LILY POV
The ground beneath my feet turned to liquid fire.
I scread and threw myself sideways as the purple grass lted into boiling lava. This was the third ti today that a perfectly safe world had tried to kill . My dinsional skills were getting weaker, and I could barely control where I landed anymore.
I rolled behind a crystal tree just as the entire field beca a sea of molten rock. The heat made my skin feel like it was burning, but I forced myself to think. Panicking would only make things worse.
"Focus, Lily," I whispered to myself. "You survived the dinsional hunts before. You can do this."
But that was when I had Kestrel and my son to help . Now I was totally alone, jumping from world to world with nowhere safe to rest. Every dinsion I entered seed to sense I didn’t fit and tried to reject violently.
I pressed my back against the smooth crystal and tried to open another link. The familiar tingling started in my fingers, but instead of the normal strong pull, I felt only a weak flutter. My powers were definitely fading.
A portal finally opened, barely big enough for to squeeze through. I dove into it just as the crystal tree began to lt behind .
I crashed onto soft grass under a pink sky. For a mont, I let myself hope this world might be quiet. Then I heard the screaming.
Massive wolves the size of horses burst from a nearby bush, their eyes glowing red. But these weren’t normal wolves - they moved wrong, like puppets being driven by invisible strings. Dinsional bugs. I’d read about them in Elder Iris’s study journal, but seeing them in person made my blood turn cold.
They could possess any creature and use it to hunt beings like who moved between worlds.
I ran.
My feet pounded across the strange grass as the possessed dogs chased . I could hear them getting closer, their claws scratching against the ground. My heart hamred in my chest as I searched desperately for sowhere to hide.
A cave opening appeared ahead. I raced toward it, diving inside just as the first wolf snapped at my heels. The cave was deeper than I expected, curving into darkness. I kept running, using my hands to feel along the walls.
Behind , the wolves howled in anger. They couldn’t fit through the small opening.
I finally stopped when I couldn’t hear them anymore. My chest burned from running so hard, and my hands were shaking. I slumped against the cave wall and tried not to cry.
Three days. That’s how long I’d been jumping from world to world, barely staying ahead of the hunts. I hadn’t eaten anything except so strange berries that made my stomach hurt. I hadn’t slept for more than a few minutes at a ti. And worst of all, I had no idea if my pack was still living.
The thought of Caleb made my chest ache. When Aiden broke our mate bonds to save the pack from the dinsional hunts, I thought I’d lost Caleb forever. But sohow, he’d followed through the opening. Sohow, our love had been strong enough to survive even magical separation.
Until I’d led him straight into a trap.
I pulled out Elder Iris’s notebook with trembling hands. The pages were getting worn from reading them over and over, searching for solutions. There had to be sothing I was missing, so way to fight back instead of just running.
I flipped to a part about dinsional energy and oga abilities. According to the notes, ogas like were natural bridges between worlds. That’s why my powers could tear holes in reality. But Elder Iris had written sothing else that I’d never really understood before: "The greatest oga gift is not death, but healing. What tears apart can also be put back together."
Healing dinsions instead of hurting them. That’s what Caleb had suggested before he... before the hunts took him.
I closed my eyes and tried to feel the energy of this world. It was different from what I was used to - wilder, more disorderly. But underneath the strangeness, I could sense sothing familiar. The sa basic life force that exists in all realities.
What if I tried to work with it instead of fighting against it?
I placed my hands flat against the cave floor and reached out with my powers. Instead of pushing a portal open, I tried to gently touch the world’s energy. At first, nothing happened. Then I felt a small reaction, like the dinsion was curious about .
"I’m not here to hurt you," I whispered. "I just need sowhere safe to rest."
The cave walls began to glow with soft blue light. The air beca warr and more cozy. Sohow, I’d managed to speak with the world itself.
Hope fluttered in my chest. Maybe Elder Iris was right. Maybe I could learn to heal instead of harm.
But that hope died when I heard footsteps echoing from deeper in the cave.
I scrambled to my feet, ready to run again. But the figure that erged from the shadows made freeze in fear.
It was .
Another Lily stood at the edge of the light, wearing clothes I’d never seen and a cruel smile I’d never worn. Her eyes were cold and empty, like looking into a mirror that showed only darkness.
"Hello, little sister," she said in my voice. "I’ve been waiting for you."
"You’re not real," I whispered, backing toward the cave mouth.
"Oh, but I am." She stepped closer, and I could see scars on her arms that looked like failed mate marks. "I’m what you beco when you give up hope. When you let the dinsions change you instead of the other way around."
My back hit the cave wall. "That’s impossible."
"Is it?" She tilted her head, and the move was exactly like sothing I would do. "How many places have you been to, Lily? How many tis have you used your powers? Each jump changes you a little bit. Each door tears away a piece of who you used to be."
I tried to open a portal to leave, but my powers wouldn’t work. The cave had beco a trap.
"Don’t bother," the other Lily said. "This is a nexus point - a place where all options et. I’m you from a future where you never learned to heal dinsions. Where you beca just another monster jumping from world to world, destroying everything you touched."
She reached out with one scarred hand. "But it doesn’t have to be that way. Co with , and I’ll show you how to stop running. How to beco strong enough to take what you want instead of always hiding."
"I’m nothing like you," I said, but my voice shook.
"Yet," she agreed. "But you will be, unless you make a different choice right now."
The cave began to shake. Through the opening, I could see the possessed wolves had found another way in. Behind , my twisted future self waited with that terrible smile.
And sowhere in the distance, I heard a voice that made my heart stop.
"Lily!" It was Caleb, calling my na. But how was that possible? The hunters had taken him. Unless... Unless this was another trick.
I was surrounded on all sides with no idea who to trust, no idea what was real. And I had about ten seconds to make a choice that would decide not just my survival, but my very soul.
The dogs howled. My other self laughed. And Caleb’s voice called out again, closer now.
I had to choose. But every choice led to darkness.
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