Chapter 8- Strange Things Keep Happening
924 Words
Selena
“You’re mine.”
He said it so quietly I almost convinced myself I hadn’t heard it. But I knew I heard it.
Every inch of my body reacted to those two words. A part of me wished he hadn’t said it, that I had been hallucinating. But I also knew that deep down that wasn’t the case.
I swallowed hard.
“No,” I whispered, even though my voice cracked. “You don’t get to say that. You don’t get to decide who I belong to. Heavens, I don’t belong to anyone I’m not an object.”
Phil’s hand dropped from the wall, but he didn’t move away. His eyes stayed locked on mine like he could see straight through the layers I’d built just to survive.
“I didn’t decide it,” he said. “It’s not something I get chose. We have no control of who we belong to. And I know that’s unfair.”
I hated how steady his voice was. Like he wasn’t just saying what I wanted to hear and he meant every word. And I hated that I believed him.
I took a shaky step back. My spine pressed into the wall and I stayed there, trying to breathe through the weight of it all.
“You think just because you saved me, or because I saw your name in my grandmother’s journal… or because you saw me in a dream, that means we’re meant to be?”
“I don’t think so Selena,” he said. “I know that we’re meant to be. I can’t explain it to you right now but you’ll understand soon enough.”
My throat tightened.
He wasn’t smug. He wasn’t smiling. He looked wrecked. Wrecked and raw and barely holding himself together. And that terrified me even more than if he’d looked like the enemy.
I pressed my palms against the wall behind me like I could hold myself up through sheer force. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding.
“Phil,” I said slowly, hoping maybe his name would make this all less impossible. “Even if that’s true. Even if you believe this… thing is real, I don’t. I didn’t grow up in your world. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know the rules. I don’t even know what I am, I’m completely lost.”
“You’re everything,” he said.
I froze.
His voice was quiet. It hit me like a punch to the gut. No time to brace for it.
“I’ve searched for that damn cauldron for years,” he continued, stepping forward. “I’ve hunted through ruins. Fought people I used to call family. Lied, bled, and risked everything… and none of it came close to the way I felt the moment I saw you.”
My mouth opened but I couldn’t utter a word.
“It wasn’t just that night,” he said. “It’s every moment since. It’s the way the air changes when you walk into a room. It’s the way I haven’t slept since that night. It’s the way my body keeps drawing back to you.”
I felt like the floor had dropped out from under me again.
“I don’t want to be anyone’s anything,” I said, but it sounded weak. “I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
He reached for me.
I flinched, but not because I didn’t want him to reach out for me.
He saw it.
His fingers paused in the air between us, trembling just slightly. Then he let them fall back to his side.
“I would never force you,” he said. “You need to know that. This bond, whatever it is, only works if both of us want it. If you walk away right now, I won’t stop you.”
The silence between us burned.
I didn’t move.
I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. I wanted to pretend none of this was happening. But I couldn’t. Because something deeper than logic was already answering him.
It was in the way my breath hitched when he looked at me. It was in the ache in my chest when I thought of walking away.
And God help me, it was in the way I stepped forward without realizing it, until there was barely space between us.
“You scare the s**t out of me,” I said.
His eyes softened. “You scare me too.”
The air between us shimmered like something ancient had just woken up. My skin tingled, my heart raced, and I swore I could feel the echo of his pulse without touching him.
He raised his hand again, slower this time. This time I didn’t move.
His knuckles brushed my cheek. Barely there. But I leaned into it like I’d been waiting for that exact touch since the moment I was born.
“I’m not asking you to trust me,” he whispered. “I’m asking you to feel this. Just for a second. And tell me you don’t recognize it.”
I let my eyes close.
There was nothing in that room but heat and breath and something terrifyingly beautiful crawling under my skin.
I opened my eyes and looked up at him.
“I don’t understand it,” I said.
“You’re not supposed to yet,” he replied.
“But it’s real,” I breathed.
He nodded once.
And that’s when I knew I wasn’t going to leave his side.
Not tonight and maybe not ever.
- Writer
