Chapter 100

Chapter 100
Sera POV

Jade's blood soaked through my dress, warm and thick, as I hugged his unconscious body tightly. The silver light pouring from my hands had stopped the worst of the bleeding, but he still remained terrifyingly still; his chest was barely rising with each shallow breath.

"Jade, please," I whispered, my fingers trembling against his face. "Please wake up. Please."

The crowd pressed closer, their fear rising like a living thing that wrapped around me as chains. I could hear their whispers; each one was a blade cutting deeper.

"You witch."

"She's cursed."

"She'll doom us all."

"The witch will destroy us all!" Moreen's voice rose above the others, shrill and triumphant. She stood at the edge of the circle, pointing a finger at me in accusation. "You see what she is? See what she has brought upon us? This is the prophecy made flesh. She is death and destruction wrapped in pretty skin!"

I wanted to scream at her, to defend myself, but the words died in my throat. Because how could I deny it? The silver fire still danced across my fingertips. The mark at my throat blazed like a beacon. And Jade, Jade who was once strong, fierce, and unbreakable, was lying broken in my arms because of me.

"Get away from him." Lucien's voice cut through the chaos, cold and commanding. He stood fully dressed now, his wounds already healing with supernatural speed. "The duel is over. By law, he has forfeited, and you belong to me."

"No." The word came out stronger than I felt. "He is not dead. The duel isn't finished."

"He's unconscious and unable to continue. That's forfeit." Lucien moved closer, and I saw something flicker in his eyes. Something that wasn't triumph but something darker and more complex. "Accept it, Sera. This is how it was always meant to end."

The fire in my veins surged in response to his words and to the threat I heard in his approach. I felt the goddess's power rising. I felt Elara's presence like a weight pressing down on my skull.

‘‘Let him come,’’ her voice whispered in my mind. ‘‘Show them what you truly are.’’

"Stay back," I warned, my voice taking on a sound that didn't belong to me. The silver light intensified, spreading outward in waves. "I won't let you take him. I won't let you—"

The world tilted violently, and pain exploded behind my eyes. It was white-hot and blinding. I heard someone screaming and realised distantly that it was me falling slowly to the ground.

Jade's face was the last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me whole.

\---

I was falling through silver light, tumbling through space that had no up or down, no beginning or end. My body felt distant and disconnected, like something I had left behind in another world.

Then, suddenly, I wasn't falling anymore.

I stood in a realm filled with pure moonlight, where the ground beneath my feet shimmered like water and the sky above blazed with stars too bright to look at directly. The air tasted of frost and power and ancient things.

"Welcome, daughter." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, familiar and foreign all at once.

I turned, and there she was.

Elara stood before me, but not as a reflection this time. She was real, solid, dressed in flowing silver robes that moved like liquid mercury. Her eyes held the cold fire of distant stars, and when she smiled, I felt it in my bones.

"Where am I?" My voice echoed strangely in this place.

"The Moon's realm. The space between life and death, between what is and what might be." She moved closer, circling me like a predator assessing prey. "Your mortal body lies unconscious in the dirt, little wolf. But your soul... your soul I called here. We have much to discuss."

"I don't want to discuss anything. I want to go back. Jade needs—"

"Jade." She laughed, the sound like bells made of ice. "You mean Kade."

The name hit me like a physical blow. "What?"

"Oh, you poor, ignorant child." Elara's smile turned pitying. "Did you really think fate was so simple? That you just happened to be drawn to him, that he just happened to be the one who could make your mark burn?"

She waved her hand, and images bloomed in the air around us. I saw a man who looked like Jade but wasn't. His features were harder, crueller. I saw myself, but I was younger and softer, wearing clothes from another era. Then I saw us together, saw the love that had burnt between us, and saw how it had curdled into betrayal and blood.

"Kade," Elara said softly. "Your first love. The man who was supposed to swear to protect you listened to his evil mother and rejected us. His betrayal was what led to your death and mine."

"No." I shook my head, refusing to believe it. "I saw what happened in the past in my dreams. But Jade isn't the same. He would never—"

"He already has." She gestured, and the images shifted. I saw Kade's face twist with hate. I saw him raise his sword to strike me. I saw his mother watch from the shadows as the soldiers came to drag me away. I saw the moment he realised what he had done. I saw the horror bloom too late across his features.

"The goddess cursed him for his betrayal," Elara continued. "Cursed him to be reborn, to find you again and again across lifetimes, always drawn to you, always destined to repeat his sins. And you… you were cursed to love him, to trust him, to be destroyed by him over and over until the cycle breaks."

I couldn't breathe. The weight of it pressed down on me, crushing and inevitable.

"Why?" The word came out broken. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you have a choice." Elara stood directly in front of me now, her eyes boring into mine. "You can forgive him. You can accept that he is not Kade, that this life is different, and that love can overcome the curse. If you do, if you truly forgive, the cycle breaks. You both go free."

Hope sparked in my chest. "Then I choose—"

"But", she interrupted, her voice sharp as a blade, "forgiveness means giving up the power I have given you. It means becoming ordinary again, mortal and weak and helpless. It means watching him age and die while you remain young, because the mark will fade, but what it woke in you will not."

The hope guttered. "And the other choice?"

Her smile was terrible and beautiful. "Destroy him. Complete the prophecy. Take back what was stolen. Not just his life, but the power he cost you in that first betrayal. Kill Jade, and you become what you were always meant to be: my vessel, my chosen, my hand of justice in this world. You will have strength beyond measure, life beyond counting, and the ability to reshape fate itself."

I stared at her, horror and temptation warring inside me. "You are asking me to murder him."

"I'm asking you to claim your birthright." She touched my face, and her fingers burnt like ice. "Choose, Sera. Forgive him and lose everything, or destroy him and gain the world."

The images swirled around us. Jade's face, Kade's betrayal, and the prophecy written in blood and moonlight. I thought of Jade unconscious in the dirt, of how he'd sworn to protect me, of the way his touch made me feel safe and terrified all at once.

I thought of the fire in my veins, the power that whispered promises of strength and freedom.

I thought of who I was and who I might become.

"I…" My voice cracked. "I need time. I can't just—"

"You have until the next full moon." Elara stepped back, and the realm began to fade around us. "One month, daughter. Then you must choose: forgiveness or power. Love or vengeance. Life or death."

The silver light consumed everything, pulling me down, down, and down. Till—

I woke up gasping, my eyes flying open. Strong arms held me, hands that were familiar and warm, and I smelt him: pine and smoke and blood.

"Sera." Jade's voice was rough and damaged but alive. So beautifully alive. "Thank the moon. I thought…"

I looked up at him, and silver fire flickered in my eyes, reflected in his. I saw him see it, saw the moment of fear before he pushed it down.

"What happened?" he asked softly.

I opened my mouth to tell him everything. To tell him about the realm, about Elara, about Kade and curses and impossible choices.

But the words wouldn't come.

Because how do you tell someone you love that you're destined to destroy them?