Chapter 122 122

Chapter 122 122
IVER’S POV

It starts as a fracture, not exactly pain but something deeper. A pull that shouldn’t exist, sharp and wrong, threading through my chest like a hook sinking into something already torn.

My breath stutters, uneven, my body locking for a split second before it hits again, harder this time. Selene.

The thought isn’t even conscious. It’s instinct. Immediate. Absolute. Whatever she’s doing… It's working and it’s killing her.

The bond doesn’t let me see her, not fully, not clearly, but I feel her. The strain. The way her power stretches too far, too fast, like something being forced open that was never meant to be touched.

A second pull follows, then a third. Each one tighter. Each one closer to breaking. I brace a hand against the ground, my fingers digging into the dirt as something in my chest twists violently.

My vision flickers at the edges, dark bleeding inward, but I force it back. No, not like this. Not while she’s…

The air shifts with the cold that I’m too familiar with. Wrong in a way that settles into your bones before your mind catches up.

I don’t need to look up to know she’s there. She has been watching me like a hawk since Selene started fighting. I knew Selene would not go without a fight, and I wouldn’t be going down without one either.

“You’re weakening.” Her voice is calm. Untouched. Like none of this costs her anything.

It should make me angry, who am I kidding? It does. But it’s not enough.

“Funny,” I manage, my voice rough, my breath still uneven as I push myself upright. “Doesn’t feel like I’m the one losing control.”

Silence answers me. Then, a presence feels closer now, watching. “You’re still trying to hold onto something that has already been claimed,” she says. “That connection you’re fighting for…”

“Is mine,” I cut in. The words come out sharper than I expect. Stronger too.

Because they’re true. The bond reacts instantly, tightening despite the strain, something raw and unyielding pushing back against whatever is trying to sever it.

For a moment… Just a moment…I feel her again. Selene. Closer this time, and breaking. My jaw clenches hard enough to hurt.

“That’s what this is to you?” I say, my voice dropping, quieter now, but far more deliberate. “A claim?”

No answer. Of course not.

“You talk about balance,” I continue, forcing each word through the pressure building in my chest. “About what’s required, what’s owed.” A sharp breath. “But you don’t carry any of it, do you?”

The air stills subtly but there. “You decide,” I go on, my gaze lifting now, locking onto where I know she stands even if I can’t fully see her. “You take. You demand. And you call it order.”

Something shifts in her, not much but enough. “And when it breaks?” I press, my voice tightening despite myself. “When people bleed for it…”

My breath catches, a sharp pull cutting through my chest again. Selene. Closer to the edge now. I feel it. So does she. The goddess doesn’t move nor speak. But the silence changes.

“Do you even feel it?” I ask, quieter now.

“Or is that the part you gave up to become this?”

That lands. I know it does. Because the pressure in the air deepens, not explosive, not violent, but focused. On me.

“You’re stepping beyond your place.” Her voice is colder now. Good. That means she’s listening.

“My place?” I let out something that almost sounds like a laugh, though there’s nothing light in it. “You mean the part where I’m supposed to accept this?”

Another pull hits sharper that my knees almost give. I don’t let them.

“If balance demands a cost,” I say, forcing the words out before the next wave hits, “then take it from someone who actually chose to stand in it.”

The silence that follows is heavy and dangerous.

“You don’t get to punish her for refusing you,” I continue, my voice tightening with something I can’t quite hold back anymore. “You don’t get to call that justice.”

The air cracks loudly and unmistakably. “And if you’re so certain this is necessary…” I push on, even as my chest feels like it’s splitting under the strain, “then stop hiding behind it.”

That does it. The presence sharpens instantly, pressure slamming down hard enough to force a strained breath from my lungs.

“Careful,” she says. It’s a warning.

I lift my head anyway to meet her. “If you believe in what you’re doing,” I say, quieter now, but steadier than before, “then face the consequences of it.”

I pause. “Face me.”

The words settle between us, heavy and deliberate, but not reckless. Not a challenge thrown blindly. It’s an accusation, a demand, a line drawn where there wasn’t one before.

For the first time since she appeared, the goddess hesitates. And somewhere, through the tearing strain of the bond, Selene’s presence flickers. She’s not gone yet. But she’s slipping. My chest tightens sharply.

Time is running out. “Or is this,” I add, my voice lowering just enough to cut, “the only way you win?”

The silence that follows isn’t empty. It presses, weighing on us. Like the world itself is waiting to see if I’ll break first.

My pulse stutters, uneven now, each beat dragging against the strain clawing through my chest. The bond tightens again, violent this time, and I feel it, sharper than before. Not just the pull. Her resistance. Selene is still fighting. Still pushing.

A flicker of something fierce cuts through the haze threatening to drag me under. Pride. Fear.

Something far worse tangled between them. I latch onto it, onto her, forcing myself upright despite the way my body protests.

“You feel that?” I ask, my voice lower now, roughened but unyielding. “That’s not imbalance.”

Another breath, strained. “That’s her refusing to bend to you.”

The pressure shifts again, colder this time, coiling tighter around my ribs like a warning that’s running out of patience.