Chapter 2
902 Words
The forest shifted as dawn crept in—mist curling through the trees like ghostly fingers, birds calling warily above the silence. Seraphina walked beside Rheon, the coarse cloak barely shielding her from the chill. Her bare feet pressed into damp soil, but she didn’t feel the cold. Not really. She was still burning from the inside out.
He walked just a step behind her, as if always guarding her back. Not like Darian used to. No, Darian had stood beside her with a smile—and a knife.
Seraphina’s jaw clenched.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked without looking back.
“There’s a boundary ward a mile ahead,” Rheon said. “Cross it, and you’ll be shielded from scrying—temporarily.”
“Who’s scrying?”
“Anyone who wants you dead. The Council. The priest-blood packs. Darian.”
She stopped walking. “Say his name again.”
Rheon tilted his head. “Darian.”
It hit her like a wave. The name. The betrayal. The memories she couldn’t piece together. A mating ceremony bathed in moonlight. His lips brushed her wrist. The vow they made. The promise he broke.
“You are mine, and mine alone.”
But he hadn’t wanted a mate. He’d wanted a weapon. A queen to hold beside him—not above him. And when she grew too powerful… when the prophecy named her, not him… he chose fear over love.
He chose murder.
She blinked hard. “Do they all think I’m dead?”
“They buried you,” Rheon replied. “Built a pyre in your honor. Called it a tragedy.”
“Did they find my body?”
“No.”
“Then why did they stop searching?”
Rheon looked at her with something sharp in his gaze. “Because Darian made sure they wouldn’t.”
She turned away, nausea twisting her stomach. “He told them I ran, didn’t he? Betrayed the pack. Gave them reason to forget me.”
“Yes,” Rheon said. “And those who knew better were silenced.”
Seraphina closed her eyes. She felt like she was holding a thousand shards of a broken mirror, and each reflection showed a different version of herself. Queen. Traitor. Mother. Monster.
Mother.
“Tell me about the children,” she said, voice barely a whisper.
Rheon hesitated.
“I need to know.”
“They were born in secret. Twins. Boy and girl. Hidden away before you were taken. Only a handful of us knew of their existence.”
“Are they safe?”
“For now. But when you died, their protectors scattered. Their scent was masked with old blood magic, but that won’t hold forever.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
The words shattered something inside her. She turned on him, eyes blazing.
“You don’t know?”
“I wasn’t allowed to. It was your order,” he said calmly. “In case I fell with you.”
Her fury simmered into something heavier. Sadder. Her past self had prepared for this—for death, for rebirth, for loss. She’d sacrificed everything to keep them safe.
“They’re alone,” she whispered.
“They're waiting,” he corrected. “Just like you.”
A c***k of thunder rolled in the distance. Rheon stiffened.
“What was that?”
“They’ve found the ash site.”
She looked over her shoulder. “How long do we have?”
“An hour. Less, if Darian’s tracking personally.”
Seraphina’s heart twisted at the mention of him. It wasn’t the name—it was the bond. Faint, buried deep beneath layers of fury and time, but still there. Faint echoes of something once powerful. Once sacred.
Rheon saw her flinch. “You still feel him.”
“Yes.”
“It will fade.”
“Will it?”
He didn’t answer.
They kept walking in silence until they reached a shimmering barrier—barely visible, like heat rising from stone. Rheon placed his hand against it, and it rippled open.
“Go,” he said. “I’ll cover the rear.”
She stepped through, the air on the other side colder, crisper, clearer. The energy of the world shifted. She felt stronger here. More whole.
Then she heard it—a low growl.
From the trees ahead stepped a man. Tall. Wild. Dark hair falling over sharp, golden eyes that locked on hers with unspoken recognition.
He growled again, but it wasn’t a threat. It was instinct. Bonded.
Her breath caught. Another mate.
He stepped closer, shirt half-unbuttoned, chest rising with quickened breath. “Seraphina?”
She blinked. “Do I… do I know you?”
He shook his head, like trying to clear a haze. “No. But I’ve dreamed of you.”
Rheon appeared behind her. “Caelum.”
The newcomer’s gaze flicked between them. “She’s real.”
Rheon nodded. “And you’re not imagining the pull.”
Caelum stepped closer, confusion and awe in his expression. “You’re her.”
Seraphina's heart pounded. The bond was forming—something new. Something different from Darian. It was hot, electric, but calm beneath the surface. Not a chain. A bridge.
She didn’t know if she could trust it. But she also knew: fate was already s
pinning again. Faster. Wilder. And she was at its center.
Again.
- Writer
