Someone Wants Me Dead
2022 Words
The silver light beneath Lyra's hands grew brighter.
For one terrifying second, nobody moved.
The masked figures stood among the ruins of Raven Hollow, surrounding the broken tower from every direction. Their dark clothing blended into the shadows, making them look less like people and more like pieces of the night itself.
Lyra's heart hammered against her ribs.
The words carved into the stone were still behind her.
The blood of the stolen moon shall awaken when the false bond is broken.
And now these strangers were standing in front of her, telling her they wanted what was inside her.
Not her.
Something inside her.
"What do you want from me?" Lyra demanded.
The man standing at the center of the group tilted his head.
"You already know."
"No," Lyra said. "I don't."
His eyes moved toward the mark beneath her collarbone.
"The blood."
A chill passed through her.
Mara stepped closer to Lyra.
"You need to leave," she whispered.
The masked man laughed softly.
"There is nowhere for you to go."
Lyra looked around.
He was right.
Figures stood between the ruined houses.
Others blocked the narrow path leading toward the forest.
More waited behind the tower.
There were too many.
Mara's hand tightened around Lyra's wrist.
"How many are there?"
"I don't know."
"Can you use that power again?"
Lyra looked at her hands.
The silver light was fading.
"I don't know."
The man took one step forward.
"Don't make this difficult."
Lyra lifted her chin.
"You followed me here."
"We followed what belongs to us."
"I don't belong to you."
The man's eyes narrowed.
"Your mother said the same thing."
Lyra froze.
"My mother."
The masked man said nothing.
"How do you know Selene?"
Still nothing.
Lyra stepped forward.
"What happened to her?"
The man slowly removed one glove.
A black symbol was carved into the skin of his palm.
Lyra's breath caught.
It was the same crescent-shaped symbol that had appeared on her skin.
Mara saw it too.
"Lyra..."
"I know."
The man smiled.
"Now you understand."
"No," Lyra whispered. "I understand that you have the same mark."
"Not the same."
He raised his hand.
"Yours is the blood mark."
His finger pointed toward Lyra's chest.
"Ours is the claim."
Lyra's stomach turned.
"Claim?"
"You were hidden from us for twenty years."
The words struck her harder than she expected.
Twenty years.
Her entire life.
"You've been looking for me?"
"Since the night you were born."
Lyra's breathing became shallow.
The vision returned to her mind.
Selene running through the forest.
The baby in her arms.
The hooded figures behind her.
You cannot hide her forever.
She belongs to us.
Lyra finally understood.
They weren't memories.
They were warnings.
"You were there," she whispered.
The masked man smiled.
"Some of us."
"Who are you?"
"That doesn't matter."
"It matters to me."
He took another step.
"What matters is that your mother failed."
Lyra's blood ran cold.
"Don't talk about her."
"She ran. She hid you. She erased your existence from every record she could find."
His voice became colder.
"But blood cannot be erased."
Lyra touched her pendant.
The silver metal pulsed beneath her fingers.
The man noticed.
"That pendant."
His expression changed.
For the first time, he looked almost afraid.
"Give it to me."
Lyra closed her fist around it.
"No."
"Give it to me."
"No."
The mark beneath her collarbone suddenly burned.
Pain shot through her chest.
Lyra stumbled.
Mara caught her.
"Lyra!"
The masked figures moved at once.
"Now!"
One of them lunged.
Lyra barely had time to react.
She threw out her hand.
A wave of silver energy exploded from her body.
The attacker was thrown backward.
He crashed into a stone wall.
Mara stared.
Lyra stared too.
The power was stronger this time.
Much stronger.
But it came with a price.
Her knees nearly gave out.
The leader raised his hand.
"Don't kill her."
The others stopped.
Lyra looked up.
"What?"
The leader's eyes remained fixed on her.
"I said don't kill her."
One of the masked figures spoke.
"But if she resists—"
"She must remain alive."
Lyra's blood went cold.
