Chapter 33 A Heavy Responsibility
Fernanda sat quietly in the room where she was kept, trying her best to ignore the plate of food in front of her. Her hands were clenched tight in a bid to calm her jangled nerves. She hadn't eaten ever since she got there and it was deliberate. She would starve herself to death unless they let her go.
Although that wasn't likely to happen, but they wouldn't want her dying too if they thought she was useful. “Catalyst...” Fernanda scoffed at the word. The more she thought about it, the more angrier she became. As if her whole life wasn't complicated enough. “Of course I had to be the damned catalyst again.” she said I'm a chiding tone.
Damon stepped into the chamber after knocking gently on the door. Fernanda straightened her shoulders when she saw him enter. The door closed softly behind him, yet the sound carried through the dimly lit room.
Fernanda sat on the edge of the narrow bed, arms folded tightly against her chest, eyes fixed on the untouched tray of food resting on the small wooden table beside her.
Damon studied her quietly for a moment before speaking. “You have not eaten.”
Fernanda’s jaw tightened. “I am not hungry.”
“That is a lie,” he said calmly. “You have been here long enough for hunger to set in.”
She turned sharply, fire flashing in her eyes. “I do not trust you enough to eat anything you bring me.”
Damon raised a brow. “You think I would poison you.”
“Yes,” Fernanda shot back. “I think you would do anything to get what you want.”
A soft laugh escaped him, low and almost amused. He stepped further into the room, stopping near the table. “If I wanted you dead, Fernanda Parkinson, you would not have been brought here alive.”
Her fists clenched at her sides. “Then why am I here?”
Damon picked up the tray and set it closer to her. “Eat.”
“No.” She stated, her tone stubborn.
“Fernanda.”
She stood abruptly. “Stop pretending you care. You dragged me away from my husband. You tied me up. You expect me to believe this is concern.”
He met her glare without flinching. “To clarify things, I did not drag you from your husband, you ran away from him. I just made everything easier.” Damon said making Fernanda scoff.
Damon straightened, his expression turning serious. “You are refusing food because you are afraid. But fear will not change what you are.”
“There you go again,” Fernanda snapped. “I do not want to hear it anymore. You sound so crazy.”
Damon exhaled slowly, the patience he had been holding onto thinning. “Denial will not protect you.”
“I am not your catalyst,” she said sharply. “I am just a woman who was forced into a marriage she never wanted and now trapped by people who think destiny excuses cruelty.”
His eyes softened, but his voice remained steady. “Destiny does not excuse cruelty. It explains necessity.”
“I do not care,” Fernanda shouted. “I will not be whatever monster you think I am.”
Silence fell between them.
Damon looked at her for a long moment, as if weighing something heavy. Then he sighed, a sound tinged with weariness.
“There is not much time left,” he said quietly. “And I had hoped you would not have to find out the hard way.”
Fernanda’s anger faltered. “Find out what.”
He hesitated.
Just long enough for dread to creep into her chest.
“Our world is unraveling,” Damon said finally. “Not slowly. Not in whispers. It is breaking apart, piece by piece, realm by realm.”
She scoffed weakly. “That is your excuse for kidnapping me.”
“No,” he replied. “It is the reason your name appears in every prophecy we have left.”
Fernanda shook her head. “Stop.”
“The elemental balance is collapsing,” Damon continued. “Shadow grows where it should not. Light fades where it once stood firm. The lycan realms are fracturing, and they will take the human world with them.”
She felt a chill crawl up her spine.
“If the impending doom is not obliterated,” Damon said, his voice lowering, “we will all die.”
Her breath hitched. “You expect me to believe that I can stop all of that.”
“I know you can,” he said simply.
“I cannot even control my own life,” she whispered. “How could I possibly control the fate of the world.”
Damon stepped closer, his tone gentler now. “That is exactly why the power chose you.”
Her eyes burned with unshed tears. “I do not want it.”
“I know.”
“I just want to live a normal life,” Fernanda said brokenly. “Where I can be actually happy. Where I can live and not just by what everyone dictates for me.”
Something dark flickered in Damon’s gaze. “The life you so desperately crave may not exist much longer if you continue to refuse who you are.”
She hugged herself tightly. “You are asking too much.”
“I am asking you to live,” he replied. “And to let others live too.”
Fernanda looked at the untouched meal again, then back at him. “And if I refuse.”
Damon’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Then the world will teach you what we could not.”
Fear settled deep in her chest, heavier than before.
As Damon turned to leave, he paused at the doorway. “Eat,” he said softly. “You will need your strength.”
The door closed.
Fernanda stared at the food, her hands shaking.
For the first time since her abduction, she felt something worse than fear.
She felt responsibility.
And it terrified her.