Chapter 88 Fate
Chapter 88 Fate
Chapter 88: Scarlett
I saw myself in that cave again.
My brother’s grunts were distant but I could feel the cold seeping through my bones like a knife. I tried moving my arms to warm myself up, but I realized I couldn’t move.
My eyes widened with panic as I saw that there was nothing holding me back, yet I couldn’t move.
And then, wait—
How did I even get here? Why couldn’t I move my limbs? Where was—
My thoughts stopped again as a sharp pain cut through my chest and my head. I screamed, wanting to hold my head, yet I was stuck in that trance-like state.
My wolf roared, reaching out for someone— someone I knew so well, but all of sudden, I didn’t know who I was reaching out for anymore.
Confused, I blinked, trying once again to move, but that was when the cold even intensified…
Yet, that sharp cold, combined with the pain I felt in my chest, pushed me back to consciousness.
My eyes instantly fluttered open like a child who had been locked up in a dark room for too long. And the first thing I felt was the cold.
It wasn’t just in my dreams, it was also here. The kind that didn’t just seep into the skin but also found its way into the bone marrow like a river of poison.
And there was the cold press of silver shackles burning into my wrists and ankles.
Then the same question I had asked in my dream resurfaced; How did I get here? Where was I?
But as if on cue, I raised my eyes to the walls and then I saw them…
The shadow guards. And then it became clear.
Parts of my memory flooded into my head and I remembered. I had gone to that cave to save my brother and…
I couldn’t remember the last detail. But I was certain it was for Axel.
My head quickly swerved to the right. And there he was.
My poor brother…
“Oh my god…” I whimpered at the sight of him.
Thanks to the silver around his wrists, he wasn’t healing. His face had a long open gnashed running across. Then his chest— oh goddess, I couldn't even look anymore.
“We need to get out of here, brother! We have to!” I let out in a shaky voice as I began to search around for something to help us out.
Axel couldn’t stay here any longer. If he remained here with the silver, he was going to die.
Because even a Lycan can survive with open wounds like this for only a period. Once that period was exceeded. They would be dead.
And I wasn’t going to wait until my brother died.
I pushed out my claws and began to claw at his chains first. But he flinched away.
“Don’t,” he rasped in a weak voice.
I froze but I refused to give up. “Axel… please don’t stop me. I have to do this…”
But he gently took my fingers and held them in his cold hands.
“We are not in the cave anymore… she has moved us somewhere… you need to save your strength till we know where we are…” he breathed.
His words were suddenly so slow, it broke my heart. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Willow and her shadows did to him…
The fire in his eyes was now too faint. The light that shone bright was now dimmed, like a dying star.
My throat tightened at the possibility of what could happen to us— to him. I could not stand and watch my brother get hurt again. I couldn’t.
Snatching my hand out of his hold, I resumed struggling with the chains. “I can break these… just let me—”
“They’re shadow-forged,” Axel murmured, cutting off my panicked rant.
But what he said barely even registered. It was his tone.
His voice was calm, almost too calm, as if he had accepted something I hadn’t yet.
Tears blinked in my eyes but I wiped them fast with the back of my hand and continued struggling with the chains.
“The more you fight them, the tighter they hold, Scarlett… You need to let it go…” Axel whispered.
But I was already a mess. Tears cascaded out of me like a waterfall as my throat also tightened at the pain.
“I have to do something!” I cried, yanking anyway in frustration. “I’m not going to sit here while—while—”
“You’ll only burn yourself out faster… if someone will come and save us from this hell, you will need your strength…”
Again, he used that tone that made the hair at the back of my neck stand erect.
My wild thrashing slowed. The chains pulsed once, and the shadows around us almost purred as if mocking my feeble attempts at freedom.
I felt my will power shatter. I sagged against the cold floor, my chest heaving as my tears intensified. “So that’s it then? We’re just supposed to wait here… wait for her to come and… and…”
“Yes,” he said, “But we don’t have to let her have everything. We don’t have to give her our peace.”
I blinked at him, confused and broken— “But I don’t want to lose you, Axel… I already lived a good part of my life without you… why can’t we just be happy? Why can't we own our own peace?”
Despite his battered and bruised body, he managed the smallest, saddest smile.
“Think happy thoughts, Scarlett,” he whispered. “That way, when the pain comes, it won’t swallow you whole.”
My lips trembled as his words only increased the pain I felt inside. A bitter laugh escaped me. “Happy thoughts? What happy thoughts?”
He looked at me carefully. “Anything, Scarlett… just don’t think negatively… Think of love… your love.”
That last word sliced through me like a blade. I shook my head violently, the chains rattling.
“I don’t have that. Not really. I’ve never truly known love.” My voice cracked into sobs. “Not the kind that… that makes you strong, that makes you whole. I don’t know what it feels like. So what am I supposed to think about, Axel? Tell me.”
Axel’s face softened, though pain lingered behind his eyes. “You think you don’t, but you do. You’ve tasted it. Maybe not the way you wanted, maybe not perfectly, but you’ve felt it.”
I swallowed hard, and my breath shuddered.
“I never even got to spend enough time with my parents… or you, who is my brother… and Blade, I was supposed to protect him. But guess what—”
My words paused as more tears streamed down my face.
“—Blade is gone too. So how can I know love, Axel… how can I think happy thoughts when my whole life has been a pit of sadness and sorrow?”
Silence filtered through our prison as even Axel lacked the right words to say.
In that moment, the despair in my chest twisted into something sharper. Almost like there was more I should be broken for, but I just couldn’t remember it… yet, I felt it.
It was like a deep sense of betrayal that tore through like a machete. I could feel my insides bleed from the pain and I just wished it could stop…
Because who have I offended— no, who had we offended in the Talon Black family? Why did we have to endure so much pain and trauma… why?
The questions kept coming and the tears could no longer stop.
So I curled forward, pressing my forehead to my bound wrists, shaking as I let my tears fall freely.
I felt Axel shift slightly against his chains, groaning at the effort, but he lifted his head high enough to meet my eyes. His expression was steady, calm in a way that unsettled me.
“I asked myself the same thing once,” he said quietly. “With Violet.”
My head jerked up… As if I could relate, even if deep down, I knew I hadn't met my mate yet…
“I doubted her,” Axel admitted, his voice heavy with guilt. “I thought she was better off without me. I let my own darkness blind me, and I nearly destroyed us. But then…”
He exhaled shakily, closing his eyes as if replaying the memory. “…then I realized love isn’t about perfection. It’s not about whether we fall or fail. It’s about whether we choose each other even after breaking up...”
He let the words hang there before opening his eyes again, pinning me with that quiet fire.
“Our family is like that too… We might seem cursed, but when you think about it, the only sin our father committed was falling in love with our mother, a simple human girl meant to be his breeder…” he whispered. “And it was all the goddess' plan…”
I scoffed at his last words and shook my head. “You don’t even believe in the goddess, Axel…” I said, half laughing through my tears.
He shrugged, a small smile also curling on his battered face. “Sometimes… we need to start believing in entities that guide our fate… it’s the only way we can keep our hopes alive.”