Chapter 6

Layla POV

I woke up with a jolt my heart racing as if it was trying to escape my chest, my chest equally heaving as though I’d just surfaced from drowning. It felt like I had just drowned, with my lungs feeling like they were on fire– that thought had me thinking back to the actual fire.

The scent of burnt wood and smoke clung to me, so vivid that for a moment I thought I was still in the fire.

My skin felt raw, like it had been peeled away, and every nerve screamed as though I were still burning alive and it still prickled with the sensation of phantom pain, and that of fire licking at my flesh it was so vivid I could still smell the smoke.

My hands clutched at the soft sheets beneath me, my fingers digging into fabric instead of dirt and ash.

A bed!

How was I in a bed, what was this ?

I blinked hard, forcing my eyes to adjust to the dim light in the room. I wasn’t outside, wasn’t in the chaos of the witch hunt that my pack had deemed a punishment for my betrayal .

My mind scrambled to make sense of where I was. The last thing I remembered was the heat of the flames as I walked into them  and the roar of the mobs approval.

How did I get here?

I didn't know where this was, the room didn't look familiar either not with the tough crooked wooden walls  faintly, brightened by a flickering candlelight.

I took deep breaths to calm myself, so that I didn't feel the urge to come out of my skin. This wasn’t the clearing. It wasn’t the fire. It wasn’t the mob.

I was safe.

I tried to sit up, but my body screamed in protest,my fingers trembling as they reached out to touch the coarse blanket that covered me.

My body ached, muscles protesting even the slightest movement,the ache reaching into my bones and joints my breaths came fast and shallow, and my pulse pounded in my ears.

Confusion filled my gut, cold and numbing, and I struggled to make sense of my surroundings. I really needed to calm down I blinked, my vision slowly adjusting to the dimly lit room.

“How?” I whispered to the silence, my voice hoarse, barely audible. My mind reeled, as I tried  to piece together what had happened. Memories surged forward, jagged and sharp.

Memories rushed back , the intensity of the filling my brain stole the air from my lungs.

I could still remember Cassandra's face as she she urged the mob to go after me, I could still hear their hateful cries echoing in my ears as they hit me and beat me, as they accused  of betrayal.

While I myself still felt the betrayal of people I once trusted, if not to have my back but to at least value my life. It felt like I was all back there but then I looked around me and I was safe.

There was... nothing.

I pressed a hand to my temple, the dull throb of pain making it hard to think. My fingers brushed over my hairline, and I winced as they found a tender, swollen lump. Then I jerked

My baby.

“Please,” I begged, my voice breaking.

“Please still with me?” I whispered, my voice barely audible as fear gripped my chest. My palm brushed against my stomach, and I felt nothing.

A strangled sob fell out of me as tears streamed down my face, hot and fast, as I cradled my stomach protectively, as pain wrapped around me making me  hunched in over myself.

My baby was gone, they had called me a monster, accused me of colluding with dark forces only to.have taken the one thing that had truly mattered to me in that whole journey.

They hadn’t cared about the truth. They only wanted a scapegoat.

And I had been one.

I opened my eyes again, taking in my surroundings.

The room was small and sparsely furnished—a wooden bed, a nightstand, and a chair tucked into the corner. A faint glow from a single lantern illuminated the space. It wasn’t familiar, but it felt safe.

How did I end up here?

The sound of a door creaking open snapped me out of my thoughts.  My head jerked toward the noise, and my heart leaping into my throat as figure stepped into the room , their movements slow and almost deliberate.

“Who are you?” I demanded, my voice rough but steady.

“What do you want?”   I asked as the figure moved closer, the light revealed his face. The man had a tall figure that almost made him dwarf the hallway he stood in, I couldn’t fully make out his face, but his presence filled the room like a storm.

"Who are you” I croaked, my voice hoarse.

"What are you doing here?”

“You shouldn't be asking  me that,” he said, stepped closer, and the light caught his face.

He was not a man—not, a wolf. His silver eyes gleamed like the moon, his darker hair falling in unruly waves around his face. His jaw was set, and his expression was unreadable.

“You’re lucky to be alive.”  he mumbled and I gulped staring at him my mind racing.

Who was this and where was he from, he looked like he was an sentinel, he laughed. I narrowed my eyes,

“Where am I?”

“Safe,” he replied, as if that were enough of an answer.

“That’s not what I asked,” I snapped, pushing myself up on the bed despite the fiery protest of my muscles.

" Why do you keep dodging -"

“I found you,” he said simply, cutting me off.

“Found me?” My hands gripped the edge of the blanket, the faint scent of smoke still lingering in my nostrils.

“I was in the middle of a mob. I was supposed to die.”

" There is no way you could have just found–" I started and then cut off. His jaw tightened, and a flicker of something dark passed through his eyes.

“You were supposed to live,” he said firmly.

“And I made sure of that.”  I shook my head,his words confusing me.

“Why? Why would you—?”  I gulped.

“Because you don’t deserve to die,” he replied a small sad smile on his face.

" My baby" I asked and he sighed and my breath caught in my throat. His gaze softened, and for a moment, he looked almost vulnerable.

"Could not come with you into this body" he whispered I swallowed hard, my hand instinctively returning to my stomach.

" Why  did you not just let me die" I gulped and he sighed.

"Because you still have something to do here for the goddess." I scoffed.

"And what I did for her before was not enough huh " I asked, he didn't laugh and he didn't frown just maintained that annoying neutral gaze.

“So what’s your plan, then?” I asked, my voice laced with defiance.

"That is not up to me" he said and I huffed.

" What is up to you.” His lips quirked into a faint smirk, though his eyes remained serious.

"Protect you.” I scowled, pushing myself up despite the protest of my muscles.

“I don’t need your protection,I can take care of myself.”

He raised an eyebrow, his gaze flicking to the bruises on my arms and the marks from the almost burns beneath my torn dress.

“Clearly.” I rolled my eyes.

“I didn’t ask for your help, and it's not like the moon goddess did such a good job the first time.”

“No,” he agreed, leaning against the wall with a casualness that only fueled my anger.

“But you needed help if you are going to stop the danger I see coming in the future.” I opened my mouth to retort but stopped short when a sudden wave of dizziness washed over me.

“Easy,” he said, his voice softer now.  I hated the way my body betrayed me, hated that his soft words gave me comfort of any kind.

“I’m fine,” I muttered and he grinned.

“You’re stubborn,” he said, shaking his head.

“Funny, I was going to say the same about you.”

His lips twitched, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he stepped back, from the wall giving me space.

“Get some rest,” he said. “You’ll need your strength.”

“For what?”

“For what comes next,” he said cryptically before turning and walking toward the door.

“Wait” I called after him, my voice trembling despite my best efforts. He paused, glancing back over his shoulder.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, my anger replaced by genuine confusion.

For a moment, he didn’t answer. Then, with a look that made my heart ache in a way I didn’t understand, he said, and then he was gone, leaving me alone in the room again, the doors still as locked as they had been when I woke up and me just as confused as I had been then too. Then a voice echoed across the room.

“Because you will bring great victory for us all.”