He floated, untethered.
No pain, no breath. Just… cold. Until something warmer than fire pierced the dark.
Lillith.
Her magic hit his chest like a strike of lightning and a kiss from a god all in one. It wasn’t gentle—it was desperate, wild, thrumming with everything she hadn’t said but had always felt. Her grief poured into him with her power, shaking the very threads of his soul.
Don’t you dare leave me.That’s what her magic screamed.
Don’t you dare make me love you just to watch you disappear.
He should’ve answered. But he couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Until they came.
Soft at first. A breeze. Then whispers—layered, ancient. The Echoes. The same ones she’d summoned before.
He stood suddenly in a dreamscape. Or maybe he never had a body here at all. Trees made of mist towered overhead, and the moon hung low and pulsing with silver blood.
The Echo Spirits surrounded him like a council of shadows. None of them looked the same—some were too tall, some too thin, all with eyes that held centuries.
One stepped forward. The one she had told him about, the one who had kissed Lillith’s brow.
“She risks everything,” the spirit said, her voice the wind through dying leaves. “For you.”
Dominic clenched his jaw. “She shouldn’t have to.”
“But she did. Because you are hers.”
The words scraped something raw inside him. He looked down at his hands—empty, limp, human.
Another spirit drifted closer. “You have a choice, Dominic Kane. You always did. You can rest. Let go. Leave this weight behind.”
The weight of being tethered. Of carrying his pride like armor. Of pretending he wasn’t afraid.
“Or,” the first spirit said, “you can return. You can rise. You can love her the way she was meant to be loved.”
His lion stirred, slow and furious.
“She already knows what you are,” the voice whispered. “But only you can decide who.”
His hands curled into fists. The fog began to burn around him.
“She called you back,” another spirit intoned. “Now roar.”
The sound didn’t start in his throat—it came from the marrow, from every scar he'd earned, from every silent prayerhe'd buried. It built in his chest like a gathering storm, the echo of ancient power stirring awake.
And when he let it loose, it wasn’t just a roar—it was a battle cry that cracked the very dreamscape.
Dominic surged upward with a thunderclap of sound and flame. His body arched in midair as muscle split, bone reshaped, fur cascaded across his skin like a divine avalanche. The shift was not just transformation—it was rebirth. Fire burned through every sinew, every nerve igniting with purpose.
He landed on all fours, claws gouging trenches into the war-scarred earth.
The ground trembled.
The Echoes vanished in a shimmer of mist, their part played. Lillith lay beside him, her hands clutched over her heart, tears streaking dirt-stained cheeks, breath suspended in awe and fear.
Her voice cracked. “Dominic?”
He turned and she saw him.
