Chapter 425 - 425: The final goodbye...

Lyla

The silver light around Nanny was growing brighter by the second, and I could feel the air itself beginning to vibrate with the power she was calling forth. This was really happening. The woman who had raised me, who had been my anchor through every storm, was about to sacrifice herself to save us all.

"Mom," I whispered, reaching toward her with trembling hands.

She turned to me, and for a moment the terrible light dimmed enough that I could see her face clearly. Her eyes were filled with love and peace, the same expression she'd worn when she used to tuck me into bed as a child and tell me stories.

"My darling girl," she said softly, "Come here."

I moved toward her, and she pulled me into her arms the way she had countless times throughout my life. She smelled like lavender and home, and I buried my face in her shoulder as tears poured down my cheeks.

"I'm so proud of you," she murmured against my hair. "So proud of the woman you've become, the mother you're going to be. Your dad would be proud, too."

"Please don't leave me," I sobbed, clinging to her like the frightened child I suddenly felt like again. "I don't know how to do this without you."

"Yes, you do," Nanny said firmly, pulling back to look into my eyes. "You've always been stronger than you realised, Lyla. You defeated Xander, a feat none of the Moonsingers before you could achieve. You've survived everything life has thrown at you."

She reached up to touch the necklace at her throat. It was the pendant that she'd come with as a child and the only indication of her parentage.

Gently, she lifted it over her head and placed it around my neck.

"This is for you now," she said. "And for your daughters after you. The legacy continues, my sweet girl. You must always be happy."

"Mom, I love you so much," I whispered, the words felt inadequate for everything she meant to me.

"And I love you," she replied, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "More than all the stars in the sky. You gave me purpose, Lyla. You gave my life meaning. Raising you has been the greatest privilege of my existence."

"We need to move!" Kyren's voice cut through our goodbye with urgent necessity. "The spell won't hold them back much longer!"

pushing me gently but firmly toward Kyren.

"I can't—"

she said with absolute conviction. "You will. For your children. For

shoulders, pulling me back as Miriam moved to the centre of the stone circle. The light around her was becoming blinding now, and I could feel the energy building

cordis mei renovata," Kyren began to chant, his voice ringing through the clearing, "Let the bonds be broken, let the darkness fade, let love

an invisible chain, and she nodded once at Kyren before closing her eyes and extending her arms toward the

my love for those who will live on," she said. "I sever what was wrongly joined. I break what should never have been bound. I offer myself as the

exploded into

swallowing everything up – the stones, the crowd of enemies, Delia and her siblings. I heard screaming, but it seemed to come from very

saw her siblings trying to

her face peaceful as she gave everything she was to

I couldn't see

Darkness.

***

filtering through the curtains. My hand was clutched around something cool and smooth – a pendant on a delicate chain. I stared at it in confusion, not recognising the

the Moon, you're

see Clarissa sitting in a chair beside my bed, pouring tea from a

struggled to sit up, my head spinning slightly with the movement. "What happened?

Ramsey, Circe and Kyren returned from the human world yesterday evening, and you were completely exhausted. Ramsey said you'd been through quite an

of my childhood bedroom in the Blue Ridge pack house. Everything looked exactly as it always had – the same furniture, the same photographs, the same sense of safety

I admitted, trying to piece together my fragmented memories. "Everything feels like a dream. Or a nightmare. And I don't understand why I

was beautiful and old, but I had no memory of how it had come to be in my

the necklace with a puzzled expression. "I've never seen that before. Maybe Ramsey

deep in my chest ached when I looked at it, as if I'd lost something precious without knowing

concerned. "Ramsey told me some of what

the fighting, the desperate escape. But there were gaps, moments that felt important but remained stubbornly blank in

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