The second Lyla’s hands touched the Gate of Shadows, the world shattered.
A blast of energy exploded outward, raw and ancient, sending shockwaves through the ruins. The force slammed into everyone: Eli, the pack, and the Marked Ones hurling them backward as the sky darkened unnaturally.
Lyla couldn’t move.
The stone beneath her palms was alive, pulsing in time with her heartbeat, dragging her into something far beyond herself.
Visions flooded her mind.
Flashes of a time before the packs.
A great war. Blood on the roots of the forest. Wolves standing beside the Marked Ones, not against them.
And then betrayal.
The wolves turn on their kin.
A broken oath.
A seal forged in desperation.
And now, Lyla had touched it.
And it was breaking.
A voice, old and cold, whispered in her mind
