Chapter 52: The True Enemy Revealed
Morrigan POV
The moment Lily’s shared power pushed against my shadow magic, memories I’d hidden for three hundred years came flooding back like a dam breaking.
I staggered backward, clutching my chest as pictures flashed through my mind. A young woman with silver hair stood in a grove just like this one. Her Triple Moon Mark burning with pure light as she tried to heal a pack torn apart by war. The look in her eyes when she realized her power wasn’t enough to save everyone she loved.
That woman had been me.
"No," I mumbled, shaking my head to clear the memories. "I’m not her anymore."
But Lily was looking at me with those wide, innocent eyes that looked exactly like mine had once looked. Before I learned that hope was just another word for pain.
"You’re like me," she said softly. "You had the Triple Moon Mark too."
The shadow wolves around us stopped moving forward, waiting for my order. I could end this right now. One word from me and they would tear the girl apart. But something held me back.
"I was nothing like you," I growled, though my voice shook. "You’re weak. Naive. You think you can save everyone with love and friendship."
"What happened to you?" Lily asked, and her voice was so gentle it made my heart ache. "Who did you lose?"
The question hit me like a physical blow. Suddenly I was seventeen again, standing in the ashes of my pack’s territory while the bodies of everyone I’d tried to save lay spread around me.