Chapter 102 – Shadows in the Mind

Chapter 102 – Shadows in the Mind
Scarlett

You don’t realize how fragile your mind is until something else starts whispering inside it—using your voice, your memories, your fears.

“You saw the fire?” Kael asked, his grip tightening on my wrist.

“Yes.” My voice shook. “But it wasn’t… it didn’t feel wrong. It felt real.”

“That’s how it starts,” he said. “Nytheris doesn’t strike with fangs or blades. It seduces. Weakens you from the inside until you don’t know what thoughts are yours anymore.”

A tremor passed through me, settling in the pit of my stomach. I pulled my hand free and pressed it against my belly. The baby hadn’t moved since the vision. That terrified me more than the fire.

“Why now?” I whispered. “Why me?”

Kael didn’t answer right away. His crimson eyes studied me, like he was weighing what to say next.

“Because you’re not human anymore,” he finally said. “And you’re not fully vampire either. You’re something else. The moment you chose to carry the child… you became a vessel. And now, Nytheris wants what’s inside you.”

I swallowed, trying to keep the bile from rising.

“You said it speaks through memories. How do I know this conversation is real?”

“You don’t.” He looked away, jaw tight. “But if it weren’t real, I wouldn’t still be begging for your forgiveness.”

That made me blink. The pain in his voice was raw. Unscripted. Human.

The carriage jostled suddenly.

Outside, the trees grew thicker. Shadows swirled between trunks, and the world looked like it had been drained of color. My skin crawled.

“We’re entering the Veiled Path,” Kael said. “Only a few of us know this road. It doesn’t exist in the physical world.”

I turned sharply. “What?”

“It’s a place between realms,” he explained. “We use it to hide high-level transfers—royals, ancient ones, things the mortal world should never see. But lately… it’s been less stable.”

“And you thought this was a good idea?”

His smirk was faint. “If they’re already inside your mind, Scarlett, we need to take a road that leads outside it.”

The moment we passed into the Veiled Path fully, everything changed.

The sky darkened to an endless dusk. Time felt slower. My heartbeat thundered in my ears like it didn’t belong in this place.

Outside the carriage, white-eyed beasts slithered in the mist—ghosts, perhaps. Or memories that no longer had a mind to cling to.

I pressed my hand to the window and exhaled.

“You said this path was unstable. What does that mean for us?”

Kael’s answer was blunt. “If you lose focus, it can trap you in a loop. A nightmare. A memory. It becomes real—until you remember it isn’t.”

Charming.

“So this is what a safe route looks like to you?” I muttered.

Kael didn’t laugh. “Scarlett… you’re not safe anywhere. Not anymore.”

The first vision hit while I was mid-sentence.

One moment, I was asking Kael a question about the court—whether Varyn still held power, whether the prophecy was being whispered again.

The next, I was… back. In the palace gardens. Alone.

Roses bloomed in unnatural red, their petals wet with dew.

My hands were smaller. I wasn’t pregnant.

“What the—”

“Hello, little bird.”

The voice froze my blood.

Varyn.

I spun. He was lounging on a stone bench, the same silver-bladed dagger twirling between his fingers—the one he once threatened me with.

“You’re not real,” I said.

He grinned. “Aren’t I? You spent weeks in this garden, didn’t you? Watching him walk away. Over and over. Letting yourself rot in silence.”

I clenched my fists. “This is a trap.”

“And still,” Varyn murmured, rising, “you walked right back into it.”

He stalked toward me slowly, but the world began to crack behind him like glass breaking underwater.

“Do you know what happens when a vessel loses its sense of self, Scarlett?” he whispered. “It becomes an open door. And some doors… should stay locked.”

I screamed—out loud or in my mind, I wasn’t sure—but then—

Light.

Heat.

Kael’s voice.

“Scarlett! Wake up—now!”

My eyes snapped open with a sob, and I collapsed forward into Kael’s arms inside the carriage. My body was drenched in sweat. My heart thundered like I’d run for miles.

“It tried to take me,” I gasped. “It used Varyn. My memories…”

Kael held me tighter. “You’re fighting it. That’s a good sign.”

“That didn’t feel like a good sign, Kael. That felt like drowning.”

We didn’t stop moving.

Not for hours.

Not until the Veiled Path started to lighten—just barely.

I leaned my head against the seat, Kael beside me, our hands occasionally brushing but never fully intertwining.

It had been so long since I trusted his touch.

And yet… his presence anchored me more than I wanted to admit.

He shifted slightly.

“You were bleeding from the nose,” he said softly. “When I pulled you back. I wiped it away.”

I touched my face. Dry. But tender.

“How many times have you had to save me now?”

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he murmured, “Do you want to know the truth?”

I turned my head to him.

“I wanted you to hate me,” he said. “Back when you left. I thought if I pushed hard enough… you’d never come back. Because it would be safer for you. But the truth is…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I was never trying to protect you. I was trying to protect myself.”

I blinked. “From what?”

“From how much I loved you,” he said. “From what I would become… if I lost you.”

Before I could respond, the carriage shuddered violently.

Then—

Stopped.

Kael moved instantly, pushing me behind him.

He opened the door—

And the outside was wrong.

The Veiled Path was gone.

So was the forest.

We were in an endless field of white. Snow that didn’t fall. Light that had no sun.

At the center of it stood a woman.

Or… what looked like one.

Draped in black feathers, skin white as bone, her eyes were pure shadow. No whites, no irises. Just void.

Nytheris.

Kael stepped out first. “Don’t speak,” he warned me.

I followed anyway, feet crunching on snow that didn’t melt.

The creature tilted her head at me, mouth curled in a mockery of a smile.

“You bring the vessel to me,” she purred to Kael. “How generous.”

“She comes of her own will,” Kael replied coldly. “And she’s not a vessel. She’s a mother. A queen.”

Nytheris laughed. It was like glass shattering and wind shrieking.

“I don’t want her,” she said, eyes boring into mine. “I want what grows inside her. And when the time is right… it will come to me willingly.”

My fingers curled.

“No,” I whispered. “It won’t.”

Nytheris took a step forward—and that’s when I saw it.

The same mark on her hand… that had started to appear on my stomach. A sigil burned into the skin.

We were linked.

Somehow, the ancient monster was connected to my child already.