Chapter 116
Chapter 116
Chapter 116: Fire
Rhea
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My hand goes around my neck, and then I try to breathe again, but I didn’t think I can anymore. My eyes wander around the room, I’m not sure what I’m looking for, I’m not sure what I want, and I’m not even sure if I am here right now.
The walls of the room feel too close to me–it is the first time I have felt so suffocated in this very room.
Without wasting another moment, I shove my feet into my boots, grab a jacket from the closet, and pull it over my shoulders. I don’t even think. Not for a moment longer.
I run.
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The minute I’m outside of Aron’s room, it’s cold, and the cold is enveloping around me. There are too many people in this house, so I know I have to take the other way out of here–not the main front door, not where Marcella or Aron can find me.
My breaths come in ragged gasps as I make the run out of here. I take the exit from the servants‘ hallway, my feet barely touching the ground as they push forward, my body running on instinct, on pure survival.
As soon as I’m outside the manor, the cold bites into my skin without warning, and I quiver, though maybe it’s just the fear of what I had seen consuming me right now.
My lungs burn. My legs ache. But I keep running. I’ll make it past the courtyard and head towards the gates. Aron’s guards are going to be there, and I need to come up with something good to leave from here because the moment they see me. they will notify him of my departure.
But again, the guests have not yet left. They are still within the manor, inside that ballroom.
And for a second, I think I could be one of them right now. Drinking. Laughing. Playing the role of his Luna. Completely blind to the fact that I’m not real and there isn’t a woman like me upstairs.
I can make it out of here.
I won’t stay here.
Not after what I’ve seen. Not after what I know.
Suddenly, I hear a shrill scream. My entire body jerks to a stop, and I turn around to look at the house. This scream does not escape my throat, it’s not me. It’s from someone inside the house.
Out of nowhere, I begin to see flames. They wrap out of nowhere, and they start spreading through the walls of the house, climbing higher and higher until the windows shatter.
For a second, I can’t move.
1 can only watch.
Smoke starts spreading, the screams get louder, and the fire spreads wider.
I take a step back while staring at the scene in front of me in horror. My chest rises and drops as I try to breathe. What is happening?
The guards at the gates start making a run toward the house, toward where the fire is. The guests who were here tonight are running out of the manor, their eyes wide, and panic clear on their faces.
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Chapter 116
The music has stopped. The celebration has ended. And now, the night is filled with chant.
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I narrow my gaze and look behind at the gates that are now unguarded. This is my only chance to leave. I can slip away, and nobody will notice–not in the midst of all the chaos.
I turn around and walk toward the gates quietly and calmly. My steps are slow and careful as I try not to be seen
I make it to the gates without anyone noticing, and then I’ll leave from there, leaving everything behind leaving Aron, leaving whatever I had seen tonight, and leaving it all.
I don’t know where I’m heading, but it’s going to be somewhere far away from this place.
The phone I’ve taken from my pocket begins to ring. It’s not my phone, it’s Marcella’s phone that I have stolen in case I need it.
I look at the caller ID, and it is Kovas. He’s calling her, not me.
There’s a moment of hesitation–I’m not sure if I should pick it up or not.
I do anyway.
“Marcella!” I hear Kovas’s voice on the other end, and it’s filled with worry.
“It’s not Marcella,” I say, then I take a deep breath. “I went inside that room, and I saw what was in there–what is in there.” My voice quivers, as does the rest of my body.
“Rhea,” he pauses. “Where are you?”
“I’m leaving, Kovas. I’m leaving him. I’m leaving all of this.”
“Wait-
“No.” Tears form at the corners of my eyes as I shake my head over and over again. I don’t want to cry, but I can’t help myself. “I saw what was in there. Who is that woman? What–tell me what it is. Tell me what Aron did.*
I want to know, I really want to know because my assumptions are far too terrifying.
Kovas doesn’t reply to me instantly. I hear him breathe against the phone, and then I hear him sigh.
He knows something, he knows the truth, but I don’t think he’s going to tell me.
“Rhea,” he says, his voice low. “It’s not that simple.”
“Then make it simple.” I sob against the phone.
I hear him take a deep breath before he speaks. “I’ll tell you everything. Everything, I swear. Where are you right now?”
“No.” I shake my head. “Tell me now.”
“It’s not safe. Where are you?”
I keep walking further, away from the manor, away from whatever is in there and whatever is happening. I haven’t looked back, not even once.
“I left.”
“Rhea, it’s too dangerous to be outside right now. The Greshire wolves are attacking us, they managed to make it through the border patrols, and they’re heading toward the manor–or I’m not sure if they are already there. Listen to me—”
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Chapter 116
“There’s a fire” I cut him off
“What?”
“There’s a fire at the house. I saw it before 1 left”
“Where are you?”
The manor is behind me. It’s long gone
“I don’t, I admit. “Somewhere past the courtyard, past the gates. I just kept moving”
“Rhea-
“I’m not coming back.” I cut him off before he could start.
Because he can try to talk me into turning around before he can tell me I need to go back in Aron
“It’s not safe,” he says, his voice slow and urgent. “Listen to me, the Greshire wolves are already moving in. If they have already reached the manor, then they’re nearby, and if you’re outside alone”
“I’d rather be anywhere else than in that house.” My throat tightens. “I’d take my chances with them than with him?
Silence.
He exhales sharply, almost as if he can understand me.
“You don’t understand,” he mutters.
“Then help me,” my voice trembles a little as I say that. “Help me understand.”
“He did it a long time ago. He had to.”
“What did he do?”
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“He used a witch’s help to bind you to him,” he finally tells me the truth. “That–woman you’ve seen is a part of you. It isn’t really dead, but it’s–it’s–dormant. Asleep.”
“I don’t get it, Kovas.” I want to cry, to scream, but I can’t because the truth is beginning to sink in and it’s twisting inside my stomach.
“Aron was weak when he became the alpha. He was weak and he was young. The other packs wanted to kill him. He needed power, Rhea. He needed something that would make them fear him. Something that would terrify them.”
I squeeze my eyes shut as I hear him.
“So he used dark magic?”
“Yes,” I let out a breath. “The ritual needed a soul. A powerful one. The witch spoke of a child then, with a strength no one else knew of. She bound your soul to his in a way that made you mates and gave strength to Aron. Your soul was too strong to just be absorbed or used. The magic split you–a part of you lives in that woman, but she’s not alive, not conscious. The other part made you a runt. The weak, small wolf you were in your pack. When Aron saw you and recognized you, he brought you here. The witch told him that in a hundred years, the two of you would never cross paths, but you did.”
A shiver runs through my skin.
“Are we–mates, me and him?”
“No,” he tells me straightforwardly. “Not true mates. You asked me if you could have two mates—you can’t. So, whoever it is
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Chapter 116
that you think is your mate–is your mate. Aron isn’t, he never was.” His voice drops. “I’m sorry.”
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My lips tremble, and so does my heart at hearing his words. The bond I had felt for him was nothing but a mere illusion, something fabricated with the help of a witch. There is no such thing between us. No matter what I had thought of us, of him, it was not real, and it was never meant to be.
But how could he have done such a thing?
田
