Share

CHAPTER 52

Author: ANNA COLLINS
last update Last Updated: 2025-07-07 20:38:08

The passage through the Gate beneath the silver tree was unlike any I had walked before.

There were no walls. No ceiling. No elemental pressure or burning heat. Just endless light and shadow curling around each other, like two old lovers locked in an eternal dance.

I didn’t feel my footsteps.

I didn’t hear my breath.

But I felt the pull.

Not forward, not down but inward.

This gate didn’t transport my body. It carried my self.

And at the end of the path, I found her.

The Girl I Once Was

She was small. Pale. Her hair tangled and matted, her dress torn and soaked with blood that had dried so long ago it was nearly black. She sat in a room of memory not a throne room, not a battlefield.

A cell.

She didn’t look up when I entered.

But she knew me.

"You left me here," she said.

I knelt beside her.

"I had to."

She turned her face, and I saw myself at thirteen.

The day my mother was taken. The day I learned I was a bastard. The day I stopped crying and started surviving.

"You stopped listening
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Rejected by the lycan king   CHAPTER 55

    The Gate of Echoes had left something behind in me. A resonance. A pull. As we traveled north through the silent ridges of the Vale, I could still feel her Vareya. Not as a ghost, not as a memory, but as a presence. A reminder.I had mourned her.I had forgiven her.But now I had to face the version of myself that let her go.And that version was not finished with me.The Sky ChangesOn the fifth day of travel, the skies shifted.Clouds that had followed us like silent witnesses broke apart into violet rays, and the horizon shimmered with silver light. Seris, always attuned to the gates, gasped aloud."The Sky Gate is waking."Dahlia paled. "The one at the top of the world. The Gate of Ascension."Rafael looked to me."Another test?"I nodded. "But not just for me. This one... it feels bigger. Like it wants us all."The Long AscentWe began the climb three days later.The path to the Sky Gate was not a trail, but a series of sheer cliffs, icy ridgelines, and bridges of wind-carved bon

  • Rejected by the lycan king   CHAPTER 54

    The valley of Echoes welcomed us with silence.Not the peaceful kind.Not the solemn kind.This silence felt like something had been scraped away from the world, like sound itself had been buried beneath layers of ash and regret.The ground beneath our feet shimmered with ghostlight. Every step left no mark. The spire at the center stood tall, but not proud more like a monument to grief. Its surface wasn’t stone, but mirrored obsidian, and every time I glanced at it, I saw not myself but those I had lost.My mother.Vareya.My unborn child.All the echoes I’d tried to silence.The Threshold of the GateRafael and I approached side by side. The others hung back Dahlia drawing symbols into the dirt, Seris murmuring what she called protective verses.We paused at the base of the spire."Do you hear it?" I asked him.Rafael closed his eyes. "No sound. But it feels like a heartbeat in the ground. A slow, sad one."I touched the surface.It was cold.Then warm.Then it pulsed.The Gate open

  • Rejected by the lycan king   CHAPTER 53

    She walked out of that tree like she had been born from it.Ophelia didn’t say much that first day. But something in her was... different. Calmer. Not dulled, not weakened more like tempered steel. Her eyes didn’t flicker with the constant storm anymore. They held it, controlled it, as if she’d found a center we could only guess at.Whatever she had seen inside that Gate had changed her. I didn’t ask what. Not yet.Some truths needed to be chosen before they could be spoken.The Path AheadBy the time we moved out, the Hollow scouts had returned with troubling news."The Sand Gate has shifted," said Commander Deyna. "It’s no longer under the cliff where Valden stood. It’s moving.""Gates don’t move," Dahlia said sharply."They do now," Seris murmured, her hand trembling as she touched the new sigils etched into her palm. "Something has changed in the balance. The gates aren’t waiting anymore. They’re reaching."That chilled me.Gates were meant to be challenges, trials contained.If t

  • Rejected by the lycan king   CHAPTER 52

    The passage through the Gate beneath the silver tree was unlike any I had walked before.There were no walls. No ceiling. No elemental pressure or burning heat. Just endless light and shadow curling around each other, like two old lovers locked in an eternal dance.I didn’t feel my footsteps.I didn’t hear my breath.But I felt the pull.Not forward, not down but inward.This gate didn’t transport my body. It carried my self.And at the end of the path, I found her.The Girl I Once WasShe was small. Pale. Her hair tangled and matted, her dress torn and soaked with blood that had dried so long ago it was nearly black. She sat in a room of memory not a throne room, not a battlefield.A cell.She didn’t look up when I entered.But she knew me."You left me here," she said.I knelt beside her."I had to."She turned her face, and I saw myself at thirteen.The day my mother was taken. The day I learned I was a bastard. The day I stopped crying and started surviving."You stopped listening

  • Rejected by the lycan king   CHAPTER 51

    The fire didn’t burn us.Not in the way we expected.It peeled. It seared. But not flesh identity.As we passed through the threshold of Valden’s Gate, the air turned thick and golden, like walking through breath made of heat. The ground pulsed beneath each step, sand turning to glass, then back to ash. The walls were molten stone, veined with veins of obsidian that flickered with runes too old to name.Every heartbeat echoed. Every thought felt loud.Rafael kept pace beside me, sweat glistening on his brow. Dahlia walked with one hand on the stone wall, whispering translations under her breath. Seris’s eyes glowed faintly with a red hue, her breath shallow but controlled.This place wasn’t just hot. It was alive.The Chamber of TrialAfter what felt like hours, the tunnel opened into a wide chamber.A circle of flame burned in the center.No fuel. No scent.Just heat. Color. Will.Seven stone seats formed a ring around the flame, but only one was lit by its glow.As we entered, a voi

  • Rejected by the lycan king   CHAPTER 50

    The fire didn’t burn us.Not in the way we expected.It peeled. It seared. But not flesh identity.As we passed through the threshold of Valden’s Gate, the air turned thick and golden, like walking through breath made of heat. The ground pulsed beneath each step, sand turning to glass, then back to ash. The walls were molten stone, veined with veins of obsidian that flickered with runes too old to name.Every heartbeat echoed. Every thought felt loud.Rafael kept pace beside me, sweat glistening on his brow. Dahlia walked with one hand on the stone wall, whispering translations under her breath. Seris’s eyes glowed faintly with a red hue, her breath shallow but controlled.This place wasn’t just hot. It was alive.The Chamber of TrialAfter what felt like hours, the tunnel opened into a wide chamber.A circle of flame burned in the center.No fuel. No scent.Just heat. Color. Will.Seven stone seats formed a ring around the flame, but only one was lit by its glow.As we entered, a voi

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status