Broken Bonds: The Rogue's Redemption-Chapter 14: The Monster’s Mask

Cassian’s POV

I moved without thinking.

My body slammed into the thing wearing Lyanna’s old face, knocking it away from my true Lyanna before those black-eyed jaws could close around her throat. We hit the ground hard, rolling through dirt and ash. The thing screeched—not human, not dragon, but something old and wrong.

"Protect Lyanna!" I roared at Kieran. "Get Ember away from here!"

The thing beneath me twisted impossibly, bones cracking and reforming. Its strength was crazy. I’d fought dark beasts and demons, but this? This was something else entirely.

"You ruined my surprise," it hissed in that voice that was almost Lyanna’s but not quite. "I was going to make this easy. Sweet. But now we do this the hard way."

It threw me off with a rush of dark magic. I shifted mid-air, my dragon exploding in flames. My claws barely touched ground before it was on me again, moving like liquid shadow.

We crashed through the remains of the ring wall. Stone burst around us. The thing was fast—faster than anything I’d faced. And it was still wearing Lyanna’s original body like a mask.

"What ARE you?" I snarled, pinning it with my dragon weight.

The black eyes stared up at me, endless and hungry. "I’m what comes after. I’m what waits in the space between life and death. And that body?" It smiled with too many teeth. "I’ve been saving it for three thousand years."

My blood went cold. "You’re not Lyanna."

"No. But I knew her. Watched her die. Watched her soul split and spread." The thing laughed. "One piece reincarnated into your beautiful modern girl. But the other piece? The bigger piece? It got stuck. Trapped. And I’ve been wearing it like a coat ever since."

Horror crawled up my spine. This monster had been claiming to be Lyanna’s soul for three millennia?

"Guards!" I bellowed. "Containment circle NOW!"

Elite fighters rushed forward with magic chains. The thing didn’t fight as they bound it. It just kept smiling that terrible smile.

"You can’t kill me without killing her body," it said kindly. "And that body? It’s the only link to Original Lyanna’s memories. Destroy me, and you lose any chance of knowing what really happened three thousand years ago."

I shifted human, breathing hard. My mind raced. It was right. That body might hold answers we needed.

"Lock it in the reinforced cell," I ordered. "Triple wards. Nobody goes near it without me present."

As guards pulled the creature away, it turned its head at an unnatural angle. "See you soon, Dragon Prince. We have so much to talk about your past life."

The words sent ice through my chest.

I ran back to the main field. Lyanna was on her knees, Ember clutched in her arms. My baby was crying, her small body shaking. Kieran stood guard over them both, lightning still crackling around his hands.

"Is it gone?" Lyanna’s voice shook. She was trying to be strong for Ember, but I could see the fear in her eyes. "Contained." I knelt beside them, pulling both into my arms. "You’re safe now."

"What was that thing, Papa?" Ember whispered against my chest.

"I don’t know, baby girl. But I’m going to find out."

Elder Morgana approached, leaning heavily on her staff. Her face looked older than I’d ever seen it. "I felt the disturbance from three countries away. That creature’s magic mark..." She shook her head. "It shouldn’t exist."

"But it does," Kieran said sadly. "And it claims to have been wearing Lyanna’s original soul for thousands of years."

Morgana’s eyes widened. She instantly began muttering spells, her hands glowing with diagnostic magic. The light spread out, touching Lyanna, then reaching toward where the thing was imprisoned.

Her face went white.

"What?" I asked. "What do you sense?"

"The prophecy," she whispered. "The one I thought was just a tale. ’Two Souls, One Destiny.’ I never understood it until now."

Lyanna stood up, still holding Ember. "Explain. Please."

Morgana’s hands shook. "The prophesy speaks of a soul that was split at the moment of death. One half reborn. One half stuck. And a dark entity that would try to claim both halves to become invincible." She looked at Lyanna with terrible sadness. "You’re only half a soul, child. You always have been."

The words hung in the air like poison.

"That’s not true," I said instantly. "Lyanna is whole. She’s perfect. She’s—"

"Incomplete," Morgana finished sadly. "I’m sorry. But that’s why you’ve always felt like you didn’t belong anywhere. Why magic came so easily but also felt like something was missing. You’re actually missing half of yourself."

Lyanna’s face collapsed. Ember clung tighter to her mother.

"And that thing in the cell?" Kieran asked quietly.

"It’s wearing the other part. The stuck piece of Original Lyanna’s soul." Morgana’s voice was heavy. "But the entity controlling it? That’s something older than dragons. A parasite that feeds on powerful souls."

My dragon roared inside me. "Then we kill it. Cut it out of that body and destroy it."

"You can’t." Morgana shook her head. "It’s fused with Lyanna’s soul part. Kill it, and you kill that part of her forever. She’ll never be whole."

"I don’t care about being whole," Lyanna said furiously. "I care about keeping my family safe."

"But you should care." A new voice spoke.

We all spun. The creature stood at the edge of the arena, chains broken, guards asleep behind it. How had it fled so fast?

"Because I have your memories, little copy," it purred. "I know what you’ve forgotten. I know why you were really born. I know the REAL reason Cassian was drawn to you across lifetimes."

It tilted its head, those black eyes sparkling.

"I know about the curse. The one that binds your lives together. The one that means you’ll keep reincarnating in tragedy forever unless—"

An explosion of power cut off its words. Morgana had thrown a binding spell. The creature laughed as bands of light wrapped around it.

"Unless you break the cycle," it finished in a sing-song voice. "Unless someone makes the ultimate effort. Unless—"

Morgana’s spell finally stopped it, freezing the creature in place.

But the damage was done. Everyone stared at me and Lyanna.

"What curse?" Lyanna asked me, her voice small. "Cassian, what is it talking about?"

"I don’t know." And I truly didn’t. But my dragon was screaming inside me, recognizing something, remembering something I couldn’t quite grasp.

Morgana slumped against her staff. "We need to perform a deep soul reading. On both of you. Something happened three thousand years ago. Something that caused this mess. And until we understand it..." She looked at the frozen thing. "That thing will keep coming back."

"Do it," I said instantly. "Whatever it takes."

"It will be painful," Morgana warned. "It means reliving your past life. Every time. Every death."

"I don’t care."

Lyanna grabbed my hand. "Then I’m doing it too. Whatever this is, we face it together."

Morgana nodded slowly. "Very well. We begin at dawn. But I must warn you—" She looked between us with old, sad eyes. "Sometimes the truth is worse than the lie. Sometimes the past should stay buried."

"We’ll take that risk," Kieran said, shocking me. He squeezed Lyanna’s other hand. "All of us together."

Morgana started walking toward her chambers to prepare. I held Lyanna close, Ember between us.

That’s when I heard it. A breath on the wind. Coming from the frozen creature’s mouth despite the silence spell.

Just two words, over and over: "She’s coming. She’s coming. She’s coming."

And in the distance, thunder roared even though the sky was clear.

Something else was coming.

Something the creature feared.

And whatever could scare a soul-eating parasite?

That scared me most of all.