Chapter Eighteen: Blood Between Stars
Kael slept.
Not deeply. Not peacefully. But truly—for the first time in weeks.
Aria sat beside him, firelight dancing over his face. The fight with the Mirrorborn had left him bruised, bloodied, and human in a way she hadn't fully seen until now.
She should've felt safe.
But the mark on her wrist pulsed.
Not in warning.
In recognition.
Something—someone—was coming.
And they weren't alone.
---
Miles away, in the ruins beneath the Council chambers, a girl opened her eyes.
Her hair was dark as night. Her skin pale as moonlight. Her body had been kept in a slumber since the day the pact fractured.
She wore a mark identical to Aria's—but older. Twisted.
Corrupted.
The High Seer leaned over her and whispered:
> "Your sister has broken the pact."
"It's time you reminded her why she was never meant to live."
---
Back at the ley rift, Aria stood at the edge of a pool that reflected the sky perfectly—even during daylight.
Kael joined her, still limping. "This place feels wrong."
"It should," Aria murmured. "It remembers too much."
Her pendant pulsed.
A sound echoed from the trees.
Not a step.
Not a whisper.
A breath.
Aria turned—and froze.
Standing before her was a girl. Her age. Her build. Her face.
But her eyes were hollow. Empty. Like someone who had never been allowed to dream.
"Who are you?" Aria asked.
The girl tilted her head. "I don't have a name anymore."
Kael stepped in front of Aria. "She's the girl from Pact Three."
The clone. The contingency.
The sister she never knew existed.
Created in secret in case Aria didn't survive her birth.
Locked away when Aria proved stronger.
Forgotten.
Until now.
---
"I'm sorry," Aria whispered. "You didn't choose this."
"I didn't have to," the girl said, voice calm. "I was born to end you."
Magic shimmered around her—a pale, perfect copy of Aria's own.
Kael whispered, "She's not like the Mirrorborn. She's real. Blood and breath. Just… rewritten."
Aria stepped forward.
"I'm not going to fight you," she said.
"You don't have a choice."
"Then rewrite your own fate," Aria begged. "Don't let them use us against each other."
The girl blinked. For a moment—just a breath—something human flickered in her face.
Then it vanished.
And she struck.
---
The battle shattered the ley rift.
Moonlight and fire collided, twin marks glowing across the clearing.
They moved as one. Fought as one.
Reflected each other like war-born twins.
But Aria didn't fight to kill.
She fought to reach.
And finally—finally—the girl hesitated.
"Why aren't you trying to win?" she demanded.
"Because I already did," Aria said softly. "I lived. I loved. I chose."
And she dropped her weapon.
The girl raised hers—then stopped.
Something in her mark flickered.
A fracture.
A choice.
---
The forest pulsed.
The mark on the girl's wrist dimmed.
And for the first time, she whispered a name:
> "My name was Lyra."
Then she fell to her knees.
---
From far away, the High Seer screamed.
"She remembers!"
The mirrors cracked.
The seals broke.
And the final hour began.
---