Chapter 268: Chapter 268

~Lisa’s POV Fınd the newest release on novelFɪre.net

My heart squeezed tight. "Kill her?"

"Yes." Lira’s voice was quiet, heavy. "That was their way, wolves were taught to destroy what they feared, and they feared her love for him. But he refused. Instead, he turned his back on them. He walked away from the power he had been born into. That night, he went to your mother’s cottage and told her that he would rather live in exile than in a world that hated what he loved."

For a while, I couldn’t speak. My throat ached, and my eyes stung again. "He really left everything?" I whispered.

Lira nodded. "He did. Your mother wept when he came to her. She told me later that she tried to push him away, told him she didn’t want him to lose his place or his family. But he told her, ’If I lose you, I lose everything.’"

The words hung in the air like a song too sad to hum.

Lira smiled, a small, broken smile. "They built a small home together on the edge of the forest,leaving their previous abode. Nothing grand, just a cottage of stone and wild vines. He hunted for her, and she healed for him. They made their own world, far from the hate of both sides. At night, they would sit beneath the moon, and he would tell her stories of his ancestors, while she whispered spells that made flowers bloom even in the dark. I think they truly believed their love could outlast the curse of the world."

I wiped a tear from my cheek and tried to smile too. "It sounds like a dream."

Lira nodded. "It was, for a time. They were mad for each other, mad enough to defy both heaven and earth. Your father used to say that her voice was his moonlight, and she used to say that his heart was her home. I’ve seen many kinds of love, child, but none burned as bright or as dangerously as theirs."

Her voice softened even more. "That is why I stayed close, in secret, as her guide. The coven believed I had severed ties with her, but I couldn’t. She was my student, my child in the craft. I watched over them from afar, sent her warnings through the wind when danger came near. She knew I would never truly abandon her. And she was right."

Lira’s eyes brightened for a moment as if a warm memory had drifted into her thoughts. She chuckled softly, shaking her head like someone remembering a story both sweet and sorrowful.

"At the end of it all," she said, her voice lighter now, "Silva got pregnant."

My eyes widened. "She...she did?"

Lira nodded, her wrinkled lips curving into a gentle smile. "Oh, how else were you born then, silly girl? Isn’t it obvious that she did, child. And when she told me, I almost didn’t believe her. A witch carrying the child of a werewolf? That was rare, so rare that even the elders spoke of it as something from legends."

She let out a laugh, the sound crackling like the fire. "I remember teasing her. I told her she was about to give birth to chaos itself, a storm made of both moonlight and starlight. Because such a union..." she sighed, "such a child, born of wolf and witch, would carry strength that no one could ever stand against. The wolves’ power and the witches’ wisdom, both in one bloodline."

I blinked, trying to imagine it. "So... that means me?"

"Yes," she said, her smile widening. "You, child. You were born of both worlds."

I pressed my palm against my chest, my heart pounding so fast I could almost hear it echoing in my ears. "But... how did everyone take it? Didn’t they come for her?"

"Oh, they would have," Lira said, nodding. "If they had known. But Silva was clever. She hid her pregnancy deep in the forest, where the magic was strongest, and I visited her every full moon. She glowed, Lisa, your mother. Truly glowed. I had never seen a woman so happy. She used to hum to her belly, telling her babies stories before they were even born."

I smiled faintly, imagining it. "Babies?"

Lira looked at me for a long moment before answering. "Yes," she said softly. "Babies. You weren’t alone in her womb."

I froze. "What do you mean?"

"She was pregnant with twins," Lira said, her voice barely above a whisper.

The words hit me like cold water. "Twins?" I repeated, my voice shaking. "I’m... I’m a twin?"

Lira nodded slowly. "Yes, child. You are."

My breath caught in my throat. For a moment, the world around me faded. I stared at her, unable to process what she’d just said.

"There were two of you," she continued gently. "A boy and a girl. Both strong. Both beautiful. You came first, crying loud enough to wake the forest itself. And then your brother, quiet, calm, his eyes open before he even took his first breath."

I felt dizzy. "A brother..."

I felt tears sting my eyes again. My lips trembled. "But... where is he? Where’s my brother now?"

Lira’s face grew somber, her eyes glistening in the firelight. "That," she said quietly, "He is alive too. After the night you were born, everything changed. Chaos came for your family. The coven found out, and so did the wolves. Both wanted to claim or destroy the children of the forbidden bond."

My breath hitched. "So they... they came for us?"

"Yes." Her voice cracked. "They came for all of you."

I sat there frozen, my hands trembling in my lap. The fire popped softly, but all I could hear was my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.

Then suddenly, an image flashed in my mind, a man I had seen not long ago at the palace. His jawline, his eyes, the way he had looked at me like he knew me.

My chest tightened. "Wait," I whispered. "There was a man... in the palace. He looked like me. He had the same eyes, the same nose. I remember thinking it was strange..."

Lira nodded. "I had no idea that you guys have met. Blood is truly thicker than water."

"The joy didn’t last, Lisa," she said softly, shaking her head. "Barely had your mother held you both in her arms when the world came crashing down again."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

She let out a long, weary sigh. "The witches and the werewolves, those ancient enemies, collided again. Another war began, fiercer than the ones before it. And this time... it was because of your birth."