Chapter 4 Echoes in Ink

Lyra's Point of view

The next morning felt heavier than usual.

Maybe it was the dream-or whatever that vision had been-but I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept at all. I could still see Cassian's face in my mind, the way he said I looked like her. The girl who died trying to stop what's coming.

I couldn't shake it off.

Did he mean an ancestor? A past life?

And why did I believe him so easily?

Naomi was already up, her hair a bird's nest of stress and caffeine. She had two mugs of coffee and zero patience left.

"Morning," she grumbled, not looking up from her screen.

"Did you sleep at all?" I asked, squinting at the pile of books beside her.

"No. I couldn't stop reading." She shoved one of the mugs into my hand and motioned for me to sit. "Lyra, I found something weird."

That could've meant anything at this point.

She slid a leather-bound book across the desk. Dusty, brittle, and definitely ancient. "This was in the restricted section of the digital archives. It's a transcription of one of the first founders' journals. From when Lunaris Academy was first built."

I opened it carefully, the parchment-like pages cracking slightly at the edges. The handwriting was jagged, urgent. Scrawled in a mix of Latin and something older. But parts had been translated.

I read aloud softly:

> "The girl bore the mark of the Moonborne, though she was not of our blood. She arrived in silver wrappings, untouched by time, and the mirror recognized her instantly. The seal fractured. We tried to contain it, but the stars shifted. The gate stirred. The wolves awoke."

I looked up at Naomi, heart pounding.

"This sounds exactly like what Cassian said last night."

Naomi nodded grimly. "That's not even the worst part. The girl? Her name was Lyrena."

My blood ran cold.

"You think I'm her reincarnation?"

Naomi shrugged. "Or descendant. Or cosmic copy-paste. But yeah. You might be."

The pages blurred as I stared at the name. Lyrena. It felt familiar in a way that gave me goosebumps.

There was more in the journal, too-sketches of moon phases, diagrams of the celestial gate Cassian mentioned, and entries about "a betrayer in the wolf circle."

"What's the 'celestial gate,' exactly?" I asked, flipping through more pages.

Naomi frowned. "It's vague. But from what I pieced together, it's not a literal gate-it's like a rift in space tied to certain stars. Specifically the Silver Vein."

I blinked. "The constellation from the pendant."

"Exactly."

And apparently, once the Silver Vein aligns during a blood moon eclipse-the one coming in three weeks-the seal holding back whatever ancient force sleeps beneath Lunaris will break open.

Unless the Moonborne stops it.

Unless I stop it.

---

Later that day, we cut class. Probably a bad idea, but algebra didn't really seem important when ancient deities were waking up under our school.

We made our way to the old storage basement under the library, the one students weren't supposed to enter. Naomi had bribed the janitor with cookies. She was disturbingly good at bribes.

The place was colder than it should've been. Dust floated through the air like frozen mist. The walls were covered in old tapestries and wooden shelves stacked with relics, scrolls, and cracked statues.

At the back of the room, hidden behind a rusted filing cabinet, was a trapdoor. It had a silver wolf sigil carved into the wood. The same symbol on the back of the pendant.

I touched it.

The trapdoor pulsed once-warm-and swung open.

Naomi stared. "Okay. Definitely not normal."

We climbed down.

The passage led to a hidden chamber-round, stone walls, and in the center, a pedestal holding an ancient box. Runes glowed faintly around it, the same ones from the tower mirror.

I approached slowly. My mark tingled again, right over my heart.

"Lyra," Naomi whispered, voice shaking. "Be careful."

I opened the box.

Inside was a necklace. Different from the pendant. This one had a moonstone carved with the Silver Vein constellation and a drop of red crystal suspended in the center.

The moment I touched it, something strange happened.

A flash.

A voice.

> "Blood for blood. Moon for moon. The price was never paid."

I stumbled back. Naomi caught me.

"Did you hear that?" I gasped.

"No. But your eyes went silver again."

My breath came fast, too fast. The box began to hum.

And then-out of nowhere-Cassian appeared in the doorway, panting like he'd run a marathon. His shirt was torn. His left arm was bleeding.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he snapped, lunging toward me.

"I-I had to see-"

"You weren't ready!" he shouted, eyes flashing. "That box-that's a trigger relic! If you'd worn it-"

"I didn't!" I held it up. "I didn't put it on."

He froze. Then looked relieved. "Good. Because that necklace belongs to the Harbinger."

Naomi blinked. "The what?"

Cassian's voice lowered.

"The one who brings the gate's end."

---

We left the chamber in silence.

Back in Naomi's room, Cassian sat on the floor, wrapping his injured arm with gauze like it was nothing.

"Where did you go after the greenhouse?" I asked.

He hesitated. "Let's just say... the council isn't thrilled that the seal's unraveling."

Naomi narrowed her eyes. "What council?"

Cassian looked at her, then me. "The Lunar Circle. They oversee balance between celestial and terrestrial realms. When you touched that pendant, Lyra, you signaled your awakening-and theirs."

"I didn't ask for any of this," I said quietly.

"No one ever does."

He paused. "But you're stronger than Lyrena was."

That caught me off guard.

"She failed," he added. "Because she was alone."

"And I'm not?" I asked.

He didn't reply.

Naomi looked between us. "Okay, but what now? We've got three weeks until the blood moon. Cassian, if you're supposed to help us, then stop talking in riddles."

He stood, brushing dust off his jeans. "Fine. You want straight answers?"

We both nodded.

"Then meet me tonight. In the Astrarium."

Naomi frowned. "The star observatory? It's locked."

Cassian's eyes gleamed. "Not to me."

---

That night, I waited until Naomi was asleep.

I crept out, pendant tucked under my hoodie, and walked to the Astrarium. The night sky was cloudless. The stars above shimmered unnaturally bright.

Cassian was already there, sitting on the roof, legs dangling off the edge like a reckless idiot.

I climbed up beside him.

"This place," he said softly, "is older than Lunaris itself. It used to be a temple. To them."

"To who?" I asked.

He turned to me.

"The ones on the other side of the gate."

And then he pulled out something I didn't expect.

A photo.

It was old, black-and-white. Faded.

And in it was a girl who looked just like me. Standing beside someone who looked like-

"Is that you?" I asked, stunned.

He nodded slowly.

"I'm not your enemy, Lyra," he said. "But I was hers."