Echoes of the past

(Chapter 55:Mira's Pov)

The silence after the battle was suffocating.

Caelyn lay unconscious, his breathing shallow but steady. The Lycans who had survived moved like ghosts among the ruins of his estate, tending to the wounded and burying the dead.

But my mind wasn't on them.

It was on him.

Callidus.

His words clung to me like a curse, wrapping around my thoughts, poisoning them.

"You feel it too, don't you? The truth scratching at the edges of your mind."

Lorenzo sat across from me, his back against the broken wall of the house. His coat was torn, blood staining the collar, though I knew none of it was his. He had barely spoken since Callidus disappeared, watching me instead with those piercing golden eyes.

"You're thinking too much." His voice was rough, unreadable.

I exhaled, gripping my knees. "I don't have a choice."