Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 154

Chapter 153: Grace: Feared and Revered

Something’s off with Lyre.

Her multicolored hair catches the morning light streaming through the RV’s windows, but the usual sparkle in her cat-like eyes is missing. Her slender fingers drum against the table, creating an irregular pattern as her gaze drifts somewhere past my shoulder, unfocused and distant.

This isn’t the Lyre I’ve come to know—the one who’s always three steps ahead, confident to the point of arrogance and always ready with a sarcastic comment or cryptic warning. This one looks... worried.

"There’s a reason you aren’t very open with me, isn’t there?" I ask softly, breaking the silence between us. She’s completely stopped talking.

She sighs, her fingers pausing their restless dance. She taps the back of her phone with painted nails and gives me a smile, though it doesn’t reach her eyes.

"If I say too much, I risk losing too much."

More cryptic answers.

"Losing what? I mean... you don’t seem very attached to anything."

I mean, Lyre travels light and lives like some sort of nomad. This RV is her most substantial possession, but even it feels temporary—a vessel for freedom rather than something to treasure.

Her whole existence seems designed for minimum attachment, maximum mobility.

Instead of answering with words, Lyre lifts her palm. Something shimmers in the air above her hand, condensing into a perfect, glistening orb of water that hovers impossibly in midair. It catches the light, sending tiny rainbows dancing across her face.

"It could be as simple as this power," she says, her voice stripped of its usual playfulness. "Or we could lose time."

The water orb dissolves, droplets vanishing before they hit the table.

"Time?" I repeat, not understanding.

"Imagine you—back when you were terrified of Caine, running from him. Yes?"

I nod silently. Those memories feel both recent and distant—like they happened to a different version of me. And yet it’s only been a timeline of days.

Crazy how much can happen in a single stretch of twenty-four hours.

"Now imagine waking up naked in his arms, with no understanding of how you got there, and now he’s obsessed with you."

I blink rapidly, my stomach twisting at the thought. That would be... terrible. Disorienting. Beyond awkward.

Lyre’s eyes darken at my expression. "This is the kind of thing that can happen when a timeline is shifted. If those of divinity interfere excessively in the lives of mortals..."

I spin my coffee mug again, thinking it through. "So, if you tell me too much, it’s considered excessive interference?"

"Of course." She leans back with a sigh. "There are rules, Grace. Even for beings like me. Losing my power for even a few years wouldn’t be much of a hassle before, but it would be detrimental now. Even an hour can change everything."

spins, trying to connect all these weird puzzle pieces into some sort of coherent picture. If telling me things could trigger divine

resting my elbows on

half-smile. "Chaos opened the door.

only spawns more questions, but one

me?" I finally ask, the question that’s been nagging at me since she first offered me a

"Because you’re an Anchor."

edging into my voice. "So far all I know is that I’m supposedly special and can calm down some angry moods. And that Chaos is interested in me, which

It’s freaking me

she says, a hint of her usual snark returning as she gestures vaguely toward the outside, where Caine and the

a lot about how differently he’s presented himself in

gag. No choking, either. Instead, he’s been... sweet. Caring.

just the

I straighten. "Bun, too."

affect..." She points to herself with a slow

breath catches. "But I don’t have to worry about

"Because I have control."

Oh.

That makes sense.

other people

That’s what makes an Anchor

teeth as I think it through. "So I’m

no. You’re

at Lyre.

existence as an Anchor is separate from your physical

words she speaks is very different

my stomach’s a little too queasy to try another

there are plenty of gods out there who’d rather not see

queasy, it just squashed itself

ability to disrupt divine influence," she

through me, goosebumps rising on my

gods wanting me dead. Jesus. "It exists outside of

Fate like it’s a

would see Fate as a being like a

stronger

creates Anchors, their stabilizing influence in this world." She leans forward, her eyes suddenly intense. "Where

finger at me, and I feel the weight of her words pressing down on

Blessed by Fate,

wants to crawl out of my body. It’s gone from pancake to something existing on its own, and it wants nothing

Hah.

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