The Alpha's Fated Outcast: Rise Of The Moonsinger. Chapter 370: The long game - revelations

Miriam

"What the fuck is going on?" Ramsey snapped, staring at us. "Did I miss a mo? I thought Cassidy was fighting for him?"

"Well," I rubbed at the back of my neck as my gaze strayed to Lyla, who nodded quietly. "There’s sothing you all need to know. About how we got to this stage and why Circe is still alive and Cassidy is here with us."

Ramsey turned to , his face still pale from Xander’s attack, but his eyes filled with curiosity. "What do you an?"

I took a deep breath, knowing that what I was about to reveal would alter their perception of everything that had happened. "It began when Xander kidnapped Lyla. I went to the Moon Temple to et with Mother Liora, to show her the picture of the markings that had appeared on Lyla’s back and to also help understand what was going on."

Ramsey’s eyes widened in shock. "She was kidnapped? When? How did I not know about this?"

I nodded grimly. "It happened long before we ca back to Blue Ridge. Around that ti, Lyla left. You weren’t together and..." I trailed off, turning to look at Lyla.

"It happened so long ago, my love," Lyla finished, flashing Ramsey a smile. "I forgot to ntion it."

"But that kidnapping was the catalyst for everything that followed afterwards," I added.

"I discovered strange markings on Lyla’s back, and Mother Liora took one look at those markings and knew imdiately who Lyla was," I continued. "She revealed to that Lyla was the Moonsinger, destined to either save our world or watch it burn. But she also told sothing else—sothing that nearly broke my heart."

I paused, seeing the tension building in everyone’s faces.

"She told the interpretation of the original prophecy: Lyla was destined to die. That the only way to defeat the Dark One was through her death."

"So when she ca to the White Mountain Council," Ramsey interrupted, his voice tight with emotion, "Lyla already knew she was a Moonsinger?"

I looked at Lyla, who nodded slowly. "I knew way before they told , Ramsey. Xander was the first person who told and wouldn’t shut up about it during my captivity. He was so proud of having found , so confident that he could corrupt or use for his own purposes."

"That gave us an advantage," I said, picking up the story. "Mother Liora devised a plan—a way to turn Xander’s certainty against him. We decided to dance to his tune, to make him believe he was in control while we slowly undermined his power."

Ramsey frowned. "What do you an?"

"Xander had already marked Lyla," I explained. "From her first encounter with the Ferals, and especially through the orb incident. You know about that, right?" I asked, as my gaze drifted to my daughter again. I didn’t want to complicate things. Lyla shook her head slowly.

"Though he didn’t take her powers directly," I continued, giving no further explanation on the orb thingy, "he created a psychic link between them. He could sense her thoughts, fuel her fears, and manipulate her emotions from a distance."

Lyla spoke up again. "Pretending to be a fool was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Constantly acting like I wanted nothing to do with my powers, like I was afraid of what I was, so that Xander would think he had complete control over ."

"But that was the genius of Mother Liora’s plan," I continued. "Every ti Xander manifested to Lyla, every ti he tried to manipulate her through their link, he was transferring small amounts of his power to her. He thought he was feeding off her fear and uncertainty, but instead, he was slowly bleeding himself dry."

"Which brings us to Cassidy," I said, turning to Cassidy.

Cassidy stepped forward, her face showing a mixture of sha and pride. "I was bitter at first," she admitted. "All I wanted was to kill Lyla and claim my place as Ramsey’s mate. But after the Harvest Moon festival, after seeing Ramsey’s reaction to everything that happened, I knew I had no chance. His heart belonged completely to Lyla."

She paused. "That’s when Mother Liora reached out to . She told I had an important role to play in bringing the Dark One’s reign to an end. That my bitterness and jealousy could be weapons against him if I were willing to use them properly."

"Cassidy beca the perfect unwitting tool for Xander’s manipulation," I explained. "He thought he was using her feelings against Lyla, but really, she was feeding him false information, making him overconfident, leading him exactly where we wanted him to go."

"She tried to kill, Lyla," Ramsey fud. "She stabbed her. Was that supposed to be so grand plan, too? What if Lyla had died?"

"It was not part of the plan," Cassidy lowered her head in sha. "I had to do it to remove every doubt the Dark One had in . He was right there watching everything. I’m sorry, and I were careful not to cause too much harm."

"This is crazy," Ramsey shook his head, laughing dryly. "I don’t know if I want to keep listening to this."

"Relax, Ramsey," Circe ca forward. "I had a part to play as well. Mother Liora asked to help create confusion around the true prophecy."

She looked almost embarrassed as she continued. "I began making up fake prophecies and had them scattered throughout various archives and libraries. Conflicting accounts of what the Moonsinger’s destiny truly was, false information about binding rituals, and completely fabricated requirents for defeating the Dark One."

"Why?" Ramsey asked, clearly struggling to understand the scope of the deception.

"Because we knew Xander was connected to Lyla through the orb," I said. "He could access her thoughts, her plans, her knowledge. So everything she learned, everything she discovered, had to be part of our misdirection."

"The research you found in Alpha Logan’s secret office," I said to Ramsey, "none of it was real. We planted all of those docunts, knowing that Lyla would eventually find them and that through her link, Xander would see them too."

Ramsey stared at in amazent. "You an the binding ritual, the requirents for the sacrifice, all of those ancient texts..."

"Completely fabricated," I confird. "We needed Xander to believe he understood how to work against the original prophecy. "How to absorb the Moonsinger’s power, how to prevent Lyla from choosing our side in the end. Every piece of false information made him more vulnerable to our real plan."

"But what was the real plan?" Caius asked. "If everything we thought we knew was false, how did you defeat him?" he waved his hand to Xander in the ritual circle. "How did it co to this stage?"

I smiled, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction at how everything had co together perfectly. "The real plan was to let Xander think he was winning right up until the very end. To allow him to absorb what he thought was Lyla’s power, to let him believe he had successfully corrupted the Moonsinger’s abilities."

"But he wasn’t absorbing my power," Lyla said, "He was absorbing the fake power Mother Liora had helped create, the false energy signatures that made him think he was getting stronger."

"Exactly," I said. "And with every ’victory,’ with every bit of false power he absorbed, he was weakening his connection to the true dark magic that sustained him. Rember also that Lyla was the one who helped unleash part of this dark magic, but didn’t go through with it because they hadn’t completed the blood oath. I stopped them before that. By the ti he realised what was happening, it was too late."

"The final binding didn’t require a sacrifice at all," Circe added. "It required him to be in a weakened state, separated from his true power source, vulnerable to the combined will of the Moonsinger and her allies."

Ramsey shook his head in wonder. "All those weeks of fear, of preparing for Lyla’s death, of thinking we were going to lose everything..."

"Were necessary," I said firmly. "Your genuine emotions, your real terror at the thought of losing her, your desperate attempts to find another way—all of that fed into the deception. Xander needed to believe that everyone, including you, thought Lyla was dood."

"Mother Liora knew that the only way to defeat an enemy who could read minds and manipulate emotions was to make sure that even our closest allies believed the false narrative," I continued. "Your reactions had to be authentic, or Xander would have seen through the deception."

Lyla moved closer to Ramsey, taking his hand. "I’m sorry we had to lie to you. But it was the only way."

"All those tis you seed terrified of your powers," Ramsey said slowly, "all those monts when you acted like you didn’t want to be the Moonsinger..."

"Were you following Mother Liora’s script?" Lyla finished and nodded. "Yes, though I have to admit, so of the fear was real. Pretending to be weak and helpless when every instinct scread at to fight back was torture."

"And now?" Caius asked. "What happens now that the Dark One has been captured?"