Chapter 52: The Borrowed Skin
Kael didn't scream.
He should have.
But when Lyra turned to him with someone else's voice,
and that crooked smile
he only whispered:
"Give her back."
The thing wearing her body tilted its head.
Like a child playing pretend.
"She's not gone."
"She's dreaming."
"Do you want to see what she sees?"
Kael's jaw clenched. "No. I want her awake."
"Then don't touch her again."
"Not while I'm here."
And then
It blinked.
Once.
Twice.
And Lyra collapsed into his arms like a puppet with cut strings.
She woke up the next morning with no memory of it.
But Kael didn't sleep.
Not after seeing the shadow that lingered on the wall behind her
long after her body moved.
---
Meanwhile…
Maerin hadn't left after all.
She was watching.
Studying the edges of Lyra's shadow when no one else was looking.
The way it twitched.
The way her breath sometimes fogged up mirrors in rooms she hadn't entered.
Maerin pulled out her bone dagger and carved a circle into the floor.
A summoning ring.
Only one person could answer this kind of call
and he was supposed to be dead.
---
That night, Kael followed Lyra to the edge of the woods.
She said nothing.
Just walked barefoot into the trees, trailing black threads from her fingertips
names unraveling.
Kael caught up to her.
"You don't sleep anymore."
Lyra didn't answer at first.
Then…
"I don't trust what dreams are anymore. They feel like memories I didn't make."
"I saw a woman again. In my reflection. She had my face."
"She said the longer I carry these names, the more they become me."
Kael stepped in front of her.
Held her by the shoulders.
"You're Lyra. You're still here. I know you."
She looked up slowly.
Her lips trembled.
But then
Something else came forward.
The same crooked smile.
The same dead calm.
"You knew me, Kael."
"You don't anymore."
And just like that Lyra was gone again.
---
Back in town…
Maerin's summoning worked.
But not the way she wanted.
The bones cracked in her circle.
Blood seeped from the lines.
And a man stepped through the dark like he'd never left.
"Well, damn," he said. "You kept the dagger."
"You always did like sharp things."
It was Oran.
Alive. Scarred. Half-human. But alive.
"Where's the girl?" he asked.
"Tell me before it's too late."
---
In the forest…
The thing inside Lyra sat on a fallen tree, humming.
Kael stood feet away sword drawn, heart broken.
"What do you want?" he asked it.
"You. Her. All of it."
"I was forgotten. She remembered."
"Now I want to be remembered."
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"You're a name, aren't you?"
It smiled wider.
"Worse."
"I'm the first lie they ever told in this place."
Maerin steps into the inn with Oran behind her
his cloak ragged, his eyes full of storm.
Kael turns, stunned.
And Oran says:
"She opened the wrong door, Kael."
"And now something ancient is wearing her face."