CHAPTER 60: LIORA FALLS II

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The hospital room exploded with noise.

One moment, Carla’s chest was rising in slow, shallow breaths, the soft hum of machines filling the silence. The next—

The heart monitor spiked, shrill alarms cutting through the once quiet room. Her body arched suddenly, trembling violently against the sheets, the tubes connected to her body rattling as though invisible hands were shaking her.

"Doctor!" Angela’s scream split the air. She leapt up from her chair, "Help her! Somebody! SOMEBODY!!"

Nurses rushed in, the door slamming against the wall as a crash team poured inside. The lead doctor barked orders at them. "Get me a defibrillator! Move, now!"

Angela clutched Carla’s hand, her eyes brimming with panic. Her sister’s skin had turned deathly pale, beads of sweat dripping down her temples. The steady thump of the heart monitor collapsed into an erratic screech.

Her lips moved. She barely made a sound. She sounded very weak.

"B... Bella..."

Angela bent low, tears streaming her face. "What? Carla, stay with me! Don’t close your eyes, don’t you dare!"

But Carla’s body jerked again, her back arching in silent agony.

Inside the Shadowed Realm, Maren twisted the cursed dagger deeper. Its black fire spread, eating through Carla’s veins. Her wolf’s howl reverberated faintly before being swallowed in silence.

Carla’s scream in the Realm echoed in her human body. Her head flung back, her throat tearing with a sound that didn’t belong in the human world.

Angela staggered backward, horrified.

Doctors swarmed the bed. "Clear!" One pressed defibrillator paddles against Carla’s chest, her body jolted violently, crashing back into the mattress.

Angela sobbed into her hands. "Please, please not like this..."

The machines wailed. The room pulsed with chaos.

But then—

Everything stilled.

Deep, deep inside Carla’s soul.

The ancestors’ voices whispered again.

"Not yet, Liora. Not yet. She still needs you."

Her hand twitched. Just a tiny bit, but enough that Angela’s tear-soaked eyes snapped down to see.

"Carla?" she gasped. "You’re still here. Please, please fight!"

The doctors worked frantically, unaware that something greater than medicine held Carla’s thread of life in balance.

Angela surged forward, panic exploding in her chest. "Carla—"

A nurse blocked her with both arms. "Ma’am, you need to leave the room."

"No! That’s my sister—"

"Now!" The doctor barked too, two staff members were already steering her back. Her heels scraped against the floor, fighting, but in a blink, she was shoved through the door into the hallway.

The door slammed shut in her face. The blinds were drawn. She could see nothing. Only the muffled rhythm of the heart monitor... and then the terrible silence in between.

Angela stood frozen. Her hands trembled, useless at her sides. Then she turned and sighted him.

Jonathan Rivers.

He stood at the far end, still in his white shirt, his face unreadable, nonchalant, cold and distant as always, while his wife withered away.

Something inside Angela snapped.

She stormed toward him, her hands shaking until she got to him. She hooked him by the collar before his shock even registered, slamming him against the wall.

"You listen to me, Jonathan." Her voice was low, shaking, but he could feel her anger. "If Carla doesn’t survive this, I will drag you to court. For negligence. For abandonment. For murder! You hear me? I will drag your wicked ass to court!"

His eyes widened with the shock of her threat, but Angela’s grip tightened, her nails biting through his expensive shirt.

"I don’t care if I don’t have the evidence now. I’ll find it. I’ll rip you apart piece by piece, every lie you’ve ever told, every single way you’ve contributed to the detriment of her health, I’ll tell the court. And then—" her voice cracked, but her fury only deepened— "I’ll make sure you rot for what you’ve done to her. For the rest of your miserable life!"

Jonathan Rivers flinched, his features registering fear for the first time ever. Angela’s threat got to him and she could see it.

Before he could respond, the door behind them opened.

The doctors spilled into the hall, their faces grave, their eyes downcast. No one had to speak.

"No..." Angela knew.

Her grip on Jonathan faltered as her body went rigid, the sound of blood roaring in her ears.

"Time of death..." one of the doctors murmured, pulling off his gloves.