"Why?"
The leader looked directly at her.
"Because dead blood is useless."
Silence.
Lyra understood.
They didn't simply want her dead.
They wanted her alive.
They wanted whatever power existed inside her.
And suddenly, the fear became something deeper.
Someone had been searching for her since the night she was born.
Someone had hidden her.
Someone had manipulated her fate.
And now someone wanted to take her blood.
The leader pointed toward her.
"Take her."
The figures moved.
Mara grabbed Lyra's arm.
"Run!"
They turned toward the tower.
"There's nowhere to go!"
"There has to be!"
They sprinted between the broken walls.
A figure appeared ahead.
Mara stopped.
Another appeared behind them.
Lyra looked toward the tower.
The circular symbol carved into the stone seemed to glow faintly.
Her pendant became hot.
The voice returned.
Touch the moon.
Lyra froze.
"What?"
Mara grabbed her shoulder.
"Lyra!"
The voice came again.
Touch the symbol.
Lyra turned toward the wall.
The ancient crescent waited beneath the dust.
She ran toward it.
"Stop her!"
Someone shouted behind them.
A hand grabbed Lyra's shoulder.
She screamed and twisted away.
The attacker raised a blade.
Mara stepped between them.
"Don't touch her!"
The blade came down.
Lyra reached for the stone.
Her palm touched the symbol.
Everything changed.
The world went silent.
No footsteps.
No voices.
No wind.
Nothing.
Then the stone beneath her hand became warm.
Silver light spread through the carving.
The entire wall trembled.
The masked figures stopped.
The leader's eyes widened.
"No."
The symbol began to glow.
Lines of light spread outward across the ruined tower, forming the shape of a giant crescent.
Lyra couldn't breathe.
Something was awakening.
Inside the stone.
Inside her.
Inside the blood she had spent her entire life believing was ordinary.
A powerful pulse moved through her body.
Then the tower exploded with light.
The masked figures were thrown backward.
Mara fell to the ground.
Lyra remained standing.
Her hair moved in the invisible force surrounding her.
Her eyes burned with silver light.
For a moment, she didn't feel like herself.
She felt older.
Stronger.
Connected to something vast and ancient.
The voice whispered inside her mind.
Remember who you are.
Lyra closed her eyes.
Images flashed through her mind.
A woman standing beneath a moonless sky.
A crown made of silver.
A throne surrounded by wolves.
A blood-red moon.
And a figure kneeling before her.
Then the vision vanished.
Lyra gasped.
The light disappeared.
She dropped to her knees.
Mara rushed toward her.
"Lyra!"
"I'm okay."
"You were glowing."
"I know."
"You made that entire tower light up."
"I know."
Mara looked terrified.
Lyra understood why.
Because she was terrified too.
The masked leader slowly rose from the ground.
His mask was cracked.
Blood ran from his forehead.
But he wasn't looking at Lyra anymore.
He was looking at the symbol.
"No," he whispered.
Lyra stared at him.
"What did you see?"
He didn't answer.
"What did it mean?"
The man backed away.
For the first time, Lyra saw genuine fear in his eyes.
"You awakened."
The words barely escaped his mouth.
"What does that mean?"
He looked at her.
"It means we were too late."
A howl echoed through the forest.
Then another.
The masked figures looked toward the trees.
Something was approaching.
The leader immediately stepped backward.
"Fall back."
One of the others stared at him.
"But the girl—"
"Fall back!"
They began retreating.
Lyra couldn't understand.
"You came here for me."
The leader stopped.
"Who are you afraid of?"
He looked toward the forest.
Then back at her.
"Not who."
His voice dropped.
"What."
Before Lyra could ask another question, the figures disappeared between the ruins.
Mara stared after them.
"They're leaving."
Lyra slowly stood.
"They were afraid."
"Of what?"
Lyra didn't know.
But she could feel something.
A presence.
Heavy.
Cold.
Powerful.
It was somewhere beyond the trees.
