Chapter 56: The Other One

By morning, the estate was buzzing like a kicked hive.

The hybrids were restless. A few of them had gathered near the south wall before sunrise, murmuring in low voices and glancing at the forest like it might explode. I could feel it too—that electric hum under the surface, like the ground itself was waiting for something.

I met Elena in the kitchen, where she was angrily stabbing holes in the top of a yogurt container.

“That yogurt kill your parents or something?” I asked.

She snorted. “No. But I figured if I start stabbing now, I’ll be warmed up if someone else shows up uninvited.”

Ethan slid into the room with a tablet under one arm and a banana in his mouth. “Too late. Someone already did.”

I nearly dropped my coffee. “What?”

He nodded. “About an hour ago. South gate. She didn’t come in, but she got close enough to trigger the inner sensors. She wanted us to know she was there.”

“Did you see her?”

“She stood in the open. Just long enough for the cameras to catch her face.”

He set the tablet on the table and tapped the screen.

My stomach dropped.

It was like looking at a mirror—but twisted. Her hair was darker than mine, her eyes colder. She didn’t look angry. She looked amused. Like this was a game she’d already won.

“That’s her,” Ethan said quietly. “Gregory’s daughter.”

Elena leaned over the image. “She looks like she’s about to drop a new indie pop album called 'I kill wolves for fun.'”

I didn’t laugh.

“She’s already making a move,” I said. “Testing the fence. Watching us.”

“She’s not alone either,” Ethan added. “There were at least ten more hybrids with her. Full tactical gear. All of them marked with the same symbol.”

He pulled up another image—a circular brand burned into the shoulder of one of their jackets.

It looked like a moon inside a claw print.

“She has a pack,” I said.

“More like an army,” Ethan replied.

\---

I spent the next few hours in the war room, trying to make sense of it. The maps, the files, the visions, the orb—everything was pointing to one thing: this wasn’t about saving people anymore.

It was about surviving the fallout.

“She’s not just a hybrid,” Echo said, sliding into the room quietly. “She’s a weapon. Built in secret. Trained to replace you. She’s not planning to attack.”

“She’s planning to erase me,” I finished.

Echo nodded.

“You think the others will follow her?”

She hesitated. “Some will. She promises control. Simplicity. Power. You promise choice. That scares people.”

I looked at her. “Does it scare you?”

Echo shook her head. “No. It makes me hopeful.”

\---

That afternoon, I called a meeting.

Everyone.

Not just my team, but every hybrid in the estate.

They filled the war room and spilled into the halls, some sitting on the floor, some leaning against walls. All eyes were on me.

I stood at the center, hands shaking just a little. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say until I started saying it.

“You’ve seen her. Gregory’s daughter. She’s real. She’s out there. And she’s coming.”

Murmurs rose around the room. I raised my voice.

“She’s everything they wanted us to be. Controlled. Sharpened. Ready to destroy. But we’re not that. You’re not that.”

Some faces looked uncertain. Others defiant.

“She’s not here to free you. She’s here to rule you.”

A tall hybrid near the back raised his hand. “Why should we follow you instead?”

A fair question. I stepped forward.

“Because I won’t force you. Because I’m not asking for loyalty. I’m offering freedom. A chance to write our own story instead of being part of someone else’s nightmare.”

Silence.

Then someone clapped.

Just one at first.

Then another.

And another.

Until the room was echoing with it.

Not loud. But steady.

Like a heartbeat.

\---

Later that night, I sat on the rooftop with Aidan, legs dangling over the edge, the city lights twinkling far in the distance. The stars were faint but visible. Everything felt too quiet.

“You think they’ll choose me?” I asked.

He looked at me. “They already did.”

I leaned against him, resting my head on his shoulder.

“I’m scared,” I whispered.

“So am I,” he replied. “But we’re in it together.”

We stayed like that a long time, saying nothing.

Because sometimes silence says more than words ever can.

\---

But down in the woods, just outside the range of our sensors, she was waiting.

Gregory’s daughter.

The one with the brand on her shoulder and fire in her blood.

She wasn’t knocking.

She wasn’t sneaking.

She was coming.

And she was ready to burn everything down.

The estate was awake before the sun.

There was a tension in the air that no one talked about, but everyone felt. It was in the way people moved—quicker, quieter. In the way the guards stood at their posts, eyes scanning every shadow. Even the hybrids, who had started settling into some kind of routine, were jumpier than usual.

