The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 128: Not Her

Chapter 128: Chapter 128: Not Her

Kieran’s POV

I stood frozen, the note trembling in my fingers. My mind tried to make sense of what I’d just read, but it couldn’t. Elise had jumped. She was gone. And her last words, were stained into my memory like blood on snow.

Felix snatched the note from my hand, his eyes scanning the scribbled message with frantic urgency. He dropped to his knees with a guttural cry that shattered the silence. His fists clenched the paper, and he let out a sound so raw and broken it made my chest clench.

"No," he sobbed. "No, no, no..."

His voice echoed through the ward, loud and painful.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My brain was still wrapping itself around what Elise had written.

She’d been spelled. Programmed to fear Felix. She hadn’t betrayed him, she’d protected him, even when she’d been tortured and mutilated. Someone had forced her mind, controlled her like a puppet. Someone powerful. Someone terrifying. Someone connected to the Crimson Hunt. And now Elise was dead. Because she’d known something. Because she’d tried to hold on.

A predator was hiding in plain sight.

And they were coming for Lorraine.

My fists clenched at my sides. My wolf was a storm inside me, pacing, growling, enraged. We should have known. We should have stopped it.

"Lorraine," I muttered aloud, just as a voice called from behind.

"Prince Kieran." A nurse stood at the doorway, her eyes wide with a mix of nerves and urgency. "She’s awake. Lorraine is awake. She’s asking for you."

My chest seized.

I turned slowly, my eyes still burning with fury, guilt, confusion.

How exactly am I supposed to tell Lorraine about this?

Felix was crumpled on the floor, his shoulders shaking with sobs. Varya stood silently beside him, wide-eyed, stunned.

I looked at her. "Stay with him," I said, my voice hard.

Varya blinked. "My prince...."

"Stay. With. Him."

Then I turned and followed the nurse, my steps fast, sharp. Lorraine was awake. She was alive.

And she needed me now.

I moved through the hallway with long, purposeful strides, my jaw clenched tight. The nurse in front of me glanced over her shoulder occasionally, no doubt sensing the storm roiling inside me.

Then I heard it, hurried footsteps racing up from behind.

"My prince!" a voice panted.

I turned, just as Thorin skidded to a stop in front of me. He bowed low, sweat dotting his forehead. "I’ve been looking everywhere for you," he said, breathless.

I narrowed my eyes.

There was something....off. I couldn’t quite place it. His hair was disheveled, not his usual neat braid. His scent, faintly familiar, carried an undertone I didn’t recognize. And the way his eyes darted, too sharp, too calculated. Like someone who was trying not to look suspicious but was failing miserably.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

Thorin straightened quickly. "I... I’ve been running around the academy all day trying to find you, my prince. Ever since the lockdown started. I only just heard you were at the hospital."

I studied him, my gaze sharp, unforgiving. But I didn’t press. Not yet. There were more urgent matters to handle.

I simply turned away. "Come," I said.

He fell into step behind me, just as he always had, but something in the rhythm felt off now.

But I didn’t slow down. My mind was on Lorraine now. On her bloodied face. On how close I’d come to losing her. On the word carved into Elise’s last note. _{fr.e ewe.bno.vel .com}

Protect her.

Whoever was moving in the shadows of this academy, whoever had Elise killed, who had Adrian arrested, who had spelled her, was smart enough to mask their scent, manipulate minds, and hide right under our noses. And if they were after Lorraine, then this wasn’t over.

Lorraine’s POV

The first thing I felt befpre I even opened my eyes was pain, deep, radiating, and relentless.

My skull throbbed as if it were splintering in slow motion. Every breath felt like dragging air through a cracked ribcage. I groaned softly, my hand moving instinctively to the source. My fingers brushed over fabric, bandages, tight and thick, wrapped around my head.

Then the memories slammed into me like a tidal wave.

The dark room. The girl with the blonde hair. The way her face was mostly hidden, her energy... cold. Quiet.

And then....

That scream.

It had pierced the air like a blade, loud and wrong and unnatural, vibrating through my bones until I wasn’t even in control of my body anymore. I had flown across the room like a rag doll and hit the wall so hard I could still feel the echo of the impact in my spine. I remembered the sharp, wet crack at the back of my head. The blood. So much blood. And then...

I remembered the way she stepped over me.

Walked out.

Calm. Unbothered. As if I was nothing.

I had opened the door. I had let her out.

