Luna. Chapter 175

(Lyra's POV)

Victor stood up from the kitchen table, his expression grim. "There's more you need to know about Malachar and what he did to your mother."

"More?" I felt exhausted already, and it wasn't even noon.

"The gem theft wasn't his first attempt to control Isabella. It was just the most dangerous one."

Elena refilled her coffee cup with hands that weren't quite steady. "Sit back down, Victor. This part is going to be hard to tell."

My father remained standing, staring out the window at nothing. "Malachar spent months watching Isabella. Learning her routines, her friends, her fears."

"Stalking her," Kael said flatly.

"Yes. Though we didn't realize it at the time." Victor's voice was tight with old anger. "He would show up wherever she was. Coffee shops, bookstores, her job at the library. Always with some excuse for being there."

"What kind of excuses?"

"Coincidence. Fate. Destiny." Victor practically spat the words. "He told her the universe was bringing them together. That their connection was written in the stars."

I felt sick. I'd heard similar lines from stalkers during my time as a police officer. The delusion that harassment was actually romantic pursuit.

"How long did this go on?"

"Six months. From the time Isabella and I started dating until the night he tried to use the goddess gem on her."

"She didn't report him?"

"To who? His brother?" Victor's laugh was bitter. "She came to me a few times, said Malachar was making her uncomfortable. I talked to him, told him to back off, thought that would be the end of it."

"But it wasn't."

"It just made him more careful. More secretive."

Elena reached across the table and took my hand. "This isn't Victor's fault, Lyra. None of us understood how dangerous Malachar had become."

"When did you figure it out?"

Victor finally sat back down, his shoulders heavy with memory. "The night Isabella came to me crying, saying Malachar had cornered her at the library after closing."

My stomach clenched. "What happened?"

"He told her he knew she really loved him. That she was only with me because she was confused. He had the goddess gem with him, hidden in his jacket."

"Did he use it on her?"

"He tried to. Isabella said she felt this overwhelming wave of false emotion, like someone was pouring fake love directly into her mind. But she fought it."

"How?"

"Your mother was stronger than Malachar ever gave her credit for. She focused on her real feelings, her actual love for me, and used that as an anchor against his magical manipulation."

I thought about the control it would take to resist that kind of mental intrusion. "Then what?"

"She ran. Left her car at the library and ran six blocks to my apartment in the middle of the night."

"What did you do?"

Victor's expression hardened. "I went to confront my brother."

"Alone?"

"I was young and angry. I thought I could reason with him, make him understand that what he was doing was wrong."

"Could you?"

"No. By the time I found him, he was completely lost to obsession. He actually believed Isabella belonged to him. That I was the one who was stealing her."

Elena squeezed my hand. "Mental illness runs in families sometimes, honey. But that doesn't excuse what Malachar did."

"What happened during the confrontation?"

Victor was quiet for so long I thought he wasn't going to answer. "He attacked me. Said if Isabella wouldn't choose him freely, and magic wouldn't make her choose him, then he'd eliminate the competition."

"He tried to kill you."

"With the goddess gem, yes. Except he didn't really know how to use it as a weapon. The energy backfired, nearly killed him instead."

"Is that when you exiled him?"

"That's when I should have exiled him. Instead, I called our parents, thinking family intervention might help."

"Did it?"

"Our parents were horrified. They took the goddess gem away from Malachar and forbade him from seeing Isabella again."

"But that wasn't enough."

"No. Two weeks later, he broke into our house while Isabella and I were sleeping."

I felt cold. "What was he planning to do?"

Victor's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "Kill me in my sleep, then use the goddess gem to make Isabella forget she'd ever loved anyone else."

"How did you stop him?"

"I didn't. Isabella did."

"How?"

"She woke up when he was standing over my bed with a knife. Instead of screaming or running, she talked to him."

I stared at my father. "She talked to him?"

"For two hours. Convinced him that killing me wouldn't make her love him. That forced love wasn't real love. That if he really cared about her, he'd want her to be happy."

"And that worked?"

"It worked well enough to get him to put down the knife. But when he left that night, Isabella knew he'd be back."

"Is that when you exiled him?"

"That's when Isabella made me exile him. She said she couldn't live knowing that someone who claimed to love her was willing to kill for her."

Elena nodded approvingly. "Smart woman. She understood that Malachar's obsession had nothing to do with love and everything to do with possession."

"So you gave him twenty-four hours to leave."

"I gave him twenty-four hours to leave and told him if he ever contacted Isabella again, I'd turn him over to the supernatural authorities for attempted murder and magical assault."

"Did he go peacefully?"

Victor's laugh was harsh. "He told me Isabella would realize her mistake eventually. That she'd come looking for him when she got tired of being with someone who couldn't match his power."

"Even after everything he'd done, he still thought she'd choose him?"

"Obsession doesn't respond to logic, Lyra. It creates its own reality."

I thought about the recent attacks on our family, the careful planning, the intimate knowledge of our vulnerabilities.

"Dad, when you exiled him, did you ever check to make sure he actually left the territory?"

Victor and Elena exchanged glances. "We assumed he had."

"But you didn't verify it."

"No."

The silence that followed was heavy with implication.

"You think he's been watching us all these years," I said quietly.

"I think it's possible."

"Waiting for what?"

"For Isabella to change her mind. For me to die. For you to come home so he could finish what he started."

I looked around our kitchen, thinking about how unsafe everything suddenly felt.

"If he's been watching us, he knows about Asher. About my pregnancy. About our connection to the royal family."

"Yes."

"Which means he knows exactly how to hurt us most effectively."

"Yes."

I stood up abruptly, needing to move. "We have to find him. Before he makes another attempt."

"We're working on it."

"We're working on it isn't good enough anymore, Dad. Not with everything that's at stake."

"What do you want to do?"

I thought about my enhanced abilities, about the power flowing through me like liquid starlight.

"I want to bait a trap."

"Absolutely not," Kael said immediately.

"Think about it. He's been watching us, but staying hidden. What if we give him a reason to come out into the open?"

"By putting you in danger."

"By giving him what he's always wanted. A chance to confront Isabella's daughter."

Victor shook his head. "Lyra, you don't understand how dangerous he is."

"Then tell me. Help me understand so I can be prepared."

"Malachar has had twenty-two years to develop his abilities and his resentment. He's not the confused young man I exiled. He's something much worse."

"What kind of worse?"

Elena answered quietly. "The kind of worse that would see your pregnancy as an opportunity instead of a reason to leave you alone."

The implication hit me like a physical blow. "He'd try to hurt my baby."

"He'd try to take your baby. Raise him as his own revenge against the family that rejected him."

I placed both hands over my belly, feeling my son's strong heartbeat. "Over my dead body."

"That," Victor said grimly, "might be exactly what he's planning."