All Chapters of Another Chance : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Betrayal in the ShadowsRissa's POVThe night pressed close and cold, thick with silence and shadows that wrapped around me like a cloak.Eamon’s steady presence beside me was an anchor I didn’t know I needed and I felt safe in his hands for now, his calm steadied the storm inside the fear, the rage, the fire still tearing through me from all I’d seen, all I’d become."We moved carefully through the forest, where branches arched above like the fingers of sleeping giants. The air hung thick damp with pine, laced with the sharp scent of coming danger. Each step drew us deeper, as if the woods themselves were holding their breath. Every step felt like slipping deeper into a waiting trap. The Knowing pulsed beneath my skin, a quiet hum that promised both power and peril whispers in my blood that warned me not everything was as it seemed.Eamon murmured something beside me lessons from his past, stories of loss and survival but his words barely registered. My mind buzzed with unease, my b

The Weeping GatePOV: RissaThe forest changed the moment we stepped into the Hollowed Thicket. The air thickened like syrup, heavy with rot and mourning. The trees leaned in too close, their bark laced with faintly pulsing veins just beneath the surface like blood vessels beneath skin. I couldn't tell anymore whether it was day or night. The light had no source; it simply. existed. Dim, cold, constant.Eamon walked ahead of me, one hand extended like he could feel the air shifting before his fingers touched it. Mark lingered behind, silent as a ghost. His presence still burned against the back of my neck. I didn’t turn to look at him. I couldn’t. Not after last night’s dream ,the fire, the betrayal in his eyes, the way he wept even as he struck me down. It had been just a dream.Hadn’t it?My boots crunched over bone dry moss. I glanced to the side and saw what I thought were stones at first until I realized they were skulls. Small. Animal. Possibly. The forest here didn’t just feel

The Snake in the GardenTeressa’s POVAs I left Josh’s room, the stone corridor felt colder than I remembered like the walls themselves had been listening.Each step echoed softly behind me, heels kissing the ground in measured rhythm. Not rushed. Not triumphant. But certain. I didn’t look back.Josh wouldn’t follow.He was already drowning in guilt exactly as I planned.The guards at the far end straightened as I passed, offering stiff nods of respect. They still saw me as their Seer, not the serpent. They didn’t know. No one did. Not yet. To them, I was still the Seer. The trusted one. The woman who spoke in riddles and kept the pack from making worse mistakes. I wore that mask well. So well, in fact, that I sometimes wondered if it had fused with my skin.But tonight was different.Tonight, the mask had teeth.I made my way toward the old library wing the one time forgot. Dusty scrolls lined the high shelves, half burnt candles clinging to their last use. The air still held the sce

The Root Beneath the FlameRissa's POVMark slept fitfully beneath the slanted branches, his breathing shallow but steady. The fire’s glow cast soft flickers across his face, making him look younger. Gentler. Almost like the man I’d met that night in New Orleans—before the Knowing, before the vessel, before everything became teeth and prophecy.I sat a few feet away, knees pulled to my chest, staring at the rune Eamon had etched into the moss. It was still faintly glowing, long after its purpose had ended.“You opened it,” Eamon said, quietly stepping beside me.I didn’t look up. “The Knowing?”“No.” He crouched beside the rune and touched the still-warm symbol. “You. The part of you that’s always been locked away. It’s waking. You don’t just carry power, Rissa. You are power.”I turned to him. “Then why does it feel like I’m losing myself?”His eyes softened. “Because the parts of you that were kept dormant—your bloodline, your memory, your instinct—are now fighting for space in the

Bloodlines and BurdensRissa’s POV“Wake up, Rissa. We need to leave now.”Mark’s voice snapped me out of sleep. The sun's rays hit my face, nearly blinding me as I squinted to get a sense of where I was. The campfire’s smoke had thinned; the canopy was already dismantled, and Eamon was packed up and ready.“We have to move and find the trail that leads to the road,” Mark said.He placed his hand on the earth as if listening for something. His eyes glowed a green I had never seen before.Eamon and I exchanged curious glances as we watched him.Mark looked up and frowned. “Why are you staring at me like that?”“We’re trying to figure out what the hell you’re doing,” Eamon replied with a hint of sarcasm.“I’m tracking vibrations through the earth. There’s a vehicle about ten clicks from here. If we move fast, we can hitch a ride to Jersey.”“You can actually do that?” I asked, stunned. “So now you’re a tracker too?”Mark smirked. “Yep. Most Lycans are trackers. I thought you’d know that