Lahat ng Kabanata ng The cursed mate's return : Kabanata 251 - Kabanata 260

Maia's povPeople like him think waiting is power. They think stillness means control. But I know the difference between patience and paralysis. I was built in that gap.“You don’t need my answer,” I say. “You already decided.”Jonas’s expression doesn’t change. “Decisions can be revised.”“No,” I reply. “Outcomes can. Not intent.”The city hums under my skin, tighter now, like a held breath. It knows him. It remembers him. Not fondly.“You want me as an interface,” I continue. “As a filter. A conscience you can claim when it suits you and silence when it doesn’t.”“That’s an emotional interpretation,” Jonas says.“It’s an accurate one.”Behind him, the sealed doors begin to glow faintly. Custodian tech. Not Council. Older. Harder to break. Built for inevitability, not resistance.Jonas notices my attention shift. “We anticipated refusal.”“Of course you did.”“You’re not the first to resist.”“I will be the last,” I say.Something sharpens in his eyes. “You overestimate your leverage

Maia's povBelow us, the maintenance floor hums with low panic. Workers move too fast, boots striking metal in uneven rhythms. No one is shouting yet, but their voices are sudden, clipped—people trying not to sound afraid.“Signal bleed is getting worse,” someone says.“We rerouted twice already.”“That shouldn’t be possible, who authorized—”No one answers.I stand near the railing, arms crossed, pretending I’m calm. Pretending I don’t feel the pull of the moon through reinforced steel and concrete, tugging at the wolf curled tight inside my chest.Kael notices anyway. He always does.“You’re pacing,” he says, stepping closer.“I’m standing,” I reply.He gives me that look, the one that says he knows I’m lying but won’t push. Instead, he reaches out, brushing his knuckles against my wrist. Just enough contact to ground me.The wolf eases a little.Across the room, technicians crowd around a central console. Screens flicker. Lines of code crawl, stutter, vanish. Someone swears when a w

Maia's povI did not plan it like this. I did not cue a system or issue a command. The city simply opens its throat and hands me the voice.Kael feels it before I do. His hand tightens around mine, firm and grounding, not asking permission. He looks at the nearest wall display, then at me, and something shifts in his expression. He knows what this means. He also knows there is no pulling it back.“Maia,” he says. Just my name. Nothing else.I breathe in. The air tastes like dust and ozone. The room we are standing in is stripped bare from the fighting earlier. Exposed conduits run along the walls. The lights flicker but stay on. The city wants this seen.Eli is pacing near the door, running a hand through his hair, eyes darting between screens. He looks like someone who built a bomb and then realized the blast radius included himself.“This is live,” he says. “It is not filtered. There is no delay. Everyone is getting the same feed.”I nod once. I do not look away from the screen.My f

Maia's pov“All stations are live. We are broadcasting.”The words echoed straight through the room.I lift my head slowly. Every screen along the wall flickers, then steadies. Faces appear confused, tense, scared. Some are framed by city apartments, some by offices, some by places I don’t recognize at all. Thousands of eyes. Then more. The counter climbs too fast to track.Kael swears softly beside me.“Who did that?” he asks.“I did,” Eli says, voice tight but steady. “You told me to run the data. I ran everything.”I don’t look at him. I’m watching the screens. Watching the city see itself for the first time.A woman on one feed presses her hand to her mouth. A man on another stands abruptly, knocking over a chair. Someone starts crying. Someone else starts shouting, the sound cutting out as the system tries and fails to moderate it.“What are they seeing?” Kael asks.I finally answer. “The truth.”My throat is dry. My hands feel strange, like they don’t belong to me anymore.Names

Maia's pov“Say it again.”Kael’s voice is steady, but his hand tightens around mine like he is afraid I will disappear if he lets go.“Say what again?” I ask.“Tell me you’re still here.”I turn my head and look at him properly this time. His face is streaked with dirt and dried blood that is not his. His eyes are locked on mine with the kind of focus that comes from having already lost too much.“I’m still here,” I say. “I haven’t gone anywhere.”That is not entirely true, but it is close enough to matter.The corridor shakes beneath our feet. Somewhere above us, something heavy collapses, metal screaming as it tears loose. The city is still breaking, even if it no longer knows who is in charge of the damage.“We need to move,” Eli says from behind us. “Public channels are going wild. Everyone can see everything. No filters. No suppression.”Kael looks at me. “Did you do that?”“I didn’t stop it,” I say. “That is not the same thing.”Eli swallows. “People are watching arrests happen