as she practiced her embroidery. Without thinking, I slapped the needle out of her hands and towered over her, chest heaving with rage.

“You,” I growled, advancing on her as she scrambled over the back of the chair and across the room. “You deliberately kept it from me. And now she’s dead.”

Bianca’s eyes were wide as saucers. “Dead? I only didn’t want to ruin your ceremony, so I didn’t bother telling you about her games. I didn’t know she was—”

“You will pay.” I grabbed her by the throat and hauled her to her feet. Her toes barely grazed the floor. “You will pay for the death of my mate.”

Bianca kicked and scrabbled desperately, but it was no use. I wanted to watch the life fade from her eyes. Wanted to see her final moments. Wanted her to feel a fraction of the pain Bianca had felt when—

Suddenly, I jolted awake. My chest was still heaving, back coated in sweat.

What the hell…?

I was still in my dorm at Ravencrest; it was past midnight. The dream clung to the edges of my consciousness, but I shook my head to dispel it. Lyra was alive. And she certainly wasn’t my mate.

And Bianca…

Wasn’t that the girl I danced with at the mixer? I hardly knew her.

I needed air, I decided.

A few minutes later, I found myself walking along the outskirts of the main campus. The eastern forest, my usual haunting grounds for strange, sleepless nights, was off-limits, so I settled for the pathway that led around the perimeter of the stone buildings that made up Ravencrest.

That damn dream still left me unsettled, even now, with the cool air brushing across my face. It had felt so real, I swore I could still feel Bianca’s trachea crushing under my fingers.

Frowning, I looked down at my hand, splaying my fingers wide in the moonlight. None of it made any sense—I had to chalk it up to a strange anxiety dream brought on by the start of a new school year and Lyra acting differently.

I couldn’t find another explanation for it.

I shook my head again and stuffed my hand back into my pocket, turning to head back to my dorm. I was just about to make my way in that direction when I heard a girl’s voice call out, “Help! Kael! Help!”

I whirled around to see a freshman I vaguely recognized as one of Cassidy’s friends running toward me, flailing her arms. She skidded to a halt in front of me, breathless and pale with terror.

“It’s Lyra,” she said, pointing at the eastern forest. “She’s been attacked!”