All Chapters of The cursed mate's return : Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

Freya's pov He kissed me before I could talk.Before I could warn him, before I could tell him that I wasn’t sure if we were safe, if anything was safe anymore. Before I could explain the weight humming under my skin, the one that sang with the leyline’s ancient song and the newer, rawer melody of something that didn’t belong in this world.He kissed me like the world wasn’t ending or maybe because it already had.His hands cradled my face like I was something fragile, breakable—gods, if only he knew. My pulse thundered in my ears, faster than battle drums, louder than prophecy.Kye tasted like wind and fire and the last real thing I’d ever known. My fingers curled into the fabric of his jacket, and for a moment—for one breathless, aching second—I let myself forget.Forget the mirror-thing with my face or the gate we’d cracked open and the eyes in the void, watching but the moment passed.Because kisses don’t stop fate.Kye pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against mine. Hi

Fiona's povHis chanting grew louder as we moved through the thinning trees. Voices wove together in a cadence that trembled with wrongness. My body recognized it before my mind did. The beat matched the leyline, but something about it was inverted.Velza's face had gone pale. “They’re not calling to it,” she said. “They’re feeding off it. Twisting your light.”My stomach turned. “Mine?”She nodded slowly. “You left pieces of yourself behind when you became the Beacon. They’ve collected them.”Collected me.We reached the edge of the ridge, crouched behind jagged stone. Below us, nestled inside a shallow basin, was a broken ruin. Ancient stone. Spiral etchings. Red symbols pulsing beneath the ground. At the center of it all stood a raised platform, and on it—ritualists. Cloaked in black. Holding hands. Eyes glowing faintly with something borrowed.Around them, the air shimmered like a heat mirage. But it was cold. Bone-cold.A gate was opening.Finnick scanned the perimeter. “Twenty, m

Freya's povVelza didn’t need telling why we broke our camp fast. she was already moving before I could give the order, feet silent against the stone, eyes glowing faintly in the starlight.Finnick cursed under his breath, strapping his gear with rough, practiced speed. Kye kept glancing over the edge of the watchtower, listening for more sounds. The chanting was steady and louder now. Rhythmic in a way that made my bones ache.It wasn’t human or maybe it was once, before something older taught them how to shape sound into keys.I touched the mark at my collarbone. It pulsed under my fingers, echoing the rhythm.“They’re using my frequency,” I said.“Can you stop them?” Finnick asked.“Not from here.”Velza stopped suddenly. “Wait.”She knelt and pressed her palm flat against the stone floor of the tower. Her eyes flickered shut. “There’s a gate being drawn,” she whispered. “Improperly. Too fast. Too thin. It’ll tear.”“Tear what?” Kye asked, voice low.Velza opened her eyes. “The vei

Finnick's povI’d seen a lot of strange things in my time. Things men weren’t meant to see. But nothing had ever made me feel small, the way that light did, tearing a seam through the heavens like paper.It wasn’t a falling star. Not a god, like Velza whispered.Freya stood like a statue, her face bathed in that cold silver glow. She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. She just watched and I didn’t dare speak.Sometimes, silence is all you have left to offer the divine.When we finally moved again—hours later, maybe days in disguise, I found myself watching her more than the path. The way her shoulders bore the weight of something invisible. The way her hands twitched at her sides, like she was always half-ready to cast or cut or run.But she didn’t run.That’s what scares me most about her. Not the glowing, not the way the leyline responds to her like a hound to its master. It’s the stillness. The control. Like she knows she can’t afford to lose it—not even for a second because the moment s

Finnick's pov We left at first light.Didn’t need to talk about it. We all felt it like the pressure in the air, the pull of something waiting just ahead.The leyline was different now. Not just a thread under our feet. It pulsed slow and deep—like it was breathing. Freya led. She hadn’t said much since the night of the mirror-things. None of us had, but with her, the silence felt heavier as if every word unspoken held weight.She moved like someone who already knew where she was going. Not because she’d seen a map but because something inside her was pointing the way.And I followed, just to be there because if she was going into the dark, I wasn’t about to let her walk in alone.Kye walked in silence, eyes scanning the sky even though his notes were gone. I didn’t need to ask, he was still trying to find sense in the stars. Still chasing a pattern that didn’t want to be caught.Velza limped behind, more tired than I’d ever seen her. She didn’t complain. She never did. But she didn