LILY POV
I scread as reality shattered around like broken glass.
One second I was standing in the Alpha house with Caleb, Aiden, and Brock. The next second, I was in seventeen different places at once. In one world, I was facing monsters with claws as long as knives. In another, I was running from a fire that burned everything I loved. In a third, I was watching my own funeral.
"Lily!" Caleb’s voice sounded far away, like he was calling from the bottom of a well. "Stay with !"
I tried to focus on his face, but it kept changing. Sotis he had a scar across his cheek. Sotis his eyes were green instead of blue. Sotis he wasn’t there at all.
"I can’t," I gasped, falling to my knees. "There are too many. Too many worlds pressing in."
The worst part wasn’t the pain. It was the confusion. I knew I was supposed to be in Silver Peak, but I could also feel myself dying in a hospital bed in another world. I could taste smoke from a fire that wasn’t happening here. I could feel rain that wasn’t falling in this world.
"Which one is real?" I whispered.
"This one," Aiden said firmly. "This world. This ti. Focus on us."
But how could I focus when I was watching him die in three different realities? In one, he was killed by rogues. In another, he drowned saving a child. In the third, he was old and sick, calling my na with his last breath.
"You’re all going to die," I said, tears running down my face. "I can see it happening. Over and over and over."
"Those are other worlds," Brock said, his voice soft. "Not this one."
"How do I know the difference?" I asked. "How do I know which mories are mine and which belong to other versions of ?"
The truth was, I didn’t know. This morning, I’d tried to rember my first kiss with Caleb. Instead, I rembered kissing all three brothers in different places. I rembered marrying Aiden in one world, dying in Brock’s arms in another, and never eting any of them in a third.
"Tell sothing only I would know," I said to Caleb. "Sothing from our world."
He thought for a mont. "You have a scar on your shoulder from when you fell out of a tree trying to save a baby bird. You were ten years old."
I touched my shoulder, but I felt seven different scars. In one world, I’d been attacked by a dog. In another, I’d been in a car crash. In a third, I’d been beaten by enemies.
"I don’t know which scar is real," I whispered.
The room started spinning. Or maybe I was spinning. I couldn’t tell anymore. Everything felt like it was happening at once.
"Sothing’s coming," I said suddenly. "Sothing big and dark and hungry."
"What kind of sothing?" Aiden asked.
I closed my eyes, trying to sort through the chaos in my head. In most of the worlds I could see, sothing terrible was coming. It looked different in each world, but the feeling was the sa. Pure hunger. It wanted to eat everything that existed.
"It calls itself the Devourer," I said. "It’s been waiting for soone like . Soone connected to different dinsions."
"Waiting for what?" Brock asked.
"To use as a doorway," I said. "To break into all the worlds at once."
Even as I spoke, I could feel it getting closer. Like a storm coming, but worse. This storm wants to destroy everything in its path.
"We have to stop it," Caleb said.
"We can’t," I answered. "It’s too strong. The only way to stop it is to cut my links to the other dinsions."
"What would that do to you?" Aiden asked, though I could see in his eyes that he already knew.
"It would kill ," I said. "Or maybe sothing worse. I might just stop existing entirely."
"No," Caleb said strongly. "We’ll find another way."
"There is no other way," I said. "And maybe that’s for the best. Look at , Caleb. I’m not even human anymore. I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not. I’m scaring the pack. I’m scaring myself."
It was true. This morning, little Emma had run away crying when she saw . I’d been flickering in and out of reality, and my eyes had gone black without realizing it. The poor kid thought I was a monster.
Maybe I was.
"You’re not a monster," Caleb said, as if he could read my thoughts. "You’re just different now."
"Different?" I laughed bitterly. "I’m going apart. I can’t hold a talk without getting distracted by voices from other dinsions. I can’t touch anything without seeing all the ways it could break. I can’t look at any of you without watching you die a thousand different deaths."
"Then we’ll help you learn to control it," Aiden said.
"Control it?" I stood up, feeling energy sparking around . "I can’t stop this. It’s like trying to rule the ocean. There’s too much of it."
In another world, I was having this exact talk, but Aiden was the one with powers and I was trying to help him. In a third world, we were all dead and none of this mattered.
"I don’t even know who I am anymore," I said. "Am I Lily Carter from Silver Peak? Or am I Lily the dinsional anchor? Or am I all the other Lilys I can see and feel?"
"You’re our Lily," Caleb said. "The one who saved us all."
"Did I?" I asked. "Or did I just make everything worse?"
Before anyone could answer, the windows started shaking. Not from wind or earthquake, but from sothing else. Sothing that made reality itself tremble.
"It’s here," I whispered. "The Devourer. It’s found ."
The lights began to flicker. Outside, I could hear people yelling. The pack was in danger because of . Because I’d opened doors between worlds.
"What do we do?" Brock asked.
I felt the thing’s presence getting stronger. It was using my ties to crawl into this world. Soon it would be here fully, and then it would start eating everything.
"I have to cut the connections," I said. "I have to stop it before it gets fully through."
"That will kill you," Caleb said frantically.
"Better than everyone else," I answered.
I started to gather my power, preparing to sever the links between worlds. It would probably kill , but it was the only way to save the pack.
But as I reached for the links, sothing grabbed my mind. Sothing cold and hungry and ancient.
"Too late, little anchor," a voice whispered in my head. "I’m already here."
The thing’s presence slamd into like a truck. I felt it pouring through the dinsional links, using my own power against . I tried to fight it, but it was too strong.
"No," I gasped, feeling my power slipping away.
The Devourer laughed inside my mind. "Thank you for opening the door. Now I can feast on all the worlds at once."
My body began to change. Dark energy poured out of , and I felt myself becoming sothing else. Sothing terrible.
"Run," I managed to say to the brothers. "Run before I beco sothing that wants to hurt you."
But it was already too late. The thing inside was taking control, and I could feel my own thoughts getting pushed away.
The last thing I saw before the darkness took over was Caleb’s face, full of love and terror, as I changed into the very monster I’d been trying to stop.
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