Chapter 98 Symbol

Chapter 98 Symbol

/Edlyn/

The moment the symbol beneath my feet lit up, every instinct inside me screamed that we were in trouble.
I tried to move, but my feet felt rooted to the ground like the earth itself had decided to hold me there. The strange mark had spread beneath us in thin black veins, glowing brighter with every heartbeat, and the air around me had grown so heavy that just breathing felt like a fight I was slowly losing.
Nelson tightened his grip on my hand.
“Edlyn, don’t move.”
“I wasn’t planning to,” I said, though my voice came out thinner than I wanted.
Luca stepped closer, his crimson eyes locked on the woman standing across from us like he was measuring the distance between himself and her throat.
“What did you do to her?”
The woman smiled, unbothered. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Then why is she trapped?”
“Because she belongs here.”
My stomach twisted so hard it hurt. “I don’t belong anywhere near you.”
The woman’s smile faded, replaced by something almost sorrowful. “You still don’t remember.”
“Remember what?”
She looked at me with an expression that felt uncomfortably close to pity. “Everything.”
Before I could demand she actually explain herself, Moon screamed inside my head, her voice sharp with panic.
Edlyn, get out of the circle!
“I’m trying,” I muttered under my breath.
I pulled against Nelson’s hand, but the second my foot shifted, a sharp pain shot straight up through my leg and into my spine. I cried out before I could stop myself.
Both men reacted instantly.
“Edlyn!”
Luca lunged toward me, but a burst of invisible energy caught him mid-step and threw him backward into the dirt.
“Stay back,” the woman warned, her voice suddenly hard.
Nelson’s eyes flashed gold, and I felt the growl building in his chest before he even spoke. “Touch my mate again and I’ll tear you apart.”
The woman barely reacted to the threat. “Your mate?” She let out a quiet laugh, almost gentle, which somehow made it worse. “That’s exactly the problem.”
Nelson’s jaw tightened. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means neither of you understands what she is.”
I looked at her, my heart pounding somewhere in my throat. “What am I?”
The woman held my gaze without blinking. “The bridge.”
The word echoed through my mind, refusing to settle into anything that made sense.
The bridge.
Between what? Vampires and werewolves? Witches and fairies? Something older than any of that?
I shook my head, frustration cutting through my fear. “Stop speaking in riddles.”
“You aren’t ready.”
“I didn’t ask if I’m ready.” My voice came out steadier than I expected, and it surprised even me. “I asked what I am.”
The woman studied me for a long moment before finally answering. “You are the reason the kingdoms are being attacked.”
Nelson stepped forward immediately, his whole body coiled with fury. “That’s enough.”
“No,” I said.
He looked at me, startled.
I shook my head, holding his eyes. “Let her talk.”
Luca looked like he wanted to argue too, every muscle in his jaw fighting the urge, but he stayed quiet.
The woman continued, her voice calm in a way that felt deliberate, almost rehearsed.
“Every attack was designed to push you toward this moment.”
I stared at her, dread pooling low in my chest. “The dragons?”
“Distractions.”
“The Northern Pack?”
“A message.”
“My kingdom?”
“Another message.”
I felt sick, the words landing one after another like blows.
“And the vampire kingdom?”
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
Her eyes drifted between Nelson and Luca, slow and deliberate.
“That your two mates could be brought together.”
Luca’s jaw tightened until I could see the muscle jump beneath his skin. “You’ve been manipulating us.”
“We didn’t need to manipulate much.” She smiled again, thin and knowing. “Your hatred for each other did most of the work for us.”
Nelson looked at Luca, and for once neither of them argued the point. They both knew, in that heavy silence, that she was right.
“You wanted us separated,” I whispered.
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“Because when you stand between them, you become powerful.”
I felt a strange pulse move beneath my skin, warm and unfamiliar.
Moon stirred, wary. Don’t listen to her.
Vamp finally spoke too, her voice low. She’s hiding something.
I swallowed hard. “What happens if we stay together?”
The woman smiled once more. “Then the war becomes much harder to win.”
“And if we separate?”
“You lose.”
The answer came too fast, too easy, like she’d been waiting to say it.
I stared at her, something clicking into place. “You’re afraid of us.”
Her expression shifted. Just slightly. But I caught it.
Nelson caught it too.
Luca definitely caught it.
I smiled, even with fear still crawling through my chest. “You are.”
The woman took a step backward. “Don’t confuse knowledge with fear.”
“Then why are you trying so hard to separate us?”
She didn’t answer that one.
I felt something shift inside me then, the strange energy wrapped around my body no longer painful. It was becoming familiar instead. Warm. Like something buried deep inside me was finally stirring awake after a very long sleep.
Moon’s voice grew quiet, uncertain. Edlyn…
“What?”
I know this place.
My heart stopped. “What?”
Not the forest. She sounded confused, almost lost. The magic.
