Chapter 166: Renewed Alliance

Lila’s POV

I didn’t need to lift my head. My bones already knew. My blood remembered.

The air thickened, pressed heavy into my lungs until every breath was jagged. Slowly, I lifted my head.

And there she was.

The shadows warped around her presence, air thickening like smoke in my lungs. The forest went quiet…not even the crickets dared to whisper.

“D…Dina. Sorceress,” I croaked, my lips trembling as her name scalded my tongue.

Her voice slithered down, smooth and cruel, carrying that familiar lilt that could charm and kill in the same breath.

Her lips parted into a smile…sharp, feral, knowing.

“My little betrayer,” she purred, the words stretching like silk across a blade.

My stomach plummeted. My chest squeezed until I couldn’t breathe. “Dina,” I croaked, blood and dirt cracking at my lips. “Please… I can explain.”

Her laugh wasn’t human. It scraped low and hollow, echoing through the trees until even the shadows seemed to lean in and listen. “Explain? You broke our pact. You took what I gave you and then thought you could scamper off like a greedy little rat chasing crumbs.”

I forced myself up onto my elbows, every muscle screaming, sweat sticking leaves to my skin. I blinked up at her.

Dina stood over me, wild hair tangled with beads and bones, eyes burning like twin embers that had seen too much and wanted more. Her smile was a knife…too sharp, too knowing.

My throat tightened. “Please… you have to listen. I—I can explain.”

She crouched, tilting her head, her long nails grazing the dirt near my cheek but not touching. “Explain?” Her laugh was a hollow rattle. “You used me, wolf. Then you thought you could betray me, go off on your greedy little mission, and what? That I would just forget?”

“I was desperate!” I screamed, tears blurring my vision. My voice cracked into broken sobs. “I just wanted my revenge…I wanted everything they stole from me! You…you don’t understand! “I…I had to,” I stammered, dragging myself to my knees, my nails digging into the dirt. “You kept telling me to wait and I was running out of patience. I wanted my revenge. I wanted what was mine! I thought…I thought I could…”

“Win without me?” she cut in, her smile curdling into something grotesque. “No, little wolf. You were never meant to win. Not without me pulling your strings. I could have been the wind beneath your wings. We could have finished this long ago if you just listened. But you are foolish. Just like the rest.”

“You were not in my shoes, great sorceress. So you won't understand.”

“Oh, I understand.” Her eyes gleamed, lips curling. “I understand so well, in fact, that I gave you nightmares. Did you like them? The ones that made them bind you in a straight jacket? You looked exquisite, thrashing, screaming your sister's name, drooling, like the empty vessel you are.”

The ground tilted beneath me. I shook my head violently. “No… no, no, no… it was you?”

“Of course it was me,” she purred. “I wanted you broken. And you are. What you call life now is nothing but an echo. A hollow shell. You don’t even have your wolf anymore, Lila. They’ve crippled it, carved out the only piece of you that mattered. Tell me, little doll…what’s left?”

She’s the one behind those nightmares? Of course she is. I should’ve known she’d never sit quietly after my betrayal…waiting in the dark, biding her time, sinking her claws into my sleep.

Her words burned, slicing through me like razors. I clawed forward on my knees, grabbing at her ankles, pressing my forehead against her filthy feet. “Please! Please, forgive me this once. I swear, I swear on what’s left of me…you can take my life if I betray you again! I’ll be yours. Just save me…just this one last time!”

Dina threw her head back and laughed, the sound high and cruel, echoing through the trees like bells ringing for the damned.

But underneath her laughter…the sound came.

Distant at first. Then closer.

The sharp bark of warriors calling orders. The thunder of boots beating against the ground. And then…wolves. Their howls splitting the night, growing nearer, hungrier, bloodthirsty.

I whipped my head toward the dark forest, panic flooding my veins.

“They’ve found me,” I whispered, my chest heaving. “Please…Dina…they’ll tear me apart before I can…before I can take my revenge! I can’t die yet! Not yet! They’ve mocked me, crippled me, cut me out of everything! They owe me! Help me, please…I’ll serve you until the last breath of this miserable, empty shell of a life!”

I clawed further forward, kissing her feet, smearing dirt and blood across my lips. “Master. Please, master. Save me.”

Dina looked down at me, a wicked smile twisting her face. “Pathetic. You grovel better than I thought. Now I’m bored.”

I swallowed the sharp retort clawing its way up my throat. That haggard witch…acting like I’m the filth beneath her shoes when she’s nothing but rotting trash herself. But I don’t have a choice. Even if she spat in my face, I’d have to take it. Because right now, she’s the only one who can keep me alive.

The howls were deafening now. My body shook with terror, tears streaming hot and endless as I clung tighter. “I’ll do anything. Anything! Just don’t let them get me…please, master…please!”

Her laugh rang again, but softer this time. Mocking. Pitying.

So this is my life now…once the golden apple, now reduced to groveling before a haggard old witch, kissing the reek of feet that smell like they’ve gone untouched by water for centuries. And to crown the humiliation, I call her master. Oh, Lila… how far you’ve fallen. The shining angel turned into the perfect portrait of disgrace.

The howls grew louder, closer…each one a serrated claw raking at my nerves until panic surged through me in a suffocating wave. Then she sighed, long and heavy, the sound slicing through the air like a blade drawn slow from its sheath.”

“Enough groveling. It’s not funny anymore.”

She snapped her fingers.

The world buckled.

The forest blurred, dissolved like smoke ripped away by a sudden wind. The howls vanished, the scent of warriors snuffed out in an instant. My body slammed against damp earth again…but different earth. Heavier. Older.

When I looked up, a massive cave loomed before us, black-mouthed and yawning wide, its stone teeth glistening with ancient wet. A cold draft breathed from its depths, smelling of secrets, bones, and forgotten rituals.

Dina stepped forward, her silhouette jagged against the cave’s gaping maw.

“Come, little vessel,” she said, voice thick with promise and poison. “Rest. Tomorrow, I will prepare you. And this time…” Her head tilted, eyes gleaming scarlet in the dark.

“You will follow my rules. You will finish your twin sister for good. She must not meet the Alpha King. That is the only way I can help you. Only through her blood will you ever claw back what you’ve lost. If you want your wolf returned… if you want power thrumming through your veins again…you have to do this.”

Hold on… if she’s so damn powerful…the greatest sorceress to ever walk this cursed earth…then why the hell can’t she just handle it herself? Why not snap her fingers, summon Ivy, or pull some voodoo trick and strike her dead?

She must’ve read the question in my eyes, because her voice cut through the air.

“In case you’re wondering why I can’t kill her myself…it’s because I’ve already helped kill her wolf once before. I spilled her blood on the earth, and nature doesn’t want to forgive that. It won’t let my magic kill her again. I can sicken her, I can torment her with nightmares…but I cannot end her. Which is why I need you to do it. Do you understand?”

I nodded, even as a thousand jagged thoughts crashed through my skull all at once.

Dina's words didn’t just enter my ears…they slid under my skin, coiling through my veins like venom, burning, claiming, intoxicating.

Aria. Ivy. My twin. My curse. My rival.

Her name was a brand seared into my soul, a shadow I could never escape. She was the perfection I could never touch, the glory stolen from me again and again.

And now…

Now she was my redemption. My sacrifice. My salvation.

Her death would be the key to my resurrection.