Chapter 101 Marked without mercy
IRIS
The moment the door creaks open, my heart twists into a knot. Darian steps inside, slow, cautious. His eyes are shadowed with exhaustion, but also something softer, concern, maybe? Or fear? I don’t care. Not now.
“Iris,” he says quietly, voice low, like he’s stepping on fragile glass, and it makes my chest tighten.
I push myself up on trembling arms, every movement a jolt of pain, but I don’t care. I want this fight, need it, because it means I’m still here, still alive, still furious.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demand, voice sharp, slicing through the still air.
“Tell you what?” Darian asks, brow furrowing.
“That if I don’t complete the bond with you, if I don’t accept you as my mate, I’m going to die.”
The words tear out of me before I can stop them, and the room feels smaller the moment they hit the air.
His eyes flicker with something, regret, guilt, maybe even fear, but his tone stays calm, too calm, like he’s soothing a cornered animal.
“Iris,” he says softly, taking a careful step toward me, “you’re sick. You shouldn’t be shouting like this. You need to calm down.”
I blink, then laugh, a sound that’s more a sob than anything human. “Calm down?” The laugh turns sharp, jagged. “How do you expect me to calm down when I’m dying, Darian? When every breath feels like it’s ripping through my ribs?”
He winces at the word dying, but he doesn’t back away. “You’re not dying, not if we can fix this. Please, just sit down, you’re making yourself worse.”
“Worse?” I scoff. “You think this is me at my worst? You haven’t seen me dying yet!” My voice rises, burning, breaking. “You lied to me, Darian! You let me think everything was fine while this…this curse, was killing me from the inside!”
“I didn’t lie,” he says quickly, his voice still maddeningly even. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect me?” I shout, stepping forward. “You call this protection? Keeping me ignorant while my body falls apart? You had no right to decide what I could handle!”
“Iris-”
“No! Don’t say my name like that!” I throw my hands out, furious tears blurring my vision. “You don’t get to say it like you care when you’re the one who did this to me!”
His jaw tightens. “You’re yelling too much,” he says under his breath, taking another step closer. “You’ll exhaust yourself.”
“Good!” I scream. “Maybe I’ll collapse right here, and then you’ll finally understand what you’ve done!”
His voice sharpens now, a crack of thunder through the storm. “Stop it! You don’t mean that.”
“I do!” I shove at his chest when he moves closer. “You think I care if this makes me weaker? I’m going to die anyway, remember? Isn’t that what your mark decided for me?”
“Iris, please-”
“No! Don’t you dare please me! You had the truth, and you kept it locked away like I was too fragile to handle it! You think I needed your protection? I needed your honesty!”
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” he says through gritted teeth.
“You already did!” I choke out, my voice cracking completely. “You hurt me the moment you marked me without asking. You took my choice. You took everything from me!”
Darian’s face breaks, pain flashing through every line. He takes one more step and reaches out, slow but sure, his hand brushing against my waist. His palm is warm, grounding, and it’s supposed to calm me, but it doesn’t.
The touch snaps something inside me.
I shove him hard. Palm slaps his chest, sharp and loud in the quiet room.
“Don’t touch me.”
His eyes widen, hurt flashing across his face.
“Iris, stop-”
“Don’t touch me!” I shout again, louder this time, the sound ricocheting off the walls. “You think this is the right time to hold me? To touch me like that while I’m falling apart because of you?”
For a second, neither of us moves. His hand falls back to his side, trembling. His face is pale, lips pressed thin, the calm finally cracking.
Then his voice bursts out, raw and trembling. “I’m dying too, Iris!”
The room goes still.
My heart stutters, breath caught mid‑chest as the meaning sinks in.
“I feel it too,” he says, voice breaking now, the calm gone completely. “Every ache, every pull, every time you can’t breathe, it’s tearing me apart just as much. You think I can sleep knowing what this is doing to you? You think I’m not fighting it every second?”
I stand frozen, words caught in my throat, tears blurring everything.
“But you didn’t tell me,” I whisper. “You let me think I was alone in it.”
He steps closer again, gentler this time, eyes red‑rimmed and shining. “I wanted to protect you. There’s already so much pain in your life, I couldn’t give you more. I thought if I could find a way to fix it first-”
“You can’t fix it!” I shout, cutting him off. “You can’t fix something that started with a lie! You marked me without asking, and now your father wants me dead because of it. How is that protection?”
He flinches, shoulders bowing as if I struck him. “I didn’t think he’d…”
“Of course you didn’t think! You never think when it comes to me!”
His hand lifts again, instinctively, as though he can still reach me. “Iris-”
“Don’t.” I take a step back, voice shaking. “Don’t say my name. Don’t come closer. Just… don’t.”
The silence stretches, thick and suffocating. The mark burns under my skin, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. It feels like a clock ticking down to something inevitable.
He stares at me for a long moment, eyes wide and wet. Then he nods slowly, once. “Alright,” he whispers. “I’ll go.”
He turns toward the door. His hand hesitates on the handle.
“Leave!” I scream and his shoulders sag before he turns the knob and exits the room.