Bella couldn't breathe.
The woman stood motionless before her, barefoot on the forest floor like she belonged to it—an ancient thing cloaked in elegance and death. Moonlight made her silver hair shimmer, casting a ghostly halo around her head. Her violet eyes were too still. Too knowing.
"You're lying," Bella said, voice trembling. "I don't have a sister."
The woman tilted her head ever so slightly. It was a gesture too fluid, too practiced—like a predator feigning softness.
"You did. Before they erased your name. Before they buried your body in fire and salt."Her voice was honey, with something bitter beneath it."We were born under the same moon, Isadora. But you ran. You betrayed the covenant to save him."
Bella staggered backward. Her skin still glowed faintly, and the magic inside her coiled like a snake reacting to the scent of blood.
"I don't know what you're talking about—my name is Bella Swan."
The woman stepped forward slowly, as if her feet barely touched the ground.
"No. That was the name they gave your corpse."She raised a pale hand."You are Isadora Veyne. Daughter of the Ninth Flame. And my sister. The Queen of Ashes they feared would rise again."
Images assaulted Bella's mind—screams, fire, silver crowns breaking, wolves howling in the distance, a girl clutching a bleeding boy's hand while witches closed in with burning blades.
"Stop," Bella gasped, clutching her head. "You're messing with me—"
"I'm showing you the truth," the woman said. "What's left of it."
Bella blinked—and the forest changed.
The trees were taller now, blackened and bare. Crows perched in rows along every branch, watching in silence. The ground was scorched. No mist, only ash, floating like dying snow.
Kael was gone.
The Volturi were gone.
Only the two of them remained in a place that didn't belong to the present.
"Where are we?" Bella whispered.
"This is the Echo Vale," the woman replied. "It lives inside you. A pocket of the past carved into your soul. Every time your power awakens, it pulls you closer."
Bella took another step back. The ash crunched beneath her boots like brittle bones.
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
The woman didn't flinch.
"You don't have a choice."
Suddenly—Bella's chest ignited.
A pain like molten fire exploded inside her ribs. Her knees buckled. She screamed, falling to the scorched ground. Magic poured out of her in ribbons of light—gold, violet, crimson—snaking into the sky like writhing souls.
The woman raised both hands and began chanting in a language Bella didn't know… but somehow remembered.
"Atrae, velra, kynash—Resa ven arith nox."
Bella's eyes rolled back.
Her heartbeat vanished.
For a moment, she was weightless. Silent. Floating in the space between worlds.
Then—
A voice pierced the void.
"Bella. Wake. Up."
Not the woman.
Kael.
Bella's eyes snapped open—and the world exploded.
She was yanked out of the Echo Vale like a fish through ice. Light shattered around her. Air returned to her lungs in one massive gasp.
She found herself kneeling in the same forest clearing.
The woman was gone.
Kael knelt beside her, blood dripping from a gash over his left eye. He was human again—barely—and shaking from exhaustion.
"I told you to run," he muttered. "Didn't expect you to tear open time instead."
Bella's throat burned.
"She said… she's my sister. She said I betrayed her. That I—"
"I know," Kael cut in, jaw tight. "We don't have time to unpack that."
He looked up at the trees.
"The veil's thin now. Too thin. You've cracked it open. Others will come through."
Bella struggled to stand. The golden sparks around her now glowed brighter, forming thin lines across her skin like glowing veins.
"What do we do?"
Kael looked her in the eyes, serious.
"We go to the Cradle. The heart of the Witchlands. If you want answers… you need to reclaim your crown before she does."
"You said she was gone."
"She is. But she'll be back. That wasn't her body—that was her echo."
"Then where's her real body?" Bella asked.
Kael exhaled slowly, like it hurt to say the next words.
"Buried in the ruins of Castle Veyne. Under your old throne. And the only one who can unseal it…"
He looked at her.
"…is you."
Bella's skin prickled.
Suddenly, the forest behind them erupted in violet fire. A scream echoed through the trees—not human. Not vampire. Not wolf.
A shadow tore through the trees, huge and fast—like a beast reborn.
Kael's face went pale.
"It's too soon."
Bella turned, eyes glowing now fully gold.
"What is that?"
Kael's voice was hoarse.
"The thing that killed you last time."