Moon String

Liora Is Back

Chapter Eleven:Liora Is Back

(FLASHBACK)

The smell of smoke always brought the same nightmare.

Lyra was eight years old again.

The cottage was wrapped in the soft glow of dusk as Lyra chased her twin sister around the wooden table, their laughter filling every corner of the tiny home.

"You're too slow!" Liora teased, clutching a paintbrush she'd stolen from Lyra's collection.

"Give it back!" Lyra giggled, reaching for her.

Their mother laughed from the kitchen.

"Both of you, stop running before you break something."

The twins came to an abrupt halt, exchanging guilty smiles before bursting into another fit of laughter.

It was the last peaceful memory Lyra would ever have.

Later that evening, rain clouds gathered outside, and darkness settled over the forest. Their parents had stepped outside to bring in the laundry, leaving the girls alone.

"I'm cold," liora whispered.

Lyra glanced at the small oil lantern resting on the table.

"I'll make it brighter."

She climbed onto a chair and reached for it with both hands.

It slipped.

The lantern crashed onto the wooden floor.

Glass shattered.

Oil splashed across the old floorboards.

For one terrifying heartbeat...

Nothing happened.

Then...

Whoosh!

Flames erupted like hungry beasts, racing across the oil.

"Liora!" Lyra screamed.

The fire spread unnaturally fast, climbing the curtains and devouring the walls.

"I can't see!" Liora cried through the thick smoke.

Lyra stumbled toward her, coughing violently as heat burned her face.

She grabbed her sister's hand.

For one precious second...

Their fingers locked.

Then part of the burning ceiling collapsed between them with a deafening crash.

"Liora!"

Their hands slipped apart.

"No!" Lyra lunged toward the flames, but the heat threw her backward.

She could barely breathe.

"Liora! Where are you?"

A small hand reached through the smoke.

Then vanished.

The fire roared louder.

Someone grabbed Lyra from behind.

She kicked and screamed.

"No! My sister's still inside! Let me go! Liora!"

Strong arms carried her away from the burning house despite her desperate cries.

She watched helplessly as flames swallowed the cottage whole.

"Liora!"

Her scream echoed through the forest.

Nobody answered.

The next morning, all that remained was ash, charred timber... and silence.

From that day on, Lyra carried one unbearable truth in her heart.

She had dropped the lantern.

She had started the fire.

She had killed her sister.

(Back To Present Day)

"Liora is that you?" I asked, stunned by what I was seeing

. "Yes it is, I did not die in that fire."

"What happened, I saw you, you did not make it out of that fire, I watched you burn."

I said, several tears already forming in my eyes.My voice shaky and my mind unable to comprehend this.

"All this while I've carried this guilt thinking that I had killed my own sister." I ran to embrace her

"Thank God ,you're alive, I missed you so much. How have you been"

"I'm fine, I was rescued by an elderly woman who took me and raised me.What about you and our family"She asked,her eyes filled with concern.

"Well Mom and Dad died " I looked away so she wouldn't see the tears forming in my eyes and the pain in my heart.

"They died in that fire. So the Luna and the alpha adopted me and raised me till I grew up."

Liora hugged me tightly, bringing ,back to the good old days when she would always protect and comfort me.

I could tell hearing the news of our parent's death affected her so much.

"I need to tell you something, i...." She couldn't complete her statement as she was extremely terrified by the heavy footsteps she heard.

"It's the Lycan king, she said with eyes wide like a saucepan 'I can smell this scent'"

"Well I can't smell anything, my wolf hasn't woken up yet." I said feeling miserably even though I knew this wasn't the time to start any self pity

"Shh he's here, don't make a sound and most importantly don't look him in the eyes" she said.

Why would she tell me not to look into his eyes now, I really want to do that...

Third person POV

The heavy prison door groaned wide open like a dying beast as King Vaelric shoved it open accompanied by his entourage of soldiers, this massive frame filling the torchlight archway.

The air reeked of fear and old blood. Scents that usually pleased the lycan king when dealing with traitors.

His golden eyes, glowing with barely contained power swept the cells. Guards bowed low, not daring to look up. He was dominance incarnate broad shouldered, clad in a dark tunic.

The mate bond had been pulling at him for hours, Ever since he left Lyra in that cave his wolf had not been at rest, forever reprimanding him and constantly calling for Lyra (his mate.)

Then, as he approaches the dungeon, A familiar sweet scent slip into the air. His steps falter. His wolf immediately stirs.

"That's the scent of the girl from the forest, our mate, she's here" his wolf says happily. He's clearly not happy about.

His mind flashes back to the cold forest floor. Soft hands pressing against his wounds with herbs. A gentle voice telling him to hold on while she played her violin.

The Chief guards immediately speaks, "Your majesty, we've captured a rogue" but he doesn't care. He follows that scent like it's his LIFELINE.

When he reaches the cell, She sitting against the wall, exhausted but defiant.Silver chains wrapped tightly against her hands.

Their eyes meet.She freezes

She recognizes him too.

But as the beautiful wolf she rescued that night. Her thoughts begin to race.

The king's wolf is practically pacing inside her.

Protect her. Take that chain off her.She's ours.

Vaelric ignores it. He's angry that the moon Goddess dared to give him a wolf less mate as a queen"Don't say that" she's stronger than you think "his wolf proudly defends her" "You don't even know her" Vaelric sighs

"She has a wolf, I can sense it, She's asleep?" He said pacing in my head.

"Who are you?" I asked her, wondering why she was staring directly into my eyes. That was one of the unspoken rules of the kingdom.

"It depends on who's asking." She said casually with a shrug. The guards eyes widened in shock.

Her audacity to talk to the king who this!!

"Answer me?" He yelled yet deep down he was amused.

"That wasn't very convincing" she replies.

"Have we met before" He asked. She hesitates thinking about if she could lie

"You were injured"

"You remember?" He said feigning shock.

"Your wolf was more fun to talk to" She said staring deep into his eyes as if wanting a reaction.

"Release her" I turn and said to the guards and give her a room in my house"

He was about to turn and leave until she said this.

"No" She said point blank

"I'm not leaving here without my sister."

For the first time the king observed the cell and noticed a small figure huddled hugging her knees and looking unkempt.

"Release her too, don't think for one second that you can make the rules here. you're just an object of my empathy, nothing more" He said and turned on his boots and left.