Chapter 162: Beneath the Abyss

Chapter 162: Beneath the Abyss

“Don’t let go.”

Eli’s voice was raw, his hand gripping Lyla’s wrist like his life depended on it.

“Not planning on it,” she shot back, though her other arm trembled from holding both their weight against the crumbling ledge. The abyss below roared like it was hungry for them.

The rocks gave another crack.
Lyla’s heart stuttered.

“Eli !”

Too late.
The stone collapsed.

Both of them plummeted into darkness.

The fall wasn’t clean. Jagged rocks tore at their clothes, at their skin. But at the last second, Lyla summoned the forest’s energy, wrapping it around them like a tether. They slammed hard against a ledge far below, the impact driving the air from her lungs.

Eli groaned beside her, already pushing up to shield her. “You okay?”

She coughed, clutching her ribs. “Define okay.”

Eli gave a shaky laugh that didn’t last long. The space around them was wrong, twisted, damp, alive with whispers that slithered into their ears. The abyss wasn’t just a hole. It was a passage.

“Where the hell are we?” Lyla asked.

Eli scanned the darkness. “Not Silverwood. That’s for sure.”

A low growl vibrated through the walls.

Lyla froze. “Tell me you heard that.”

Eli stepped in front of her. “Oh, I heard it.”

From the shadows, something shifted. Not a wolf. Not human. Something in between, its body stretched by corruption, its silver eyes burning with the same energy that once consumed Aleron.

The thing grinned. “Welcome home, Guardian.”

Lyla’s stomach dropped. It knew her.

Eli’s voice was steel. “Stay behind me.”

“No chance.” Lyla pushed forward, her palms glowing with the forest’s light. “If this thing is tied to the abyss, it’s tied to me. I’m not hiding.”

The creature lunged.

Eli was faster. His claws slashed across its chest, sending black ichor splattering onto the ground. The monster shrieked, but instead of retreating, it split two more shapes peeling out of its form like shadows unspooling.

“Shit,” Eli hissed. “It multiplies.”

Lyla reached for the forest, but the abyss fought back, its whispers pressing into her skull: Join us. Surrender. Belong.

Her knees buckled.

“Lyla!” Eli caught her, his face inches from hers, his breath hot and grounding. “Look at me. Only me. Not them.”

She did. And for a second, the abyss fell silent.

“Good,” he said softly. “Now burn them.”

Together, they moved. Lyla unleashed light in sharp bursts while Eli tore through the corrupted shadows, his strikes vicious, protective, relentless. They fought like they had always belonged in sync with her magic weaving around his claws, his body shielding hers without thought.

When the last shadow collapsed into ash, silence flooded the cavern.

Lyla sagged against the wall, gasping. “I hate this place.”

Eli leaned close, brushing a cut on her cheek with his thumb. “You’re bleeding.”

“You’re worse,” she countered, eyes flicking to the deep slash across his chest.

He smirked. “Still prettier than you.”

She swatted at him, but her hand lingered on his chest. The heat of him, the steady rise and fall, steadied her in ways words couldn’t.

“Eli…” she whispered.

He leaned in, voice low and rough. “Yeah?”

Before she could answer, the ground beneath them shuddered. A glow pulsed in the far wall, revealing a massive door carved with runes the same sigil that had marked Aleron’s armor.

Lyla’s blood turned cold. “That’s… that’s the prophecy mark.”

Eli’s jaw tightened. “And it’s waiting for you.”

The runes flared, and the door began to open.

From the other side came a voice familiar, broken, and terrifying.

“Lyla.”

Her heart stopped.

It was Jonas.

“Jonas?”

Lyla’s voice cracked against the cavern walls.

Eli’s claws flexed, his stance going rigid. “No. That’s not him.”

But the voice came again, stronger this time. “It’s me, Lyla. Come closer. Please.”

Her chest tightened. The last time she’d seen Jonas, he was alive, scarred, but healing. He had chosen her. Chosen the pack. He couldn’t be here.

“This is a trap,” Eli growled, stepping in front of her. “Don’t listen.”

The massive runed door groaned wider, and with it came a blast of air that reeked of old blood and ash. The whispers surged, curling around Lyla’s mind like vines. He’s waiting. He needs you.

“Eli…” she whispered, torn.

His silver eyes burned into hers. “No. Don’t even think about it. That thing is using Jonas’s voice. You walk through that door, you might not come back.”

Her heart was split down the middle. Every instinct screamed to run, but something deeper whispered: What if it really is him? What if Jonas never escaped the abyss at all?

Then, from the other side: a weak cough. “Lyla… they lied to you.”

Her knees almost buckled.

Eli snarled and slammed his palm against the wall. “Enough! Stop playing games with her!”

The cavern answered with a low rumble, like laughter vibrating from the stone. Shadows slithered from the cracks, curling into distorted wolves with eyes glowing silver.

