Sabrina's voice slithered into the silence like a curse.
"Hello, sister."
Sheila's heart lurched. Her hand clenched reflexively, fingers aching to shift—but nothing happened. Her wolf remained silent. Dormant.
Emery stepped in front of her, a protective stance that looked more ceremonial than practical. "You shouldn't be here," she said tightly.
Sabrina smiled, tilting her head. "I go where I'm called."
"You weren't called," Emery snapped. "You forced your way through the border magic."
Sabrina's smile widened, eyes flaring crimson. "When the veil thins, borders mean nothing."
Sheila stepped forward, brushing past Emery. Her voice came out steadier than she felt. "What do you want?"
"Oh, I don't want anything," Sabrina said, tracing her fingers along the archway as she entered the chamber. "But something else does."
She stopped in front of the mural. Her fingers hovered over the cracked face that mirrored Sheila's.
"She's inside you, isn't she?" Sabrina murmured. "Selene."
Sheila didn't respond. Her body tensed as Sabrina turned to face her again, her eyes suddenly softer.
"I remember the night we were born," Sabrina said. "I don't know how… but I do. The moon bled. The midwife screamed. And you—you didn't cry. You just stared at me with eyes that didn't belong to a child."
Sheila blinked, stunned. "That… never happened."
"No?" Sabrina whispered. "Then why do I remember it?"
A gust of wind whipped through the chamber, though no door had opened.
Emery's hand flared with magic, threads of silver sparking around her fingers. "Enough. You're not here to share childhood memories. What did you do, Sabrina?"
Sabrina stepped closer to Sheila. "I stopped trying to fight the voice. I let it in. And now... I understand."
Sheila's pulse quickened. "Understand what?"
"The truth," Sabrina said softly. "We weren't born to share this world. We were born to remake it."
Before anyone could react, Sabrina's hand shot forward. A ripple of dark energy burst from her palm.
Emery blocked it with a wall of light, but the impact threw all three of them backward.
Sheila hit the stone floor hard, vision spinning.
When she sat up, Sabrina was gone.
The air was thick with smoke and residual magic.
"She didn't try to kill us," Emery said, coughing. "She just wanted to shake you."
"She succeeded," Sheila muttered, still trembling.
But what disturbed her more wasn't Sabrina's power.
It was the way her own wolf had remained silent through all of it.
Later that morning, the witches gathered for the soul trial.
The chamber was built in a spiral shape, with Sheila standing at the center, surrounded by glyphs and sigils drawn in ash and salt.
Emery stood at the edge of the circle, alongside the Oracle.
"You're sure about this?" Emery asked.
"No," the Oracle said. "But it has to happen."
Sheila felt like she was floating. Part of her wanted to run. Part of her wanted to sleep forever.
But something deeper… needed to know the truth.
Emery raised her hands. "Sheila of Moonwatch, now of Silverstone, do you willingly submit to the Rite of Echoes?"
Sheila nodded. "I do."
The Oracle stepped forward. "Then let the soul speak."
The glyphs ignited.
A wind rose in the chamber, not from outside—but from within.
Sheila closed her eyes.
The world vanished.
She stood in a vast, black void. There was no ground, no sky—just swirling mist and silence.
And then… a flame.
Small at first. Flickering.
Then it grew, and from it stepped a man. Tall, regal. A golden crown resting on his head like it belonged there.
Brutus.
But not broken. Not scarred. Not mad.
This was Brutus before the fall. His eyes—silver, kind, brimming with sorrow—locked onto hers.
"She left me," he said quietly. "Not because she stopped loving me, but because she loved everyone else too much."
Sheila took a step forward. "Brutus?"
He nodded. "The part of me that remains sane. Buried in memories, kept alive by the echo of her name."
"Selene?"
He gave a faint smile. "You're not her. But you carry her heart."
Sheila's voice trembled. "Why did she leave?"
"To save everything," he said. "To stop it."
"The Devourer?"
He nodded. "We were all too blind to see it coming. Even the gods."
He stepped closer. "You have to finish what she started. But you must not awaken too fast. If the soul breaks before it's whole, the void will find its way through the cracks."
"How do I stop it?"
"You don't," he said sadly. "You choose. And in choosing, you shape the end."
The flame engulfed him. He vanished.
Then—another vision.
A child.
Sheila as a girl, playing in the forest. But behind her stood two shadows. One silver. One black.
They both reached for her.
She turned to the silver one, but it vanished.
The black one smiled and whispered: "We've met before."
Sheila screamed.
Her body arched in the circle. Magic flared from her skin.
Witches staggered back. Emery held her position.
"Sheila!" she shouted.
But Sheila was no longer alone.
From her mouth came another voice. Older. Tired. Broken.
"You should have let me die."
Then the light exploded outward.
Silence.
Sheila collapsed.
Kael stood over the charred remains of his tower's archive. Scrolls were ash. The ink had bled into smoke.
Only one page remained untouched—held in his shaking hand.
A sketch of a cracked moon. Beneath it, a woman's face—split down the center. One side serene. The other snarling.
In the margins, written in blood:
"Two cannot live in one."
He whispered, "Sheila…"
Sheila woke hours later. Emery sat by her bedside.
"You survived," she said.
Sheila stared at the ceiling. "Was that... Selene?"
"Part of her."
"She's hurting."
Emery nodded. "Because you are."
Sheila closed her eyes. "Then I have to stop hurting. Or she'll break."
"No," Emery said. "You don't stop the pain. You face it."
Sheila looked at her. "Then I need to know everything. About Brutus. About Selene. About the thing that's coming."
"You're not ready," Emery said.
"I don't care."
The Oracle entered, silent as ever. In her hand, she held a candle—black wax, burning blue.
"The seal on the old world is weakening," she said. "And the forest is changing."
Emery stood. "What do you mean?"
The Oracle turned to Sheila.
"Something watches you from the woods. A wolf with no name. Eyes like embers."
Sheila sat up slowly.
"What does it want?"
The Oracle placed the candle on the window.
"It's waiting for your soul to crack."
Outside, in the woods, something moved.
A wolf. Huge. Silent.
Its eyes glowed red in the moonlight.