CHAPTER 154: CHAPTER 154: A GLIMPSE BEYOND

Kieran’s POV

I couldn’t look away.

The woman, no, the being, stood like a radiant memory, not quite real, but more present than anything I had ever known.

Her hair danced in a wind I couldn’t feel, long and silver white like moonlight liquified. Her skin was porcelain, but not cold, it glowed faintly like soft embers beneath the surface. And her eyes, those eyes.

They held galaxies within them. Pools of ancient power, rimmed in crimson, filled with something that shook me to my very core.

Grief.

She didn’t speak. She didn’t need to.

Because when she looked at me, I felt her.

And then I couldn’t move.

I was trapped. Floating now in an abyss. Like time itself had stilled. The sky warped and spiraled, and the stars bled red.

I wanted to say something. Anything.

Who are you?

Where is this?

How are you related to Lorraine?

But my mouth wouldn’t move. My body wouldn’t obey.

Then I saw it.

A glimmer at the corner of her eye.

A single tear.

It rolled down her cheek, slowly, silently.... and my heart... broke.

Not like heartbreak. Not metaphorically.

It broke.

Something inside me cracked wide open, like someone was peeling my soul apart inch by inch with a dagger of sorrow. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I wanted to scream.

More tears followed the first. They flowed freely down her perfect face, and the more she cried, the more my chest caved in with pain I didn’t even know was possible.

Then her white gown caught fire.

The flames erupted out of nowhere, swallowing the hem first, then racing up her legs, her arms, her chest, too fast, too cruel. The fabric disintegrated into ash and sparks as the fire devoured her.

Her porcelain skin blistered and melted as she began to scream.

It wasn’t just any scream.

It sounded like centuries of agony pouring out all at once.

It was divine. It was monstrous.

It was every death, every torment, every sorrow carved into a single voice.

And it destroyed me.

My knees buckled, but I didn’t fall, because there was no ground.

The pain in my chest turned violent, raw. My claws tore into my own palms. I couldn’t move. I wanted to burn with her. I wanted to make it stop. To take it all away. To.....

"My King!!!"

A voice.

A sharp yank.

And then....

Blackness again.

....

When I opened my eyes, I was gasping.

I was back. The hideout. The circle. Lorraine.

Her weight was still in my arms, but something was missing.

I looked down. The tube.

It had been pulled out.

Thorin was beside me, eyes wide and panicked, hand still clutching the bloody tubing.

"You were fading," he said. "You weren’t breathing. I had to remove the tube connecting you to her."

I blinked. My chest still ached. I looked at Lorraine.

She was still. But her color... it was much better. Her chest rose and fell, uneven but steady.

I looked at Thorin again.

"You pulled me out," I muttered, my voice hoarse. "I was...."

I didn’t even know what I was going to say.

There weren’t words for what I had seen. For her. That creature. That presence.

Was that Lorraine’s wolf?

Was that what she kept hidden all along?

Goddess.

What is she?

Thorin helped me sit back as I caught my breath. My heart was still hammering.

I looked at where Astrid was and zhe was unconscious now, collapsed on the floor just outside the circle. Magnus was beside her, holding her, checking her pulse.

And Lorraine...

I looked down again.

Her fingers twitched faintly. Her lashes fluttered.

My Lorraine was still fighting.

I pulled her closer to me.

"I don’t care what it costs," I whispered to her unconscious form. "I’m going to protect you. From all of it. Even from... whatever that was."

But a question echoed in my head still.

Who was that woman?

And why... did her pain feel like my own?

I glanced at Lorraine’s shoulder.

The stump was clean, no longer bleeding. My blood had helped slow the damage, Astrid’s ritual had sparked the healing, but....

The arm was still gone.

Completely.

Not even a bone left to hope for.

Just.... gone.

A lump rose in my throat, and I swallowed hard as I stood with her in my arms. Her body felt too light, like something had been taken from her beyond just flesh. I hated it. Hated that she would wake up to this. Hated that I hadn’t been faster. Stronger. Hated that my own mother did this to her

I walked to the bed and gently laid her down. The sheets felt too cold against her skin, so I pulled the thickest blanket I could find and tucked it around her, brushing a damp strand of hair from her face.

"I’m sorry," I whispered. "I never should’ve left you alone."

She didn’t stir.

I turned away before the guilt could crush me again.

Across the room, Magnus was still hunched over Astrid.

I walked toward them slowly, the heaviness in my chest anchoring each step. Magnus had always been stone. Steel. A man with nerves sharp enough to slice through bone.

