They found her on the ridge.
A silhouette against the bruised sky—slender as a spear, cloaked in fabric darker than a moonless night. Lyra stood there like an accusation carved from shadow, the wind teasing the edges of her cloak. When Selene and the Beast reached the crest, Lyra turned. Her face was a storm of triumph and sorrow—the expression of someone who had waited too long for the world to break.
Selene's stomach tightened. The name clawed its way from her chest.
"Lyra," she said softly, the syllable cracking the silence like a blade drawn from its sheath.
Lyra's smile was a wound that refused to heal. "So the prodigal sister returns to Mars—to claim what she never understood," she purred. "You're late, Selene. The wine has already turned to blood."
Beside her, the Beast tensed—a mountain before eruption. He had not spoken Lyra's name aloud in centuries, yet now it rumbled from his throat like thunder trapped behind stone.
"You—" he began, voice low and dangerous.
Lyra lifted a hand. The barren ground shivered. From the dust, black flowers bloomed—petals of shadow drinking the dying light.
"Save your growl," she murmured. "We're not here to mourn the past. We're here to remember what was stolen."
Selene's fire flared faintly. "What did I steal, Lyra? You left the palace. You left us."
Lyra's eyes glimmered—cold, unblinking. "I did not leave by choice," she whispered. "I was cast out. Erased while you were paraded as the favored heir. Do you remember their cheers, sister? The king's pride? The court's praise?" Her voice cracked like brittle ice. "I watched it all burn from the shadows."
She stepped forward, and the fading light revealed the fine scar etched down her cheek—like a memory carved by envy. "I didn't fall, Selene. I was pushed. And when I rose, I rose from the dark. Velkar taught me where real power grows."
The Beast spat the name like poison. "Velkar." His voice carried fury and fear both.
Lyra smiled. "Yes. The god of ruin, the forgotten one. He showed me what the gods denied us."
She raised her hand, and a thin chain materialized—bone pale, pulsing faintly with a cruel inner glow. The air itself seemed to recoil. Selene felt the world shudder in recognition.
The Chain of Binding.
A relic older than war. A tool forged to enslave both gods and monsters.
Selene's voice was steel. "You would dare wield an artifact that twists fate itself?"
Lyra's laugh was soft, almost gentle. "I would dare rewrite fate. The gods wrote one story for us, sister. I tore out the ending." Her gaze slid toward the Beast, glinting. "Do you remember me, creature? Before chains. Before gods. Before they took our names?"
The Beast's golden eyes flickered, shadowed with memory and pain. "I remember," he whispered. The words fractured the silence.
Lyra's expression softened—only for a heartbeat. "We were children once. We swore loyalty in blood. You promised to protect me." Her eyes turned to Selene, burning. "And you promised to never forget me."
She took another step forward, each one cutting deeper into the past.
"But you forgot. You wore the crown they gave you while I rotted in their darkness. When I clawed my way back, I found Velkar waiting—with promises sharper than love."
Selene's eyes narrowed. "You made a bargain with a monster."
Lyra tilted her head, her smile unfurling like a scar. "I made a choice. And now, I will take what should have been mine."
Her fingers uncurled, and the Chain glimmered like the spine of a dying star.
"First him."
The Beast moved to shield Selene, but Lyra's power struck first.
The Chain leapt from her palm like a serpent of bone and light, wrapping around his shoulders with a hiss. It bit deep, searing through shadow and muscle alike.
The Beast roared. The sound split the sky, echoing through the canyon like the scream of a dying god. His knees hit the ground. For the first time, the creature who had defied gods and empires bowed his head.
Selene's breath broke.
Lyra's voice slid through the air—honeyed, merciless.
"Kneel, guardian. Swear fealty to me and I shall grant you what you have always hungered for—release from the curse that binds you."
"You would buy his soul?" Selene spat. "You would enslave him to win a throne?"
Lyra smiled faintly. "Freedom is the lie the weak tell themselves to endure their chains. You wanted power, Selene. I'm merely brave enough to take it."
Selene's flames snapped at her skin. The fury that rose in her chest was matched only by grief. "Let him go." The words trembled—half command, half prayer.
Lyra's eyes glinted with malice. "Will you beg for him, sister? Will the mighty Queen of Ruin kneel for a monster?" She circled them slowly. "Velkar offers you more than pity. He offers victory. Power beyond gods. All you have to do is stop pretending you have a heart."
A whisper slithered through Selene's mind. Velkar's voice.
Power above all. Choose power and be whole.
For a single heartbeat, she saw it—the vision Velkar promised. Herself on a throne of bone and fire, galaxies kneeling at her feet. Lyra beside her. The Beast beneath her. The universe burning for her name.
It was intoxicating. It was almost enough.
Selene's nails bit into her palms. "No."
Her flames ignited, wrapping her in a storm of gold and scarlet. She lunged forward, reaching for the Chain, ready to rip it from the Beast's neck and damn the consequences.
Lyra moved faster. Shadows flared, and the Chain constricted. The Beast's eyes flashed gold, then silver—then dimmed to nothing. He fell, gasping, the sound raw and broken.
Selene struck the amulet. Sparks exploded, magic screaming. The relic pulsed like a living thing, hungering.
Lyra's smile curved, sweet and venomous. "You're weak, sister. You rule through fear because you fear to feel. Join me, and I'll teach you to take without mercy."
Selene gripped the Chain, her veins alight with its poison. It whispered to her—promises of dominion, of immortality unchained. She could almost taste it.
She could end this. Take the Chain. Wear it. Rule through its power.
The Beast's voice, faint and fractured, cut through the storm.
"Do not," he pleaded. "Do not take it."
His eyes found hers—gold dimmed but not gone. There was something human in that gaze. Something that made her remember.
Lyra's laughter sliced through them both. "Do it, Selene! Show them what kind of queen you truly are!"
From the shadows behind her, Velkar's followers emerged—masked and silent, bearing banners inked with constellations of ruin. The air trembled. The balance shifted.
Selene's hand tightened around the Chain. Pain bloomed. Power whispered. Visions flickered—herself crowned in shadow, Lyra triumphant, the Beast enslaved. The stars drowning in darkness.
The world narrowed to one heartbeat. One choice.
Selene opened her mouth.
Before she could speak, Lyra struck.
The Chain flew from her hand, wrapping the Beast's throat once more. His roar strangled into silence. His head bowed until it touched the dust.
The world froze. Even the wind dared not move.
Lyra's voice fell like judgment. "Choose."
Selene's heart thundered. The chant of Velkar's worshippers rose around them—low, fevered, hungry. The Beast remained kneeling, the light fading from his eyes. Lyra's gaze gleamed, bright and cruel.
And Selene understood: this betrayal was older than her sister. Older than Velkar. Older than the gods.
Fate had built this moment long before they were born.
She drew in a breath of dust and blood and memory—
and stepped forward.