Chapter 157: The First Lie
Chapter 157: The First Lie
“There’s something you need to see,” the girl said quietly, eyes fixed on the firelight dancing across her hands.
Lyla had barely slept. Her body ached, not from the battle but from what came after. Eli’s touch still echoed on her skin like wildfire, but her mind was far from peace.
“What kind of ‘something’?” Lyla asked, sitting across from the girl in the healer’s tent.
The girl looked up, her silver-tinged eyes flickering. “A memory. Not mine yours.”
Eli entered the tent behind Lyla, his presence like a shield. “How would you have Lyla’s memories?”
The girl looked at him not with fear, but familiarity. “Because I was carved from her.”
Ten minutes later
Lyla stood in the center of the clearing, the girl’s fingers pressed lightly against her temple.
“Just breathe,” the girl whispered. “And remember.”
The magic pulsed.
And then Lyla fell not in body, but in mind.
Memory Vision
Thirteen-year-old Lyla. Blood on her palms. Her first shift had failed. Her mother had held her hand.
But not to comfort her.
Elaine had whispered, “You’ll thank me one day.”
She’d drawn a rune beneath the roots of the moon tree. Spoke words Lyla hadn’t understood.
And in that moment her spirit had fractured.
Half had remained inside her.
The other… had been harvested.
That half had become the girl.
Back in the clearing
Lyla staggered back, breathing hard. “She, she stole part of me.”
The girl nodded. “It’s why your strength feels… incomplete.”
Eli reached for her. “You’re still the Guardian. You still ended the Whisper.”
“No,” Lyla said darkly. “I did half of that. The rest… she planned to finish with her.”
The girl’s lips quivered. “There’s more.”
Jonas stepped forward. “We don’t have time for more secrets.”
The girl turned slowly, her eyes dimming. “There’s another. A second.”
“Another vessel?” Mason asked.
“No.” The girl’s voice was barely a whisper. “Another you.”
Lyla blinked. “What?”
The girl nodded slowly. “Your mother didn’t stop at one.”
The prophecy wasn’t about a single Alpha.
It was about two halves, one light, one shadow.
Elaine had split Lyla not just in spirit… but in potential.
And the second half?
Was still out there.
And no one knew who they were.
Dani whistled low. “So there’s another Guardian running around?”
“Not Guardian,” the girl corrected. “Shadowbound. She was made to carry the darkness if you failed to contain the light.”
Lyla stared at the fire, her jaw clenched. “If Elaine is dead… who’s controlling her now?”
The girl’s hands trembled.
“She’s not being controlled.”
“She’s controlling them.”
Deep in the forest
A figure stood at the center of a storm of roots and blood.
The second vessel.
Lyla’s twin in power, not in body. Cloaked. Marked.
Watching the moon rise over Silverwood with a smile far too familiar.
She whispered something to the wind.
And it carried straight into Lyla’s camp.
“I’m coming home, sister.”
The voice didn’t echo through the camp, it sliced through it. Cold. Clear. Carried by the wind itself.
Lyla felt it like a blade sliding beneath her ribs.
That voice, it was hers. But darker. Warped. Twisted by something ancient.
Eli’s hand closed around her arm instantly. “You heard it too.”
“I didn’t just hear it,” she said. “I felt it.”
Dani glanced between them. “Tell me I’m not the only one who’s losing my mind.”
Jonas stepped closer, gaze fixed on Lyla. “You’re not. But we’ve got a bigger problem than sanity.”
The girl the vessel was staring into the fire, pale and trembling. “She’s awake. Which means… the cycle’s beginning.”
Lyla narrowed her eyes. “What cycle?”
The girl turned to her, voice barely audible.
“The Twin Moon Cycle. The one that decides which of you survives.”
The air in the tent shifted.
Eli stood tall behind Lyla, his expression unreadable. “Explain.”
The girl lowered her eyes. “Your mother Elaine, she was never interested in balance. She didn’t want you to protect Silverwood. She wanted to control it.”
“She thought I’d fail,” Lyla muttered.
