The Gate behind Mingi shimmered like a storm that kept recurring, pulsing in and out of focus. The whispering voice had faded, but its presence still coiled in the air like smoke. His feet were rooted to the mirror-like surface of the realm.
He had made his choice. But the realm was not done with him yet.
The moment he turned from the Gate, the Mirror Veil convulsed. Cracks rippled beneath his feet. Light fractured above his head. The realm rebelled.
He staggered, clutching his head as a sudden rush of disjointed visions crashed through him—blood, fire, the howl of wolves, Selene screaming his name, Cassian's face distorted by pain and betrayal. His knees hit the glass floor.
"Stop trying to fight it," the voice returned, venomous now. "You are not complete."
"I've had enough please," Mingi growled.
The Mirror Veil shrieked.
Back on earth in the Taylor pack, Selene moved like a tempest through the battlefield, her claws slick with the black, oil-like blood of the shadow walkers. The creatures had poured through the broken wards like rot seeping through cracks in stone. Their shrieks split the air, but Selene was deaf to them. Her only thoughts were of Mingi—trapped, lost, fading.
Alia, bruised and bloodied, dropped beside her, slicing clean through a shadow walker with a silver-edged blade. "The wards are weakening again," she shouted. "We need reinforcements!"
Selene pivoted, her eyes glowing like twin moons. "Then buy me time."
She launched herself toward the heart of the breach. Where the veil thinned, more creatures slithered through.
Alia stumbled through the dense underbrush, her ribs aching from battle. Blood matted her silver hair. She moved with a single purpose: Her brother, Cassian.
She found him near a broken shrine beneath the weeping willows.
Cassian was kneeling, his hands covered in runes, his eyes clouded.
"You're dying," she said, kneeling beside him.
"Not yet," he rasped. "But not far."
She grabbed his collar. "Forget about that human. Why will you go through such lengths for him?"
His head tilted. "I must go to him."
Mingi was drowning in light and darkness, alternating like breath. He could feel pieces of himself slipping away—memories peeling from his mind like leaves in a storm.
He remembered Selene's face.
He forgot her voice.
He remembered their night beneath the silver moon.
He forgot the way she said his name.
"This is the cost," the voice said, mournful now. "You are breaking."
His body trembled. He felt himself fracture like the realm around him.
And then—
A pulse.
A sound.
A name: "Mingi!"
Cassian's voice.
A blinding white door split the sky.
Cassian stepped through, half-shadow, half-wolf. He was not whole. But he was real.
Selene was bloodied, her breath ragged, but she stood tall atop a mound of shadow walker corpses. The rift behind her pulsed, spewing corruption.
Suddenly, a tear in the veil widened. She spun, claws ready.
But it was not another monster that stepped through.
It was Cassian—dragging Mingi's unconscious form behind him.
"Mingi!"
She raced forward. Her heart shattered when she saw him—his skin pale, his lips bloodless, his aura barely flickering.
"He's alive," Cassian gasped. "But the trial… it's incomplete. He refused the final door. And now… he's forgetting."
Selene stared at Mingi intensively. "This is for the better. He'll get to live in a world I never existed. Now go!"
Cassian returned to his resting place with Mingi because he knew what awaited him had he dared to take Mingi to his parents looking like that.
He catered to Mingi and laid him to sleep. He stood watch, arms folded. "I have to go back," he said. "There's something buried in the Mirror Veil. Something unfinished. If it wakes… it could tear both worlds."He thought to himself. "But how do I go back?".
"Why is it waking now?"
Cassian hesitated. "Is it because Mingi cracked the cycle again?"
Three Days. Cassian took care of Mingi for three consecutive days and he finally woke up.
Mingi awoke at dawn, eyes opening to a world he only half remembered.
"You're safe."
He frowned. "What's going on?"
"Don't you remember anything"? Cassian said in a voice that sounded like he was going to cry at any moment.
"Of course I remember being in some strange environment with you," Mingi said laughing. "Did I get you?"
His breath caught. "Close enough."
"But I don't remember much about why we were there".
Deep in the forest was Roman he stood In Front of a gate.
"The Gate cracked," he whispered.
Lady Sorenna Duskbane emerged from the trees. "And the child defied it. He's fractured."
"Which means he's v
ulnerable."
She lifted her hand, and a black flame ignited. "Then we hunt him while he forgets who he is."