Chapter 84 My Past Is Here.
Chapter 84
Rosa’s POV.
“An hour?” Lyra replied , her lips curled into a calm smile.
She subtly nodded her head, “I doubt it. That book has been there much longer. You just never looked closely.”
She suddenly stretched forth her hand before I could reply.
Then I turned. I saw stool.
The space above it looked shimmered or maybe I was hallucinating. Air rippled, like heat rose from the bare floor of the room.
There it was . A book. The book.
Whole. Solid. Resting neatly on the stool, as if it had never vanished. As if unseen hands had rushed to put it back before anyone could question the gods.
My breath locked in my chest. My eyes almost popped out from its socket.
I followed Lyra with my eyes as she walked toward it.
Slow. Steady. Unafraid.
She moved like a student at the lycan academy stepping up to the podium to receive an award, head high, back straight, each step loud in my ears though the room was silent.
I stood up from where I sat. My hand curled up close to my chest, my fingers dipped into skin as if I needed proof to be awake.
No. This is impossible.
This had to be a dream.
Lyra bent and picked up the book.
She turned and passed in front of me. For a brief second, the cover caught the weak light coming through the window. It flashed, sharp and bright.
My brows pulled together.
“What are you holding?” I asked.
She stopped and turned. “You mean this?”
“Yes.” My hand lifted, shaky.
I curved my hand in C-form for her to come closer.
She stepped toward me. With every step, the light on the cover grew stronger, burning straight into my eyes.
Finally, lyra got to where I stood and dropped the book in my shaky and sweaty palm.
My heart dropped into my stomach.
The book slid through my fingers and hit the floor with a dull thud.
I jumped back as if it had bitten me. My whole body jerked. A strange heat rushed through my arms, like lightning running under my skin.
“Where did you get this?” I whispered, lifting my eyes to her face, demanding an answer.
My chest rose fast. My eyes burned.
I looked down again.
The book lay there. Quiet. Heavy.
Like a multi-faceted monster determined to eat out my eyeballs.
No. No. No…
This can't be happening.
“Hope all is well, Luna?” Lyra asked softly. She reached for my hand, her brows pulling together like she cared.
I slapped her hand away like an infection or stigma.
My eyes never left the book.
The title on its shiny back screamed at me.
Healing Philosophy.
The room spun.
My eyes flew open wider, as if I had just woken from a nightmare only to find it real.
This was that book.
Mila’s book.
She never went anywhere without it. Not to the clinic. Not to conferences. Not even to the loo. She slept with it beside her bed, pages folded, corners worn.
When she was alive.
No one touched that book. No one dared. It was like touching her life. It was a rule set in stone. Painfully, father respected her for that and forced everyone to fall in line.
I turned to Lyra. My lips trembled, loose and weak, like I had drunk too much wine.
“Who… who…” The word died in my throat.
The air felt thick. My lungs refused to work.
I paused, forcing myself to breathe. Slowly. Painfully.
Then I pushed the words out.
“W…where did you get this?”
Lyra bent down and picked it up again.
Calm.
Like a child playing with a poisonous snake, laughing as it curled around her wrist. Like danger meant nothing.
To her, it was nothing.
To me, it was everything I had buried in the past.
“It’s mine,” she said simply.
“Yours?” The word slipped out before I could stop it.
I looked around the room, lost. My mind felt empty, like something had fallen and shattered inside me.
“How?” I said. Then I stopped myself. “Wait. You told me you could barely read or write when you came here for this job.”
Lyra didn’t answer.
She only smirked.
Not a small smile. Not a shy one.
A sharp one and deliberate.
The room fell into deeper silence. More than what I have ever experienced since I got into the palace.
It looks like the walls were closing in on me, squeezing air out of my breath. While Lyra stepped aside watching me from the sideline.
“When I visited your room,” I said, the words tumbling over each other. “I saw books, scrolls stacked up, they were so many.”
My voice dropped.
“Those books I saw there are not for weak omegas who can barely reads.”
The sentence broke halfway. My thoughts got tangled.
I looked at her, truly looking this time.
“Who are you, Lyra?” I asked quietly. “Where do you come from?”
The questions crowded my head, shouting to be spoken. But I swallowed them back. Saying them aloud felt dangerous. Wrong. Untimely and culpable.
Lyra’s eyes stayed on me. She studied my face, my fear, my confusion it was obvious, even the blind could see it.
And she enjoyed it. I knew she was really enjoying it. The "why" is what I couldn't place.
“This is an interesting book,” she said lightly, cutting into my thoughts. She held it out to me again. “You will like it.”
“Don’t bring it closer!” I roared, stepping back and warning her. “Don’t you dare try that again, Lyra.”
She froze.
“I am sorry, my Luna,” she said quickly. “It is only a healing book. You speak of it like it is a cursed thing.”
“Isn’t it?” I snapped.
Her lips parted, but I didn’t let her speak.
“You can leave now.” I pointed at the door.
“I am sorry,” she said again. She bent slightly, tucking the book under her arm. “I am sorry.”
She turned and walked away.
She had taken only a few steps approaching the door when she stopped and looked back again. I thought she forgot something again.
“Didn’t Alpha Vexhood say he wanted to see me?”
Annoyance burned through me. I put a wicked stare, that could consume her.
"I am sorry, your honor,” she added, smooth and polite.
lyra was at the door, her stretched towards the handle
Then the door burst open.
Alpha Jax stormed in.
“You useless piece of crap!” Jax thundered.