All Chapters of I Rejected My Mate On Purpose: Chapter 41 - Chapter 45

The door didn't so much open as explode inward, the old iron latch giving way under a deliberate, heavy blow, and the first soldier through it met Torvin's fist before he'd even fully cleared the threshold, dropping like a stone across the narrow entrance in a way that momentarily blocked the doorway for whoever came behind him."Hold the gap," Ronan shouted, positioning himself alongside Torvin to take advantage of the bottleneck, and I understood immediately why he'd chosen this defensive stance, a narrow doorway meant their numbers counted for far less than they would in open ground.The second and third soldiers came through together, forcing their way past their fallen comrade, and the small stone room erupted into brutal, close-quarters chaos. I fought without the familiar heat in my palms, relying instead on eight years of trained reflexes, catching a blade meant for my ribs and driving my elbow hard into my attacker's throat, the same desperate, practiced violence that had kep

The coast smelled like salt and old rope long before we could see the water itself, and by the time the trees finally gave way to open cliffs, the wind had turned cold and sharp enough that I pulled my cloak tighter without thinking about it."There," Maren said, pointing toward a dark shape rising from the rocks below, half built into the cliff face itself, half standing free against the gray morning sky. "The Drowning Keep."It did not look like much from this distance, low and squat compared to Thornecrest's hidden grandeur, more fortress than castle, built for defense rather than beauty. But something about it made my skin crawl the longer I looked at it, the same way the mark on that dead scout's arm had made my stomach turn before I understood why."How do we get in," Cassian asked, studying the cliffs with a soldier's careful eye. "That looks like it was built to keep people out, not let them wander through.""There is another way," Maren said. "If the old records are correct.

Elara's eyes moved first, slow and unfocused, drifting toward the sound of Alistair's voice like someone waking from a very long, very heavy sleep."Ela," he said again, his voice cracking on the childhood name. "It's me. It's Alistair. Please, if any part of you can hear me, come back. You don't have to stay wherever they've kept you any longer."Her fingers twitched in his hand, small and uncertain, and then her whole body shuddered, a sharp, gasping breath tearing loose from her chest like she had forgotten how to breathe on her own and was only now remembering."Alistair," she whispered, her voice hoarse and broken from disuse, and I watched him break down entirely at the sound of his own name in her mouth, tears finally spilling free down his composed, cold features."I'm here," he said. "I'm so sorry it took this long. I'm so sorry for everything."There was no time for a longer reunion. The water had already climbed past the cave's lower steps, and I could hear shouting growing