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Penulis: unusualdee
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-09-04 07:53:20
Lucan didn’t give me much time to think. His arm slid under me and, before I knew it, the air warped around us. We disappeared.

The next breath I took wasn’t in his chamber, but in a cold room that reeked of ash, blood, and herbs.

House Vitae.

The smell of sickness clung to the air.

My stomach twisted when my eyes fell on the hanging bed in the center. Marilynn lay there, pale as parchment, her legs blackened with rot, the wound creeping up to her thigh. Her chest rose only in shallow gasps. Pain clung to her like a shadow. Anyone could see she was desperate for release.

It shattered me to see her like this. I had never meant to break her so completely, even if she once sought to destroy me over something so senseless.

“We’ve never seen anything like this.”

The voice was deep, resonant—neither wholly male nor female. It vibrated through the room like a soft melody.

I turned, my breath hitching.

A tall ethereal woman stood in the archway. She was robed in shimmering w
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  • Ascend or Be Consumed   0150

    Sleep didn’t pull me under gently, it dragged me down, fast and heavy, like falling through deep water.When I opened my eyes, he was there.Eryx.I never thought I would dream of him again, but suddenly, there he was—his crimson eyes softened when they met mine.The dream settled around him naturally, as it always did: with a quiet, overwhelming presence. His aura was warmth mingled with pressure and the gentle scent of cold pine and stormlight. I wasn’t blind in the dream.I could see every sharp, astonishingly beautiful line of his face, clear and vivid, as if the darkness had never touched me at all. I moved toward him like we were two pieces of the same magnet, pulled together by something inevitable, something intense than will.Eryx smiled when he saw me coming. He had that wicked grin tugging his lips, the one that always made my breath catch. The world around us blurred, colors bleeding into one another until there was nothing left but him and the space between us, shrinkin

  • Ascend or Be Consumed   0149

    I froze. I had once begged him not to kill Lithi when he had put his hands on me. But after what he’d just seen… I doubted Lucan would take the easy way out, which was getting scorched to dust by my flames. Lithi jerked away from me as if he had been burned already, stumbling backward, but before I could even react… he was gone.“Wait—where did he—?” I spun in place, sensing nothing, hearing only the faint echo of my own boots.Lucan’s deep, controlled voice rumbled from behind me. “He won’t bother you again. Forever.”“What do you mean by forever? Where did you send him to?”“Don’t worry about him,” Lucan said, his tone laced with a plain, simmering rage. Rage that, despite everything, didn’t feel like it came solely from seeing Lithi touch me. “We all spoke to Veylor, but he refuses to unbind Eryx yet.”His voice grew clipped. Controlled.“Said it would only distract you more.”I swallowed hard as he continued, “And I tend to agree. You don’t need extra complications right now.”My

  • Ascend or Be Consumed   0148

    On the journey to the Void, Elara and I had barely been acquaintances. And yet somehow… somehow she’d lodged herself deeper than I realized. Deep enough that the loss hollowed something inside me.And the guilt—fuck, the guilt never stopped.If I’d gone to her, if I’d been stronger, if I hadn’t been lost in a man’s arms… maybe she wouldn’t have fallen. Maybe she wouldn’t have hanged herself.Mistress Lune exhaled shakily and stepped back.“Well,” she said quietly, collecting herself, “since you’ve already taken some kind of cure today, whatever that Apex Initiate gave you, we’ll need to postpone your actual treatment.”My stomach clenched. “Postpone? For how long?”I had been counting on her cure after everything. She was renowned throughout Blackcroft for her Cures, and I had pinned all my hope on her skill.“Until I know exactly what was in that broth he gave you,” she said firmly. “Mixing cures is dangerous. It could force the seal on your eyes to… close permanently. And if that ha

  • Ascend or Be Consumed   0147

    Earlier, I wondered if Marilynn was in the Hall, but now I felt certain she was. She might not be able to speak, but I knew she understood that I was blind.What would she think? Good for me? The thought almost dragged a hollow laugh out of me.Chairs scraped the ground and footsteps hurriedly left the Hall. It was our last class of the day. I could hear their tired groans and whispers about my blindness, but soon, everything fell silent. When the hall finally emptied, Mistress Lune stepped closer, her voice gentle as she took my hand. I didn't flinch because I was used to her caring touch.“Juno… you must speak with Lucan Talon. It has been nine nights. His seal on Marilynn's voice must be released.”My throat tightened. How was I supposed to speak to him when I planned to avoid the whole Apex Circle for now? “I will talk to him as soon as I can.” I swallowed. “And… Mistress Lune… please tell Marilynn I’m sorry. For everything.”A soft breath escaped her. Maybe surprise, maybe s

  • Ascend or Be Consumed   0146

    “My great-grandfather is from the Upper Realm, and he knows dark magic that no one else does. I can tell the curse is… layered,” Maxon said, his voice low but certain. “Not simple blindness. More like bound. A seal. A lock. And locks can be undone.”I swallowed hard. His words were just like what Dominic had translated from the stranger. Remembering the stranger’s warning that forcing the seal open could tear me apart long before it ever broke made it even harder to believe in Maxon’s fragrant broth.“Undoing something like this isn’t that easy.” “No,” he agreed quietly. “But your body is fighting it. That’s why it will hurt in a few hours. It won't be sharp at all times…but when it is, it might be unbearable. The broth will agitate the seal—force it to react. If it reacts, you can break it.”His confidence should’ve comforted me. But instead, something twisted inside me, fear, hope… disbelief. He was more powerful than I expected. He was damn worthy of being an Apex Initiate. “A

  • Ascend or Be Consumed   0145

    “How have you managed to stay alive in Blackcroft all this time, Maxon?”Silence stretched after my question. It seemed he was hesitating to respond. Then he answered, his hushed tone low, and unwavering.“By being useful to the right people… and dangerous to the wrong ones.” Another pause. “And by accepting that someday, I will survive it.”I swallowed hard. “What happens after surviving?”He exhaled slowly, the sound cold and final. “If we survive.” His words hung in the air, heavy and dreadful like a prophecy spoken too calmly to be anything but true. “How… how did you even get in?” I whispered. “You used to be the gentlest person I knew. But now… you’re so cold. So indifferent.” I knew I was putting my nose in his business but what else could I do here anyway?Maxon let out a breath that sounded older than he was.“Like you,” he said, “I killed my half-brother.” My fingers froze around the now-empty cup. “Years after you disappeared with your mother, he becam

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