CHAPTER 53: THE ANCESTORS SPEAK...

The mist closed around Carla like a coffin, thick and unyielding. Her scream echoed through the Realm, but it faded away quickly.

Maren lingered before her, her wolf shadow pacing all around Carla with liquid menace, its ember eyes never leaving her throat.

"You challenge me like you still have your Stool of Honour Carla," Maren murmured, her voice a purr of mockery. "But look at you now. Fragile. Mortal. Soft flesh wrapped around fading power."

Carla straightened, forcing her trembling legs into steadiness. She clenched her fists until her nails dissolved into her palm. "Do not mistake flesh for weakness. I laid down my wolf, yes, but it was by choice. My blood still remembers. My power has never faded"

"Ahhh..." she breathed, circling again. "So the old Liora is still in there. How sweet. But tell me, if blood remembers, why hide as Carla? Why bury yourself in mediocrity, cooking meals, serving a man, raising children, pretending to be human?"

Carla’s jaw tightened. "Because I know what you’ll never understand, Love and Humanity. My child is worth every sacrifice I make and I’ll do it all over if I have to. I’d bleed a thousand lives to keep her safe."

Maren’s laughter cracked through the realm like breaking glass. "Safe? Foolish, sentimental Liora. You traded fangs for sentiment, claws for lullabies, and power for motherhood. Now, your child, Bella—might I add, Human now—walks right into my hands because you are too weak to stop me."

Maren’s wolf-shadow lunged, snapping at the air. Carla flinched, but did not move an inch.

Instead, she closed her eyes.

Beneath the fear and rage, beneath the suffocating mist, she reached inward, down, down into the marrow of who she once was. Liora, the Moonblood. She felt the pulse of it, like an ancient heartbeat buried under centuries of silence.

And when she opened her eyes, they shone with a silver light.

Maren stilled, her smile tightening.

"Ahhh. There she is. The wolf in hiding."

Carla’s voice rang steady now. "You may have dragged me here, Maren. You may think you possess all the power now. But I am still Moonblood. And the line does not end with me.

My. Child. Will. Carry. My. Legacy."

Her hand rose, curling her fingers like she could crush the mist itself. The air trembled, vibrating with a hum of her power. For the first time since her collapse, she felt it again, her connection to the Moon, it was in there somewhere. She smiled faintly.

The mist recoiled slightly, as if resisting her expression. Maren’s eyes narrowed, her wolf shadow pacing faster. "Careful, Liora. Power like that will burn through your fragile human shell before you can wield it. Your heart is already failing. Do you really want to die in that place, screaming her name while your body rots in a hospital bed?"

Carla’s lips twisted into a grim smile. "If it means my daughter lives, then I’ll gladly do anything."

Maren’s smirk sharpened again, but her voice carried a note of venomous impatience. "So be it. Fight for her. Cling to her. It only makes her fall sweeter when I tear her from your hands."

The wolf-shadow surged again, this time slamming Carla back into the ground. Pain exploded across her ribs. The mist wrapped tighter, chains of darkness biting into her wrists and ankles.

"You’ll never hold her forever," Maren hissed, kneeling close, her amber eyes burning holes into Carla’s. "Your daughter’s blood sings to me. She is in my territory. And sooner than you think, she will answer."

Carla choked on the weight pressing down on her chest, but even through the pain, she managed a rasped whisper:

"She is not yours. She will never be yours."

Maren’s grin spread, sharp and hungry. "We’ll see."

And with a snap of her fingers, the Shadowed Realm shattered.

—

Carla’s eyes flew open in the hospital bed. She gasped like she was surfacing from deep water, her body jerking against the wires and tubes. The monitors spiked wildly.

Angela bolted upright from the chair, nearly spilling her coffee. "Carla?! Oh my God, you’re awake! Nurse! Somebody, she’s awake!"

"DOCTOR!!" She screamed. "Someone help me!"

Carla’s chest heaved, her skin slick with sweat. Her eyes darting around wildly.

Her lips moved, her voice cracked and weak, but the words slipped out.

"Bella... don’t let her near Bella..."

Angela froze, clutching her sister’s hand tighter. "What?

What are you saying, Carla speak to me.

