Chapter 346

Chapter 346

I stare at Scarlette, my face giving nothing away. What we’ve uncovered is only a fragment of something far bigger. I can feel it. One piece of a puzzle too vast to make sense of yet. As for Liviana… I can’t even bring myself to be surprised. Humans and paranormals alike have committed worse in the pursuit of what they wanted. Greed is woven into everyone. So is selfishness. With so little of the truth before me, I don’t have enough to judge her completely.

A weary sigh escapes me as I sink to the ground. I draw my knees up and rest my forearms between them, lowering my head.

“Women can be unbelievably desperate,” Scarlette mutters as she walks over and sits beside me. “She murdered her own friend just to steal her husband, and it looks like she got away with it.”

A humourless chuckle slips from my lips.

“I doubt she did. I’m probably sitting here paying the price for what she did.” I rub a hand over my face before letting it fall back to my knee. “After the way that priest reacted to me, I’m almost convinced Selene cursed Liviana and her bloodline. But if that’s true…” I shake my head in disbelief. “Why punish innocent descendants for the actions of one worthless granddaughter? She should’ve known they had nothing to do with it. It was Liviana’s choice, not theirs.”

Bitterness coats every word.

“Then again, they’re gods. They don’t need a good reason to toy with people’s lives. The slightest excuse is enough because they can.” My jaw tightens as anger bubbles beneath my skin. “I’ve never liked Selene, but if she’s responsible for this… then I despise her.”

Scarlette is quiet for a moment, turning the thought over before speaking.

“Don’t be so certain it’s her,” she says gently. “And even if it is, perhaps she wants you to break the curse now. Gods aren’t incapable of making mistakes. Sometimes they act in anger, and by the time they regret it, the damage has already been done. Maybe she’s been waiting for someone capable of fixing what she couldn’t.”

She leans back against the stone wall with a tired exhale, one hand absently resting over her stomach.

“If Selene really cursed Liviana in a fit of rage, you might be the hope she’s been waiting for.” She shrugs. “Or maybe I’m completely wrong. We don’t know enough yet. Liviana certainly believed she’d escape punishment… and that confidence bothers me. I suppose we’ll learn the truth eventually.”

I don’t answer.

Instead, I lean back until my head rests against the old bookshelf. The brittle wood groans beneath the weight, scattering dust over my hair and shoulders, but I barely notice. My gaze drifts to the ceiling, where pale blue orbs glow from the rock like trapped stars, bathing the cave in a soft, ghostly light.

My thoughts refuse to settle.

If Liviana truly caused all this, then my family has suffered for generations because of a crime none of us committed. It feels cruel… senseless. Selene is the patron goddess of werewolves. If anyone would curse one of her own descendants, it would have to be for something unforgivable. Liviana’s betrayal certainly deserves punishment, but condemning an entire bloodline?

No.

Something doesn’t fit.

I want to be furious. I want to direct every ounce of my anger at Selene and be done with it, but my mind won’t let me. Instead, it tears the story apart, searching for the missing pieces, testing every possibility until only one conclusion remains.

There’s more.

Much more.

Liviana did something else.

Closing my eyes, I sift through everything I know about werewolf history, replaying centuries of events I’d memorised with the flawless recall that has stayed with me since the day I was born. I search for disasters, forgotten wars, anything that might connect to the curse beyond the conflict that gave shifters their gifts.

Nothing.

Not a single memory fits.

Scarlette lets out a long, weary breath and pushes herself to her feet, dusting her palms against her trousers.

“Well, sitting around being miserable over half the story isn’t going to get us anywhere. Let’s head back and show the others what we found. Maybe Kira can work out when all this happened.”

She starts towards the exit, and I rise to follow, but one question refuses to leave my mind.

“What I don’t understand is why a goddess was living in a cave in the first place.” I glance around the abandoned chamber, at the crumbling furniture and walls covered in fading carvings. “And why she’d leave her diary behind. For that matter, how did we even end up here?”

Scarlette stops so abruptly that I nearly walk into her. She looks back over her shoulder, her expression dripping with disbelief.

“Seriously?”

I blink.

“Out of everything that’s happened since you arrived at Lúa Infinita, that’s the part you’re questioning?” She throws both hands into the air. “What exactly do you find impossible? The fact that you’ve got a walking catastrophe of a wolf living inside you? Your ridiculously abnormal mate? Or perhaps the sugar-god fairy?”

Scarlette pauses, frowning at her own words. “Actually, what even is a sugar-god fairy? That doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense, yet she conveniently exists and you just happen to be ‘her master’.” She punctuates the last two words with exaggerated finger quotes before fixing me with a look that clearly asks whether I’ve completely lost my mind.

I roll my eyes, biting the inside of my lip as a reluctant laugh escapes me.

“You’re right.” I brush the dust from the back of my trousers and fall into step beside her. “When you put it like that, everything that’s happened starts feeling less like coincidence and more like something planned. As though every path has been leading me towards breaking the curse.”

I stroke my chin thoughtfully. “Does that mean Nino and Taffy’s deaths were part of it too?”

Scarlette’s expression softens.

“Who knows?” she says with a small shrug. “Even if someone sets a plan in motion, it doesn’t always unfold the way they expect. People’s choices change things. Outside forces interfere. Fate has a habit of taking the scenic route. Sometimes the destination stays the same, sometimes it doesn’t.” She looks ahead as we continue through the cave. “I don’t know how much of your life has been planned, but I do know one thing.”

She glances at me, her azure eyes unwavering.

“I’m not letting you die.”

A quiet chuckle escapes me.

“It’s not as easy as you think.”

She snorts.

“I saw a red butterfly that led me straight to you. You broke a spell that no one except my mother could undo, and you weren’t even trying.” She counts the points off on her fingers. “Out of everyone in the world, why am I the only one with a direct connection to the fox deities? Their own kind haven’t stood before them, yet somehow I have. They already knew we were coming, and they knew this place would help you. Then there’s the fact that I decided to visit you that day at Shtylla e forcës when I could’ve gone at any other time.”

She shakes her head.

“I don’t believe in coincidence anymore. If I’m right, then my role in all this is simple.” Her voice grows firm. “I’m supposed to keep you alive. No matter what.”

I lower my gaze to the gentle curve of her stomach.

“Your babies…”

“My babies weren’t part of the original plan.” Her hand instinctively comes to rest over her abdomen, stroking it with affection. “They’re the unexpected variable. Every day they make it harder for me to use my powers. They might even be the curse’s way of fighting back against your freedom.”

She smiles, though there’s determination beneath it.

“I don’t care. I’m not losing my children…” Her fingers spread protectively over her stomach before she looks at me with quiet certainty. “…and I’m certainly not losing you.”

I look away, my thoughts too tangled to put into words.

For the first time since we entered the cave, Zinnia breaks her silence.

“Her intuition has always been frighteningly accurate,” she says, her voice thoughtful. “It’s one of the most dangerous things about her.”

I almost stop walking.

She’s been unusually quiet these past few days, and the change hasn’t escaped me. Something is weighing on her, something she refuses to share, but I’ve long since accepted that pushing her is pointless. Whatever secrets she’s hiding, I’ll uncover them eventually. One by one, every answer will come, until there’s nothing left standing between us.

A faint smirk colours her voice.

“Yes… keep following that path, and you’ll have far fewer problems than you think.”