TheReckoning

The world fell away and cold swallowed me first, then silence. Not the kind of silence that came with stillness, but something deeper, something unnatural. A silence that listened. I wasn't falling and I wasn't floating either.

I existed in the dark, suspended in a space that did not belong to this world. My breath came in short, shallow bursts, though I couldn't hear it. I could feel my heart pounding against my ribs, but the sound was smothered, like the air itself was thick.

This wasn't just magic, this was something else, something alive.

"Good girl."

Zephyr's voice curled through the void, smooth and patient, like a teacher addressing a particularly difficult student. I spun around, but was met with an unsettling void, no direction or sense of surrounding entirely , Just shadows that stretched endlessly.

A cold whisper ghosted across my skin.

"You feel it, don't you?" Zephyr mused. "The pull?"

I did, and that was the most terrifying part. The moment the shadows had touched me, something had clicked into place, like a door I hadn't known was locked had suddenly swung open. And on the other side? Power. Not the raw, untamed power of the wolf, something more ancient, more profound stirred beneath. I gritted my teeth, forcing the sensation away. "Where are we?"

He paused, his gazed fixed intently on something, his expression unreadable and mysterious suddenly.

"Somewhere safe," Zephyr said simply. "For now."

The darkness shifted, parting like mist and then, light.

Not the gentle glow of the moon, but a fierce, flickering flames casting unsettling shadows everywhere . Then suddenly, I was somewhere.

The shadows melted away, leaving me standing on solid ground. Stone smooth and cold beneath my bare feet.

It was a chamber. The walls were carved from black rock, etched with strange symbols that pulsed faintly, as if breathing. At the center of the room stood a single pillar, its surface cracked, leaking tendrils of that same inky darkness. And across from me, Zephyr stood at the edge of the chamber, watching me with a knowing smirk, arms crossed over his chest. The flickering light cast sharp shadows across his face, making him look both impossibly young and endless all at once.

"This is Eldrador," he said. "Or at least, a part of it."

My stomach twisted. Eldrador, the city of warlocks, a place of forbidden magic, and I was in his domain now.

I forced my shoulders back, ignoring the weight of the power still curling inside me. "You said you'd give me answers," I said. "So start talking."

Zephyr's smirk didn't falter.

"I will," he promised. "But first, you need to understand something, Lyra."

His gaze darkened.

"You chose this."

A pulse of something shuddered through the air, pressing against my skin, my ribs like a heartbeat beneath the stone. And with it, came the sinking realization.

"I wasn't just trapped here, I had tied myself to this place and to him". I thought.

And I wasn't sure I could leave even if I wanted to.

I took a slow breath, steadying the tremor in my hands. The air in this chamber was different, thick, charged, pressing against my skin like a living thing. Every breath I took carried a whisper of something else beneath it, like an unseen presence patently observing.

Zephyr's gaze never wavered. "You feel it, don't you?"

I did, and I hated that he knew. I still refused to tell him regardless.

I crossed my arms, shoving the sensation down. "You talk too much."

A low chuckle. "You're impatient." He stepped toward the pillar at the center of the room, trailing his fingers along its cracked surface. The stone pulsed faintly beneath his touch, as if responding to him. "That's a dangerous trait, little wolf."

I ignored the nickname, ignored the slow prickle of something curling at the base of my spine. "You said you'd tell me the truth." My voice was steady, sharper than the tremor in my pulse. "Start talking."

Zephyr tilted his head, considering me.

"You've been asking the wrong question, Lyra."

The flickering light caught the angles of his face, making his expression unreadable. "You ask who killed your parents." He stepped closer, his tone almost gentle. "But you should be asking why."

A cold shudder rippled down my spine. I had been so certain, so sure that it was the pack's betrayal that had stolen them from me. That revenge was simple and felt righteous. But now, now, I wasn't sure of anything.

I lifted my chin, keeping my voice steady. "Fine, why were they killed?"

Zephyr's smirk deepened. "Because they lied."

The words hit harder than I expected.

My throat tightened. "Lied about what?"

His gaze flickered to the pendant still hanging around my neck, the last remnant of my mother.

"They weren't protecting the pack from me."

He said then paused.

"They were protecting you from yourself."

The room seemed to shrink, the air pressing in too tight, too close.

"No! That wasn't possible".

I took a step back, the stone cold beneath my bare feet. "You're lying."

Zephyr didn't move, didn't blink. "Am I?"

His voice curled around me like smoke. "Tell me, Lyra, why do you think you survived that night when your parents didn't?"

I swallowed hard.

"I ran." The words felt thin. Hollow. "I was a child. They told me to run."

Zephyr hummed, as if considering. "Yes," he said, voice silk-smooth. "They did."

"But not from the pack."

Something inside me stilled. His gaze locked onto mine, sharp as a blade.

"They told you to run because they were afraid of you."

The words landed like a dagger between my ribs.

I staggered back, my breath catching. "That's not.. "

Immediately were Memories, flashes of something I had buried long ago.

My mother's voice with panic and urgency. "run Lyra! "

Immediately Blood everywhere. Not just their blood, blood on my hands. Then a scream.

I gasped, pressing a hand to my temple as a sharp pain lanced through my skull.

Zephyr watched, calm, waiting. He had known, he had always known. And deep down, a terrible, creeping part of me wondered if I had, too.

Because the shadows here, the ones curling through the cracks in the stone, the ones that had recognized me the moment I arrived, they weren't foreign and they weren't his. They were mine. And that was when I realized I wasn't just trapped here, I had belonged here all along.