Chapter 277
Chapter 277
CASSANDRA
I survived the Blightwood.
Barely.
+25 BONUS
The memories came back to me in jagged flashes, like shards of broken mirror pressed too close to my eyes. The searing pain in my lungs as I ran, the stench of rot curling into my throat, the sensation of the forest closing in around me–not just the trees, but something beneath them. Something old. Watching. Waiting.
The roots hadn’t just tangled around my legs. They’d tightened. Bitten. Like they wanted to drag me down into the earth and keep me there. Feed me to whatever lived below the moss and stone.
And the air–Goddess, the air had turned thick and wrong. Like syrup laced with poison. Every breath was a punishment.
The presence I felt in those woods wasn’t metaphorical. It wasn’t some trick of the darkness. It was real. Alive. A sentience that existed in silence and shadow and blood. And it didn’t want visitors. It didn’t want deals. It wanted tribute.
It wanted me.
If I hadn’t crawled my way back to the ridge–if I hadn’t found the talisman stitched into the lining of my coat, the one I’d told myself I’d never use–I wouldn’t be standing here now.
I’d always kept it close. Just in case. One last card. One final shred of power.
And I used it.
I whispered its name. I drew the blood. I offered what I had.
And it let me go.
Barely.
But I knew the truth now.
If I wanted to keep living–if I wanted to stay me–I had to stop relying on borrowed power. Stop reaching for the quick, cursed shortcut. Stop selling pieces of myself to gods and monsters and thinking I wouldn’t have to pay.
No more dark magic. No more whispered bargains.
No more leaning on the world to give me what I wasn’t strong enough to take.
From now on, it was me.
Cassandra.
Unforgiven. Unfavored. Unafraid.
I would survive. And I would do it with nothing but grit and fury and every ounce of cunning I had left.
I’d gone into the Blightwood to make Elena forget Derek.
And it had worked.
Technically.
She’d forgotten him.
But what had that actually changed?
He was still here. Still near her. Still drawn to her like a tide to the Moon. And she–despite the blank slate in her mind–was still following the same pull. Still orbiting him like she didn’t even know why.
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Whatever I’d taken from her… it hadn’t been enough.
The bond hadn’t snapped. The story hadn’t ended.
It had just rewritten a chapter.
And she was already flipping ahead to find him again.
+25 BONUS
He was still around. Still near. Still pulling her back in. She was still circling him. Still drawn to him like a moth to fire. Whatever I’d taken, it hadn’t been enough to break them.
And I hadn’t dared to ask for more.
Not from that place. Not from her.
Still… I needed to see him.
I knew it was irrational. Borderline pathetic. But the idea had been growing in the back of my mind like a weed.
He didn’t know what I’d done. Didn’t know I’d stood on the edge of a cursed forest and bargained with the darkness to take her memories and leave me a sliver of hope.
Maybe if he saw me now, without the weight of the past, without everything we’d become… maybe he’d remember what we used to be. Back when he promised he’d never mark anyone else. Back when he was mine.
I went to see him.
He looked surprised when he opened the door, but not angry. Not dismissive. He let me in. Asked if I wanted water.
For a minute, I let myself believe.
He smiled at something I said. Laughed, even.
It felt almost like old times.
But then he looked out the window. And his whole face changed.
The light in his eyes shifted. His posture straightened. He got this faraway, floaty look–like his thoughts had run ahead of him and left his body behind.
I turned my head.
Outside, across the lot, I saw Elena walking past the front of the Foundation.
And then I understood.
He wasn’t smiling because he was with me.
He was smiling because he was happy.
And the only reason he was happy… was her.
Whatever I’d done, it hadn’t been enough to kill it. And I didn’t know if anything ever would be.
DEREK
Cassandra left after a few minutes.
She wasn’t rude, but I could tell she was disappointed. Like she’d hoped for something different. Something more.
I didn’t have it to give.
Not anymore.
Chapter 277
+25 BONUS
Now, even when Cassandra was kind, even when she looked at me with those eyes that used to undo me–I barely heard her. I was distracted. Consumed.
By Elena.
She’d been showing up at the Foundation Day Care a few times a week now, joining in on the volunteering duties.
And the looks she gave me across the gym mats, the shy smiles when our hands brushed during cleanup, the glances she thought I didn’t notice when she thought I wasn’t watching–they nade my skin feel like it could peel off from the pressure of wanting her.
I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out.
And then, at the end of the day, when the kids were being picked up and the little ones were gathering their backpacks and coats, she walked straight over to me.
Aiden was beside her, already grinning.
“Hey,” Elena said, looking slightly flushed. “Would you like to getdinner tonight?”
In front of Aiden.
My jaw nearly dropped.
The kid lit up like a star. “YES,” he said for me.
I laughed. “I’d be more than happy to,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.
It was a lot to ask a six–year–old to keep secrets. He’d been doing the best he could, but I could tell it had been wearing on him. And now… she was asking me out. In front of him. Like it was the most natural thing in the world.
She’d asked me a few times about my life outside the Foundation. About what I did when I wasn’t folding napkins or getting climbed by toddlers.
Maybe, if I could just keep her close enough, long enough, her memories would start to return on their own.
I picked her up outside of Moonstone that evening.
In the Lambo.
She stepped outside and raised an eyebrow at the vehicle, looking amused and intrigued. She opened the passenger door and slid in like she belonged there.
“This yours?” she asked, running her hand over the leather interior.
“Sure is.”
“You don’t seem like a guy who owns a car like this,” she said, buckling her seatbelt.
I smirked. “You’d be surprised.”
She glanced at me. “You must do more than just childcare.”
I shot her a sideways look. “Maybe.”
Her lips curled. “Mysterious.”
I grinned but didn’t offer more.
She leaned back, watching the road, the wind teasing strands of her hair loose from her braid.
And then, just before we reached the turn–off for the restaurant, she reached across the center console.
At first, I thought she was going to take my hand.
Chapter 277
But her hand kept moving.
Lower.
More purposeful.
And I realized-
It wasn’t to hold my hand at all.
