Chapter 96 Our Destiny
The past didn't arrive as a memory. It arrived as an invasion.
As soon as my fingers touched the aged page of the Elyrions' book, the world around me vanished.
There was no smooth transition. There was no warning.
One second I was in the castle library... the next, my feet were on white stone warmed by the sun.
Air.
The air was different.
Purmer. More alive. As if each breath carried liquid magic into my lungs.
I slowly raised my eyes, my heart racing.
A golden city stretched before me.
Crystalline towers pierced the sky in impossible spirals. Bridges of light connected structures suspended in the air. Giant runes floated above the buildings, pulsing like living constellations.
And I knew.
I knew without anyone telling me.
Elyria.
The ancient kingdom of the Elyrions.
My origin.
My blood.
A shiver ran down my spine when I realized I wasn't just seeing—I was inside someone.
My hands weren't mine.
They were longer. More elegant. Covered in silvery markings that shimmered beneath the skin like rivers of stars.
Ancestral memory.
My heart began to beat faster.
Then I felt her.
The presence.
A woman stood before me.
Tall. Imposing. Hair as white as moonlight. Eyes that carried the same impossible mixture as mine—light and shadow coexisting without destroying each other.
She was... me.
Or something I would become.
When she spoke, the voice echoed within my chest.
"You've finally arrived."
A tremor ran through the ground beneath our feet, and the golden sky cracked like glass.
Black fissures appeared on the horizon.
From them, creatures began to emerge.
Erasers.
Even before I could fully see them, my body reacted. The same cold I felt when I first faced one of them. The same devouring emptiness.
The woman beside me raised her hand.
Light exploded from her palm.
But it wasn't just light.
Shadows danced alongside—obedient, tamed, intertwined like gentle serpents.
Pure magic and dark magic.
Balance.
With a slow movement, she drew a symbol in the air.
Runes swirled around the rift.
Not to destroy it.
To seal it.
My heart raced.
That was it.
That was how it was.
The Erasers couldn't be defeated with force alone.
They needed to be deprived of their origin.
The rift.
The portal.
The source.
"The rupture was created by imbalance," she said, looking directly at me—through time. "And only balance can close it."
My breath hitched.
Balance.
Light and shadow.
Pure magic... and black magic.
Me.
And then I realized something else.
A new energy surged behind me.
More intense. More powerful.
Instinctively, I placed my hand on my belly.
The baby.
The woman smiled softly.
"You were not chosen by chance, heiress."
The ground trembled again, and this time the rift began to collapse beneath the energy seal.
Before everything disappeared, she spoke the words that changed everything within me:
"The portal can only be closed when three forces become one."
My heart stopped.
Three.
Me.
The baby...
And—
The world exploded in light.
I returned to my body with a start, the book falling from my hands onto the library floor.
Conrad was beside me at that very moment.
"Maya! What happened?"
My breathing was uneven. My heart was racing.
But for the first time since it all began...
I had an answer.
I looked at him, feeling tears streaming down my face without realizing it.
"We can end this," I whispered.
My hand went to my stomach.
"I saw how to close the rift."
Conrad stood still for a second.
Just a second.
But I knew every nuance of him well enough to perceive the impact of what I had said.
His golden eyes fixed on mine with absolute intensity, as if trying to confirm that I was really there, whole, alive... and not about to faint again.
"You saw... how to close it?" he asked, his voice lower than usual.
I nodded slowly.
My hands were still trembling, not from fear—but from something bigger.
Destiny. "I wasn't dreaming, Conrad. It was a memory. Of the Elyrions. I saw the city... I saw the rift being sealed. Not destroyed... sealed. They used balance. Light and shadow together."
He frowned, processing each word.
"And you can do that?" he asked.
The question didn't doubt my power.
It was concerned about me.
Always about me.
I swallowed hard.
"Not alone."
The silence between us grew thick.
His hand automatically slid to my belly, in a protective and almost instinctive gesture.
"The baby," he said, understanding.
I nodded again.
"The baby is part of this. I felt it... Conrad, it reacted when I was in the vision. As if it recognized that magic. As if... it were its own too."
Conrad's jaw tightened.
Fear.
Not for the kingdom.
For us. "It looks dangerous," he murmured.
I gave a small, tired smile.
"It is."
He exhaled heavily through his nose and rested his forehead against mine.
"Then we're not going to do it."
I chuckled softly, humorlessly.
"You know we will."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them again, there was something different there.
Acceptance.
And pride.
"Tell me everything," he asked.
I explained every detail—the city, the woman who seemed like an ancestral version of me, the runes, the seal, the balance between opposing energies.
And then I got to the final part.
The sentence.
"The portal can only be closed when three forces become one."
Conrad was silent.
A long silence.
Heavy.
"Three," he repeated.
I nodded.
"Me... the baby... and someone else."
His gaze shifted.
An insight flashed across his face like lightning.
"Wolves of pure magic," he said.
My heart raced.
"Conrad..."
"The rift was created by an imbalance of energy," he continued, reasoning aloud. "You are the balance between light and shadow. Our son... is something new. Something that has never existed before. But the third force needs to be stability. An anchor."
He placed his hand on his chest.
"Pure magic."
The air grew heavy around us.
Because we both understood at the same time.
This was no coincidence.
It was destiny.
My mate.
My king.
My equal.
"You think it's you," I whispered.
He held my gaze without hesitation.
"I'm sure of it."
My heart tightened.
Fear and love mixed in an almost unbearable way.
"Conrad... this could kill you."
He smiled.
Not an arrogant smile.
A calm smile.
Confident.
That smile that always made me feel like nothing in the world could reach me while he was there.
"Then it will be worth it," he replied.
Tears immediately filled my eyes.
"Don't talk like that."
He held my face in both hands, firm and gentle at the same time.
"Look at me, Maya."
I obeyed.
"If there's a chance to end the Erasers... to protect you... to ensure our child is born into a safe world... I would do it a thousand times over."
My breath caught in my throat.
The bond between us vibrated warmly in my chest, pulsing strongly.
Truth.
Promise.
Intertwined destiny.
His hand moved down again to my belly.
The baby moved.
A strong kick.
We both froze.
Then Conrad's eyes widened slightly.
"He... felt it."