Semua Bab His Rejected Mate's Secret : Bab 61 - Bab 70

POV: CorinNight settled over the forgotten village like a shroud.The ruined cottages had gone dark, their broken windows staring blankly into the forest as the others rested inside the central hall. A small fire burned low near the entrance, its glow barely strong enough to keep the shadows at bay.Corin had volunteered for the first patrol.Truthfully, he had not wanted sleep.Not after what had happened with the map.Not after the stone had answered the twins.The forest beyond the ruined settlement felt wrong.Too still.Too aware.He moved silently between the trees, boots barely disturbing the carpet of fallen leaves. Moonlight slipped through the branches in fractured streaks, painting pale lines across the earth.The silver moon was high.But now and then, through breaks in the canopy, Corin caught the red one.Watching.His hand rested near the hilt of the blade strapped across his back.The deeper he walked, the quieter the forest became.Then he noticed it.There were no b

POV: AfnanThe forest thickened as they moved east.By midmorning, the path they had followed since leaving the ruined village had all but vanished, swallowed by roots and undergrowth that seemed determined to keep outsiders away. Towering trees closed in above them, their branches woven so tightly that even the twin moons’ lingering presence from the night before felt distant now.Still, Afnan felt watched.Not by the same presence as before.This was different.Closer.Breathing.Living.She slowed her horse slightly, her gaze sweeping the shadows between the trees.Delph noticed immediately.“What is it?”Her voice remained low.“We’re not alone.”That was all it took.The entire group shifted.Kael’s hand moved to his blade.Sera’s fingers brushed the string of her bow.Corin straightened in his saddle, scanning the forest with renewed sharpness.The twins went quiet.Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.Then,A twig snapped.To their left.Another behind them.Then one ahead.

POV: AfnanThe air in the Eastern grounds felt different at dawn.Not lighter.Not calmer.Just… aware.Afnan stood at the edge of a clearing carved into the forest, where the trees grew in a perfect circle as if shaped by intention rather than nature. Their trunks twisted inward slightly, branches arching overhead to form a living dome that filtered the morning light into soft, fractured beams.It reminded her of the chamber beneath Bloodstone.Of the Gate.Of something watching.She inhaled slowly, steadying herself.Across from her, the Keeper of Bones stood motionless, their presence as quiet and rooted as the forest itself.“You feel it,” the seer said.Not a question.Afnan nodded.“It’s stronger here.”The mark on her wrist pulsed faintly beneath her sleeve, as though answering the very ground beneath her feet.The Keeper inclined their head.“This land sits closer to the echo of the Gate.”Afnan’s fingers curled slightly.“Echo,” she repeated.“Yes.”The seer stepped forward,

POV: AfnanThe mountains rose like a warning.Jagged peaks cut into the sky, their edges sharp against the pale light of morning. The forest had begun to thin, giving way to rough terrain, stone and steep inclines, narrow paths carved by time rather than design.Afnan felt it the moment they stepped onto the mountain trail.The air changed.Thinner.Colder.Heavier with something unseen.Her mark burned faintly beneath her sleeve.Not painful.But persistent.Aware.“They’re close,” she murmured.Delph, riding just ahead, glanced back.“The Gate?”Afnan shook her head slowly.“Not just the Gate.”Her gaze lifted toward the cliffs above them.“Something else.”The group tightened formation instinctively.The twins rode between Delph and Corin now, quieter than usual, their usual curiosity subdued by the tension that seemed to hum through the mountain air.Even the wind sounded different here.Not a whisper.A warning.They continued upward.Step by step.The path narrowing as it climbe

POV: DelphThe air changed the moment they crossed into the clearing.It wasn’t just colder.It was… thinner.Like stepping into a place where the world itself wasn’t fully whole.Delph felt it immediately.A pressure behind his eyes.A weight in his chest.Subtle, but wrong.Behind them, the crimson storm circled the mountains like a living thing, its red lightning clawing at the sky, its thunder now rolling low and constant.But ahead, there was silence.A deep, unnatural stillness that seemed to swallow everything else.The Mirror Gate stood at the center of it.No,waited.Delph took a slow step forward.The ground beneath his boots was smooth here, unnaturally so, as if worn down not by time, but by something passing over it again and again.The Gate itself stretched taller than any structure he had seen, a jagged tear in the air that pulsed with shifting light.But it was not like Moonfall.Not even close.Moonfall had been silver.Clear.Balanced.This,This was chaos given for