Chapter 35
The air was thick with expectation as if the forest itself was waiting for Riley to make her next move. The weight of her realization hadn't settled yet, hadn't fully sunk in but it would.
It had to.
Because whether she liked it or not, whether she feared it or embraced it, she had been here before.
And she had come back for a reason.
Her fingers twitched at her sides, a restless energy humming beneath her skin. It was stronger now, harder to ignore, as if something inside her had been stirred awake and it refused to sleep again.
A branch snapped behind her.
Riley didn't flinch.
She already knew who it was.
"You should be inside," Kieran said, his voice steady but cautious. "Lena's not someone you want to trust blindly."
Riley let out a quiet breath, watching the mist curl around her feet. "I don't trust her."
Kieran stepped closer, and she felt the warmth of him at her back. "Then what are you doing out here?"
Riley turned slightly, meeting his gaze. His golden eyes flickered with something unreadable, something tense.
"I don't know," she admitted.
It wasn't a lie.
Because she didn't know what she was waiting for, only that the air felt charged, that the night was pressing against her like it was expecting something to happen.
Kieran studied her, his jaw tight. "You've been different since the altar."
Her breath hitched, but she didn't look away. "I saw my death, Kieran. I think I'm allowed to be a little different."
Something flashed in his expression of guilt.
Riley swallowed hard. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Kieran exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. "Because I knew what it would do to you."
She clenched her fists. "And what's that?"
His gaze burned into hers, heavy and knowing.
"Make you question who you are."
The words struck deep.
Because he was right.
She had spent her entire life knowing exactly who she was: a girl with a missing father, a mother who worked too much, a life that had always felt just a little too small for her.
Now?
Now, she wasn't sure if she had ever really been that girl at all.
Riley turned away, staring back into the forest. "It doesn't matter."
Kieran tensed. "It matters."
"No," she said, voice softer now. "Because no matter who I was, I'm still here. And I don't plan on letting it happen again."
She felt his gaze on her, felt the unspoken words between them.
Finally, he sighed. "Then what happens now?"
Riley didn't answer.
Because she didn't know.
She just knew that something was coming.
Something big.
And she had the sinking feeling that when it did, she wouldn't be able to stop it.
They stayed like that for a long moment, neither speaking, just standing there in the cold.
Then
The ground shifted beneath her feet.
A pulse of energy shot through the air, so sudden and sharp that Riley gasped.
Kieran cursed, stepping toward her as the wind around them picked up, howling through the trees. The earth trembled beneath them, the very air crackling with unseen force.
"What the hell" Kieran started, but then he stopped.
Because Riley wasn't just feeling it.
She was causing it.
The realization hit her like a punch to the ribs.
The energy, the pull, the strange weight pressing into her chest wasn't coming from the forest.
It was coming from her.
She took a shaky step back, her breath coming faster now. "Kieran"
But before she could say another word, the force inside her burst outward.
It was like being struck by lightning from the inside out.
Heat tore through her veins, her vision blurred, and suddenly she was somewhere else.
Not in the forest.
Not in the ruins.
Somewhere darker.
Somewhere ancient.
The air was heavy with the scent of fire and blood. The sky above was a deep, endless red, cracked with veins of gold. The world was silent. Still.
Until it wasn't.
A figure stood before her.
Tall. Commanding. Eyes like molten gold, burning with something too vast, too dangerous to be human.
Riley's pulse spiked.
Because it wasn't just any figure.
It was her.
But not her.
Not as she was now.
The woman in front of her was stronger. Wilder. There was something terrifyingly familiar about the way she stood, about the way she looked at Riley like she was nothing more than a shadow of what she had once been.
The hunger inside Riley roared.
The woman tilted her head, her lips curving into something close to a smile.
"Ah," she murmured. "You finally remember."
Riley's breath hitched. "What is this?"
The woman stepped closer, and the ground beneath them trembled.
"You already know."
Riley shook her head. "No. This isn't real."
The woman's expression didn't change.
"It's more real than anything you've ever known."
The words curled around Riley's ribs, sinking into her like hooks.
Because she did know.
She knew that this wasn't just a hallucination.
Wasn't just another vision.
This was a part of her.
A part that had been locked away, buried deep until now.
The woman took another step closer.
"You are not broken, Riley. You were never meant to be."
Riley's breath came faster. "Then why did I"
"Fall?" The woman's golden eyes gleamed. "Because you chose to."
The words rang through her skull, sending cold dread crashing through her.
"No," Riley whispered. "That's not"
"You let yourself be erased."
The ground shook, the sky above them cracking open.
"But it didn't work, did it?"
The woman's smirk deepened, and suddenly Riley knew what was happening.
This wasn't just a vision.
This was her awakening.
Her old self, the one who had died, who had been erased, was coming back.
