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One final chance

Author: Author Calypso
last update Last Updated: 2025-03-24 21:21:35

ALTHEA

I shift slightly on the branch, trying to get a better look at where the bear went. The forest below is dark, shadows stretching between the trees, making it impossible to see anything clearly. But I can still hear the screams in the distance. Someone else is in trouble.

I lean forward just a little—

The branch beneath me cracks.

My stomach drops. Before I can react, the bark snaps, and suddenly I’m falling.

The world tilts. Air rushes past me. My arms flail, trying to grab something, anything, but my fingers only scrape against rough bark.

Then I hit the ground.

A sharp pain explodes up my leg. I gasp, curling forward as agony flares through my ankle. My vision blurs for a second. It feels like my bones are on fire.

“Althea!” Asher’s voice is sharp, alarmed.

I hear him moving, branches rustling above me. A few seconds later, he drops down beside me, landing with a rough thud. His face is pale, his injured arm hanging stiffly at his side.

“You good?” he asks
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  • The Mate Games   I have to find out what Gray knows

    ASHERTraining and sparring have kept me sane over the past couple of days.Though, honestly, only an insane person would probably say that.I’ve been in the training yard since dawn. My fists are raw from hitting the bag. My shirt’s soaked through. Sweat drips into my eyes, but I don’t stop. I don’t slow down. If I keep moving, I don’t have to think.Because thinking is dangerous.It’s been almost a week since I kissed Gray.Almost a week since I’ve been able to get the way she tastes out of my mouth. The way she looked at me. The way she’d melted against me, as I held her. The way her hands curled into my shirt like she didn’t want to let go.Almost a week of trying to stay the hell away from her.She’s trouble. Chaos wrapped in softness and stubbornness. The kind that makes you forget you’re supposed to keep your distance.I keep telling myself it was a mistake.I tell myself that again and again.And still, I find myself walking toward the library, or the gardens, or wherever I th

  • The Mate Games   Help me

    ALTHEAThe days after the trial pass slowly.The kind of slow that crawls under your skin.There are no new tasks. No screaming monsters. No cursed dreams trying to drag us under.But there’s also no Noor.Her room stays empty. Her laugh doesn’t echo down the hall. And every time I turn my head too fast, I expect to see her coming around the corner, smirking like she’s about to tell me off.But she never does.Some days, the silence is louder than anything.We stay close to each other now. Not out of fear, exactly, just out of something deeper. Something like grief.We sit together at meals. We walk together. Even sleep closer.Because what if next time, one of us doesn’t come back?What if next time, we’re the ones left behind?***It’s on one of those slow days—when I’m sitting by the fountain with a book I’m not really reading—that I hear someone clear their throat behind me.I glance up.Charlie.She’s dressed more casually today, boots, soft black pants, and a dark blue sweater t

  • The Mate Games   Varya’s diary entry three

    Many decades ago…I don’t even know how to begin this.Nothing feels real.Not the way the carriage smelled like rose oil and velvet.Not the way the guards flanked us like we were something precious.Not even the way the palace looked when we first arrived, like something carved out of a dream.It’s bigger than I imagined. Bigger than any storybook or whispered rumor ever prepared me for. The gates alone were taller than the clocktower in the city square, with curling golden designs etched into black iron. Inside, the palace grounds stretch endlessly, stone paths twisting through fountains and flower gardens, white swans floating in glittering pools, walls climbing high into the sky like they’re trying to touch the moon.The main hall we entered through had crystal chandeliers, taller than three grown men stacked together, and the floor was polished so clean I could see my reflection, dirt-smudged and stunned. The walls are painted in soft ivory with silver trim, and every few feet t

  • The Mate Games   Even dreams leave scars

    I don’t know how long I’ve been here.Time doesn’t move right in this place. Sometimes it feels like hours. Sometimes it feels like years.The same loop plays again and again.The blood. The throne. Asher dying in my arms.And the worst part?There’s a moment, just before it resets, when I forget it’s not real.I forget it’s a dream.I start to believe I really killed him. That I really deserve this.The weight of the crown. The knife in my hand. The silence in my chest.It’s like the dream is trying to dig into me. Twist me up from the inside until I don’t remember who I was before I got here.And maybe it’s working.Until this time.This time something’s different.Because when the knife drops from my fingers, I don’t fall. I don’t cry.I breathe.Just once.And I focus on it.The inhale. The exhale.That’s real. That’s mine.The blood isn’t.Asher’s pain isn’t.The voice whispering that I’m alone? That’s not mine either.I press my palms to the floor. It’s cold and slick with red,

  • The Mate Games   Dreamland

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  • The Mate Games   I want to fall

    ALTHEAMy knees almost give out.I reach for the wall, but I miss, and my hand falls limp at my side. My chest rises and falls too fast. I can’t breathe right. My heart pounds in my ears. I’m frozen.She’s here.She’s really here.Tears sting my eyes, blurring her face, but I don’t look away. I can’t.Sophie.I feel Asher step close behind me, his voice low and steady, like he knows I need it. “I told you I had something to show you.”But I can’t answer. My throat is too tight.I can only stare.And then she moves. Her lips tremble before she lets out this small, broken sound, like a sob and a laugh all at once, and runs straight into me.I catch her in my arms, and everything inside me breaks.All the fear. All the confusion. All the pain I’ve been holding in since the bear. Since I thought she was gone. Since I thought I lost her forever.She’s here.She’s real.I hold her tighter than I should. I bury my face in her hair and breathe her in like that’s enough to keep her with me.An

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