“Eli!” Lyla snapped, power flaring in her hands. “Incoming!”

He moved instantly, claws tearing through the first wolf as it lunged. Lyla unleashed light that burned through the second. Their movements synced again, but this time there was no victory. Every shadow they cut down melted into smoke and reformed, stronger, faster.

“It’s endless!” Eli shouted, blood streaking his arm.

Lyla’s power surged hotter, burning against her veins. She couldn’t hold it back anymore. “Then we burn it all!”

She shoved her palms toward the runed door. The forest’s energy erupted, slamming into the stone. The runes screamed with light then shattered.

The shadows collapsed instantly, dissolving into nothing.

And beyond the broken doorway stood Jonas.

His eyes weren’t his.

They burned silver-black, too bright, too wrong. His face was gaunt, hollowed, but familiar. And in his hand, he held the same obsidian dagger the Lost Wolf had once carried.

Lyla’s breath caught. “Jonas…?”

He smiled. Not kind. Not broken. Something else entirely.

“Finally,” he said. “You came to me.”

Eli growled, pulling Lyla behind him. “That’s not your brother.”

Jonas tilted his head, the smile widening. “Isn’t it? Or has he just become what he was always meant to be?”

The dagger glowed, runes snaking across its blade. And when he stepped forward, the cavern floor lit up with a vast sigil, the same one from the prophecy scroll.

Eli swore under his breath. “Lyla. We need to move.”

But her feet wouldn’t. Couldn’t. Because no matter what Eli said, no matter how wrong Jonas looked, this wasn’t some stranger. This was her brother.

“Jonas…” she whispered, her voice breaking.

His grin turned cruel. “Sister. Guardian. High Alpha.” His tone twisted each title like a knife. “You took everything from me. Now you’re going to give it back.”

The dagger flared, the sigil burned brighter

And the abyss swallowed them whole.

The ground ripped away beneath them.

Lyla’s scream tore free as the abyss swallowed her, Eli’s hand the only thing anchoring her against the crushing pull. Their fingers locked, claws digging into each other’s skin.

“Hold on!” Eli roared, his other arm slamming into jagged stone. Blood spilled, but his grip never faltered.

Jonas only watched, standing in the glowing sigil, the dagger pulsing like a heartbeat. “You can’t fight it,” he said, voice calm. “The abyss doesn’t take prisoners. It takes truth.”

Lyla snarled, power sparking through her veins. “Then tell me yours!”

Her free hand flared with light. She slammed it into the abyss itself into the darkness trying to consume her. The void shrieked, like something alive, recoiling for an instant. Enough for Eli to haul her back onto the ledge.

They collapsed together, panting, skin slick with sweat and ash. Eli pulled her to her feet, eyes locked on Jonas. “That’s not your brother anymore.”

But Jonas tilted his head, his silver-black eyes cutting right through her. “You don’t get to decide that, Beta.”

The cavern shook. Cracks split through the stone as the sigil expanded, lines crawling toward Lyla like veins of fire. The dagger in Jonas’s hand pulsed again and Lyla’s own chest responded, the Guardian’s bond flaring like it recognized the weapon.

Her knees buckled. “What did you do?”

Jonas’s expression softened, for just a second. And in that heartbeat, he almost looked like himself again. Her brother. The one who’d fought beside her. The one who’d chosen her.

But then the moment shattered. His voice dropped, colder than ice. “I finally stopped running from what I was meant to be.”

Eli stepped forward, claws out. “Meant to be what? A puppet?”

Jonas’s laugh echoed off the stone, sharp and hollow. “Not a puppet. A prophecy.” He lifted the dagger higher, and the sigil roared with light. “You were never the chosen one, Lyla. I was.”

The words punched her chest harder than any shadow ever had.

She staggered back, fury rising to crush the sting of betrayal. “No. You were lost. You were broken. And I ” Her voice cracked. “I saved you.”

Jonas’s smile turned cruel. “No. You caged me.”

Before she could answer, the dagger struck the stone. The sigil exploded outward, a tidal wave of force hurling her and Eli back. Her body slammed into the cavern wall, the air ripped from her lungs. Eli cursed, pulling himself up just in time to shield her as shards of stone rained down.

When the dust cleared, Jonas stood in the center of the abyss untouched, glowing, transformed.

The runes crawled up his arm, into his chest, wrapping around his veins like chains of fire. And the dagger? It no longer looked like a blade. It looked alive.

“Jonas ” Lyla tried to rise, her body shaking.

His eyes locked onto hers, and for the first time, she saw nothing of her brother. Only the abyss staring back.

“You will bow,” he said, his voice layered with something inhuman. “Or you will burn.”

And with a single slash of the dagger, the abyss surged again this time not to swallow them whole, but to unleash something waiting in the dark.