Luna. Chapter 88

(Lyra's POV)

By evening, I couldn't wait any longer. The curse was pressing against my consciousness like a living thing, and I could feel it getting stronger.

"I'm checking on Asher," I told Kael and Victor.

"I'll come with you," Kael said immediately.

"No. If something's wrong, I need to assess it first."

"Lyra—"

"Please. Just give me five minutes."

I climbed the stairs to Asher's room, my heart pounding. The house felt different than it had this morning, heavier somehow.

I knocked softly on his door. "Asher? Can I come in?"

No answer.

I knocked again, harder. "Asher?"

Still nothing.

My wolf began to pace anxiously. Something was wrong.

I opened the door and stepped inside, then immediately stumbled backward.

Asher was sitting in the middle of his bed, perfectly still, his eyes reflecting silver in the lamplight. Not the warm silver of supernatural abilities, but something cold and alien.

"Asher?" I whispered.

He turned to look at me, and when he spoke, his voice was layered with something else entirely.

"Hello, Mother."

The words weren't his. They belonged to something older, something that had been waiting.

"You're not my son."

"I am now."

The room began to shift around me. Toys lifted from the floor, spinning slowly in the air. Books flew open, their pages fluttering without wind. The walls themselves seemed to pulse with malevolent energy.

"Let him go."

"I don't think so. He's been such a good host. So powerful, so young, so malleable."

I backed toward the door, but it slammed shut before I could reach it.

"We're going to have so much fun together," the thing wearing my son's face said. "All the games we'll play, all the people we'll hurt."

"You won't touch anyone else."

"Won't I? I have access to abilities you can't even imagine. And through this child, I can reach anyone I want."

The silver in Asher's eyes flared brighter, and I felt something slam into my mind like a physical blow.

Pain exploded through my skull, and I fell to my knees as laughter filled the room. Not Asher's laugh, but something cruel and delighted.

"Don't worry, Mother. This will all be over soon."

The last thing I saw before darkness took me was my baby's face, twisted with inhuman malice.