Home / Fantasy / A Marriage Bound by Curse / Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

All Chapters of A Marriage Bound by Curse: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

43 Chapters

Chapter Twenty

The walk back to the west wing passed beneath a sky slowly surrendering itself to evening, the last traces of sunlight slipping behind the mountains that surrounded Valmere like ancient guardians. Warm amber light filtered through the tall palace windows, stretching long shadows across polished stone corridors while servants quietly lit lanterns one by one along the walls. The palace had begun settling into its evening rhythm, though tonight, something about the silence felt heavier.Fenrir walked beside Valeria rather than ahead of her, though neither spoke for several moments after leaving the gardens.The quiet between them felt strained.Uncomfortable.Not because he did not know what to say, but because his thoughts refused to settle long enough for him to understand what exactly he was feeling.His wolf had reacted immediately the moment he stepped into the garden.Protective.Instinctive.Valeria was carrying his child.That alone changed things.The sight of her crying, distre

Chapter Twenty-one

“A villager is missing.”The words settled over the garden with enough weight that, for a moment, even the evening breeze seemed to still.Only moments earlier, the quiet had felt almost restorative. Lanterns had begun flickering softly along the stone pathways while the last warmth of the day lingered between rows of lavender and calendula, their scent rising gently into the cooling air. Now, the peace felt strangely distant, disrupted by something Aurelia could not yet place but instinctively disliked.“A villager?” she repeated, her attention sharpening immediately. “From where?”The guard lowered his head slightly. “I was only told there had been an incident in one of the outer villages, Your Highness. Captain Henry instructed me to find you at once.”Aurelia nodded once, already moving.“Have the strategy room prepared,” she said. “And inform Henry I want the patrol captains gathered immediately.”The guard bowed quickly before disappearing back toward the palace.Beside her, Lyra

Chapter Twenty-two

Fenrir's POVSleep should have come easily.After everything that had happened throughout the day, exhaustion should have dragged me unconscious the moment I stepped into my room. Instead, I had somehow spent the better part of an hour lying across the bed staring at the ceiling like it had personally offended me.The palace had quieted considerably since the strategy meeting ended. Somewhere beyond the walls, guards still rotated through evening patrols while servants moved softer through the corridors than they had during the day. Valmere slept differently than my territory. Quieter. Less tense. Even now, there was something strangely calm about the place that I still had not decided whether I respected or found irritating.Probably irritating.Everything about this territory felt too calm.Too trusting.I shifted onto my side with a quiet sigh, dragging a hand across my face before shutting my eyes again. Sleep still refused to come. Mostly because my thoughts refused to settle.Tom

Chapter Twenty-three

Morning arrived far too quickly.I had only just fallen asleep when a hand nudged my shoulder once, then again with considerably less patience.“Aurelia.”I made the mistake of opening one eye.Lyra stood beside the bed fully dressed, hair already braided back and expression entirely too awake for an hour that should not exist.“No.”“You asked me to wake you before sunrise.”“I regret that decision.”“You regret most sensible decisions.”I pulled the blanket higher, “I’m reconsidering this friendship.”“That seems unfair after I let you sleep longer than my father wanted.”“How long has he been awake?”Lyra crossed her arms, “Long enough to reorganize supplies twice, question three patrol routes, and complain about your decision making to anyone willing to listen.”“…That sounds exhausting.”“He’s worried.”The quiet honesty beneath her voice softened something in my chest.Because, unfortunately, I already knew.Henry had never been subtle when it came to worrying. Neither of them we

Chapter Twenty-four

The forest had gone unnaturally quiet.Not the ordinary stillness that sometimes settled beneath thicker trees or colder weather, but something heavier. Unsettling. The sort of silence that arrived only when something had disturbed the natural rhythm of a place badly enough that even the animals no longer trusted it. No birds called overhead. No movement rustled through nearby brush. Even the wind seemed quieter here, slipping between branches with little more than a faint whisper.The carving sat against the bark like something wrong.From a distance, it had looked random enough to mistake for damage. Up close, however, intention became impossible to ignore.The symbol curved into the shape of a crescent moon, though not an untouched one. Deep jagged slashes cut violently through the center, splitting through the curve hard enough that it looked less carved and more wounded, as though someone had meant to destroy the shape rather than simply mark it. The cuts crossed unevenly through

