90.

ARREN. She fell to her knees the moment she saw him. I watched her pull Tatum into her and felt something move through my chest that I didn't have a name for. I let go of his hand. My fingers curled into a fist at my side as I took a step back and watched her wrap herself around him. He stood there for a moment and didn't pull away, just staying still inside her arms while she held on. Her voice came out raw. "Where did you run off to? I was looking everywhere for you Tate. You scared me." I heard him sniffle. She pulled back just enough to look at his face and a tear slipped down her cheek. She wiped it fast and blinked hard like she was angry at herself for it. Then she looked up and found my eyes. She held my gaze. Then she mouthed, ‘thank you.’ I made myself nod. And felt like a piece of shit doing it. I had found him. That part was true. But the reason he'd run in the first place traced back to me in ways I couldn't talk myself out of. Forty five minutes I'd spent c

91.

ELLARIA.Tatum was quieter than usual in the bath.I sat on the edge of the tub and tried to get him to blow bubbles the way he usually did and he looked at the water instead. I didn’t push. I just stayed there with him until he was done and wrapped him in his towel and tried to make it silly the way I sometimes did, pulling the corner of it over his head like a hood and telling him he looked like a very small monk.He smiled.It was small and polite and not quite real.I got him dressed and tucked him in and sat at the corner of his bed and looked at him and tried to figure out what came next.But my little boy beat me to it.“Why did you keep him a secret?”I looked at my hands in my lap for a moment.The question sat in the air between us and I felt the full weight of it pressing down on my chest. He deserved an answer. He’d always deserved an answer. And the truth in fact.I just hadn’t been ready to give it to him and now the choice had been taken from me entirely.“Because som

92.

ARREN. I was across the room before the scream finished leaving her. Katerina hit the floor at his feet with both hands wrapped around his legs, shaking so hard I could hear her teeth chattering. She was making a sound I’d never heard from her before. High and broken and barely humane. My claws extended without thought. I reached up and tore through the rope in one motion, catching Dalor’s body against my chest before he could drop. He was dead weight in my arms in a way that made my chest seize because warm meant recent. How long had he been up there? I got to my knees with him and Katerina scrambled toward us both, her hands going to his face immediately, touching him everywhere like she was checking he was real. “What do I do?” She was hyperventilating between words. “Arren what do I do what do I—” “Stop.” I kept my voice even even though nothing inside me was. I worked my fingers under the rope still looped around his neck and unwound it carefully. “Look at me.” She look

93.

ELLARIA.Tatum had barely touched his pancakes.I came out of his bedroom with the plate in my hand and made my way back to the kitchen where Mirela was on her third cup of coffee. She looked up when she heard me coming.“How’s he faring?”I rubbed my forehead. “Still not keeping anything down.”I took the plate to the sink and stood there for a moment thinking about the morning. He’d been throwing up since eight. It was past noon now and the fever still hadn’t broken and he had that particular exhausted stillness about him that went beyond being upset about yesterday.I’d told myself at first that it was the events of the day before sitting heavy in his body. Children processed things differently. It made sense that he’d be off.But the fever changed that.I turned to Mirela. “I’m going to get him something from the clinic to help calm his stomach or break the fever.”Mirela set her cup down and stood up. “I’ll go. Stay with Tate.”“You don’t have to do that.”She gave me a look. “Yo

94.

ELLARIA I dropped my gaze to the floor and tugged my arm.He let go immediately.But his eyes didn't move from my face. They kept searching my expression with a tentativeness that I didn't have the energy to meet. I looked away."I'm sorry about yesterday," he said. "I haven't had a moment to leave. The second I could, I would have come to you."I heard every word.The second he was through with his priorities he would drop by and figure out what came next.My son fell into the category of not a priority.My free hand curled into a fist at my side. I knew his son was in the hospital. I knew that was obviously more pressing. But what hurt more than that being true was how I felt about it. I shouldn't feel burned at this stage. I shouldn't feel cheated or wronged or any of the things currently sitting in my chest.But I did.Despite knowing none of those emotions did me any favors."Please," he said quietly. "Just give me a few minutes. I need to tell you some things."I said nothing.

95.

ELLARIA.I walked out of that clinic and kept walking.I didn't have a destination. I just needed to move, because standing still wasn't something my body was capable of right now, and thinking was even less of an option.What the hell?I pressed my palm flat against my sternum as I walked and tried to find the bottom of what I was feeling. I couldn't. It went too deep. It had too many layers and too many years attached to it, and I was not equipped to sort through any of it on a public street in broad daylight.Why me?That was the only thought that kept surfacing, and it wasn't even a fully formed question anymore. Just two words with nothing attached. Why me? Why had I been the one to fall in love with this man? Why had my heart decided on him out of every person it could have decided on? Was it because I hadn't been wise enough to know that fairy tales weren't real? Was it because I'd been so starved for something warm that I'd mistaken proximity for love and spent years calling i

His Contract Luna Says Goodbye のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 91 - チャプター 96

90.

91.

92.

93.

94.

95.