Lahat ng Kabanata ng The cursed mate's return : Kabanata 141 - Kabanata 150

Freya's pov We didn’t speak as we moved. Not because there wasn’t anything to say, but because saying it might break what fragile ground we’d reclaimed.The world felt too quiet, like it was holding its breath around us. Even the trees leaned in with suspicion, like they knew we didn’t belong here anymore.And maybe we didn’t.The wound on my back pulsed with every step. A reminder. The shadow claws hadn’t just torn flesh — they’d left something else behind. Residue. A presence. I could feel it crawling just beneath my skin, like ink in my veins that wasn’t mine.Kye noticed.He kept glancing at me when he thought I wouldn’t catch him, jaw tight, eyes flickering with something between fear and fury. But he didn’t speak it aloud. Maybe he didn’t know how. Maybe he didn’t want to.I didn’t blame him.The truth was, I didn’t want to ask the question out loud either.What did he leave inside me?I knew it wasn’t over. Just because we’d escaped the veil didn’t mean it hadn’t followed us t

Freya's pov Even with the Revenant gone , I still couldn't sleep, ash scattered across the clearing, the rift sealed like a cauterized wound — my body refused rest. My soul felt scraped hollow. Like I'd poured too much of myself into the light, and now what was left couldn’t settle. Couldn’t stop shaking.Kye slept at my side, one hand still clutched around the hilt of his blade, his chest rising and falling slow and even. He’d fought until his body gave out. I’d forced him to drink a healing tonic before he blacked out. That had been hours ago. The runes on his skin had dulled to a faint blue.Dawn pressed through the trees in ribbons. Pale, cold and wrong.Not like before.I wrapped my arms around my knees and watched the sun rise without warmth. I felt it in my gut in the same place I’d once felt the bond spark alive that something had changed.Kye stirred as light crept across his face. He winced, sitting up slow.“You’re awake,” he rasped, rubbing the back of his neck.“Barely.”

Freya's pov We returned to camp before the sun rose or at least, before something pretending to be the sun smeared its red light over the horizon. It didn’t look right. The sky bled instead of blushed, and the air stank of iron.Kye said nothing as we hiked the cliff’s path, hand tight in mine, his thumb brushing small, rhythmic circles into my palm. I didn’t tell him it was the only thing keeping me grounded.Because in the hours since the Mirror Grave, everything in me had shifted.Not like a broken bone reset.More like something pulled taut had snapped and now the silence in my head wasn’t empty.It was full of voices.Full of me.They didn’t speak aloud, not in words. But I felt them—like shades pressed just beneath the skin. My gait changed slightly, heavier, more cautious. My sight lingered longer on shadows than it had before.My heartbeat was still my own, but it echoed to a rhythm I no longer fully understood.Kye finally spoke when we reached the edge of the cliff, overloo

Freya's pov I ran until my throat tasted like copper and every heartbeat rang like a war drum behind my ribs.But the village didn’t end.It folded in on itself, street after street, doorway after doorway, each more warped than the last. The houses were identical copies, but the windows blinked open and shut like eyes. Shutters trembled. Roofs creaked like they were whispering to one another.The air was wrong and thick, heavy, like breathing through wet cloth. Every breath felt like drowning in a memory not mine.I knew I was trapped in a loop.I knew it.But every corner still felt like maybe this time I’d break free.This time, I’d find the exit. Instead, I found her.She was standing in the town square—barefoot, unmoving, surrounded by a dozen others.And they all wore my face.Each one slightly off. One with hollow sockets. One with scorched fingers. One with silver thread sewn through her lips. Their eyes tracked me together, in perfect sync.And in the center, the one not like

Freya's pov At first, I thought I was dead. Not because I couldn’t feel my body but because I could feel everything else.Every version of death, every mistake.They sang in my bones like a choir made of knives and ash.The leyline hadn’t killed me.It had taken me.I was no longer in the forest. No longer anywhere that made sense.This place wasn’t a world. It was a wound.A hollow in existence, stitched together by time and regret.A sky of swirling gray stretched above. Beneath my feet, a bridge of black stone hovered over a bottomless void. And ahead miles or maybe inches away—was a gate made of mirrors.I stood in the in-between.The leyline whispered through the air. It didn’t speak words.It showed them.Kye.He sprawled across the stone circle, unconscious, his sword shattered beside him.Finnick was on one knee, panting, bloodied, eyes wild. Roaring my name into the trees, his voice tearing itself ragged.And the others.The echoes, some still stood while some fell back into