Chapter Fifteen: Lilith's Truth

Ezra's breath hitched. "Lilith?"

She didn't move. Didn't even blink. She stood perfectly still in the dimly lit house, her dark eyes locked on his, expression unreadable.

Naomi felt the tension between them, thick as the Between itself.

Ezra took a slow step forward. "You're alive."

Lilith exhaled sharply, her fingers twitching at her sides. "Ezra, you need to leave."

Ezra froze.

Naomi narrowed her eyes. "Leave? After everything we've been through just to get here? After-"

Lilith turned her gaze on her. "You don't understand what you've done."

The lights flickered overhead. Shadows stretched unnaturally along the walls, as if the house itself was listening.

Ezra shook his head. "I lost you." His voice was raw, strained. "For years, I thought you were dead. And now you're standing right in front of me, telling me to leave?"

Lilith's jaw tightened.

Then-

Her eyes softened.

"I never left, Ezra," she whispered. "You did."

Naomi's stomach dropped.

Ezra took a step back, his expression twisting in confusion. "What the hell does that mean?"

Lilith sighed, running a hand through her hair. "You think you were taken five years ago, right? That you disappeared, that the Between swallowed you?"

Ezra nodded slowly.

Lilith shook her head. "That's not the whole truth."

She stepped forward, closer now.

"The Between didn't just take you," she said. "It changed you."

Naomi stilled.

"What?" Ezra whispered.

Lilith met his gaze, her own filled with something deep and haunted.

"You came back, Ezra," she said. "Over and over again."

The words hit like a thunderclap.

Naomi felt a chill run through her.

Ezra's fingers clenched into fists. "No. That's not-"

Lilith cut him off. "It is."

She turned toward the nearest mirror-a tall, antique thing standing in the corner.

She reached out-

And pressed her palm against the glass.

The reflection shimmered.

And suddenly-

It wasn't just the three of them anymore.

Naomi's breath caught.

The mirror showed Ezra.

Not just one of him.

But dozens.

Versions of him standing in different places, wearing different clothes, existing in different times.

Naomi's skin prickled.

Ezra staggered backward. "What-"

Lilith's voice was soft. "You have been here before."

She turned back to him. "You've come back to Black Hollow at least ten times. And every time you return, the Between resets you."

Ezra shook his head, his breath uneven. "No. No, that's not possible."

But Naomi was starting to see it now.

The missing time. The erasures. The way reality twisted whenever they got too close to the truth.

Ezra wasn't just being chased by the Between.

He was being replaced.

Lilith let her hand drop from the mirror. The reflections vanished, leaving only their own distorted figures behind.

"The Between is unfinished," she murmured. "It feeds on love, on longing, on loss. And when it takes something-someone-it doesn't just erase them."

She swallowed hard.

"It tries to fix them."

A tense silence settled in the room.

Ezra's voice was hoarse. "What are you saying?"

Lilith's eyes darkened.

"I'm saying that you're not just a man who escaped the Between, Ezra."

She exhaled.

"You're a version of Ezra the Between let go."

Naomi felt her blood run cold.

Ezra's entire body stiffened.

Lilith's gaze didn't waver.

"You're not the first Ezra Calloway to come back," she whispered.

Naomi's breath stalled.

Ezra looked like he had just been punched in the chest.

Lilith turned away, wrapping her arms around herself. "I've seen you come back before, Ezra. I've seen the town forget you. I've seen you disappear over and over. And each time, the Between recreates you, filling in the gaps like patchwork."

She met his gaze, and this time-

Naomi saw something worse than fear in her expression.

She saw grief.

"You don't remember," Lilith said softly. "But I do."

Ezra was shaking.

His voice barely a whisper.

"...Then who am I?"

Lilith's expression didn't change.

But the silence was answer enough.

Naomi's pulse pounded in her ears.

This wasn't just about escaping the Between anymore.

This was about undoing whatever had been done to Ezra.

If he wasn't the first to return...

Then that meant the real Ezra Calloway could still be lost somewhere inside the Between.

And if that was true-

Then the Between wasn't finished with him yet.

Not by a long shot.