"Bella... she mustn’t... mustn’t...get .. to her..." she rasped.

"Who, Carla? Who’s coming for her?"

But Carla’s strength collapsed, her body sinking back into the bed.

She drifted back into unconsciousness.

But in her mind, Maren’s laughter still echoed.

She went back to the realm.

-

"Maren!"

Her chest rose and fell heavily. She straightened, glaring across the suffocating mist at Maren, whose wolf-shadow prowled with smug arrogance.

"How dare you human, summon me. How dare you call my name with that unworthy mortal canal?"

Carla chuckled. "You were never any match for me. Now you pride yourself as ’something powerful.’ I gave up my position, doesn’t mean I cannot crush you if I feel the need to."

"Is that why you came back? To boast about lost glory? I hold that position now. I wield more power than you do. Until your full reawakening, you are nothing but a powerless human and you’re no match for me. All that was in your past life." She smiled maliciously.

"So why did you summon me, Carla?"

"Enough with the gloating," Carla spat, her voice steadier than her bones felt. "You wield so much power now right? I have come to challenge you to a fight. If you want me, then face me. Here. Now."

The wolf-shadow stilled. Maren’s lips curled into a snarl. "A challenge? You’d still bare your fangs, Liora, even in that pitiful shell? I will crush you."

Carla’s jaw tightened. "Better pitiful than being a coward. You want to end my bloodline? Then stop circling. Stop whispering. Come fight me."

For a flicker of a second, Maren’s eyes gleamed with anticipation, hunger. Then she laughed, a sound like shattering glass, echoing through the Shadowed Realm.

"Oh, Liora... always so noble, always so eager to bleed for others, always so eager to save her name" She stepped backward, her shadow wolf dissolving into smoke. "Yes. I will fight you. But not tonight."

Carla’s heart hammered. "Why wait?"

Maren tilted her head. "Because when I end you, it will not be in this hollow reflection of a world. It will be when it matters. I want Bella to watch. I want her screams to stitch your failure into her bones."

Pain flashed across Carla’s eyes at the mention of Bella’s name. "No, I refuse that. I will not fight in the presence of my daughter. It’ll be a neutral fight on neutral grounds. Just me and you."

"You can’t stand to have your daughter witness your demise? Fine. I agree. I can grant you that small wish."

"We shall see, Maren."

"Of course Carla, we shall so see."

Maren’s smile sharpened, and as her body faded into vapor, her words lingered like venom in the mist:

"This time, Liora, I will finish what I started. With you out of the way, Bella is mine."

The last echo of her laughter dissolved, leaving Carla alone in the suffocating silence.

—

Carla staggered, the weight of the mist pressing down on her, but it was nothing compared to the dread twisting inside her heart.

She sank to her knees, her hands digging into the black earth.

"Gods," she whispered, her voice breaking. "What have I done? I swore to bury this, to protect her by silence. But the past... they’ve found her."

Her tears slipped soundlessly into the mist. Every beat of her heart screamed Bella’s name.

"She’s too young. Too innocent. She doesn’t know what blood runs through her veins. She doesn’t know the war she’s inherited. And if Maren..." Carla’s throat tightened. "If Maren destroys her before I can save her..."

Her words broke, swallowed by grief. For long moments she sat hunched, rocking slightly, whispering her daughter’s name like a mantra.

But then—

A shiver rippled through the realm. Not Maren’s presence this time. A different energy, positive. Carla stilled.

Child of the Moonblood...

The words were not spoken to her ears, yet it filled her mind, layered with a thousand tones. Male, female, beast, spirit. Ancestral.

Her trembling stilled. Her eyes widened. And then—

The answer came. Clear. Certain.

Her lips parted in shock, then curled into the faintest, fiercest smile she had worn in years.

"Yes," she whispered. "That’s it."

The mist stirred restlessly around her, as though it too had heard.

But Carla’s fear was gone, replaced with a strange, burning clarity.

"Bella my child..." Her voice steadied. "I know what I must do now. Come what may, I will keep you safe."

She rose slowly to her feet, her hands no longer trembling, her eyes glowing silver once more. She felt Liora standing tall inside her.

Her heart no longer quaked.

The ancestors had spoken.

And Carla had the answer.