All Chapters of His Regret,Her Revenge: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Rain hammered against the window when I woke, hard and relentless, the kind of storm that demanded to be heard. I lay there for a long moment, listening to it drum against the glass and feeling the deep ache in my muscles from the day before. I didn't want to get up. The bed was warm, the room was quiet, and for the first time in days I didn't feel like I was drowning. But I knew if I stayed here, I would sink back into the darkness. So I pushed the covers aside and swung my legs over the edge of the bed, my bare feet hitting the cold floor. The cold was sharp, immediate, and it forced me to wake up, forced me to feel something other than the numb weight that had settled into my chest since the truth had come out. I dressed in silence, my movements slow and deliberate, and I walked to the window to look outside. The rain had turned the garden into a blur of gray and green, flowers bending under the weight of the water, stone paths slick and shining like wet glass. I used to stand a

We left the cave as the first light of dawn began to bleed through the trees, painting the sky in shades of pale gold and soft pink. Lyra came with us, though she didn't want to at first. She was terrified of what would happen if Cordelia's followers found her, terrified of what they would do if they caught her. But I told her she had a choice, and I meant it. She could stay in the cave and wait to be found, or she could come with us and help stop the thing she had once believed in. She chose to come. We moved through the mountains in silence, our steps sure on the rocky path, our eyes scanning every shadow. Lyra was weak from weeks of hiding, and Xavier was still bleeding through the bandage wrapped around his shoulder, the wound he had taken protecting me from Corvin's iron poker. He hadn't complained once, hadn't slowed down, but I could see the tightness in his jaw, the way he held his arm against his body to keep it still. By midday, we had crossed the mountain pass and ente

We spent the afternoon preparing. Not for a battle this time, but for something worse. A conversation. A meeting with the woman who had betrayed me, who had taken my husband, who had tried to take my son, who had smiled at me over Ezekiel's shoulder while I stood frozen in a doorway and watched my life fall apart. The woman who had come back. Xavier didn't argue when I told him about the letter. He didn't try to talk me out of it, didn't tell me it was a trap, didn't insist on coming with me. He just listened, his jaw tight, his eyes steady, and when I finished, he nodded slowly. "I don't like it," he said. "But I understand." "I have to know what she knows. If she's telling the truth, she could give us information we need. If she's lying..." I paused, my hand resting on the knife at my belt. "Then I'll deal with it." "I'm not letting you go alone." "I have to. She said to come alone. If she sees you, she'll run." "Then I'll stay close. Out of sight. If anything goes wrong—" "

Cordelia moved first. She didn't speak, didn't gloat, didn't give me time to prepare. She raised her hand, and the power erupted from her like a wave of darkness, slamming into me before I could raise a barrier. I flew backward, crashing through branches and underbrush, the breath driven from my lungs. I hit the ground hard, rolling, gasping, my vision swimming. "Did you really think you could stop me?" Her voice echoed through the trees. "You're nothing but a child playing with toys you don't understand." I pushed myself to my feet, my hands trembling, my power flickering around me. The mark on my shoulder burned, but the power felt distant, like it was slipping through my fingers. The wolves closed in. I counted them through the haze of pain. A dozen. Maybe more. They moved through the shadows like ghosts, their eyes gleaming in the darkness. I raised my hands and threw up a barrier just as the first wolf lunged. It slammed into the wall of light and recoiled, yelping.

We didn't move for a long time. I lay against Xavier, my body too weak to stand, my mind too exhausted to think. The cave was quiet now, the waterfall a distant hum, the darkness soft and still. The creature was gone, sealed away, but its presence lingered in the cold that clung to my skin and the mark that burned on my wrist. Xavier's hand rested on my back, his fingers tracing slow, soothing circles. His breathing was steady, his heartbeat a quiet drum against my ear. He was alive. He was hurt, but he was alive. I didn't want to move. I didn't want to break the stillness, the quiet, the fragile peace of knowing that we had survived. But I knew we couldn't stay here. We had to get back. We had to warn the pack. We had to tell them what had happened. But for a few more minutes, I let myself stay. I let myself feel the warmth of his body, the steady rhythm of his heart, the simple, impossible fact that we were both still breathing. "We need to move," I said eventually, my voic