Chapter 146 But he left
The words echoed in her skull, vicious and certain.
"You're bleeding." Theo pointed to her arm where the rose thorns had scraped. "Miss Clara says bleeding means you need a bandage."
"It's just a scratch." Lila wiped the blood away, but her hands shook. The mixture of blood and rose scent triggered another flash. Another fragment.
Celeste's voice, different this time. Softer. Sad.
"I see how he looks at you. How you look at him. The bond is real, isn't it? The Moon Goddess chose you for him, not me."
"Celeste, I never wanted…"
"I know. That's what makes it worse. You didn't scheme or manipulate. You didn't do anything wrong. The bond just is. And I hate you for it even though I know I shouldn't. I hate you for having what I can never have. His heart."
Lila pressed her palms to her temples, fighting the onslaught of fragmented memories. They came too fast, too disjointed. Real conversations mixed with hallucinations. Truth tangled with fear.
"I'll get Papa!" Theo jumped to his feet. "He'll know what to do!"
"No, Theo, wait…"
But the boy was already running toward the palace, his small legs pumping. The guards moved to follow him, torn between staying with Lila and protecting the prince.
Lila forced herself to stand. The garden spun around her, roses and stones and sky all blurring together. She staggered to a bench and collapsed onto it, head in hands.
The memories were accelerating. Every day brought more fragments. But they made no sense. Some showed Celeste cruel and bitter. Others showed her sad and resigned. Some weren't Celeste at all but something else wearing her face.
Which were real? Which were poison-induced hallucinations? How could she trust any of it when her mind had been deliberately damaged?
Footsteps pounded on the garden path. Adrian appeared, breathing hard, Theo at his heels. His eyes swept over Lila, assessing her condition with military precision.
"What happened?" He knelt in front of her, hands gripping her shoulders. "Theo said you collapsed."
"I'm fine. Just a dizzy spell."
"Don't lie to me." His voice was harsh but his hands were gentle. "Your face is white. You're shaking. And your arm is bleeding. What. Happened."
Lila met his eyes. Saw concern and fear and that desperate protectiveness that characterized everything between them.
"Memory. Or hallucination. I can't tell anymore." Her voice cracked. "I saw Celeste. Or something that looked like her. She said I'd never replace her. That even dead, she'd always be between us."
Adrian's jaw clenched. "That wasn't Celeste. That was the poison talking. The spell creating false memories to keep you afraid."
"How do you know? How can either of us know what's real when my mind has been tampered with for four years?" Tears spilled over. "What if I never remember clearly? What if all I get are these fragments that contradict each other? How do we build anything real on a foundation of lies and hallucinations?"
"We start with what we know is true." Adrian's thumbs brushed her tears away. "The bond is real. What we feel for each other is real. Everything else, we'll sort through together."
"Papa, is Aunt Lila sick?" Theo's worried voice interrupted. "She needs medicine?"
"She'll be fine. She just needs rest." Adrian pulled Lila to her feet, supporting her weight. "Let's get you inside. Away from this garden and whatever triggers it's causing."
As they walked, Lila looked back at Celeste's memorial. The white roses swayed in cold wind. The violets they'd planted looked fragile and small against the stone and thorns.
You'll never replace me.
The words followed her from the garden, clinging like cobwebs. And despite Adrian's reassurances, despite his protective presence, Lila couldn't shake the fear that maybe, in some terrible way, the vision had been right.
Maybe Celeste's ghost would always stand between them. Not a literal ghost, but the memory of her. The guilt. The complicated tangle of love and jealousy and death.
Maybe some bonds couldn't be fully repaired. Some wounds cut too deep. Some damage was permanent.
Lila let Adrian guide her inside, past guards and curious servants. Let him settle her in her quarters with orders that she rest. Let him promise that Keal would examine her, that they'd figure out what triggered the hallucination.
But when he left and she was alone with her thoughts, the fear remained.
Along with a terrible certainty that the garden held more secrets. More memories. More truth buried beneath roses and lies.
And eventually, she'd have to go back. Have to face whatever waited there.
Because the only way through the fear was forward. The only way to separate truth from hallucination was to remember everything, no matter how much
it hurt.
Even if what she remembered destroyed her in the process.