Chapter 119 119

Chapter 119 119
SELENE’S POV

She doesn’t answer immediately, which is an answer on its own. “Enough,” she says finally. “Enough that I learned not to stand too close to people who think they can rewrite divine balance.”

My expression hardens. “I’m not rewriting anything.”

The seer gives a faint, humorless smile. “That’s what they all say at the beginning.”

The air tightens again between us but I don’t step back because I can’t afford to. “I don’t care what she did to the last one,” I say finally. My voice is steady, almost calm. “Or how she did it.”

The seer studies me carefully. I take one step closer. “I care that she is still lost,” I continue.

A flicker of uncertainty crosses her face. “Because she didn’t win,” I add. “Not completely. I’m still here. He’s still reachable. And she’s still reacting.”

That last part matters more than anything else. Because gods don’t react unless something is slipping. The seer’s voice lowers. “You’re assuming she reacts like you do.”

“No,” I say. “I’m assuming she reacts when she’s threatened.”

There’s a pause, then I tilt my head slightly. “And right now,” I finished, “she’s very interested in me.”

That quiets the room completely. The seer doesn’t deny it this time. Which means she feels it too.
The shift and imbalance. The fact that something, me, Iver, the bond between us, has already stopped behaving the way it should.

Finally, she speaks again, more cautiously now. “If you continue, there won’t be a second warning.”

I hold her gaze. “There wasn’t one for him,” I say.

“There won’t be one for you either,” the seer says.

Her voice is quiet now. Not sharp like before. Not defensive. Just… certain. I didn't respond immediately. I let the words sit where they land, heavy and deliberate, like everything else in this room. Then I step past her.

She stiffens. “What are you doing?”

“Looking,” I answered simply.

“For what?”

“For the part you’re not telling me.”

There’s always one. There has to be. The goddess enforces balance, not silence. Rules don’t exist without edges, and edges mean fractures. There has to be loopholes, costs, something, or anything we can use. The seer watches me move around the space, her unease growing with every step I take. Shelves lined with old texts. Symbols carved too precisely to be decorative. Objects placed where they matter, not where they look right.

“You think this is a puzzle,” she says slowly.

“I think everything is,” I reply, brushing my fingers lightly over a carved surface. My power hums faintly under my skin, reacting to something buried deeper than sight. “And puzzles exist to be solved.”

“Not this one.”

I glance back at her. “Then why are you still here?”

That hits. She doesn’t answer. Not right away. But something shifts in her expression, something quieter, more honest than anything she’s said so far.

“Because I survived it,” she says finally.

I studied her for a second longer. Then I turn away again, my attention narrowing. “No,” I say, softer now. “You adapted to it.”

There’s a difference. Surviving means enduring. Adapting means learning where the lines are… and how close you can stand to them without falling over. My gaze settles on a low table in the corner. It wasn’t there yesterday. Or maybe it was, and it didn’t matter then. Now it does. I move toward it slowly.

“Selene…” the seer starts, sharper this time.

I ignore her. The surface is bare except for a single object. Small. Unremarkable at first glance. A thin, circular band, darkened with age, carved with markings so faint they almost disappear unless you’re looking directly at them. My power reacts instantly, not violently, not like before. But… knowingly.

“What is this?” I ask, already reaching for it.

“Don’t.” The word comes out too fast but too late.
The second my fingers close around it, something shifts, not in the room but in me. It’s subtle, but unmistakable. Like a thread being pulled taut somewhere deep in my chest. Not painful. Not yet. Just… aware.

The seer swears under her breath. “That,” she says tightly, “is why I told you no.”

I turn the ring slightly between my fingers, watching the markings catch the light. “It’s connected.”

“Yes.”

“To her?” I ask.

A pause.

“…To the system she enforces,” she corrects carefully.

That’s not a denial. My grip tightens slightly. “And it does what?”

The seer hesitates again. Then exhales. “It doesn’t break anything,” she says. “It doesn’t fight her. It doesn’t protect you.”

I look up at her. “It binds you,” she finishes.

A beat of silence passes and my expression doesn’t change. “To what?”

Her gaze locks onto mine. “The cost.”

Something in my chest stills. That thread I felt, it pulls again, slightly stronger this time, like it’s responding to the question.

“Everything you try to take back,” the seer continues, quieter now, “everything you pull out of her reach… it takes something from you in return.”

I don’t look away. “How much?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” she admits. “It’s not fixed. It adjusts.”

“To what.”

“To balance.” Of course it does. A faint, humorless breath leaves me. “So I pay instead.”

“Yes.”

“She doesn’t stop it,” the seer corrects. “Because the outcome stays the same.”

My mind sharpens around that. “Not exactly.”

Her eyes narrow slightly. “Close enough for her not to interfere.”

That’s the loophole, not breaking the system just feeding it differently. I look back down at the ring. It’s lighter than it should be. Or maybe I’m just not feeling it properly anymore.

“What happens,” I ask slowly, “if the cost outweighs what I have?”

The seer doesn’t hesitate this time. “Then it finishes collecting,” she says.

A quiet settles over the room again. I slide the ring onto my finger. The reaction is immediate.
That thread tightens, sharp now, undeniable, pulling deeper into something I can’t see. My breath stills for half a second, my power flaring instinctively before settling back down under control.

The seer goes completely still. “Selene…”

“It’s fine.” It is because now I can feel everything. The direction. A pull. Faint, distant, but real.
Iver. My head lifts slightly, my focus narrowing to that single point. He’s still there, not gone. Just unreachable… held. And now, I can reach back.

The seer is staring at me like she’s watching something unfold that she already knows the ending to. “You don’t even know what it’s going to take from you.”

I meet her gaze, steady and unshaken.

“I don’t need to,” I say.

Because there’s nothing she could name that would make me hesitate now. Her expression hardens again, but there’s something under it this time. Not just fear. Understanding.

“That’s exactly why this works,” she says quietly.

Maybe. Or maybe it’s why it breaks. I turn toward the door, already moving. “Selene.” Her voice stops me just before I reach it. I pause, glancing back.

“If you start this,” she says, “you don’t get to stop halfway.”

I hold her gaze for a second. Then I open the door. “I wasn’t planning to.”