All Chapters of The Guardian's Mate: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

Sophia POVThe battle didn't end after Adrian retreated through the shattered wall. It just moved, spreading across the campus in waves, every corridor and courtyard becoming its own smaller war as Guardians and coven hunters and Adrian's remaining witches clashed in the dark. Ethan wouldn't let me out of his sight after the science building, insisting I stay close as we made our way toward the main hall, where Nathan said the last of the fighting was concentrating.We found Adrian standing in the middle of the auditorium, the space cleared of students, its high windows shattered from some earlier clash, moonlight and cold air spilling in through the broken glass. He didn't look like a man in retreat. He looked like someone who'd simply chosen a better stage."Enough running," Ethan said, stepping forward, Damian falling into place at his side without either of them needing to discuss it. The two of them, moving together against a common enemy, had stopped feeling strange sometime in

Sophia POVFor the first time in what felt like months, Wednesday morning looked almost ordinary.I sat between Emma and Lily in the back row of Mr. Larry's history class, the three of us passing notes the way we used to before any of this started, before wolves and vampires and witches had rewritten what an ordinary school day looked like. Mr. Larry droned on about the fall of the Roman Republic, occasionally glancing toward the boarded-up section of the west wall like even he couldn't quite pretend the last few weeks hadn't happened, but mostly the class felt blessedly, achingly normal."He's still wearing that same tie," Lily whispered, sliding a note across the desk that just said *third day in a row* with a small doodle of a very unenthusiastic stick figure. I bit back a laugh, and for a second, just a second, none of it — the coven, the woman in the auditorium, the message still sitting unanswered on my phone — mattered at all.By lunch, the cafeteria had returned to something c

Sophia POVI'd told Damian I'd find time to talk soon, though he hadn't pushed for it to happen immediately, and for once the universe seemed content to let a single day pass without something supernatural trying to kill me. It felt strange, almost suspicious, how ordinary Thursday turned out to be.Biology first period was a lecture on cellular respiration, which felt almost funny given everything I now knew ran through my own blood, though I kept that thought to myself. Emma sat beside me, dutifully taking notes, occasionally glancing across the room toward Nathan, who'd been assigned — conveniently, I suspected, by his own request — to the security detail covering our building today."He's doing it again," Lily whispered from my other side, nodding subtly toward where Nathan sat near the door, supposedly monitoring the hallway but very obviously watching Emma take notes with far more interest than the task required.Between classes, walking toward the cafeteria, Nathan fell into st

Sophia POVThe official story going around school by the time I returned Friday morning was that I'd fainted from stress — dehydration, maybe, or exam pressure, or the general trauma of surviving an attack on the campus a week earlier. Nobody seemed to question it too hard. It was easier, I suspected, for people to believe something ordinary had happened to me than to consider the alternative, whatever the truth actually was."You look tired," Lily said, falling into step beside me at my locker, her voice low enough that only I could hear it. "Did you sleep at all?""A little," I admitted, which was generous. Every time I'd closed my eyes, that voice had echoed back through my thoughts. *He is closer than you think.* Sleep hadn't come easily after that."Ethan posted two Guardians outside the library," Lily said, nodding toward the far end of the hallway where I could just make out Connor stationed near the entrance, trying and mostly failing to look casual about it. "Guess he wasn't

Sophia POVHe caught me at my locker after the last bell, alone, the hallway thinning out around us as everyone else filtered toward the parking lot. "Do you have a minute?" Damian asked. "I know I said I'd tell you something, back before all of this started spiraling. I still want to.""Now's fine," I said, closing my locker. "Where?""The old chemistry roof," he said. "If that's still somewhere you'd feel comfortable going with me."I hesitated, thinking of that first conversation there, the rooftop confession about his father, the counting stars, the way something had shifted in how I saw him that afternoon. "Okay," I said.We climbed the familiar stairwell in silence, emerging into the cool late-afternoon air, the city spread out below us in its usual hazy sprawl. Damian didn't sit right away. He stood near the edge, looking out at nothing in particular, his hands loose at his sides, none of the restless energy I remembered from him weeks ago."I want to say something first," he s