Chapter 32
Anastasia Lang’s POV
I paced from one side of the room to the other.
As though I'd never been here before.
As though this place had never made me feel like a wild animal trapped inside a cage.
I was furious with Tarven.
He refused to let me sleep in his room without offering a single explanation.
And I had no intention of telling him the truth about his sisters.
Stepping toward the open window, I gripped the windowsill until my fingers ached.
Unease twisted inside me.
And I couldn't tell whether it came from my gift of foresight...
Or from my own thoughts spiraling out of control.
Statistics showed that nearly sixty percent of seers lost their minds before they ever learned to control their gift.
Before they learned how to live with it.
More than half.
And even those who survived were never truly safe.
The Novers.
They would step over corpses if it meant claiming a seer for themselves.
The stronger the seer...
The better.
They never asked.
They simply took.
They never pitied anyone.
To them...
We were weapons.
Never people.
Ordinary lives had never been meant for us.
My stomach tightened painfully.
I hated them.
I'd known seers who had simply disappeared after crossing paths with the Novers.
And I would give almost anything to make them answer for every life they'd stolen.
A dull knock at the door tore me away from my thoughts.
Then came Rosalie's unbearably sweet voice.
“Stasia, it's me.
Come on, open up.
I have so much to tell you.”
She giggled.
Bright.
Loud.
Childlike.
Everyone believed that performance.
Everyone...
Except me.
I knew Rosalie Makris far too well.
I knew every needle she knew how to drive beneath my skin.
I let out a slow breath.
She'd done this on purpose.
She'd announced herself loudly enough for the entire house to hear.
Leaving me with only one choice.
To let her in.
Because if I refused...
Tarven would hear about it.
And somehow...
I'd still be the one blamed.
I walked toward the door slowly, carefully considering my next move.
My next words.
I needed to keep my distance.
The moment I unlocked the door, I barely had time to touch the handle before Rosalie shoved it open herself.
She grabbed my arm roughly and forced me backward into the room.
I was tall.
She was taller.
Makris blood.
Her brown eyes locked onto mine immediately, stripping away every trace of pretense between us.
Then her gaze dropped to the bracelet around my wrist.
Cold spread through my chest.
But I held myself together.
I couldn't afford to let her see weakness.
“So...” A sly smile, almost rodent-like, curled across Rosalie's thin lips.
“That means you're at your most vulnerable now?”
Rosalie was breathtakingly beautiful.
But the cruelty inside her erased everything beautiful on the outside.
At least for me.
“I may not have my magic right now,” I replied evenly, “but that doesn't mean I can't deal with you without it.”
Rosalie's brows rose at once.
She pressed a hand dramatically against her chest.
Feigning shock.
“Was that a threat?”
I said nothing.
I had no interest in playing her game.
“Say whatever you came here to say,” I replied instead.
“Then leave.
I'm tired.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
Rosalie ignored me completely.
Instead, she wandered farther into the room, studying it as though she'd never been inside before.
I endured it.
Waited.
Held myself together.
I knew perfectly well I was only a guest here.
And the last thing I needed...
Was a fight.
Especially with one of Tarven's beloved sisters.
“I want you to refuse Tarven’s help. I don't want to see you as his protégé.”
Only then did Rosalie turn to face me.
“And I don't care that becoming your mentor was Tarven's idea,” she continued coldly.
“Honestly, I think you manipulated him.
Played the helpless little victim.
The poor girl bullied by her own twin sister.”
She exaggerated the last words, puffing out her lips in a childish imitation.
Time slowed.
My heartbeat seemed to slow with it.
Painfully.
God...
It hurt.
Her words.
Her mockery.
But what hurt even more was realizing that Tarven had told his family.
Everything.
Even the things I'd desperately wanted to keep hidden.
Betrayal arrived quietly.
Then settled somewhere inside me...
As though it had every intention of staying.
My throat tightened painfully.
I clenched my fists harder, trying to keep myself together.
Trying to keep the tears from escaping.
“I wouldn't even be surprised if he only talks to you out of pity,” Rosalie continued.
“Although...” She pressed a finger thoughtfully against her lower lip, pretending to consider it.
“Tarven has always had a habit of collecting weak, pathetic, unwanted things.”
That one landed directly beneath my ribs.
Straight into the place I'd spent my entire life trying to hide.
The wound buried beneath confidence.
Beneath strength.
Hoping other people would believe in both...
Because I never truly had.
“Of course.” I nodded slowly.
Forcing a smile onto my face took far more effort than it should have.
“Your brother is a wonderful person.
It's a shame none of that kindness rubbed off on you.”
