Chapter 69
AQUAMARINE’S POV
I didn’t move
Not even when I heard Alexander’s footsteps fading behind it. Not when the ache in my legs told me I should lie down
The room was cold, the sheets were still messy from a few nights ago, from the last time I stayed on it
I felt like something huge was sitting on my chest, till I couldn’t breathe right,
I walked slowly toward the dresses, every step feeling heavier than the last. My fingers found the pendant at my neck. The one with the moon engulfed in flame, the red gem Alexander had added.
It felt warm, like it remembered something I didn’t. Something lost.
Funclasped it and placed it on the dresser. Then the daggers he gave me after the bath. I set them down beside the pendant.
Like offerings.
I didn’t know if he’d even care. Maybe that was the point..
My chest clenched.
Iturned quickly. Too quickly and the room spun. I rushed to the bathroom. My knees nearly buckled as I reached the toilet and fell
I barely made it in time.
My stomach emptied itself in violent waves. The sound and the smell made me throw up more. My body trembled as managed to grip the seats.
Sweat trickled down my skin as the last wave hit me.
And when I was done, I just stayed there
Breathing
Like I could make sense of what just happened.
I killed someone.
A Queen
Alexander’s Luna–to–be.
Even if he said it to hurt me, I knew it. I saw the truth in Levi’s face, the guilt in his silence. From the way Alexander had looked at me. From the way the servants had stared.
And she fell.
Because of me.
I touched my side gently where the Riogara bu had scarred. It throbbed with heat. Not from pain, but memory. Her scream while she fell The snap of the balcony railing
My vision blurred with tears I didn’t remember letting all reached for the sink and forced myself up. The water was too cold. I didn’t care. I splashed it over my face until I went numb. When I looked at the mirror, illinched.
1/4
06-24 Mon, 1 Sept T TH
Chapter 69
I didn’t recognite the girl staring back.
Her cheeks were hollow. Her eyes were wide and haunted.
What was becoming
I dried my face and let the bathroom. My old dress clung to me like skin, tight and suffocating I yanked it off and grabbed something bigger, plain and formless. It swallowed my whole body and let it
Ilbaked toward the bed, but couldn’t bring myself to go near it. Not alter everything-
The last time I slept on that bed, it was because he wanted me there. But now? Now I couldn’t read him at all. His face was made of stone. His words had
no warmth.
I didn’t know where Alexander wanted me to stay. But i had an idea. A cruel one
Ipadded slowly across the main chamber to the wall that led to the inner room where the cage sat open
My fingers trembled as I pushed it open. The door creaked sightly.
The scent was fant now, dulled by time. But I remembered it all. The cold floor. The silence. The fear, I curled myself in the farthest comer, pulling my
knees to my chest
The whispers started again that night. Not voices, not exactly. Just memories in the wrong tone.
Gaia’s scream when she fell
The shapeshifter’s laughter as her face peeled.
The look on Alexander’s face when he said, “Yes. In cold blood too.”
I shut my eyes and tried not to hear it.
Tried not to dream.
But sleep still came. And with it, the nightmares. Again.
Because the next thing I know, I was running.
The ground cracked under me. The trees reached for me. The sky above was bleeding light.
“You killed me.
Gala’s voice.
“You took what was mine.”
I turned, and her face was there. Broken, Twisted. Her mouth full of vines, her eyes weeping mud.
She lunged.
I screamed and fell
And woke up gasping
Sweat clung to my skin. My heart slammed against my ribs. I looked toward the window. It was still dark. Still night.
Still real
06:24 Mon, 1 Sept TH
Chapter 69
But that wasn’t the end. The air around me didn’t feel normal, everywhere was bright,
Bright red and still surrounded by trees.
Then, Esmeralda suddenly appeared. With the Core Fang in hand, stabbing me continuously till a tree emerged from the ground swallowed us up
But right before the tree rose, I saw something. Or someone, watching.
Aman, Half–lit, standing beneath the trees, Calm, Still.
Eyes like foxfire.
I blinked and he was gone.
……THE
ENEXT MORNING”
blinked.
The scent of roasted meat hit me before my vision even cleared.
I was sitting at the dining table.
Alexander sat across from me, cutting into his food like everything was fine. Like the earth hadn’t just cracked in half and swallowed my peace.
My fingers twitched.
How did I get here? I remembered the cage. I remembered the cold. Then nothing.
Na.
I remember Juliet lifting me up and washing me. Tremember Alexander standing in a corner and staring with folded arms without doing anything
Just like the way he’s not saying anything, but his eyes flicked up to me.
“Eat,” he ordered.
My throat clenched,
I gently showed the plate away.
“Aquamarine,” he warned.
“I’m not hungry,” I whispered.
The scent brought something back. Those nights he forced tow meat into my mouth when I was too weak to resist
The scent alone was enough, I could taste blood again. My jaw remembered the chew of something raw and wet. My stomach lurched.
“I said eat,” he grunted. “You’re still very weak and your stunt with the Riogara did more damage than you think.”
My stomach turned.
“-I can’t eat meat,” stammered lowly.
“I don’t care,” he spat. “And I won’t mind shoving it down your throat again to make you pay for all you’ve done.”
That hurt in more ways than one.
My hand shook slightly. I wasn’t in the dage. But I didn’t remember leaving. Did he carry me? Or did crawl out and forgett
06:24 Mon, 1 Sept TTO
Chapter 69
“How strange,” a smooth unfamiliar voice echoed from the corridor. “Treating your Luna like a wild ding”
Alexander was on his feet before the last word finished.
Traised my head up
A man stepped into the room, tall and elegant. His skin was like white dove, with short coily black hair and eyes like a for
His aura radiated calm, but not peace,
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
Alexander’s hands curled into fists at his sides. He muttered something I didn’t quite catch. But it sounded like something he’d once buried.
“I hope I’m not interrupting breakfast,” he said, gaze landing on me,
My breath caught as I was lost in his brown set of eyes.
He smiled again.
“I am Terran,” he said smoothly. “Heir to Naturallia… and stepbrother to the woman you murdered.”
Ө