I looked down at the glowing symbol beneath my feet. “You recognize it?”
Yes.
“What is it?”
Moon didn’t answer.
“Moon.”
Still nothing, only silence where her voice should have been.
Then Vamp spoke instead, quiet and careful. I recognize it too.
I froze. “You do?”
Not the symbol itself. She hesitated, and I could feel her searching for the right words. The feeling.
My skin prickled all over. “What feeling?”
The same feeling I had when I first woke up inside you.
I didn’t understand what that meant, not really. But before I could ask, another memory flashed through my mind, sudden and vivid.
A little girl standing alone in a dark room. Crying.
Someone was speaking to her, low and steady. Someone was telling her that one day she would have to choose.
I gasped, and just as fast as it came, the vision disappeared.
Nelson caught me before I could fall.
“What did you see?”
I looked at him, my whole body shaking. “My childhood.”
His expression shifted, alarm flooding his face. “What?”
“I saw myself.”
Luca moved closer, his hand finding my shoulder. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head, trying to hold onto the fragments before they slipped away completely. “There was someone with me.”
The woman suddenly looked uneasy, and that was all the confirmation I needed.
I turned toward her. “You know who it was.”
She didn’t answer.
“You know.”
Her jaw tightened, and for the first time she looked less like someone in control and more like someone cornered.
Nelson stepped forward. “Who was with her?”
The woman stayed silent.
Luca’s voice dropped into something dangerously calm, quieter than I’d ever heard it. “Answer him.”
She finally looked at him, something almost like reluctance in her eyes.
“Someone you should never have awakened.”
My heart stopped cold. “Who?”
The woman looked directly at me, and whatever softness had been in her expression before was gone now.
“Your mother.”
Everything inside me went still.
“My mother?” I barely recognized my own voice when it came out. “My mother is dead.”
“No.”
The woman shook her head slowly.
“That is what you were made to believe.”
Nelson stared at her like she’d spoken a language none of us understood. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She smiled, sad and knowing. “Ask Edlyn.”
I frowned, my chest tightening. “Ask me what?”
The woman pointed at me, her voice quiet now.
“Ask her why she has no memories of the night her parents died.”
My breath caught in my throat.
I had spent years believing the memories I carried were real. My parents. The blood. The screaming. The fire. Me running through smoke I couldn’t see past.
But suddenly, reaching for what came right before the attack, I found nothing. Just darkness where a memory should have been.
“That’s impossible.”
The woman shook her head again. “No.”
She took another step back, retreating into the shadows at the edge of the clearing.
“What’s impossible is that you survived.”
The symbol beneath me exploded with light.
Nelson grabbed me. Luca reached for me at the exact same moment.
A powerful force tore out from somewhere inside my body, sending both of them flying backward into the dark.
I screamed.
The forest disappeared around me.
Everything disappeared.
And suddenly I was standing somewhere else entirely.
A huge stone chamber surrounded me on all sides. People filled the space, more than I could count. Witches. Vampires. Werewolves. Fairies. All of them kneeling in absolute silence.
And at the center of the room stood a woman who looked exactly like me.
Same eyes.
Same hair.
Same face.
My heart stopped in my chest.
She turned toward me slowly.
“Edlyn.”
I couldn’t speak. My whole body had gone numb.
The woman smiled, but it was a sad smile, heavy with something I didn’t have a name for yet.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Who are you?” I finally managed.
She stepped closer, close enough that I could see my own reflection in her eyes.
“I am the reason you exist.”
My knees buckled beneath me. “What does that mean?”
Her eyes filled with tears, and her voice cracked when she answered.
“It means I am your mother.”
The entire vision shattered around me like glass.
I slammed back into my body, screaming.
Nelson was beside me instantly, his hands gripping my shoulders. “Edlyn!”
I grabbed his shirt, needing something solid to hold onto. “My mother.”
“What?”
I looked at Luca, my whole body trembling. “My mother is alive.”
Both men froze completely.
Then a deafening roar tore through the forest, shaking the ground beneath us.
The woman was gone.
The symbol beneath my feet vanished with her.
And from beneath the earth came hundreds of voices, rising up all at once.
The Northern Pack.
They were alive.
But they weren’t alone.
Something else was climbing out of the ground with them, something that made every wolf around us start growling low in their throats.
Luca’s eyes turned completely crimson.
Nelson’s claws extended, sharp and ready.
I stepped between them without thinking, my heart hammering.
“What is that?”
Nobody answered me.
Then a massive shadow rose up out of the opening in the earth.
And the moment I saw it, Moon whispered inside my head, her voice smaller than I’d ever heard it.
Edlyn… run.
For the first time since I had awakened my powers, Moon sounded genuinely terrified.
And that terrified me more than the creature itself ever could.