Watching.
Waiting.
The same feeling she had experienced when the stranger appeared before.
Except this was different.
Much stronger.
Lyra turned toward the forest.
"Someone is here."
Mara swallowed.
"Another one of them?"
"I don't think so."
A branch snapped.
Both women froze.
Lyra's mark burned beneath her collarbone.
A shadow moved between the trees.
Tall.
Still.
Impossible to see clearly through the mist.
Mara stepped backward.
"Lyra..."
"I see him."
The figure did not move.
Then a deep voice came from the darkness.
"You shouldn't have come here."
Lyra's heartbeat quickened.
She didn't know the voice.
But something inside her did.
Her wolf stirred.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
The figure took one step forward.
Moonlight touched his face for only a moment before the clouds covered it again.
Lyra couldn't see enough to know who he was.
But she could feel his power.
It was different from Kael's.
Darker.
Older.
More dangerous.
He looked toward the ruined tower.
Then toward Lyra.
His eyes narrowed.
"They found you."
Lyra tightened her grip around the pendant.
"Who are you?"
The stranger didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at the blood beneath her nose.
Then at the mark on her skin.
His expression hardened.
"How much do you remember?"
"Nothing."
"Good."
Lyra frowned.
"Why?"
"Because if you remembered everything..."
He paused.
"...they would already be dead."
Mara's eyes widened.
Lyra stared at him.
"Who would be dead?"
The stranger looked toward the direction the masked figures had disappeared.
"Everyone who has tried to control your fate."
A cold wind swept through Raven Hollow.
Lyra's pendant pulsed once.
The stranger's gaze immediately fell to it.
Recognition flashed across his face.
"You still have Selene's pendant."
Lyra's breath caught.
"You know my mother."
He said nothing.
"Tell me where she is."
The stranger looked at her for several seconds.
Then he turned away.
"I can't."
Lyra stepped forward.
"Why not?"
"Because finding your mother is not your greatest problem anymore."
He glanced over his shoulder.
"They know you're awake."
Lyra's heart sank.
"Who?"
The stranger's eyes darkened.
"The ones who have been waiting for your blood."
He disappeared into the trees.
Lyra ran after him.
"Wait!"
Nothing.
He was gone.
Again.
Just like before.
Mara reached her.
"Who was he?"
Lyra stared into the darkness.
"I don't know."
"But he knew your mother."
"I know."
"And he knew about your power."
"I know."
Mara took a shaky breath.
"Then what do we do now?"
Lyra looked back at Raven Hollow.
The ruined tower.
The ancient symbol.
The blood on the ground.
The place where the masked figures had stood.
For years, she had believed her greatest fear was being rejected.
Then she had believed it was losing her home.
Now she understood.
Those fears were nothing compared to the truth.
Someone had hunted her since birth.
Someone had stolen her fate.
Someone had hidden her power.
And now that power had awakened.
Lyra looked toward the northern mountains.
"I find my mother."
Mara nodded slowly.
"And if they come again?"
Lyra touched the mark beneath her collarbone.
For the first time, she didn't feel ashamed of it.
She felt its power.
"They will."
She looked into the darkness.
"But next time..."
Her eyes hardened.
"I won't run."
Far away, beyond Raven Hollow, a lone figure stood on a mountain ridge.
He watched the ruined village in silence.
Then he felt it.
The awakening.
The ancient power that had been buried for twenty years had finally returned.
A faint smile touched his lips.
"At last."
He turned toward the distant Blackthorn territory.
"Let the Alphas come."
His eyes darkened.
"Let them fight over the girl."
He looked toward the moonless sky.
"None of them understand what she is."
And somewhere inside the darkness, another voice whispered—
Neither does she.
Lyra Vale had spent her entire life believing she was weak.
Now everyone who had hunted her was about to discover the truth.
She wasn't weak.
She was the thing they had been afraid to let awaken.
And someone wanted her dead before she remembered why.
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