The voice from the dark hit Lyria so hard she forgot to breathe.
Then the wall behind the hidden chamber shifted.
Not all at once. Just a slow scrape of stone against stone. Dust dropped from the seam. The keeper in the chains went pale. Selene took one step back. Kael moved in front of Lyria without thinking.
The panel opened.
A young man stepped out from the dark behind the wall.
He was thin. Tired. Dirty in the way people get when they have been hidden too long. His dark hair had grown out uneven at the ends. There was a scar near his jaw. Silver eyes.
Lyria stared at him.
He stared back.
For one second nobody moved.
Then he said her old nickname.
"Ly."
Her throat closed.
That was her brother.
Not the older silver wolf rider from before. Not Eren. This was the boy from her childhood. The one she had been told died young. The one her father had once refused to talk about. The one her mother had never explained properly because every explanation had been half the truth.