My throat tightened. Shame and fear churned low in my stomach.

I had asked the nurse, the moment I woke up, to bring him. I needed him. I needed Kieran.

And soon enough, the door creaked open. Kieran stormed in, his long strides eating the space between us before he sank beside my bed. His hand found mine immediately, warm and grounding.

"You’re awake," he breathed, his crimson eyes scanning my face like he was checking for signs of a dream. "Are you alright?"

I stared at him for a long moment before the words finally tumbled out. "I released her, Kieran," I whispered. "I released the Ghosthound."

His expression didn’t shift much. "Don’t worry about that right now," he said, squeezing my hand gently. "You’re okay. That’s what matters. Focus on healing."

Healing?

How could I heal knowing what I’d done? What I’d unleashed?

My lips parted again, the next question falling out before I could think better of it. "Elise."

Kieran froze and my stomach plummeted.

"How is she?" I asked, my voice quieter now, trembling. "Is she... still unconscious? I want to see her."

I moved, trying to sit up, but his hand caught my shoulder, firm and careful. He didn’t speak right away.

"Where is she, Kieran?" I asked again, panic rising in my chest like a scream clawing for release. "Is she okay?"

He looked at me. Really looked at me.

"She’s dead."

For a second, the entire world stopped moving. It was like someone had pulled the oxygen out of the room. My lungs squeezed, my vision blurred again, not from pain this time, but from the sudden frost that flooded my entire body.

"No," I croaked. "No, no, not Elise."

But Kieran just sat there, his head lowered.

Not Elise.

Not the girl who made the feral dorm feel like home. Not the girl who always stood beside me, who fought when I fought, who laughed even when she was bleeding.

I shook my head violently, the tears falling without permission. "She—she was just there. I left her alive, breathing.... she can’t..."

My voice cracked and broke.

"How?" I rasped, my voice barely a whisper. My throat was dry, raw from the storm of emotions building inside me. "How did she die, Kieran?"

He didn’t speak immediately. I could see it in his eyes, he was trying to find a gentler way to say it, to soften the blow that had already ripped me open. But there was no gentleness left in this world. Not anymore.

Kieran exhaled slowly. "We managed to wake her up. With Varya’s help, we got the herbs, the antidote for the wolfsbane... she came back, Lorraine. She opened her eyes."

For a moment, my heart lifted, but only for a moment.

"But.... something was wrong. Deeply wrong," he continued. "She woke up and screamed when she saw Felix. She was terrified. We thought... I thought he had something to do with it. She even nodded when I asked if he hurt her."

I blinked, confused. "But Felix, he’d never...."

Kieran shook his head. "That’s what we thought too. But then she wrote something. She said she was sorry. That it wasn’t Felix. That.... someone had spelled her. Someone powerful. It was mind control, Lorraine. Someone manipulated her, forced her to act like Felix was the one who hurt her. They used her."

I couldn’t breathe.

"She said she couldn’t take it anymore," he whispered. "She said the pain was too much... that she was sorry... and then she.... she jumped. Out the window."

My vision tilted.

No.

No.

I shook my head. "No... that’s not true. I need to see her," I said, trying to push off the bed.

"Lorraine..."

"I need to see her!" I screamed.

He tried to hold me back, but I pushed past him and tore the IV from my arm. My bare feet hit the cold tile, and I didn’t stop.

I ran through the halls, heart pounding in my ears, past the blur of nurses and patients.

I got to her room.

The door was wide open.

And her bed.... it was empty.

The window was wide open, the curtains fluttering in the breeze like cruel ghosts.

Then I saw him.

Felix.

He was on the floor, curled around a piece of paper, the same way you’d hold a dying pet in a storm. He was screaming, the kind of scream that scraped at the soul, that left blood behind.

Tears and snot covered his face as he clutched the note Elise had written. "She’s gone, she’s gone, I couldn’t protect her, she’s gone!"

I stumbled inside, my legs barely working, and my eyes moved to the window.

From the third floor.

Her weak body had jumped.

"No...." I dropped to my knees.

Varya stood by the wall, her face blank, her arms crossed. Like this was normal. Like she couldn’t care less, death was part of the syllabus here.

I looked at the empty bed, at the note Felix clung to, at the open window...

And I collapsed.

My fingers trembled as I pressed them to the floor, wishing I could vanish into it. Elise was gone. And all I could do was scream silently inside.

This couldn’t be happening.

Not Elise.

Not her.