But now, he was shaking.

"Astrid," he whispered, his hands trembling as he checked her wrist again. "Come on. Come on."

"Magnus," I said, quietly. "What’s happening? She’s not waking up, why?"

He didn’t look up at me.

"I told her not to do it," he muttered, voice broken and low. "The ritual, it draws directly from the caster’s life force. And without the full moon to stabilize the magic...."

His voice cracked. "It’s like setting yourself on fire from the inside out."

I clenched my fists.

Magnus looked up st me

His eyes..... his eyes were rimmed red, shimmering.

"I tried to stop her but she didn’t listen," he rasped. "She never listens. Not when it’s about helping those she cares about. She just gives and gives and gives like there’s no end to her." He turned back to her still body. "Everyone she’s ever trusted, her family, the late Alpha King.... even me, we all betrayed her."

He pressed his forehead to her hand. "She doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve to die like this"

Then....

There was a sudden twitch.

Astrid’s fingers jerked slightly.

Magnus sat up instantly.

"Astrid?"

Her body gave another twitch, and her eyes slowly, painfully fluttered open. She blinked, dazed, and then turned her gaze to him.

But something was different.

Her skin, once smooth and radiant, was paler. Wrinkled in some places near her temples and hands.

And her hair...

Some strands of her silver hair were now bone white.

She looked.... older. A decade, maybe more.

The ritual had taken more than energy. It had taken years from her

But Magnus didn’t notice. Or if he did, he didn’t care.

He let out a gasp, half sob, half breath, and threw his arms around her, pulling her into the tightest hug I’d ever seen from him.

"Astrid," he breathed. "Astrid, you came back."

She gave a weak laugh, breathy and dry. "You sound surprised. Did you really think I was going to die of this easily?"

He pulled back just enough to look at her. "Don’t ever do that again. Or I’ll drag you back from the dead myself just to kill you."

"You’d miss me that much?" she teased faintly.

"I’d break the laws of nature to slap some sense into you."

She smiled, worn but real, ghosted across her tired lips. "Noted."

I stepped forward. "Astrid, thank you. You saved her."

Her gaze flicked past Magnus to me, then to the bed where Lorraine lay, unmoving.

"She’s stable?" she asked, voice rough.

"Yes"

"Good," Astrid said, sinking back into Magnus’s arms. "Because I don’t think I can do that again."

I stared at her. At Magnus. At the way he held her now like she was his whole world.

He really cares about her.

And it was odd to see Magnus Thorn sincerely caring about anyone that was not part of the royal family.

He gently helped Astrid into a nearby chair, his arms wrapped around her waist with a care so fierce it actually startled me. He adjusted the cushions, slid a blanket over her legs, but Astrid simply exhaled deeply and leaned back with her eyes closed, as if listening to something deep inside her.

The room had gone quiet and no one dared speak.

We were all just watching her breathe.

Finally, she opened her eyes. Her expression was distant, calculating.... calm.

She gave a thin smile and muttered, "Not too bad."

"Not too bad?" I repeated, narrowing my eyes. "Astrid, what happened?"

Her smile turned sardonic as she leaned her head back on the chair. "The ritual drew a little more than I expected," she said. "It shaved twenty years off my lifespan. That means I’ll die twenty years earlier than I should’ve."

She chuckled faintly, as if it was the punchline to some horrible joke.

But Magnus didn’t laugh.

He was still kneeling in front of her, hands clenched into fists. His jaw flexed with fury and grief as he whispered, "That’s not funny."

Astrid looked down at him, her silver-white hair cascading around her like moonlight dimmed by age. "Why are you being so sore Magnus, its unlike you" she said softly.

Before Magnus could respond....

There was a scream.

Piercing. Gut wrenching. Raw.

We all turned.

Lorraine.

She was awake.

And she was panicking.

"No, no, no, no....." she cried out, thrashing as she sat upright on the bed, her face ghost white, drenched in sweat and tears. She grabbed at her right shoulder, and froze.

Where her arm had once been, there was nothing. Just the stump, neatly healed by her wolf

"My arm....." she gasped, voice cracking as she stared at the space that had always been a part of her. Her chest heaved, and her breathing turned ragged, rapid, like she was choking on air. "Where’s my arm?! What.... what the hell happened.... where..."

I rushed to her side, but she flinched when I got too close. I paused.

"Lorraine....."

"Don’t!" she yelled. Her eyes were wide and wild with disbelief and horror, as she yelled at me "Stay away from me!!!"