All Chapters of My Sister Stole My Mate, And I Let Her: Chapter 261 - Chapter 270

SERAPHINA’S POVThe silence that followed my warning was absolute.No one moved. No one reached for a weapon or a door latch or a comm.They just stared at me—Gear through the rearview mirror, Wren frozen mid-breath, Codex’s fingers hovering above his tablet, Iris standing rigid between the front seats like a carved figure.Their skepticism didn’t bristle with hostility or the careless dismissal I’d come to expect. Instead, it was careful, deliberate, as if they were weighing me on invisible scales.And I couldn’t blame them. I couldn’t explain what was happening.Not in any way that would satisfy soldiers trained to trust data and experience over ‘hunches.’Alois might have mentioned my journey, but I doubt he told them about the Origin Archives and the Starlight Hallway.About how the world had split open there, revealing just how fragile the boundary between realities could be. About how my senses apparently now slipped through those cracks instead of merely skimming the surface.Ir

SERAPHINA’S POVThe rest of the journey unfolded with a peaceful efficiency that felt almost unreal after the chaos of the ambush.Gear drove with steady focus, even as Codex monitored his vitals and the vehicle’s patched systems simultaneously.Wren scouted ahead and behind in practiced sweeps, slipping in and out of the dark like she was a part of it.Iris coordinated with clipped murmurs over comms, trusting my input without question when I flagged minor fluctuations in the psychic field along the route.For the first time since leaving the Institute, I wasn’t bracing for friction.I was part of the machine.And, eventually, when the adrenaline and narrow-mindedness of the battle faded, all I was left with was silence.It was not the tense hush of an ambush, nor the fragile calm before violence, but the silence that follows survival—the kind that leaves too much room for thought.Far too much room.My hands began to tremble.I stared down at them, flexing my fingers, as if they migh

SERAPHINA’S POVThe Silencer laughed.The sound was wrong somehow—too light for the room, too careless for a man bound inside layered psychic restraints.“Well,” he said when he was done, tilting his head as he looked at Corin, “this is spectacularly bad luck.”Corin didn’t respond right away.He took another step further into the chamber, and the door sealed behind him with a muted hum that reverberated through the curved walls.His gaze lingered on the Silencer, his smile unfurling slow and razor-sharp.“You should be thanking whatever gods you pray to,” he said, “that I arrived after you were secured. My twin sister is a lot more merciful than I am.”The Silencer’s smile twitched. “Still sore about last time?”“I spared your wretched life,” Corin replied pleasantly, but an edge crept into his voice. “And here you are pushing your luck with an arguably more formidable foe.”The Silencer stiffened, ever so slightly, and his gaze flicked to me again—measuring, reassessing.“You really

MARGARET’S POVThe dial tone droned on.Steady. Impersonal. Unforgiving.I stared at the dark screen of my phone, my fingers still curled around it as though if I held on long enough, the call might resume on its own.As though Seraphina might sigh, call my name the way she used to when she was small, and give me one more chance to find the right words.The sound finally cut off.The silence that followed was heavier, more suffocating than the dial tone itself.I lowered the phone slowly, my hand trembling despite years of discipline and posturing that should have taught my body better.For a long moment, I simply stood there in my room, staring at nothing, my reflection faintly visible in the glass wall overlooking the moonlit garden.I had done it again—pushed Sera away.The realization struck with dull, familiar pain, like pressing on a bruise you believed no longer existed, only to find it still tender beneath the surface.I closed my eyes.The sealing had been necessary.That trut

SERAPHINA’S POVCold engulfed me.The suffocating weight pressed in from every direction, thick and relentless, as the sea swallowed me whole.My body reacted before my mind could catch up: lungs spasmed, limbs thrashed as the undertow snatched me, dragging me sideways and down.Sand scoured my skin. Water forced its way into my mouth, my nose, my throat.Dread crashed over me.Not new. Never new.Old. Visceral. Familiar as my own heartbeat.I was a child again.The world shifted, warped by panic and memory, and suddenly the sea was gone—replaced by murky green water and the sharp shock of cold stone beneath my palms.I was small—far too small. My limbs felt alien, weighed down by drenched fabric that clung like grasping hands.I remembered the shove. Cruel hands at my back, sudden and vicious, laughter echoing as I stumbled, and the lake behind the Lockwood estate surged up to meet me.Water closed over my head.I kicked and flailed, shoes weighing me down, skirts tangling around my l