I stood on the balcony, arms crossed, watching the fog roll over the tree line.

“She’s still out there, isn’t she?” Elena asked, stepping beside me with two mugs of coffee. She handed me one, no cream, just how I liked it.

I nodded. “Yeah. I can feel her. Like gravity.”

“She’s not moving in yet. That’s weird.”

“No, it’s smart,” I said. “She wants to let fear do the work.”

Elena took a sip of her coffee. “She picked the wrong house for fear. We’re all too traumatized to be scared properly anymore.”

That made me laugh, even if just a little. “You’re not wrong.”

We stood there in silence for a while.

Then she said, “So, are you gonna tell me what happened with Aidan or am I supposed to just keep guessing based on the way he’s been looking at you like you personally rewrote the stars?”

I turned slowly. “What?”

“Oh come on, don’t play dumb. You two have been floating around each other like a pair of teenage werewolves at prom. Did something happen?”

I sipped my coffee to stall.

Elena leaned closer, eyes wide. “Wait. Did you kiss him?”

“I’m not telling you that.”

“YOU KISSED HIM.”

“Elena, lower your voice—”

“Oh my God, Rox, you finally stopped emotionally fencing with each other!”

Ethan poked his head out from the war room door. “Are you guys okay out here? Because it sounds like someone is either celebrating or being stabbed.”

“I’ll stab her,” I muttered.

“See?” Elena said, grinning like she just won a bet. “This is the kind of news that gives me hope for humanity.”

Ethan stepped outside, now curious. “So, are you two official now or is this one of those slow-burn things where you deny it until the world explodes?”

“Elena,” I warned.

“You didn’t deny it,” she sang.

“I liked it better when everyone thought I was a heartless lone wolf,” I muttered, walking back inside.

“Too late!” she called after me. “We’ve seen the smooch blush!”

\---

In the war room, Echo was already seated at the table, her fingers moving steadily across a spread of surveillance photos. Next to her, Rhea was organizing some of the translated notes from the Harbinger journal.

“We picked up movement last night,” Echo said as soon as I sat down. “Four separate camps forming outside the forest border. South and East sides. They’re not small.”

“How many?” I asked.

“Too many.”

Elena leaned over the table, her amusement from earlier gone. “They’re closing in.”

“No attacks?” Aidan asked as he entered behind me.

“Not yet,” Echo replied. “But we intercepted a signal. Short-range, encoded. I decoded it this morning.”

She handed me a small piece of paper.

It had one sentence written on it.

> “Burn the roots, and the tree will fall.”

“They’re not coming for the hybrids,” Rhea said quietly. “They’re coming for you.”

\---

Later that day, I walked the perimeter with Callum.

He’d stayed mostly quiet since we discovered the Hollow Creed was connected to Gregory’s daughter. Maybe it was the past coming back. Maybe it was guilt.

“You’ve seen this kind of war before, haven’t you?” I asked as we walked.

“Not like this,” he said. “Back then, it was clear lines. Us and them. Good and evil, or at least something that looked close enough to believe in.”

“And now?”

“Now we’ve got monsters calling themselves saviors and victims learning how to lead. It’s not a battlefield anymore. It’s a maze.”

“Do you think we’ll survive it?”

He stopped walking. Looked at me.

“You’re not just surviving, Roxanne. You’re changing the damn rules.”

\---

That night, we gathered everyone—hybrids, wolves, hunters, allies.

The great hall was packed, but no one spoke. They all waited.

I stood in front of them. No armor. No fancy speeches. Just the truth.

“She’s coming,” I said. “Not with fire. Not with claws. With choice.”

They shifted, murmurs spreading.

“She’ll offer you power. She’ll promise protection. She’ll tell you I’m weak because I won’t control you. But control isn’t power. Fear isn’t freedom.”

I met every eye I could.

“You don’t owe me loyalty. But you do owe yourselves a future. One that isn’t written in someone else’s blood.”

Echo nodded slightly from the side. Elena gave a small fist pump. Ethan mouthed, “Nailed it.”

And slowly, they began to clap.

Not loud.

But it grew.

Into something solid.

Something real.

Something hopeful.

\---

Later, back in my room, I found a note slid under my door.

No name.

No signature.

Just a single sentence, written in jagged handwriting:

> “She’s inside already.”