جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

I could not stop thinking about Marielle’s words.I feel like I have seen you die before.Even after Caelan led me away from the corridor, her voice stayed in my head. I kept replaying the way her expression had changed when she looked at me, as though some buried memory had surfaced for only a moment before disappearing again.Caelan did not ask me what I was thinking.He simply walked beside me, his hand still loosely holding mine.That small gesture should have felt strange after everything that had happened, but instead, it gave me something solid to hold on to while my thoughts continued to race.When we reached the main hall, I realized we were not alone.Several members of the royal household were gathered there, speaking in low voices. The moment they noticed us, the conversations became quieter.Their eyes moved from Caelan to me and then to our joined hands.I felt the weight of their attention immediately.The ceremony had ended only hours ago, but the consequences of my ch

I did not follow Caelan.He had told me not to, and although every instinct inside me wanted to ignore him, I knew that following him into a private meeting with Evander would only make things worse. Instead, I remained in my room with the door locked, listening to the silence around me while my mind kept returning to the same thought.This was the point where things started going wrong.Caelan had said it before leaving.He had also told me that, in his first life, this was when he had been separated from me.The problem was that I remembered it differently.In my memory, Caelan had simply disappeared.I had waited for him.He had never come.That was what I believed until yesterday, when he told me he remembered trying to find me.I walked toward the window and stared down at the courtyard.The palace looked peaceful from above, almost exactly as I remembered it from my first life. Guards moved along the stone paths, servants carried supplies between the buildings, and sunlight refl

Evander stood at the end of the corridor, watching us with an expression I could not read.For a moment, nobody moved.Caelan’s hand had already fallen away from my face, but I could still feel the warmth of his touch against my skin. My heart was beating faster than it should have been, and I hated that Evander had arrived at the exact moment when I had almost allowed myself to forget everything that came before.Evander’s gaze moved from me to his brother.“Caelan, I need to speak with you.”Caelan remained calm.“About?”“This isn’t the place.”I folded my arms.“That seems to be your favorite answer.”Evander looked at me.“This doesn’t concern you.”“It concerns me whenever you are talking about Caelan because of me.”His jaw tightened.Caelan glanced at me, and I could tell from his expression that he wanted to say something, but he allowed me to continue.Evander stepped closer.“You don’t understand what you’re doing.”“I understand perfectly well.”“You chose him because you

The warning stayed with me long after the strange voice inside my mind disappeared.Choose carefully.I stood in front of Caelan with my hand still in his, trying to understand what had just happened. My wolf had been quiet for most of my life, but now she felt different. Stronger. More aware. Almost as though she had been sleeping beneath everything I had experienced and was only now beginning to wake.Caelan studied my face.“What did you hear?”I hesitated.“I don’t know if it was a voice.”“What was it, then?”“It came from my wolf.”His expression became serious.“What did she say?”I looked down at our joined hands.“She told me to choose carefully.”Caelan was quiet for a moment.“Do you think she meant me?”“I don’t know.”The answer was difficult to give because some part of me was afraid that she did.After everything I had already learned, I should have been terrified of trusting anyone. Instead, I had just told Caelan that I wanted to find out what being with him could bec

The walk back to the palace felt different from the one into the forest.Nothing had actually changed. The path was the same, the trees still moved gently in the evening wind, and Caelan walked beside me with the same quiet confidence he always carried.But something inside me had shifted.I was becoming too aware of him.I noticed the warmth of his hand when our fingers brushed. I noticed the way he slowed his steps whenever I fell behind, even though he never pointed it out. I noticed the quiet expression on his face whenever he looked at me, as though he was trying to understand something he was afraid to ask.Most of all, I noticed how comfortable I had become beside him.That frightened me.Comfort had never been dangerous before.Trust was.I had trusted someone once, and I had lost everything because of it.When we reached the palace, I pulled my hand away before anyone could see us together.Caelan looked at me.I expected him to ask why.He didn’t.He simply let his hand fall