Angela’s knees buckled. She couldn’t hear the rest of his words. She stumbled back, clutching the wall, unable to breathe. Her chest rose and fell in jagged gasps.

Through the haze, she caught sight of Jonathan’s face again. His eyes weren’t grief-stricken. They weren’t horrified. They were empty.

Cold.

As if he had expected this.

Angela’s stomach twisted. Her hand pressed hard against her mouth to stifle a scream.

Behind her, the room fell silent. Carla Rivers, Liora Moonblood... was gone.

---

Deep in the forest—

Bella stumbled mid-step, her breath hitching as a sharp, tearing pain sliced through her chest. She dropped to her knees, clutching her heart.

Her wolf stirred violently, its claws raking inside her ribcage, howling in unison with a pain that wasn’t her own.

"Mama?" The word escaped her lips, raw, broken, filled with pain.

Somewhere, somehow, Bella knew—Carla was in danger.

She reeled, the pain cutting straight through her chest as if invisible claws had ripped into her. She stumbled, barely catching herself on the rough bark of a tree before collapsing to her knees.

Her breath tore raggedly out of her lungs. It wasn’t just pain, it was grief. A shattering grief that didn’t belong to her alone. Somewhere deep inside, the bond tethered to her mother had broken, and Bella felt every shred of it.

"No—" Her voice cracked. "Mama—"

Her fingers dug into the earth, as her nails clawed through moss and dirt. The ground itself trembled beneath her touch. It was subtle at first, but then the tremors deepened, rattling through her bones.

The forest stirred with her agony.

Bella’s chest heaved, every breath a struggle. Heat flared under her skin, so sharp it was almost burning. She tore at her shirt, desperate for air, for relief, but the fire only climbed higher.

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. The rhythm was too wild, heavy drums that belonged to something else. Couldn’t be hers.

Her wolf.

It slammed against the locked door of her soul, harder than ever before. The cage rattled, shuddered, bending under the force of its hunger.

"Let me out."

The words weren’t clear. She felt it more like a sensation than a thought. But she understood them anyway.

She doubled over, her forehead pressing against the damp ground. A guttural sound ripped from her throat, She bit down on it, biting her lip until she tasted blood, but it didn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop.

The wolf wanted out. And Bella wanted it too.

Her body shook violently, as if the forest itself was pouring its energy into her veins. The mist that clung to the ground swirled around her, wrapping her trembling form in smoke.

Her vision blurred. For one terrifying moment, her hands changed. They became claws, sharp, silver-tipped, and long. Her reflection flickered in the dew pooled beside her knees, she could no longer see her human face, but the flash of a wolf’s eyes, silver and ancient.

Bella gasped, jerking back. The image vanished. Her hands came back to normal, they became just hands again. Weak, shaking and human.

Her chest heaved as she clutched herself tighter, sweat dripping down her temple. She wanted to scream, to fight, to run.. but she couldn’t move. The wolf prowled inside her, pacing in the dark, furious with its cage.

And then—

A voice vibrated through her bones.

"Child."

Bella’s head snapped up, her eyes wide. She wasn’t imagining it. It wasn’t her. The words came from within, but it wasn’t hers.

It was her wolf.

"Do not crumble. Not now. Not when the blood of the Moon still burns in you."

Bella’s lips parted. "I—" Her throat caught. "I can’t—Mama is dying—"

The voice growled, "You can. You must. The pain is only the beginning. Worse is coming. Shadows are hunting, teeth are waiting. If you break now. We die."

Tears stung her eyes. She pressed her palms harder into the dirt. "It hurts—"

"Good," the wolf snarled. "Pain is the forge. It is how we are made. Rise, Bella. Rise, or be nothing."

The ground trembled harder beneath her. The trees seemed to lean closer, their branches bending in unison, as though the forest itself waited for her answer.

Bella shut her eyes tight, gasping, her body shaking with the strain. She could feel it, the cage inside her soul weakening, cracking, silver light seeping through her core like fire.

The wolf pressed again, its voice both a command and a promise.

"You are not human. You are mine. And I am yours. Now fight! Because what comes next will threaten to tear us apart. But we must be stronger!"

Bella screamed, raw and feral, the sound ripping through the forest like thunder.

The ground shook with her.