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.
the only thing sustaining us? We were meant to be dead. We don‘t
this timel–,
to die either way. You need to
to do. You need to end this now. Kill
they kill you. No more liabilities. Just try it-‘
it. Kill him
–FINISH IT
began
the voices in my head, I screamed a piercing shriek into the air,
fire, burning me up from the inside as it
vaguely heard
she continued to swarm my mind. Showing
get in here! I need help! She‘s convulsing. We need to get her to
wasn‘t sure exactly what happened next but I had never been so grateful for everything to
finally, everything
I felt cold
welcomed me along with the smell of strong chemicals filling my
in the
opened my
rest, my body still incredibly sore and exhausted everywhere. But inside I felt worse than I did outside. As if
left so many unanswered questions in its wake. So many conflictions about
much of ‘me‘ was still here… and how much
in the pit of my stomach to tell me I was wrong. To me, the things I‘d done had felt
devoid of
...Was that permanent?
throat still raw enough to force a cough from me.
and handed me a glass
answered. “Perhaps
worse than I initially thought. Though, the silver handcuffs around my
has been meddling with your mind a little? He mentioned you were
sore spot, for sure, but I had to remember that it was for the best
that Thea was once the Goddess of Sight, I assumed her ability of perception manipulation was a little 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 most vulnerable
that to mean Aleric had told him about Thea‘s identity already; information I divulged back when he was still in the cells. What he probably wasn‘t expecting though was for me to name drop Selene. But if he was
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 to go about this in such
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 protect Thea from simply killing us to
deep in thought over my words as he digested what I‘d told him. If only he was able to see what Selene had shown me. He was
did she explain to you how the curse can be broken?”
What do you
completely invulnerable. I imagine that, since Thea‘s attempt of having you all to turn on each other
ever accomplished such a thing, having relied on Aleric to do her dirty work... but then that didn‘t explain how she dealt with him.
did she plan on retrieving Aleric‘s last
tensed up immediately
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