Chapter 60 The Envoy’s Ultimatum
"Rune!" I screamed, lunging for the stone doorway, but the massive, charred hand was faster. It yanked him into the swirling mist, his fingernails scraping uselessly against the floorboards.
"Stay back, Lyra!" Kael roared, drawing his blade as he charged toward the rift.
Suddenly, the air in the center of the corridor crystallized. The temperature plummeted, and a pillar of iridescent, shifting light erupted from the floor. I shielded my eyes as the Fae Envoy stepped out of the radiance, his wings shimmering with a sickening, oily luster.
"Stop!" the Envoy commanded. His voice wasn't a sound; it was a physical weight that pinned us all to the walls.
The door of light snapped shut, severing the charred hand and dropping Rune back onto the floor. He gasped, clutching his throat, his eyes wide with terror.
"You," Caspian spat, leaning heavily against the wall, his face a ghostly mask of exhaustion. "You’ve been playing us from the start. What is this? Why is my father’s child-voice behind a wall?"
"Your father is a ghost in a machine you don't understand," the Envoy said, his lips curling into a cold, thin smile. "But he is the least of your concerns. The Witch Lord has made his final move. The Triple Wedding? The Quadad bond? You thought it was a shield. It was a blender."
"Speak plainly, Fae, or I’ll pluck those wings from your back," Kael snarled, stepping forward.
"The bond has made you interchangeable," the Envoy whispered, his eyes darting between the three brothers. "By merging your minds, bodies, and souls with the Silver Luna, you’ve removed the locks on your own identities. Through the resonance Lyra provides, the Witch Lord can now possess any one of you at will. The walls between your spirits have dissolved."
I felt my heart stop. "Interchangeable? What does that mean?"
"It means, Lyra," the Envoy leaned in, his breath smelling of dead stars, "that you don't know who is who anymore. The souls of your Alphas are drifting in the same current. The Witch Lord can wear them like coats."
"That's impossible," I breathed, looking at the three men. "I know them. I feel them."
"Do you?" The Envoy gestured to them. "Try. One of them is a hollow vessel right now. One of them is a puppet. And one of them is the man you love, buried under a layer of shadow."
I looked at them, my breath hitching. They were standing in a semi-circle around me.
Kael stood to the left, his jaw set, his hand on his sword. Rune was on the right, still rubbing the bruises on his neck, his amber eyes clouded. And Caspian stood in the center, his chest heaving, his silver-black eyes fixed on mine.
"Lyra, it's me," Kael said, his voice firm. "I can feel the Mind-Link. I’m the First Brother."
"No, Lyra," Rune growled, taking a step closer. "The Body-Vow. Feel the heat. I’m the one who protected you."
Caspian didn't speak. He just held out his hand. He looked so weak, so broken by the drain I was subconsciously putting on him. My soul screamed to go to him.
"Don't listen to the Fae," the man who looked like Caspian whispered. "He wants us to fracture. Come here."
"I... I can't tell," I whispered, my head spinning. The "Mute" I had placed on the others was gone, replaced by a chaotic roar of overlapping emotions. I couldn't distinguish Kael’s duty from Rune’s hunger or Caspian’s love. It was all a single, thrumming vibration.
"Close your eyes, Silver Luna," the Envoy mocked. "Magic can be fooled. The soul can be masked. But the wolf... the wolf knows the scent."
I closed my eyes. I blocked out the visual cues, the shredded tunics, and the familiar faces. I inhaled deeply, searching for the scent of the man who had pulled me from the Fae realm.
To my left: Cedar and cold iron. Kael.
To my right: Musk and scorched earth. Rune.
In the center: Ozone, winter air, and the faint, sweet scent of crushed lilies.
My eyes snapped open. I moved toward the center. I moved toward Caspian. The scent of lilies was stronger than ever—the scent of our shared trauma, our shared victory.
"Caspian," I breathed, reaching for his hand. "I know it's you."
I touched his palm. It was freezing—colder than the Void outside.
Caspian didn't pull me into a hug. He didn't kiss me. He recoiled as if my touch was acid. His face contorted, his features shifting and blurring for a fraction of a second. His eyes, once silver-black, flashed with a sudden, blinding burst of the Witch Lord’s absolute darkness.
"You chose wrong, little wolf," the man who looked like Caspian sneered.
He threw back his head and laughed—a sound that didn't belong to a man, but to a thousand screaming souls.
"Lyra, no!" a voice screamed.
I spun around. The scream hadn't come from the man in front of me. It had come from Rune.
Rune was standing frozen, his eyes wide with a frantic, silver-fire light that didn't belong in his amber irises.
"Lyra, it's me!" Rune’s body shouted, but the voice was unmistakably Caspian’s—the cadence, the desperate edge, the Soulmate’s tone. "He’s in my body! He swapped us when the Envoy appeared! Lyra, get away from him!"
I looked back at the "Caspian" in front of me. He wasn't weak anymore. He stood tall, his skin losing its grey ash tone and turning into a polished, obsidian black.
"The Soulmate is so easy to displace when his heart is wide open," the thing wearing Caspian’s face chuckled. "He gave you everything, Lyra. And I took the vacancy."
"Give him back!" I screamed, the silver circlet on my head glowing so bright it began to smoke.
I lunged for "Caspian," but he vanished in a cloud of black smoke, reappearing behind Kael. He placed a hand on Kael’s shoulder, and Kael slumped instantly, his eyes turning hollow.
"One by one," the Witch Lord whispered through Caspian’s lips. "I will wear them all until there is nothing left of your 'Quadad' but three empty shells and one broken Queen."
The Fae Envoy stepped back into his pillar of light, his expression one of pure, detached amusement. He looked at me, his wings fluttering with a sound like dry leaves.
"The game has changed, Silver Luna," the Envoy smiled, his voice echoing through the cracking walls of the corridor. "The bond you used to save them is now the bridge I use to destroy them. They are a closed loop now. To purge the shadow, you must sever the link."
"What are you saying?" I demanded, tears of rage blurring my vision as the real Caspian—trapped in Rune’s hulking body—tried to reach for me, only to be held back by an invisible force.
The Envoy’s smile widened, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth.
"It’s simple, Lyra. The Witch Lord is rooted in the bond. He lives in the connection between the three brothers. If you want to save the soul of the man you love, you have to destroy the vessels he’s using to hide."
He pointed a long, shimmering finger at the three men—at the possessed Caspian, the hollowed Kael, and the trapped soul in Rune.
"Which husband will you kill to save the one you love?" the Envoy asked. "Choose quickly, Silver Luna. The manor is falling, and the Witch Lord is hungry for a permanent home."
The floor beneath us gave a final, sickening lurch. Outside the window, a massive shadow loomed over the Void—the Witch Lord’s true form, reaching out to swallow the floating manor whole.
I looked at Rune’s body, where Caspian’s soul was screaming my name. I looked at Caspian’s body, where the Witch Lord was grinning at me.
I raised my hand, the silver lightning dancing between my fingers, and I realized the Envoy was right.
The wedding wasn't the end. It was the bait.