Note

Hi guys. I want to start by apologizing. I started June doing really well with daily updates, but ended up falling off. Well, I wanted to explain. I had finished school, but I unfortunetly did not receive my diploma. I had something of a mental breakdown, and kind of went into a depressive episode. (My episodes can be particularly bad due to my bipolar 1.) Not long after, my dog started to have issues, and he was rushed to the vet, and it did cost a pretty penny. I currently do not have a job, so I was very stressed trying to find ways to pay for this, but I had family that was willing to help, but stressed nonetheless. Lastly, close to the end of June, my fiancé and I decided to move because he had a job offer that was far better than where he is currently, and so we have been out of town multiple times trying to find a place to live so he can soon start. (Why is it so hard to find a place to rent?)Lastly, we are moving next weekend now. Being in a new place away from all of my famil

Chapter Twenty-Five

The library had always been Aurelia's sanctuary.No matter how demanding the day became or how many responsibilities waited beyond its doors, this room had always offered something the rest of the palace rarely could: quiet. Shelves lined every wall from polished floor to vaulted ceiling, filled with centuries of history collected by generations of Valmere's rulers. Leather bindings, brittle parchment, and faded journals carried the weight of lives long gone, and Aurelia had always treated every volume with the same reverence others reserved for sacred relics.Tonight, that sanctuary had become almost unrecognizable.Books lay scattered across the floor in every direction. Several shelves stood half-empty, their carefully organized collections dismantled in frantic haste, while open volumes covered the large oak desk at the center of the room. Loose pages had slipped between stacks, some resting beneath Aurelia's boots unnoticed as she moved from one shelf to an

Chapter Twenty-Six

The search had ended hours ago, yet Fenrir could not shake the uneasiness it had left behind.They had spent most of the afternoon combing through the forest surrounding the village, spreading out across the trails and deeper stretches of woodland while following every trace they could find. Fenrir, Rowan, and Elias had searched separately at times, covering enough ground that there should have been little left unexplored, but they regrouped whenever one of them believed they had discovered something worth following. More than once, they returned to areas they had already searched, convinced that they must have overlooked something the first time.They found broken branches where someone had clearly passed through the undergrowth, patches of earth that had been disturbed recently, and a few scattered footprints near the edge of the village, but none of them belonged to the missing man. Fenrir followed every scent that seemed even remotely promising, allowing his wolf to sift through th

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The night had already settled over Valmere by the time Aurelia finally pulled herself away from the floor of the library.The fire had burned low, and the lamps around the room cast long shadows across the shelves and scattered papers, leaving the far corners of the library almost completely swallowed by darkness. For several minutes, she remained where she was, staring at the drawing on the desk as though the broken crescent might somehow reveal the answers she had been searching for. The three jagged lines cutting through its center had seemed insignificant when she first found them carved into the tree, yet now they felt like a thread connecting two moments of her life that should have remained separated by years.Aurelia slowly pushed herself to her feet, but the movement left her unsteady. Her legs felt strangely weak beneath her, and for one brief moment she had to place a hand against the edge of the desk to keep herself upright. She waited until the sensation p

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Fenrir POVBy the time I left my room the following morning, Rowan and Elias were already awake.I had expected as much. None of us had returned to the castle particularly late, but after spending most of the previous day outside, there had been little reason to remain near the village once darkness settled in. Henry had enough men stationed there to continue watching through the night, and until morning gave them enough light to begin searching properly again, the three of us would have accomplished little by staying.That did not mean I had slept well.I had spent far too much of the night awake, staring into the darkness of my room while my mind returned to things I had no intention of discussing with either man sitting across the room now.The smaller morning room adjoining the dining hall had become our usual place to gather when none of us had the patience for the formality of the larger room.It was considerably less

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