All Chapters of The cursed mate's return : Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

Finnick's pov The thing didn’t move fast but I didn’t either. Because every nerve in my body locked. I knew that sword. I knew the weight of it, the curve of it, the way it sang,'slammmm'through the air when Hollowfang swung it. I’d broken it and I killed him. I saw his body burn and yet... here it was.And he knew it, he was holding the sword like it still remembered how to use it.“Back up slowly,” I said, voice low and tight, hoping the others could hear me behind.The creature tilted its head but it didn’t blink or breathe imidiately, and then it did.A long, slow exhale that spilled frost across the stone floor. My boots froze to the ground in a thin crust of ice.And then it moved.The sword arced toward my chest, I barely got mine up in time. Steel screamed against steel, and the impact rattled through my arms like someone had slammed a hammer into my bones.I staggered back. The thing pressed forward.Another strike, this tim heavy and it was precise, it didn’t fight like H

Finnick's pov“Back! everyone back!....'My voice tore through the trees and the ground cracked open behind us, the stones splitting like broken teeth. The tunnel mouth wasn’t just opening it was growing. Roots pushed outward like fingers from a grave, writhing, pulsing with something dark.And something inside was climbing.Freya stood frozen. Not with fearbbut with recognition. Her lips moved without sound.“What is it?” Rowan barked, his sword half-drawn. “What’s down there?”I turned to Freya. “You know.”She didn’t answer at first. Her mouth worked as if trying to form words too old to be spoken. Finally, she whispered one.“Orum.”The name hit like a hammer to the spine. I didn’t know it but I felt it deep like something buried in my own bones.A shape rose from the tunnel, it wasn't fast or frantic but very deliberate.It stood taller than the trees. Antlers stretched out like gnarled roots. Its skin was dark wood and bone, plates of something ancient fused over muscle that shi

Finnick's pov "How many saw it?"Mira's voice was low, but it cut through the dark like steel."Us," Rowan answered, "and the ones it let live."Freya stood by the edge of the firelight, arms wrapped around herself. “No...Not just us. Something else was watching. Beneath the stone. Behind the walls.”“The others?” Kye asked, sharpening his blade without looking up. “The ones behind the symbols?”Freya nodded slowly. “I don’t think they’re dead. I think they’re waiting."I sat with my back to a tree, eyes fixed on the horizon.We’d survived. The gate was buried. The vessel broken for now. But it didn’t feel like a victory. It felt like the pause between storms.Mira tossed another stick into the flames. “We can’t stay out here. We need real shelter. Somewhere safe.”“There’s no safe anymore,” Freya murmured.Rowan looked at me. “Then where?”I answered without hesitation.“The Sanctum.”Their faces turned.“No one’s been there in years,” Kye said. “You think they’ll let us in?”“They’

Finnick's pov“Wait,” I said. “Did you just say Emberdeep?”Freya nodded, her face pale, lips trembling. “It’s the only place left.”“No,” Mira snapped. “You don’t go there. No one goes to Emberdeep.”Freya’s eyes locked onto hers. “Exactly. That’s why we must.”I helped Freya sit up fully. Her body still shook, her skin hot with whatever power had touched her. Something in her had changed. Her eyes glowed faint, but steady now—like the last embers of a dying fire or maybe the first sparks of one being born.Kye paced at the edge of the shattered crypt, boots crunching over mirror shards that now shimmered like black ice. “That thing, whatever it was, spoke directly to us. It knew us. How do we know Emberdeep’s not just the next trap?”“We don’t,” Freya said, voice soft but firm. “But I saw it. The Seven sleep beneath layers of lies and fear, but Emberdeep…” she trailed off, eyes distant. “It was made to withstand them or contain them. I couldn’t tell. The visions are… broken.”I stoo

Finnick's pov “She’s breathing,” Mira said, her voice like flint striking steel. “But it’s not right.”“It’s not her breathing,” I muttered, crouched on the other side of Freya’s body. Her chest rose and fell in slow, mechanical rhythm, but her lips were pale, and her skin had cooled too fast.The ember above her heart still glowed, casting shadows across her face that made her look like someone else.“Then whose breath is it?” Kye asked, standing at the edge of the stone platform with his axe slung across his shoulder. “Because if something’s crawling around inside her, I say we carve it out now before it spreads.”“She’s not possessed,” Mira snapped, shooting him a glare. “She touched something ancient. You don’t just walk away from that.”“We let her do this,” Rowan said from behind us, his back against the far wall, sword resting beside him. “We stood in the circle. We agreed. If this is the cost…”“Don’t say that,” I said sharply.Because I had to believe she’d come back.An hou