I kept my voice level.
Careful.
I had no desire to provoke her.
I only wanted this conversation to end.
“You've said what you came here to say.
Now I'd appreciate it if you'd leave so I can finally get some rest.”
Rosalie's expression hardened instantly.
Her eyes blazed.
Her brows drew together.
Her lips pressed into a thin line.
Her hands curled into fists.
She had always been too explosive.
Too consumed by anger to control herself once it took hold.
And in the end...
It never really mattered what you said to her.
“You're in my house.”
Every trace of sweetness vanished from Rosalie's voice.
Now it was cold.
Hard.
“And you have absolutely no right to tell me what to do.
If I wanted to...
You'd be spending tonight in the kennel with our dogs.”
“I wonder what your parents would think about that.”
Something inside me shifted.
And suddenly...
I was ready to do the one thing I'd spent years avoiding.
“Maybe we should ask them.”
I smiled.
Then turned toward the door.
A sharp crack.
Quiet.
Sudden.
I froze.
Pain exploded through my body without warning.
Then—
Nothing.
My body no longer felt like it belonged to me.
One second.
I couldn't feel my legs.
Only pain.
Spreading.
Pulsing in time with my heartbeat.
Fear crashed into me.
Nausea followed immediately after.
My knees gave way beneath me.
And before I even realized I was falling...
The floor rushed up to meet me.
Illariana Arden’s POV
Back in our room, I rubbed cream between my palms, breathing in the scent of honey and milk.
My gaze drifted toward the bed.
Airis lay there with a book in his hands.
We still hadn't spoken about what had happened in that room.
About the kiss that had stolen my breath...
And silenced every rational thought in my head.
My eyes returned to the bed.
Heat spread through me almost instantly.
And realizing we'd be sharing it again tonight only made it worse.
I didn't understand what was happening to me.
My body had become a battlefield—
Embarrassment.
Desire.
Fear.
“So, Fireling,” Airis finally looked up from his book, “have you decided to switch sides of the bed and are now trying to figure out how to tell me?”
Damn him.
He looked like the beginning of my downfall.
Clasping my hands together tightly, I asked,
“Did it ever occur to you to book a room with two separate beds?”
One of his brows lifted immediately.
“And what exactly would be the point of that?”
“It would've been more comfortable.”
“To sleep separately.”
“Interesting,” he said calmly.
“Because I don't remember you ever complaining about sleeping beside me before.”
I let out an exaggerated sigh.
Rolling my eyes for emphasis.
“Oh, come on.
You know exactly what I mean.”
“I don't.”
His expression remained almost perfectly serious.
“Explain it to me.”
But I could already see the corners of the bastard's mouth fighting a smile.
“Why can't we ever have one normal conversation?” I felt irritation slowly rising inside me.
“Why does every conversation with you have to turn into a game?”
“What exactly is happening to you?” He set the book aside and crossed his arms over his chest.
Still openly amused.
“Or...” A slow smile spread across his face.
“Are you hoping for a repeat?”
There was absolutely no doubt what he meant.
The kiss.
And the moment the thought crossed my mind, I hated how quickly my cheeks betrayed me.
Warmth flooded my face.
“You think very highly of yourself.”
I bit the inside of my lip before quickly turning away.
Then escaped into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.
I probably looked completely ridiculous.
But neither the kiss I hadn't wanted to end...
Nor Ruel's words reflected in that mirror...
Would leave me alone.
Turning on the faucet, I began scrubbing the cream from my hands.
Without even knowing why.
Yet the same sentence kept echoing through my mind:
“We are disastrously different,
yet bound by the same truth.
I do not resent fear—
only myself,
for choosing silence
when I should have chosen you.”
How deeply words can wound.
Slipping beneath the skin without hesitation.
Without warning.
And why the hell had that damned installation been so right?
Even the biggest idiot would understand by now that I cared about Airis.
That something inside me was drawn to him.
Desperately.
Dangerously.
And every time those feelings became too real...
I ran.
Why the hell did I keep giving fear so much power over me?
And why was I still allowing Kai—
Someone who had already left my life—
To continue living inside it?
This was because of him.
Because I knew exactly how devastating love could become once it shattered.
And I was so terrified of feeling that pain again...
That I'd chosen to avoid love altogether.
Even while my heart longed for it.
Even while it feared it.
My gaze shifted from the running water to my own reflection.
And damn.
I saw her.
Frightened.
Vulnerable.
So painfully vulnerable that my chest ached.
She listened to reason...
Even though she'd always been ruled by her heart.
She had always burned brightly.