Caleb POV
The scream that tore from my throat echoed through the forest as Lily’s body suddenly went rigid in my arms. One second she was solid and warm against , the next she was fading like smoke, her edges becoming see-through.
"Lily!" I gripped her tighter, but my hands passed through parts of her like she was made of mist. "No, no, no. Stay with !"
Her eyes rolled back, showing only white, and when she spoke, three different sounds ca out of her mouth at the sa ti. The sound made my skin crawl.
"I can see them all," she whispered in those terrible overlapping voices. "Every choice we never made. Every road we didn’t take."
"What’s happening to her?" Sage cried, her face pale with fear.
Elder Iris stumbled to her feet, leaning heavily on a tree. "The reality seal is pulling her awareness into the spaces between worlds. She’s becoming unstuck from our tiline."
I felt like soone had punched in the gut. "Fix it! You have to fix it!"
"I don’t know how," Elder Iris revealed, and those four words nearly broke .
Lily’s body flickered again, and for a mont I could see right through her to the trees behind. When she hardened, she looked at with confusion, like she didn’t recognize .
"Caleb?" she said, but her voice sounded faraway. "Why are there three of you?"
My heart hamred against my ribs. "There’s only one of , Lily. You’re seeing things that aren’t there."
She reached out to touch my face, but her hand passed through my cheek. The look of fear in her eyes made want to howl like a wounded animal.
"I’m disappearing," she whispered. "I can feel myself scattering."
"No!" I pulled her against , even though holding her was like trying to hold water. "I won’t let you go. Do you hear ? I won’t let you disappear!"
But even as I said it, I could feel her slipping away. The mate bond between us, usually warm and steady, kept cutting in and out like a broken radio signal. Each ti it went quiet, fear clawed at my chest.
"The other versions of are calling," Lily said, her voice getting fainter. "In one world, I’m already dead. In another, I never t you at all."
The thought of a world where Lily didn’t know , where we’d never found each other, made feel sick. "Don’t listen to them. Listen to . Focus on my voice."
I started talking about everything I could think of - our first eting, the way she looked when she found the old oga texts, how proud I felt when she stood up to Luna. Anything to keep her connected to our world.
"Rember when you told you felt invisible?" I said desperately. "You’re not invisible to , Lily. You never were. You’re the best thing in my world."
For a mont, she seed more solid, more present. Her eyes focused on mine with recognition and love. "Caleb," she breathed, and it was her real voice, not the strange rging sounds.
Relief flooded through . "That’s it. Stay with ."
But then her face changed, becoming distant again. "The shadows are moving in the other places. The Void creatures are using the cracks I’m making to cross over."
I looked around the bush, but everything appeared normal. "What shadows? I don’t see anything."
"They’re not in this world yet," Lily said, her form flickering again. "But they’re coming. My scattered existence is making bridges between realities, and the Lieutenants are using them to attack."
Elder Iris gasped. "If creatures from failed tilines enter our world..."
"They’ll destroy everything," Lily ended. "Everyone I love will die because of what I’ve beco."
The pain in her voice cut through like a knife. "This isn’t your fault," I said strongly. "You saved us all by sealing the reality tear."
"And dood you by doing it wrong," she responded, tears streaming down her half-transparent face.
That’s when I felt it - a cold wind that had nothing to do with weather. The temperature around us dropped so fast I could see my breath. Sage’s sister Maya scread from sowhere behind us.
I spun around to see sothing that shouldn’t exist - a shadow wolf with bright red eyes, its body made of darkness that seed to eat the light around it. It had Maya trapped against a tree, its claws extended toward her throat.
"Void Lieutenant," Elder Iris breathed. "From one of the broken tilines."
The creature looked straight at and smiled, showing teeth like broken glass. When it spoke, its voice sounded like a dying star.
"Thank you for opening the doors," it said. "Soon, all realities will burn."
I shifted into my wolf form instantly, launching myself at the shadow thing. But my claws passed right through it like it was made of smoke. The Lieutenant laughed and swiped at with very real claws that left hot scratches across my ribs.
"You cannot fight what cos from broken worlds," it hissed. "We are the echoes of your failures, the ghosts of your fears."
More shadows began appearing between the trees - dozens of them, creeping closer with hungry eyes. They were all different forms and sizes, but they shared the sa wrongness, like they didn’t belong in any world.
"Lily," I called out, backing toward her. "You have to stop this!"
But when I looked at her, my blood turned to ice. She was almost totally transparent now, her form shifting between three different versions of herself. In one, she looked normal. In another, she looked older and sadder. In the third, she was just an image of light.
"I can’t control it," she said in those three overlapping voices. "I’m becoming less real with every second."
The shadow monsters surrounded us, their red eyes reflecting nothing but hunger and hate. Maya was crying as one of them sniffed at her hair. Sage was trying to cast protection spells, but they had no effect on beings from other worlds.
"There has to be a way," I said, unwilling to give up. "There’s always a way."
Elder Iris looked at with old, sad eyes. "There is one possibility," she said slowly. "But it would require a sacrifice none of us may be willing to make."
"What kind of sacrifice?" I asked.
Before she could answer, the biggest shadow Lieutenant stepped forward. Unlike the others, this one looked almost human, except for eyes that held the nothingness of space between stars.
"I know you," it said, looking at with those horrible eyes. "In my world, you were mine. You served the Void King gladly after watching your mate die."
The words hit like a physical blow. "That’s not . That will never be ."
"Won’t it?" The creature smiled. "When she fades totally, when you’re left alone with your grief, you’ll understand why I chose darkness. Why I helped destroy my own world."
I looked at Lily, who was now barely visible even in the moonlight. The mate bond was a whisper, threatening to disappear completely.
"No," I said, but my voice shook with the fear that maybe this shadow version of myself was right.
"The choice is coming," the shadow- said. "Save her by killing yourself, or watch her fade and beco like . Either way, darkness wins."
Elder Iris stepped forward, her words heavy with dread. "Caleb, I need to tell you what the sacrifice requires."
But before she could speak, Lily let out a sound that wasn’t quite a scream - it was the sound of soone being torn apart. Her three forms suddenly snapped together roughly, and she collapsed.
When I reached her, she wasn’t breathing.
The mate bond went totally silent.
And in that mont of absolute fear, I felt sothing dark and hungry whisper in my mind: "Let help you save her."
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