Chapter 3 Training

LYRA POV

I woke up slowly, my eyelids heavy, my body feeling strangely cold. When I looked around, I found myself lying in a soft bed inside a chamber lit with soft blue flames. I recognized instantly that this was the witch coven. More specifically my mother’s old room.

Before I could gather my thoughts, the door opened and my grandmother walked in. Khalia. The strongest witch in our entire coven. Her presence alone could silence storms.

“Hi, Grandmother,” I said weakly. “How did I get here?”

“You were brought here by your father,” she answered, walking closer. “He stayed for a few hours, but he has already returned to his kingdom.”

I nodded slowly. My grandmother sat beside me, her eyes scanning my face like she was searching for hidden wounds. Coming from her, that worried me even more. She was a Seer. She could see things others couldn’t.

“How many days have I been unconscious? I feel weak,” I asked.

“You have been unconscious for three days.”

Three days.

My heart dropped.

“Really? Wow I feel empty,” I whispered. “Grandmother, Aria is gone, I can't feel her. Do you have any solution for my wolf? For Aria?”

Her expression softened with sadness. “No, not yet. But we are looking for answers. All the elders are searching.”

I swallowed hard. “What should I do, Grandmother? I can’t live without Aira. She’s part of me.”

“Come,” she said gently. “Let’s go outside. You must try to shift.”

We walked to the open training field. The grass swayed lightly around my feet. Normally Aira would have been excited, pushing at my skin, ready to run. This time nothing.

I tried to shift.

I tried to call her.

I tried to feel even a spark.

“Aria,” I whispered.

But it was like calling into a dark cave. I couldn’t feel her. Not her warmth. Not her strength. Not even her breathing.

It felt like she was there but deeply asleep. Locked away. Refusing to wake up.

And I knew why.

Kabir.

If not for him, Aira wouldn’t be like this. His rejection didn’t only break me.

it broke her.

I am now wolfless.

I hate him.

My grandmother placed her hands on my shoulders. “Child, your fate is clouded. But I must tell you what I saw.”

My heart thudded painfully. “What did you see?”

“I saw shadows. I saw war. A war you must face. A war tied to your destiny and the survival of our world,” she said.

War? Me?

“I don’t know who the enemy is,” she continued, “but you are the key to stopping it. You and Aira. And without Aira awakened, it will be impossible.”

I breathed deeply, fighting the sting in my eyes.

“So, what do I do?”

“You must be trained,” my grandmother said firmly. “From today onward. And we will search for how to awake aira”

And that was how my training began.

Since I could not shift, they trained my body and my witch power instead. I learned how to hold visions, how to cast spells without losing control, how to channel hybrid energy. It was tough, painful, exhausting, but I pushed through.

I would not be weak again. Never.

Days turned into weeks.

Weeks into months.

And then exactly six months later, something changed.

It happened at night. Alone in my room, exhausted from training, I whispered into the dark:

“Aria, please come back. I need you. Don’t leave me.”

No answer.

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I drifted into sleep, pain heavy in my chest.

And then the dream hit me.

I saw the Lycan empire, the werewolf kingdom, and even the witch coven

all cursed.

Madness.

Blood.

Creatures attacking each other without reason.

A voice echoed through the vision:

“Only the marked one can stop it.”

I jolted awake gasping, drenched in sweat.

And then I heard it.

A faint whisper inside my mind.

Barely there.

Broken.

Aira.

She said only one word:

“Mate”