The girl nodded. “So she split your power in two. One soul. Two bodies. One bound to the forest. One bound to the shadow.”
Dani crossed her arms. “And let me guess now that mommy dearest is dead, Shadow-Lyla gets to come play?”
The girl’s eyes flickered. “No. She’s not just coming. She’s hunting.”
Midnight.
Lyla stood alone at the forest’s edge, Eli’s jacket draped around her shoulders. The wind whispered her name. Not in warning but in challenge.
“You okay?” Eli’s voice was gentle behind her.
“No,” Lyla said flatly. “But that’s never stopped me before.”
He stepped beside her. “You think she’ll come tonight?”
“She doesn’t want to fight,” Lyla replied, silver eyes fixed on the trees. “She wants to replace me.”
Eli’s jaw tightened. “She can try.”
Lyla turned toward him suddenly, face inches from his. “You’d still know it’s me, right? Even if she looked like me? Sounded like me?”
He didn’t hesitate. “You’re not just a voice or a body, Lyla. You’re you. And nothing, nothing could fake that.”
She swallowed hard, throat tightening.
Then she pulled him into a fierce, desperate kiss.
Not soft. Not sweet.
Possessive.
Like it might be the last time.
Back inside the camp
Mason was rearming. Dani was sharpening blades. Jonas stared at the girl like she might vanish any second.
She didn’t speak again until Lyla returned, face set like stone.
“I know where she is,” the girl said quietly. “She’ll wait for the Blood Moon.”
“That’s four nights from now,” Lyla replied. “We don’t wait.”
Jonas frowned. “You want to hunt her?”
“She’s hunting me. I’d rather not be prey.”
Mason strapped on his final blade. “Then let’s move.”
“She’s not just coming. She’s hunting.”
The words dropped like a blade into the center of the campfire, silencing everyone.
Lyla’s heart thudded once, hard.
Then again faster.
Eli’s hand was already on his blade. “She knows where we are?”
The girl nodded, her voice trembling. “She always knew. Your bond, it echoes. You’re drawn to each other like gravity.”
Lyla took a step back, her hands curling into fists. “And if I don’t go to her?”
“She’ll come to you.” The girl looked up, eyes haunted. “But she won’t come in daylight. She’s waiting for the Blood Moon.”
A cold knot twisted in Lyla’s gut.
The Blood Moon wasn’t just symbolic. It amplified werewolf power, but it also thinned the veil between spirit and flesh. If her twin was bound to shadow, that night would make her unstoppable.
“Four nights,” Eli said beside her. “We’ve got four nights to end this before she does.”
“No,” Lyla said, meeting his eyes. “We’ve got three. We move before she expects it.”
Eli stepped closer, voice low and steady. “This isn’t just a fight, Lyla. This is you… against you.”
“Then I’ll finish what my mother started,” she muttered, bitter and resolute. “But I’ll do it my way.”
Later that night, Lyla sat on the edge of her cabin roof, legs dangling, staring at the stars. The forest was quieter than usual, watchful, waiting. Like even the trees were afraid.
Eli climbed up beside her, his breath warm on her neck. “You okay?”
Lyla gave a half-laugh. “I found out I have an evil twin made from a stolen part of my soul, and she’s coming to kill me under a cursed moon. So, you know. I’ve had worse nights.”
Eli smirked and sat behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “If I could trade places with you ”
“I’d never let you,” she cut in softly, leaning into him.
There was silence for a moment. Just the sound of their hearts beating. Together. A steady rhythm in a world unraveling.
Then Eli whispered, “I won’t lose you. Not to her. Not to anyone.”
Lyla turned in his arms, straddling his lap, facing him. “You won’t have to. Because I’m going to kill her first.”
He didn’t flinch. He didn’t try to talk her down.
He just kissed her.
Hard.
Fierce.
Like it could chase the darkness out of her.
And for one breathless moment, it did.
Below them, in the woods beyond Silverwood’s protective boundary, a figure stood watching the stars too.
She looked just like Lyla.
But her eyes were black.
Her claws were red.
And she whispered a name like a curse:
“Eli.”