Chapter 254

Lyra’s POV

There was blood everywhere.

I was standing in a courtyard, surrounded by dead bodies. My hands were shaking hard as I held a silver sword.

Right in front of me was Riven…Or at least, what was left of him.

His eyes were completely black, and dark smoke was coming out of his skin. The Eclipse King had crawled inside his body and taken over his soul, turning him into a monster. Riven had fought against it with the last bit of strength he had left, begging me to end it before he hurt anyone else.

“Do it, Zoraira,” he had cried out. “Kill me before he takes total control.”

In that past life, I was the one who had to push the silver blade right through his heart.

I remembered the terrible sound he made as he fell to the ground. I had to kill my own mate with my own hands just to free him from the darkness.

In this life, things had happened differently. Arcanum managed to save him from being taken over by the dark magic when he went to the fae lands. He had pulled the Eclipse King out of his soul, but he still ended up dead anyway but in a very different way. I didn’t have to kill him as he died from the Eclipse King’s sword, taking a hit meant for me. No matter what life we were in, I was always losing Riven.

Then the battlefield faded away, and I was on my knees inside a room, crying so hard that I could barely catch my breath, my face buried right into Thorne’s chest. Thorne had his arms wrapped tightly around me, holding me close while my whole body shook. He was whispering that everything would be fine, but I knew it was a lie. I had just lost a piece of my soul, and no amount of comfort could fix it.

Then suddenly, I found myself kneeling on the floor, holding Kade against me. His skin was pale, and a deep cut ran across his side. Black lines were spreading from the wound, creeping up his chest and choking his heart.

He had been struck by a poisoned sword as the Eclipse King’s commander had used a cursed blade on him, and the poison was slowly killing his wolf. If he lost his wolf, he was not going to survive it.

Back then, as Zoraira, I went crazy trying to find a way to save him. I spent days and nights digging through books, searching through dusty archives, and looking for anything that could stop the rot in his blood. I didn't stop until I found the exact cure—a mix of rare herbs and purified blood that could pull the dark poison straight out of the body.

But I found it too late.

By the time I figured out the remedy, Kade was already dead and buried by Thorne. I remembered standing over his grave, holding the cure in my hands, screaming because I had been just a few days too slow.

My eyes opened, and the red haze vanished in a second.

I was back on the packhouse steps in the Unbound Lands. Thorne was still standing right in front of me, his hand reaching out to touch my shoulder. Qamar was at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at us with a worried look on his face.

My heart was beating so fast against my chest, and my hands were still trembling.

It wasn't just a random dream. It was a memory from my past life.

Thorne was right. I am Zoraira.

But whether or not it was did not matter as much as the fact that Kade was lying in SilverClaw right now, suffering from the exact same cursed blade. The same thing was trying to happen all over again.

“Lyra?” Thorne asked softly. “What’s wrong? What did you see?”

I looked down at my fingers. I remembered every single herb, how to prepare it, and how to use my own blood to draw the dark poison out before it touched his heart. In my past life, I learned it too late, but in this life, Kade was still alive.

If I could reach him in time and give him the cure before the poison reached his heart, he wouldn't die. He would live, and it would give us the time we needed to stand together and finish this war against Azythar.

I wiped a tear from my cheek and looked straight at Thorne.

“I know how to save him,” I said.