Chapter 217 Elara's POV

Chapter 217 Elara's POV

I saw her for the first time in the garden.

I had gone outside for air, needing a break from the constant stress and planning. Adrian was with Kara. Kaden was in meetings,.I had a rare moment alone.

Then I felt the presence of someone watching me. I turned slowly and there she was.

Standing twenty feet away, half-hidden in shadows. A woman who looked exactly like me had the same face, same hair, same build, same everything.

Except her eyes.

Her eyes were completely black no white , no iris. Just an endless void. Like looking into the darkest night with no stars.

"Hello, sister," She said. Her voice was like mine but colder harder.

I couldn't speak, couldn't move, and just stared at this impossible mirror image.

"What? No greeting? No tearful reunion? I've been waiting fifteen years for this moment. I expected more enthusiasm."

"Nyx," I finally managed to say.

"You are real, you are alive."

"Disappointed?"

"No. Shocked. I only just learned you existed a few days ago. I thought you were dead. Though our parents' choice had killed you."

"Their choice nearly killed me. A baby alone in the forest. Left to freeze or starve or be eaten by wild animals. Is that the choice you're referring to?"

"I didn't know. I swear I didn't know about you until I had the vision-”

"Oh, I know you didn't know. Our dear parents made sure of that. They saved you, the blessed one. The light twin with the crescent mark. 

“And they threw me away like garbage, the shadow twin. The cursed one, the one who would bring destruction."

She stepped closer. I could see her more clearly now. She was identical to me in every physical way except those terrifying black eyes.

"How did you survive?"

"A rogue found me, an outcast female who'd lost her own pup. She heard me crying and took pity on me." 

Nyx's expression was bitter. "Until Erebus killed her. He found us when I was seven, killed her in front of me. Then I realized what I was, what I could become."

"Erebus raised you?"

"Trained me and taught me to use the shadow power I was born with. Showed me how to harness darkness. How to kill, how to survive." 

She smiled, showing teeth. "He told me about the prophecy about the twin sister who got everything I should have had: family, home, love, the lunar blessing."

"I didn't ask for any of that-"

"No, but you got it anyway. While I got abandonment and torture and a childhood spent learning to murder people for a monster's entertainment."

I felt tears forming. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what happened to you. It was wrong. Unforgivable but I didn't do it I was a baby too i had no control-”

"I know. Logically, I know you're not to blame. But knowing doesn't change how I feel. Doesn't change the rage, the hatred, the desire for revenge."

"Revenge on who? Our parents are dead. The pack that made that decision is destroyed. Everyone who hurt you is already gone."

"Not everyone." She moved closer, close enough to touch. "You're still here. Living the life that should have been mine. Mated to an Alpha, mother to a child. Luna of a pack you have everything I was denied."

"I will share that you can join the pack and be part of the family. We can make up for what was stolen from you-”

Nyx laughed. Cold. Cruel. "You think I want your charity? Your pity? I don't want to join your pack.”

“I want to destroy it. I want you to feel the loss and abandonment I felt. I want you to know what it is like to have everything ripped away."

"Then the prophecy you are choosing destruction."

"I'm choosing justice for the child who was thrown away. For the sister who never got a chance."

"Justice and revenge aren't the same thing."

"They are to me."

We stood there. Identical twins facing each other for the first time. Light and shadow. Salvation and destruction.

"I don't want to fight you," I said quietly. 

"You're my sister. My twin, we should be together, not enemies."

"We will never be together. Not the way you imagine. The prophecy says we're either salvation or destruction. I've chosen my path. Now you have to choose yours."

Before I could respond, I heard footsteps. Kaden appeared with several guards.

"Elara, Marcus said he saw someone in the garden-" He stopped dead when he saw both of us standing there.

His expression was shock, confusion and fear.

"Which…which one is-" He couldn't finish the sentence.

Nyx smiled. "Hello, Alpha Kaden. I'm Nyx. Elara's twin sister. The one your mate's family abandoned to die."

Kaden looked between us. I could see him trying to find differences. Ways to tell us apart. But there was none, we were identical.

"Kaden, it's me. Elara. She's telling the truth about being my twin. I told you about her. Remember?"

"You told him about me?" Nyx raised an eyebrow. "How sweet building the narrative before I could tell my side of the story."

"That's not what I was doing-"

"Wasn't it? You told him I was abandoned. Made him feel sympathy for the poor lost twin. Set yourself up as the victim of tragic circumstances rather than the beneficiary of someone else's suffering."

"That's not fair-"

"Nothing about this is fair!" Nyx's voice rose.