LUNA AQUAMARINE’S POV
I broke.
I didn’t even realise when the tears started until I couldn’t see anymore.
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My hands shook against his chest. I leaned forward, whispering prayers like a desperate child begging his mother.
“Please, God. Please do something, anything, but make it stop.” I begged, pressing my forehead to his, wetting his skin with salt. “Please don’t take him. Don’t take him from me. I’ll do anything. I’ll give anything. Just- just let him live. Please.”
The memory of how Alexander cried after he saved me from Gaia played in my brain like a nightmare. Like it was just seconds ago.
Is this the pain he felt? Seeing me like in pain- almost dead?
In his arms? Losing the person he loves?
I wailed more. “Why are you soo cruel? What wrong has he done to deserve this kind of punishment?” I screamed at no one in particular.
“Why him?” I kept repeating in broken sobs despite the pain ringing in my head. “Why us? Why the only man I love?‘
But his body jerked again, and his hands found me, clamping down on my arms with a strength that wasn’t human anymore. He dragged me closer, as if even dying he couldn’t stand the thought of me slipping away.
“Aqua-” his breath came ragged, broken between his teeth, and then-
He screamed.
It wasn’t a normal scream.
It was deep, tearing, like it was clawing up from the pit of him and breaking every bone in its way out. His back arched, his claws splitting the sheets, the sound ripping through me until my knees gave out.
“Alexander!” My voice was hoarse now, breaking apart like glass. “Levi! What should we do?”
I clutched him tighter, but he thrashed, his body bending like something was eating him alive from the inside. Every cry that tore from his throat shredded my chest open.
I couldn’t stop watching. I couldn’t stop shivering, I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t stop the heat from prickling my skin.
I couldn’t stop anything.
8:52 Tue, Sep 16 d.
Chapter 126
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Levi’s voice cut through, sharp but heavy with something close to panic. “We can’t do this here. If anyone sees him like this-”
He grabbed my shoulder hard enough to sting. “He needs to go to the cave.”
I sniffed through the blur of tears. “What cave? No–you can’t move him into-”
“We have no choice, Luna!” Levi barked at me for the first time I saw fear in his eyes. He walked to the door and opened it, “Code Red. Now,” he barked at the guards.
The guards bolted without hesitation, and Levi turned back, his jaw set like stone. He walked to the other side of the room, slammed the windows shut, and muttered low, “It’s done.”
Alexander’s body jerked in my arms like he had been waiting to hear them–and then the world twisted.
A roar of air, a flash of light, and suddenly the chamber was gone. My breath froze in my lungs.
Purple fire burned on the walls, licking against rock that stretched into shadow. The air smelled of ash and iron. And beneath me–the bed. The same bed, but set in the center of a cave. A cave carved with chains so thick I could barely wrap my arms around them.
My pulse thundered. “Where are-
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Then I remembered. It’s That Cave.
That cave where he was soo different that I thought he would eat me whole.
Alexander groaned beneath me, his eyes flickering open, molten gold. “Get out, Aqua.” His voice was deeper, rougher.
“No!” I snapped, clutching him tighter as his body writhed. “I’m not leaving your side till you’re back to normal-”
But Alexander shook his head, “Levi, get her out and -chain me.”
Levi was already moving, dragging the chains, his face pale but resolute. “Luna, you can’t watch this.”
I shot Levi a glare soo sharp that he turned away from me. There is nothing in this world that’ll make me leave Alexander in this state,
Even as Levi wrapped the first chain around Alexander’s waist and less, I held onto him, sobbing, begging.
His body burned, trembled, and yet still he clutched my waist like he’d die without my weight pinning him to
the world.
Then it happened.
The sound of bone snapping. The ripping of skin splitting. His scent hit my lungs soo hard that it burned.
Alexander’s scream shook the cave as horns pushed through his skull, curling dark and jagged.
8:52 Tue, Sep 16 d.
Chapter 126
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His wings burst from his back, tearing cloth and flesh alike, massive and black, glowing at the edges. His tail lashed, slamming the stone so hard that dust rained from the ceiling.
His body stretched, hardened, swelling with muscle, skin glowing red like a forge at full heat.
I cried out, both from terror and heartbreak, watching the man I loved split into something else right in my
arms.
I’ve watched him shift before, but he didn’t look like this. He didn’t cry out like this, so what was going on with him today?
Levi said he had never fallen sick or acted like this.
So is it me?
Did I cause this?
The glowing scar at his eye blazed, brighter than fire, a brand carved by something older than us both. And then the veins.
Gold. Alive. They crawled across his chest, his arms, his throat–moving like serpents under his skin. He thrashed against the chains, bellowing in agony, and Levi strained to hold them down, his face slick with
sweat.
I tried to help, I swear I did, but his body jerked too hard. His claws caught me, ripping across my arm. Pain flashed white–hot, blood spilling.
But I didn’t let go. I pressed closer, clutching his head against me, sobbing into his horns as if I could anchor him back into himself.
Then I saw it.
His back.
The gold veins shifted, curling, burning against his flesh. And slowly, painfully, they began to form something -letters. Words.
I gasped, my nails digging into his skin as I whispered in horror, “It’s writing on you…”
And all I could do was watch as my mate’s curse began to carve its truth into his very body.
