All Chapters of Moon Reaper’s Substitute Bride: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

~CASSIAN~The doctor's entire body began to tremble.I hadn't even touched him yet, but the power leaking from my hands was enough. Dark energy crackled along my fingers and up my forearms, showing him exactly what was waiting if he decided to lie again. Doctor Elias Venn pressed himself harder against the wall, eyes wide with genuine terror as he watched it all unfold in front of his eyes. "I—I did treat a woman by that name," he blurted out quickly, the words coming out right after the next in his haste. "Aurora. Yes. She was brought to me after she fainted at the Reapers' estate. I examined her. I ran tests. Please—"I held up a hand, silencing him. The power still hummed under my skin, but I forced it back just enough to keep from reducing the man to bones before I got what I needed. My voice came out low and controlled, though every muscle in my body remained tight. I was so close to losing my mind and this doctor would feel my full wrath if he didn't give me something to work

~SERAPHINA~Something was wrong.I noticed it the moment I stepped into the main corridor. The estate, usually filled with loud servants, guards, and the constant movement of people attending to the new order of things, felt unnervingly still. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that settled right before something broke. I paused, listening. No footsteps belonging to Cassian. No sharp, dry commentary from Zerath drifting from nearby rooms. The two of them were simply. . .gone.And that never meant anything good.Whenever Cassian and his brother disappeared together without explanation, it was because they were doing something important. Something they did not want the council—or me, to know about. My stomach tightened with a sharp, familiar suspicion. There was only one person who could pull Cassian's attention so completely that he would abandon the carefully constructed image of our marriage and vanish with his brother.Aurora.Of course, it was her. Even when she wasn't here, she was st

~AURORA~Cassian didn't look away from me once. He kept on moving forward until he was standing right there in front of me. Even with Vincent standing only a few feet away, even with the courtyard still packed with the aftermath of his arrival, his eyes stayed locked on mine as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough, stripped of every careful mask he had worn for so long."I love you."My breath caught. For a moment I couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but stare at him as the truth of what he had just said settled over me.Did he really? Did I hear him correctly? Did Cassian just tell me he loved me in front all of these people without a care in the world? My heart ached but this time, in a good way. "I love you, Aurora." He practically shouted it now. Like he was making sure everyone truly heard it this time. "I did everything for you," he continued, stepping closer until there was almost no space left between u

~AURORA~The pain of the bond snapping felt like something driven straight through the center of my chest.It was sharp, sudden, and so complete that my knees nearly gave out. For one terrible second I couldn't breathe. The old thread that had tied me to Vincent—damaged, neglected, already dying, tore all the way through, and the emptiness it left behind was worse than I expected. A sound escaped me before I could stop it, small and broken.Then Cassian's arms closed around me.He pulled me against his chest so tightly I could feel the heat of him through the blood and dirt on his clothes, feel the hard beat of his heart under my cheek. The pain didn't vanish, but it changed. It became something I could survive. His scent, his warmth, the fierce way he held me as if he could physically keep me from falling apart, those things filled the space the rejection had torn open. I clung to him, fingers fisting in his shirt, and the worst of it passed.When I lifted my head, Vincent was sta

~AURORA~I stood on the side of the road with the necklace still resting in my open palm, the small pendant glowing as though its secrets were finally out in the open.Every council member stared at it as if it might burn them. Their faces had drained of color. The lead one, the same man who had ordered me to remove it, looked like he had aged ten years in a single breath."Where did you get this?" he demanded, voice sharp with something that sounded almost like panic. "Speak carefully, girl. That necklace belongs to the Blackwell family."Blackwell family? Why did that name sound familiar? Surely I'd heard someone mention it before.I blinked, confusion cutting through the fear. "It was from my mother. She left it for me before she died. There was also a note that said it belonged to my father. . .and that I must never lose it. That it was the only thing I had left of him."My words seemed to shock them even more than before. It was even possible that they were now trembling with fea