Caleb POV
"LILY!" I scread as her hand slipped through mine like smoke.
She was dying right in front of . One second she was solid, the next she flickered like a broken light bulb. The spatial tear was pulling her in, and I couldn’t grab hold of her.
"I can see her!" I yelled to the others, but they were all fighting the new Void Walkers coming through the reopened first tear. "She’s disappearing!"
Lily’s eyes t mine through her ghostly form. She was scared. Really scared. And that made sothing angry wake up inside my chest.
"Don’t you dare give up on ," I whispered, even though she probably couldn’t hear over all the fights.
I reached for her again, but my hands went right through her body. It was like trying to hug air. The planar magic was eating her alive, pulling her into so place between worlds where she might never co back.
That’s when the other Lily spoke up. The older, sadder version of my mate who claid to be from a tiline where everyone died.
"She’s not just fading," Future Lily said. "She’s being pulled into the void between worlds. If she disappears totally, she’ll be lost forever."
"How do we stop it?" I asked.
"You can’t," Future Lily answered coldly. "In my world, this is where she died. This is where you all failed."
"No." The word ca out harder than I ant it to. "That’s not happening. Not to my Lily."
I’d already lost her once before, back when she first got her skills and couldn’t control them. I’d watched her flash in and out of existence for weeks, never knowing if each ti would be the last ti I saw her. I wasn’t going through that again.
"Caleb, get back!" Aiden shouted as a Void Walker’s blade whizzed past my head. "We need to retreat!"
"I’m not leaving her!"
"She’s already gone!" Brock yelled, blood running down his arm from a fresh cut. "Look at her!"
I did look. Lily was barely visible now, more ghost than person. Her mouth was moving like she was trying to say sothing, but no sound ca out. The spell she’d been casting was still going, slowly closing the second tear, but it was killing her.
That’s when I rembered sothing Elder Iris had told once, back when Lily’s skills first showed up. She’d said that mates could share strength through their bond, especially in life-or-death scenarios.
I’d never tried it before. Never even knew if it was real. But right now, it was our only shot.
I closed my eyes and reached out with more than just my hands. I reached out with my heart, with the invisible thread that linked to Lily. The bond we’d felt since the Winter Moon Festival, the link that made us mates.
"Co on," I whispered. "Co back to ."
At first, nothing happened. Then I felt it. A tiny spark, like hitting a live wire. Our mate bond was still there, stretched thin but not broken.
I grabbed onto that feeling and pulled with everything I had.
"What are you doing?" Future Lily asked, sounding shocked for the first ti.
"Sothing you probably never thought of," I shot back.
I poured my strength into the bond. My energy, my life force, everything I had. If Lily needed power to stay strong, I’d give her mine.
The result was imdiate. Lily’s form flickered back to almost solid. Her eyes widened as she felt our link snap back into place.
"Caleb?" she gasped, her voice weak but real.
"I’ve got you," I said, even though I was starting to feel dizzy from giving her so much energy. "Just hold on."
But Future Lily was looking at us with an expression I couldn’t read. "That’s impossible. In my tiline, the tie was already broken by this point."
"What do you an?" I asked, though I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know the answer.
"The dinsional magic," she explained slowly. "It doesn’t just pull people into the void. It destroys relationships. Breaks ties. Makes people forget why they were fighting in the first place."
I felt ice in my stomach. "Are you saying—"
"In my tiline, you and Lily stopped being mates right about now. The magic tore your tie apart, and after that, nothing could save her."
"That’s not going to happen," I said firmly, but I could feel the dinsional energy trying to weaken our link. It was like unseen hands trying to pry us apart.
"It already is happening," Future Lily said sadly. "Look around you."
I looked. Aiden was fighting automatically, like he’d forgotten why we were here. Brock kept looking around in confusion, as if he couldn’t rember who so of us were. Even Sage seed lost, her magic weaker than before.
"The void magic makes you forget," Future Lily explained. "Forget why you care about each other. Forget what you’re fighting for. That’s how we lost."
"No," I said again, but this ti my voice shook. I could feel it happening to too. The edges of my mories were getting fuzzy. Why was I here again? Who was this girl I was trying to save?
Then Lily grabbed my hand.
Even though she was still shimring, still barely solid, her touch was warm and real. And the mont our skin touched, everything ca rushing back. Our first eting at the Winter Moon Festival. The way she’d looked at when the Triple Moon Mark appeared. Every laugh, every kiss, every quiet mont we’d shared.
"Don’t let go," she whispered.
"Never," I promised.
But as I said it, I saw sothing that made my blood turn cold. Future Lily was happy. Not a happy smile. A knowing, terrible smile.
"You think your love can beat dinsional magic?" she asked. "How sweet. That’s exactly what my Caleb thought too."
She raised her hand, and I saw she was wearing sothing that certainly hadn’t been there before. A band made of the sa dark crystal as the Void Walkers’ weapons.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Insurance," she said simply. "You see, I didn’t co here to help you. I ca here to make sure this tiline fails too."
The crystal band started glowing, and suddenly the dinsional tears began growing faster. Both of them, spreading like cracks in glass.
"Why?" Lily gasped, her form flickering worse than ever.
Future Lily’s face twisted with old pain. "Because if I can’t have him, no version of can."
That’s when I understood. This wasn’t really Future Lily at all.
This was sothing else. Sothing that had taken her shape, her mories, her face. Sothing that wants to destroy every tiline where we might be happy.
And we’d just let it walk right into our most desperate mont.
"Everybody run!" I yelled, but it was too late.
The thing wearing Lily’s face laughed as both dinsional tears exploded outward, and the last thing I saw before the world went white was Lily’s frightened eyes as she disappeared completely into the void.
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