Semua Bab The Mate Games: Bab 141 - Bab 150

ASHERThe seconds slow.As our eyes lock across the dimly lit, crowded room, it feels like time has stopped just for us. It’s impossible, but somehow, it’s really her.Althea.I see it the moment panic flashes through her silver gaze. She spins on her heel, pushing her way through the mob before I can even take a full breath.I move.I shove bodies aside, ignoring the curses that follow. I spot the ripple of her hair disappearing deeper into the crowd and curse under my breath, sliding through gaps, elbowing past drunk fools too slow to move. Heads turn as I mutter another colorful oath.Then she’s gone. The crowd swallows her whole.My heart slams. I keep moving, forcing my way toward the far side of the room. I know where she’ll go. The cellar. It’s the only easy exit out of this filthy tavern that leads anywhere worth hiding.Steel screeches ahead. That old door. She’s slipping through.Murmurs rise behind me as I reach it, the wood only cracked wide enough for her slim body to van

ALTHEAI stand there for a few seconds after he’s gone, staring at the empty space where Asher was. My heart still beats too hard, almost like it’s trying to tear itself out of my chest. The cold air wraps around me, but it’s not enough to cool the heat that lingers under my skin. I press my fingers to my lips. They’re still swollen from his mouth, still taste like iron and something I don’t want to name.Gods. Out of all the ways I imagined that going, daggers drawn, threats hissed between clenched teeth, maybe even blood on our hands again, this was not one of them. Never did I think we’d end up pressed together like that, kissing each other like the world wasn’t burning down around us. Like we weren’t enemies standing on opposite sides of a war.For a second, I’d let myself forget. And worse, it had felt good to forget.I force my hands down, shove the thoughts deep where they can’t touch me. Then I pull my hood back up and pick my way across the roof. My legs feel strange, too loo

ANONYMOUS POVEverything had been going perfectly. Every word, every step, every calculated smile, months of planning, and I’d gotten so close I could almost taste it. That is, until recently. Now, my entire plan is hanging by a thread, and unless I act fast, it’s going to unravel completely.I press my back against the cold stone wall, the shadows of the corridor wrapping around me like a second skin. My hands shake, but I force them still. There’s no room for mistakes anymore, no time for hesitation. Not when everything I’ve worked for is at risk of being thrown out the window.It hasn’t been easy hiding my identity all this time. Playing the role of a harmless contestant, smiling when I wanted to scream, laughing at the prince’s jokes like I wasn’t slowly dying inside. Every day, I wore a mask. Sweet, silent, obedient. A background character in someone else’s love story. I even cut my hair, dyed it, changed my posture. All to make sure no one ever recognized me. Not even her.Espec

Many decades ago…The last few weeks have been terrible, if I’m to put it mildly. I haven’t even had the time or strength to pen down what life has been like. Every day bled into the next, a blur of exhaustion and dread, each one worse than the last. Trial after trial. Test after test. Some were physical, brutal, punishing, cruel. Others were twisted in ways that made your mind curl in on itself, like they wanted to crack us open and see what spilled out.They succeeded.It didn’t stop until we were just three. Three out of how many? I’ve lost count. Maybe that’s the point. Names fade, faces blur. All that remains are ghosts and empty rooms. The ones who didn’t make it, some were taken, some disappeared, and some just broke and never got back up. I see them in my dreams. Sometimes I wake with their screams still echoing in my head.And then he had to choose.The prince.He stood there, quiet, unreadable, his eyes scanning the three of us like we were nothing more than lines in a book

ANONYMOUS POVI didn’t mean to hurt the king. Not at first.I didn’t want to silence him forever, not really. But he found out. He figured it out, who I really am. That I’ve been working with the revolutionaries from the inside all along. That it was me. Me behind most of the attacks. Me feeding them secrets. Me hiding in plain sight, smiling, bowing, laughing when I needed to, all while plotting the collapse of this crown from within.When I realized he knew, panic took over. I didn’t think, just reacted. One second he was pointing a trembling finger at me, and the next… the dagger in my hand was red.I meant for him to bleed out. I prayed he wouldn’t survive. But he did.And by some miracle, or curse, it was all blamed on the attackers. No one suspected I was the one who had driven the blade into the king’s side.But luck has a short shelf life.He didn’t die. He lived. Barely.They said he was in a coma. Said he wouldn’t wake up. But I’ve never been one to take chances. So, I made