Kael's blade arced—not toward Gideon, but into the hybrid's skull. Black ichor sprayed as the creature crumpled, its claw falling slack against his mother's throat. She collapsed, clutching a venom-gouged wound that sizzled with cobalt poison.
"Why?" Gideon cried, staring at Kael. "You could've killed it faster—"
"Quiet." Kael pressed his cloak to his mother's shoulder, but the venom spread, her veins glowing like dying stars.
The air cracked open.
Lyra descended, her cobalt wings shredding the sky. Hybrids knelt, then recoiled as her gaze swept over them—amber flickering beneath the void of her eyes. "You disobey," she hissed, voice a chorus of Gideon's ghosts.
Kael's mother gasped, her hand seizing his. "The hybrids… they're tied to me. My blood… Gideon used it to bind them."
Lyra's wings twitched. "Lies."
"No." Kael's mother spat blood, glaring at Lyra. "I see you. My face. My scars. Gideon stole more than Lira's soul—he stole my flesh to make you."
The hybrids wailed, clawing at their own cobalt veins. One lunged at Lyra, shrieking: "Traitor!"
Lyra smothered it with a wing, reducing the creature to ash. "You are mine!"
"They're hers," Kael's mother whispered, weakening. "My blood… breaks Gideon's hold. Use it… to save her."
Lyra froze. For a heartbeat, her eyes cleared—amber, terrified. "Kael, I don't want to be—"
Gideon's laugh throttled her voice. "Too late."
She lunged at Kael, wings scissoring. He parried with the hybrid's claw, its venom-dripping edge corroding her feathers.
"Fight him, Lyra!"
"I AM!" Her strike veered, gouging the earth instead of his heart. "Run… before I kill you!"
Gideon's younger self stepped between them, pitchfork raised. "Stop this!"
Lyra recoiled. "You…"
The boy trembled but held his ground. "I don't know what you are, but you're wrong."
Lyra's wings faltered. The hybrids swarmed her, their loyalty fracturing. She vanished into the portal with a scream, its edges collapsing behind her.
Kael's mother sagged, her breath shallow. "The poison… it's in my roots. Listen—Lyra isn't just Lira's clone. Gideon wove her from both of us. She's… your sister."
The world tilted.
"Find the garden… where he took my flesh. Burn it… or she'll never be free." Her hand fell.
Gideon crouched beside her, tears cutting through the dirt on his cheeks. "Who are you?"
Kael stood, venom burning in his own veins. "Someone who failed."
The portal flickered, pulling him back to his fractured present—and a choice: save Lyra, or erase her to destroy Gideon's legacy.