Chapter Eighty–Nine
No, no, no, no...
No, this couldn‘t be happening.
I‘d been so guarded against everyone else that I hadn‘t seen the real issue sinking its teeth within me the entire time.
“Aria?” Aleric asked again, grabbing onto my shoulders to steady me.
But I recoiled quickly away, taking a few shaky steps away.
“No, don‘t… don‘t touch me. I‘m... I‘m not...,” I said disjointedly, unable to even finish my sentence in my current state.
“Are you okay?”
‘What if he‘s just trying to gain your trust,‘I heard her say inside.
‘What if he‘s lying to you.‘
‘What if he‘s going to betray you again?‘
Over and over, her voice started to fill my head. All the things she‘d told me once before now beginning to overlap until it was the only thing I could hear. As if I were in the middle of a crowded room filled with people shouting.
‘You could pull the knife out. No one would even know it was you. They‘d say it was the rogues.‘
“You did the right thing. Either way, this is the best thing for us.‘
‘We made a vow. Myra‘s death was a result of making that same mistake once more.‘
‘Kill her. Kill her now. Strangle her until the light dies from her eyes.’
“Stop!” I shouted, covering my hands over my ears. “Stop, please! Get out of my head! Get out!”
‘He trapped us, degraded us, tried to force us into a union... and then had our parents kil–.‘
– They don‘t respect you enough. You should make them kneel. All of them. It would force them to acknowledge yo-‘
–Don‘t need them. Aleric was, and always will be, our undoing. He was our beginning and our end. Time does not change t
‘-Offer us nothing but lies, all stemming from a new personal vendetta. Look at how he continues to deny everything even though we heard the evide
‘–And is in league with her? What if Cai just wants you to think he isn‘t on her side so you‘ll open up and let him steer you in the wrong direc–?‘
“STOP! STOP! STOP!” I yelled as I fell to my knees, the onslaught of imagery and voices filling my head too overwhelming to cope with.
I couldn‘t hear anything else, couldn‘t see anything else. There was now only one thing.
There was just Thea.
Only Thea.
that piece is the only thing sustaining us? We were meant to be dead. We don‘t even belong
this timel–,
either way. You need to act now! Selene is
thing to do. You need to end this now. Kill
you.
Kill him
–FINISH IT
I began screaming.
than even the voices in my head, I screamed a piercing shriek into the
from the
Talk to me!” | vaguely heard Aleric yell
my mind. Showing
need help! She‘s convulsing. We
I wasn‘t sure exactly what happened next but I had never been so grateful for everything to
everything
I felt cold everywhere.
the smell of strong
was in the
finally opened my eyes slowly to see
incredibly sore and exhausted everywhere. But inside I felt worse than I did outside. As if
putting aside her mental assault on me, the new discovery also left so many unanswered questions in its wake. So many conflictions about
still here… and how much was the version that
didn‘t feel the weight of my actions as I probably should have; I didn‘t have that sense of guilt or sickness in the pit of my stomach to tell me I was wrong. To me, the
was Cai right? Was I devoid of
...Was that permanent?
long?” | asked, my throat still raw
the bed and handed me
answered. “Perhaps a day.”
It really was worse than I initially thought. Though, the silver handcuffs
with your mind a little? He mentioned you were screaming
a reminder of my own inadequacies. It was a sore spot, for sure, but I had to remember that it was for the best given my current
bit more straightforward like with the mate bond and Cai. Instead, it seems far more complicated. She presented herself as being a part of me, slowly lulling m e into a false sense of trust. It‘s been three years that she‘s been whispering to me, manipulating me to see things the way she wanted me to. She would always come to me at my
still
being who has so much power at her disposa.. why did she not just kill you when you were younger, if that is her goal? Seems strange
long, very in–depth explanation for why, one that revolves around the origin of our kind. Simply put though... Thea wants revenge on Selene and is trying to regain the abilities stolen from her. Those abilities being the same ones you once spoke to me about; the ones possessed by the original lineages. In order to
over my words as he digested what I‘d told him. If only he was able to see what Selene
did she explain to you how the curse can be broken?” he
do you
of having you all to turn on each other has failed, perhaps she will find another method to
was fairly sure she hadn‘t ever accomplished such a thing, having relied on Aleric
the other two lineages gone, how did she plan on retrieving Aleric‘s last ability without
I tensed up immediately over the
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