CHAPTER 14
1038 Words
THE MAN WHO SHOULD BE DEAD
Lyra's POV :
No one spoke.
The fire crackled between us.
I stared at the letter lying on the ground.
Six words.
Six words that feel impossible and hard to believe.
YOUR FATHER DID NOT DIE.
Darian picked up the paper.
His eyes moved across the writing.
His expression became grim.
"Where did Kael get this?"
"How am l supposed to know."
"Who wrote it?"
"And again how am l supposed to know Darian."
"Why would he tell you?"
I laughed bitterly.
"Because apparently everyone knows something about my life except me."
Darian crouched beside me.
"Lyra."
I looked at him.
"You knew my father."
His jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"You said you were there when he died."
"I was."
"You watched him die?"
"Yes."
"Then explain this."
I held up the letter.
Darian stared at it.
"I can't."
"You said he wasn't a traitor."
"He wasn't."
"Then what happened?"
Darian looked away.
"I was twenty."
I waited.
"I had just joined the Alpha's guard. Your father was arrested."
"Why?"
"They accused him of helping rogues attack a Council facility."
"My father hated rogues."
"I know."
"Then why?"
Darian's eyes hardened.
"Because the evidence was perfect."
"What evidence?"
"Documents. Witnesses. Financial records."
"Fake."
"I believe so."
"But you said he died."
"I watched a man executed."
I stared.
"A man?"
Darian's silence told me everything.
"You don't know who died."
"No."
My heart pounded.
"Then my father could have escaped."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know."
I looked away.
The world felt unstable beneath my feet.
My father could be alive.
My mother had been a queen of some kind of bloodline.
The Council had lied.
The mate system had been manipulated.
And somehow, I was connected to all of it.
I stood.
"I need to find him."
Darian immediately rose.
"We will."
I stared at him.
"We?"
He looked almost surprised by the question.
"Yes."
Riven emerged from the darkness.
"Of course we will."
I looked between them.
"Why?"
Neither answered immediately.
Finally, Darian spoke.
"Because you're not doing this alone."
The words touched something inside me.
Something fragile.
I quickly pushed it away.
"I'm not asking you to."
"I know."
His voice was quiet.
"But I'm staying."
Riven smiled.
"Unfortunately, I'm also staying."
I rolled my eyes.
"You make it sound like a punishment."
"For you?"
He grinned.
"Absolutely."
For a moment, the darkness lifted.
Then a howl echoed from the mountains.
Darian's expression changed.
"What?"
"Something's wrong."
He looked toward the trees.
"The northern scouts."
Riven went still.
"They've found the temple."
My heart stopped.
"The temple from my vision?"
Riven nodded.
"And they're not alone."
---
We traveled before sunrise.
The mountains grew larger as we approached.
The air became colder.
My pendant grew warmer.
Every step toward the temple made the mark beneath my collarbone burn.
Then we reached the entrance.
Ancient stone doors stood between two enormous statues.
Both statues depicted wolves.
But one had silver eyes.
The other had black.
In the center was a carving of a woman holding a crescent-shaped blade.
I walked closer.
My pendant began glowing.
The stone doors moved.
Darian grabbed my arm.
"Wait."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"There's no mechanism."
"Then why are they opening?"
We both looked at the carving.
My blood ran cold.
The woman on the stone looked exactly like me.
Not similar.
Exactly.
I stepped forward.
My fingers touched the carving.
The temple doors opened completely.
Darkness waited beyond them.
Then a voice whispered from inside.
Not the voice I'd heard before.
This one was male.
Ancient.
Weak.
But unmistakably alive.
"Lyra."
I froze.
Darian reached for his weapon.
Riven's wolf emerged beneath his skin.
The voice came again.
"Lyra Veyne."
I stepped into the darkness.
"Who are you?"
Silence.
Then—
"I am the man who watched your mother die."
My blood turned cold.
Darian grabbed my wrist.
"Don't go further."
I pulled free.
"Why?"
The voice whispered:
"Because once you enter..."
The doors behind us slammed shut.
"...you will finally remember who killed her."
Darkness swallowed us.
And somewhere deep beneath the temple—
something began to wake.
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