LILY POV
My mirror grabbed my throat and started squeezing.
I gasped and stumbled backward, but everywhere I looked, another mirror showed the sa thing - my own face twisted with evil purpose, my own hands trying to kill . The mirror world had turned my image into a weapon against myself.
"Lily!" Caleb reached for , but his image did the sa thing - grabbing him around the neck. We were both being crushed by ourselves.
I tried to break the nearby mirror with my fist, but my hand passed right through it like water. The reflections were real here, strong enough to hurt us but impossible to fight back against.
My lungs burned as my evil twin tightened her grip. Black spots danced in front of my eyes. This was it. I was going to die looking at my own face.
Then sothing new happened inside my chest. Not the anger I’d felt when Aiden sacrificed our bond. Not the sha about leading everyone into danger. Not even the sadness of losing my pack.
Pure, cold fear.
It hit like ice water, freezing my blood and making my heart race. I was going to die. Caleb was going to die. Everyone who counted on would be lost forever. The fear was so strong it felt like drowning.
But instead of making weaker, sothing strange happened. The fear made think faster, move quicker, fight harder than I ever had before.
I stopped trying to fight my image and did sothing else instead. I looked her right in the eyes and spoke.
"You’re afraid too," I said, even though it was hard to talk with her hands around my throat.
My reflection’s grip loosened slightly. "What?"
"You’re afraid," I replied, louder this ti. "You’re afraid that I’ll learn to heal instead of harm. You’re afraid I’ll figure out how to fix what’s broken."
The bad version of snarled, but I could see uncertainty in her eyes - my eyes.
"You’re not really from another future," I continued, understanding rushing through . "You’re just my fear made visible. The fear that I’ll beco a monster."
Around us, the mirror world began to shake. Cracks erged in the surfaces, showing glimpses of sothing else beyond them.
"But fear doesn’t have to make a monster," I said, and ant it. "Fear can make careful. It can make think before I act. It can help protect the people I love."
My reflection’s hands fell away from my throat completely. She stared at with an expression I recognized - the sa look I’d worn when I first got my Triple Moon mark and didn’t know what it ant.
"I’m not afraid of being afraid," I told her. "I’m afraid of not caring enough to be scared."
The mirror broke, taking my evil twin with it. All around us, the other mirrors began breaking too, freeing Caleb from his own reflection’s attack.
As the mirror world collapsed, we fell through empty space again. But this ti, I was ready. The fear was still there in my chest, but it felt different now - like a guard dog instead of a wild beast. It was warning , helping , making stronger.
I reached out with my powers, not trying to force a portal open, but asking the worlds for help. And for the first ti since this whole nightmare started, they answered.
We landed gently on solid ground in a world that felt peaceful. No monsters, no angry scenery, no hunters waiting in ambush. Just calm.
"How did you do that?" Caleb asked, staring at in wonder.
"I stopped fighting my emotions," I said. "I accepted the fear instead of trying to push it away."
As I spoke, I realized sothing amazing. The first three feelings I’d experienced after Aiden’s sacrifice - anger, guilt, and sadness - they’d all been about the past. About things that had already happened. But fear was different. Fear was about the future, about defending what might be lost.
"Fear makes you care," I whispered, understanding growing in my mind. "It makes you want to keep things safe."
That’s when I heard the clapping.
We spun around to find a group of dinsional seekers standing behind us, clapping slowly. But these weren’t the normal dark-armored figures. These hunters wore white uniforms with silver marks I didn’t recognize.
"Very impressive," the boss said. She was a woman with kind eyes and a warm smile that sohow made more worried than any weapon could have. "We’ve been watching your progress through the mirror world. Quite interesting."
"Let us go," Caleb said, stepping protectively in front of .
"Oh, we’re not here to capture you," the woman laughed. "We’re here to recruit you."
"Recruit us for what?" I asked suspiciously. "The Dinsional Protection Agency," she said proudly. "We’re the good guys, Lily. We hunt the shooters who’ve been chasing you."
I felt Caleb tense beside . After everything we’d been through, trust didn’t co easy.
"Prove it," I said.
The woman smiled wider and pointed to her team. "Show them."
One of the other shooters stepped forward and pulled back his sleeve. His arm was covered in the sa scars that Vera had called "hunter marks" - proof that he’d been abused by dinsional hunters.
"We’re all refugees," he stated. "People who escaped from the Council’s genocide and decided to fight back."
"The Council?" Caleb asked.
"The group that’s been ordering the destruction of dinsional travelers and their ho worlds," the woman said. "They call themselves the Dinsional Stability Council, but they’re really just power-hungry tyrants who want to control all of reality."
She held out her hand to . "We’ve been looking for soone like you, Lily. An oga who can fix dinsional damage instead of just causing it. With your help, we could start undoing centuries of damage."
It sounded too good to be true. After being hunted and attacked everywhere we went, soone finally wanted to help us?
But my new understanding of fear made careful. "What’s the catch?" I asked.
"Smart girl," the woman said approvingly. "The catch is that to help us, you’d have to go back to your ho world. The Council has your pack surrounded, planning to use them as bait to draw you into a trap."
My blood went cold. "My pack is in danger?"
"More than danger," she said grimly. "The Council is planning to destroy your entire reality tomorrow night. Every person, every wolf, every tree and stone - all of it will be erased to make an example of what happens when dinsions house oga travelers."
The fear in my chest burst into panic. "We have to warn them!"
"That’s exactly what the Council is counting on," the woman said. "They know you’ll co back to save your pack, and they’ll be waiting with a trap that will drain your powers permanently."
I looked at Caleb, seeing my own terror mirrored in his eyes. Our pack, our family, everyone we’d ever loved was going to die unless we walked straight into certain capture.
"But," the woman added, "there might be another way. A risky way that’s never been tried before."
"What?" I asked desperately.
She smiled, but this ti it looked more like an animal showing its teeth. "We send you back in ti instead of just back in space. Before the Council circles your pack. Before they set their trap."
"Ti travel?" Caleb shook his head. "That’s impossible."
"For normal dinsional travelers, yes," the woman agreed. "But an oga who’s mastered her fourth emotion? Who’s learned to use fear as strength instead of weakness? She might be able to do it."
"Might?" I said.
"The odds aren’t good," she allowed. "Ti travel through dinsions could tear you apart completely. Or worse, it could spread pieces of you across multiple tilines, leaving you aware but unable to act in any of them."
I stared at her, my mind running. Save my pack by risking a fate worse than death, or let them all die while I stayed safe.
"When do we start?" I asked.
The woman’s smile beca real for the first ti. "Right now. But Lily, there’s sothing else you need to know before you decide."
"What?"
"If the ti travel works, you’ll arrive in your past before you ever got your Triple Moon mark. Before you t Caleb as your mate. You’ll rember everything, but he won’t rember you."
My heart shattered. "I’ll lose him?"
"Maybe," she said. "Or maybe you’ll find a way to make him fall in love with you all over again. But that’s not the worst part."
I was afraid to ask, but I had to know. "What’s the worst part?"
"If you change the past to save your pack, you might prevent yourself from ever gaining dinsional powers in the first place. You could save everyone you love and lose the ability to ever see them again."
The choice stretched out in front of like a chasm. Save my pack but lose my skills and possibly Caleb. Or keep my powers and watch everyone I’d ever cared about die. "I need a minute to think," I said.
"You have thirty seconds," the woman answered, checking a device on her wrist. "The Council just moved up their schedule. They’re attacking your pack tonight."
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