LILA’S POV
The forest was still, almost eerily so, but I could feel it ,the pull of her presence, a crimson thread weaving through my consciousness. My wings twitched instinctively, golden feathers shimmering faintly in the half-light, responding to the invisible storm I knew was coming. My twin. The sister I’d thought lost… the one who had embraced the darkness while I clawed my way into the light. She was here. Watching. Waiting. Smiling somewhere I couldn’t see.
“Lila…” The word slipped into my mind before it even reached my ears. A voice that was mine yet not mine, soft, cruel, intimate. It brushed against my thoughts like ice. “Did you miss me?”
I staggered, heart pounding, golden energy coiling around me, as if trying to anchor me to reality. “I don’t care where you are,” I hissed