And there was no stopping it.
"It's time, Riley." The woman's voice was soft, coaxing. "Let go."
Riley's pulse roared.
The hunger inside her, the fire, the power it wanted out.
But if she let it
Would she still be herself?
Or would she become something else?
Something unstoppable?
The woman raised her hand.
"Let me show you."
And Riley for the first time didn't pull away.
Heat exploded through Riley's body.
It wasn't like before, not like the strange flickers of power she had felt over the past few weeks, not like the slow awakening of something old stirring inside her.
This was fire ripping through her veins.
It was everything at once.
She couldn't breathe, couldn't think her entire body felt like it was breaking apart and reforming at the same time like she was being torn into pieces and put back together into something new.
Or maybe not new.
Maybe something ancient.
Something that had been waiting for her to wake up.
The woman her other self watched her with sharp golden eyes, not moving, not speaking.
Because she didn't have to.
She had already won.
Riley gasped, stumbling back, her chest heaving. The moment she moved, she realized
She wasn't in her body anymore.
Not really.
She was in the space between, in the moment before everything changed.
The woman stepped closer.
"Let it happen."
Riley clenched her teeth, her hands shaking. "I don't want to be you."
A flicker of amusement passed across the woman's face.
"Oh, Riley." Her voice was quiet, smooth as smoke. "You already are."
The words hit like a punch, knocking the air from Riley's lungs.
No.
No, that wasn't true.
She had fought against this against hunger, against the pull, against the whispers telling her she was more than what she believed.
She had fought to be herself.
Hadn't she?
Her mind reeled, the fire inside her roaring higher, demanding to be unleashed.
The woman herself, the ghost of whom she had been tilted her head, studying her.
"You think you can fight this forever?" She took another step forward, her presence swallowing everything around them.
"You think Kieran can save you?"
Riley flinched.
Because deep down, wasn't that the truth?
Wasn't that why she had followed Kieran blindly, why she had clung to the hope that he was holding onto something she couldn't remember?
Because some part of her had been waiting for him to pull her back from the edge of whatever she was becoming?
The woman's golden eyes gleamed.
"He can't."
Riley's breath shook.
"No one can."
Her past self raised a hand, palm outstretched, and suddenly
The world shattered.
The red sky cracked, the ground crumbled beneath her feet, and Riley was falling
Falling through time, through memory, through power.
She hit the ground hard.
But it wasn't stone beneath her.
It was Earth.
Cool, damp, real.
She gasped, her lungs heaving, her hands digging into the dirt beneath her. Her body ached like she had been struck by lightning and barely survived.
Then
A voice.
Not the woman's.
Not her own.
Kieran.
"Riley!"
She opened her eyes just as his hands closed around her shoulders, his grip desperate, unsteady.
The world rushed back into focus.
The trees. The night air. The watchtower behind them.
She was back.
But something was wrong.
The look on Kieran's face told her that much.
His golden eyes were wide, wild with something she couldn't place.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
She tried to speak, but her throat felt raw, her lungs burning.
Kieran's hands trembled against her. "What the hell just happened?"
Riley shook her head, trying to ground herself, trying to stop the buzzing under her skin, the power still crackling through her veins.
She wasn't the same.
She felt it.
Kieran saw it.
She could see the way his gaze flickered across her face, searching, waiting for her to say something that would prove she was still the same Riley.
But was she?
She swallowed hard. "I I saw her."
Kieran's fingers tightened. "Who?"
Riley's breath hitched.
Because she knew now.
She knew exactly who the woman in her vision had been.
Not a ghost.
Not a hallucination.
Not some piece of her past trying to break free.
She had seen herself.
The real her.
The one who had built something so powerful that the world itself had tried to erase her.
And failed.
Her voice came out hoarse, almost broken.
"I think I just remembered who I am."
Kieran's breath caught. "Riley"
Before he could say anything else, the wind shifted.
The scent of wolves.
Too many of them.
They weren't alone.
Kieran cursed under his breath, helping Riley to her feet, his body instantly tense, defensive.
But Riley wasn't afraid.
Not anymore.
Because whatever had been holding her back, whatever part of her had been fighting the truth
It was gone.
And she had a feeling that whatever came next, nothing could stop her now.
Not Tobias.
Not the pack that was hunting her.
Not even the version of herself she had tried so desperately to bury.
The hunger inside her, the power that had been clawing at the edges of her mind, was no longer something she feared. It wasn't something she needed to control, it was something she needed to embrace.
The scent of wolves grew stronger, the tension in the air shifting like a storm about to break.
Kieran moved beside her, his body tense, ready to fight. "Riley"
She glanced at him, and for the first time, she didn't hesitate.
She wasn't running.
She wasn't afraid.
She turned toward the darkness beyond the trees, where the wolves were waiting.
And she smiled.