Chapter 85

Chapter 85
Jade POV

I stood up from the bed slowly, careful not to wake her.

Sera was still asleep, her breathing soft, her hair scattered across the pillow like dark silk. I watched her for a moment too long, maybe. Something in my chest tightened again, the same thing that always happened when I looked at her. A pull I couldn’t explain and didn’t want to fight.

I hadn’t planned tonight.

I hadn’t planned to touch her like that, to take her into me so forcefully that I forgot where my skin ended and hers began.

But the moment she looked at me soft, shaken, needing, everything in me snapped loose. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to.

I left the room, breathing in the cooler night air in the corridor, trying to steady myself. My hands were still shaking, just slightly. I told myself I only needed water. Something to settle the heat still thrumming through my veins.

When I reached the lower hall, a servant bowed quickly.

“My Alpha, Lady Moreen asked to see you. She said it was urgent.”

I nodded once and followed the servant’s direction. The moment I stepped into her chambers, she was already standing there composed and elegant, her expression unreadable.

“Jade,” she began softly, almost too softly. “I wanted to speak to you… away from all the tension that has been building between us.”

I didn’t respond. I simply watched her.

She had not spoken gently to me in a while, not without an angle hidden beneath her voice.

She sighed and looked away, as if gathering herself.

“I know things have been difficult lately,” she said, “but I want to set aside whatever… conflict has been between us. You are my only son. It pains me to see this distance.”

My brow furrowed. I had expected many things from her. This was not one of them.

Moreen reached for two glasses. A bottle of deep crimson wine stood open on the table.

“To peace,” she said, forcing a smile. “To harmony. To us moving forward.”

The glass was already in my hand before I could think.

Her eyes met mine, and I lifted the glass. Drank it in one swallow.

It burnt warm. A strange heaviness began to settle low in my stomach.

She smiled then. “You must be tired,” she murmured, her voice smooth as sand. “Go and rest. The night has been long.”

I nodded, though the hallway seemed to shift slightly under my feet as I turned. The air felt heavier.

I walked back… no, heaved back toward my chambers, each step slower than the one before.

My pulse beat strangely. My hands felt warm… and then numb.

I tried to breathe.

Something was terribly wrong.

But all I could think of, all I could see when I finally reached my door, was Sera.

My body felt heavier than it should have, as if something thick and invisible dragged at my limbs. But I forced myself forward. I did not want to think. I did not want to feel anything except the warmth of her body beside mine.

I slipped under the blankets and lay down next to her.

Her scent found me instantly – soft, familiar, something like moonlight and warm skin.

My eyes closed almost on their own.

Sleep came fast.

All of a sudden, Sera stood in front of me, pale under the blood-red moon. She was not afraid. Instead she glowed with silver fire flickering across her skin, rising from her like wings.

She whispered my name, and then her eyes changed.

They were no longer hers; they were the goddess’s.

“Do you understand what you are?”

The ground cracked beneath my feet.

My breath caught.

I couldn’t speak.

Sera stepped closer, but the silver fire around her grew brighter and harsher, burning through the air like a volcano.

I reached for her.

But my hand closed around her throat. Her lips parted and eyes widened.

Her hands tried to push mine away, and the silver fire exploded up her body, searing through me, burning, burning, burning…

I felt my skin melt, my bones crack.

I heard myself scream.

Her fire consumed me, and I jolted awake.

My heart was slamming against my ribs. My breath came in ragged, broken gasps. Sera was beneath me.

My hand was wrapped around her throat.

Her eyes were open wide, confused and frightened. She couldn’t speak because I was still holding her neck.

I let go instantly.

She gasped, rolling to the side, coughing, dragging air back into her lungs.

My entire body went cold.

“No,” I whispered. My own voice didn’t sound like mine. “No. No…”

I backed away, my hands shaking. I stared at them as if they belonged to a stranger.

I could still feel the dream.

I could still feel the fire.

Sera looked at me with wide, teary eyes, her hand pressed to her throat.

She didn’t say anything.

And that silence cut deeper than any blade.

I reached toward her, slowly, carefully, like she was made of glass and I was made of poison.

“Sera,” I whispered, and the word broke in my chest. “I didn’t… mean to. I would never…”

My voice failed.

The truth hung heavy between us. I didn’t know what I was anymore.

I pulled her into my arms, just holding her like if I let go, I would fall apart. My forehead pressed against her hair.

And then her hands shoved me away. The world snapped back.

She pushed away from me, scrambling back, her body hitting the headboard. Her breaths came fast, uneven, shaking. Her eyes were wide… with distrust, not with the softness I had seen before…

My chest tightened… No, crushed.

I felt something cold slide down my spine, something I had never felt before, not during battle, not during fury, not even during killing.

I pulled my hand back as if I had touched fire.

“Sera… please…” My voice cracked. I had never heard it do that.

She flinched.

She flinched from me.

Her fingers went to her neck, gently touching the place where my hand had been, where my grip had been, and my heart clenched so violently I thought I might break apart from it.

“I…” I tried again, but words refused to form. I could not explain something I did not understand.

Her lips trembled, but she didn’t speak. She just kept breathing small, sharp breaths that tore into me more deeply than any blade ever had.

“I didn’t mean to,” I forced out. My voice sounded ruined. “Sera… I wasn’t awake. I didn’t know…”