Lisa’s POV
The colors shifted again. The tunnel spun until I felt sick. Then it threw me out into a place I did not
recognize.
I stood in a hall of mirrors. They were not glass but walls of light. Each one shimmered and moved. When I stepped close, I could see pieces of myself. But they were not only mine. They were memories.
The air was heavy. My lungs felt tight as if I was drowning. My legs shook under me.
“Sierra,” I whispered. “What is this place?”
Her voice came low and sharp. It is a maze…..a prison of time. He wants you to lose yourself here.
I touched one of the walls. The light rippled like water. A scene pulled me inside before I could stop it.
I was in the Frostbane courtyard. My heart jumped. Rylan stood there. It was the day he had brought me to
his pack for the first time. His eyes had been kind. His smile had been soft. I remembered the way his voice had wrapped around me like warmth.
“Are you alright?” his memory asked, just like he had before.
The scene burned. My chest tightened.
“It’s only the past,” Sierra said gently.
I staggered back away from the wall. I wanted to find the way out. I turned down another path. I thought that if I kept moving, I would walk closer to the present.
But I was wrong.
The wall beside me shimmered again. I stopped. My stomach fell.
It was Kael.
He stood tall. His eyes were blazing. The moment of rejection. His voice cracked like thunder inside my
ears.
“I, Alpha Kael Blackthorn, reject you, Lisa Evans…”
The words cut me all over again. My knees buckled. I felt the same cold I had felt that night….the same emptiness.
“No,” I whispered. “Not again.”
I pressed my hands over my ears but his voice still reached me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to shatter the walls.
“Lisa,” Sierra said. Her voice was strong, though I felt her tremble too. “This is what he wants. Fenric wants you to bleed in old wounds. He wants you weak.”
Chapte 123
“I can’t,” I sobbed. “I can’t see this again.”
But the memory faded on its own, melting into another.
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This time, I was small. A child. I saw myself sitting by the lake with my knees hugged to my chest. I had always been lonely. My parents had always loved Roxanne more. The ache of those years came back sharp, as if I was still that little girl, begging for scraps of attention.
My throat closed.
“Lisa.” Sierra’s tone was firm. “Do not linger. Keep moving.”
I nodded even though I was crying. My tears were hot and endless.
I turned again. This path was darker. The air was colder. I stepped carefully. My heart was beating hard in
my chest.
The wall to my right flared open.
I froze.
It was not my memory. It was Fenric’s.
He was young. Younger than I had ever seen him. His hair was black as ink. His eyes burned with a hunger I knew too well. He stood at the altar. The walls were etched with strange symbols. A fire burned in the
center. It was black and red. The smoke smelled of sulfur.
My stomach twisted. I felt the wrongness of it even from outside.
Then the shadows thickened. They poured together like oil until they formed a figure. The demon.
Its body was vast and dark, shaped like a man but more monstrous. Horns rose high. Its eyes glowed like coals. Its voice rumbled like a mountain cracking.
“What do you seek, mortal?” the demon asked.
Fenric dropped to his knees. His voice shook, but not from fear. It was from desire. “Power,” he said. “I want power. I want to be the strongest. I want to rule over them all. No one will ever command me again.”
The demon’s laugh was long and cruel. “And what will you give in return, little warlock? Nothing is free.”
Fenric lifted his head. “I will give you blood. I will give you my devotion. I will do anything for power.”
My blood froze.
The demon’s form rippled in the shadows. Its voice was a hiss that slithered through the air. “Power does not come cheaply, mortal. If you crave immortality, you must feed me. Not with the blood of warriors or kings… but with pure blood. The blood of innocents. Their screams, their terror, their blood–these are my
feasts. The more you give, the more eternal your reign will be.”
Fenric’s chest rose and fell with hunger for the promise. His hands trembled but not with fear, it was with excitement. The madness in his eyes caught fire as he whispered, “Yes… yes, I can do that. I will drown the
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<Chapter 123
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earth in their blood if it means I never wither. Make me immortal, and the innocent will die for my
greatness.”
The demon’s laughter shook the ground. It was a chorus of agony and triumph. “Then, the pact is sealed.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth. My body shook with rage.
“This was it,” I whispered. “This is where it began. All of it. The curse. My mother’s death. The blood.
Everything.”
I felt like I could tear the walls apart with my bare hands.
“This is Fenric’s sin,” Sierra growled. “Not yours. Remember that.”
But I could not stop shaking. The hatred in me burned hotter than anything I had ever known. If he had not
been so greedy, if he had not sold his soul, none of this would have happened.
I stumbled away. I turned left. Then right. Another path. Another wall. The maze kept twisting. There was no order. No logic.
I saw the night Kael’s eyes softened for me. I saw Roxanne laughing at my pain. I saw Rylan holding my
hand in the Frostbane gardens. The memories kept bleeding together until I could not breathe.
“I can’t find the way,” I whispered. My legs gave out. I sank to the ground. The stone was cold. My tears dripped onto it.
“I don’t know where to go. I don’t know how to return.”
Sierra’s voice came softer now. We will find it. Don’t give up.
But I was so tired. So lost. I pressed my face into my hands and sobbed. My whole body hurt with despair.
Then….
A voice.
“Lisa, child… is that you?”
I froze.
I lifted my head slowly. My breath was stuck in my throat.
A woman’s figure stood in the light ahead. Her voice was soft and aching.
My eyes widened.
I did not believe it.
It could not be.
But it was.
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Chapter 124
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