Chapter 102 Hundred and eight
“Don’t say it, Sienna. Please… don’t.”
Ryder’s voice cracked through the courtyard, hoarse and raw, the kind of sound that could tear open a soul. Sienna froze mid-breath. Her heart slammed against her ribs. Every instinct in her begged her to run to him, to hold him steady before the curse dragged him under again.
But she couldn’t move.
Because if she stepped one inch closer, he would die.
“Your Majesty,” Elder Theron pressed, leaning on his staff. “The realm waits.”
“I know,” she whispered.
Renna folded her arms smugly. “Then speak. Or shall we take your silence as proof of disloyalty?”
Sienna didn’t look at her. She kept her eyes on Ryder, the man she had fought for, bled for, chosen even when choosing him set the world on fire. His dark hair clung damply to his forehead, his broad shoulders trembling under the weight of visions only he could see. The curse clung to him like a living shadow, coiled around him, dragging him down inch by inch.
“Sienna,” Ryder murmured again, gripping the pillar to stay upright. His chest rose and fell in uneven bursts. “Don’t do this to us.”
“I’m doing it to save you,” she breathed.
His eyes burned at that, burned with fury, anguish, and a kind of love that hurt to look at.
“Save me?” he whispered. “By destroying me?”
She shook her head weakly. “I… I don’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice,” he snapped, fire flickering in his gaze despite the pain ravaging him. “You choose them over us, ”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“Then what are you doing?” he demanded. “Tell me what this is, Sienna. Tell me how this helps me.”
She had no words.
Theron saw her hesitation and pounced.
“Your Majesty,” he said sharply, “the crowd is losing patience. Your authority is at stake. If you cannot decide, we will decide for you.”
The wolves murmured. Footsteps shifted. Fear rippled across the courtyard like a rising tide.
Sienna straightened her spine. “You won’t take the throne from me.”
“Then prove you are worthy of it,” Theron replied. “Condemn the threat standing before you.”
“A threat?” Sienna whispered. “Is that what you truly believe he is?”
Theron’s gaze hardened. “What I believe does not matter. What the realm believes does.”
Renna stepped closer, her voice dripping like poisoned honey. “Your people need you to protect them. They need clarity. They need strength.”
Ryder’s breathing hitched. His knees buckled, and he dropped forward, catching himself with one shaking hand. The curse pulsed viciously, silver veins glowing under his skin, twisting like barbed wire.
Sienna’s stomach twisted.
Every time he got nearer to her…
Every time he tried to speak her name…
Every time his heart reached for hers…
The curse punished him for loving her.
She felt her own pulse falter at the thought.
“Look at him,” Renna murmured. “He is losing himself. Soon, he will be nothing but a creature. And you will be the cause of it.”
“Shut your mouth,” Sienna snapped.
Renna only smiled.
Theron raised his staff again. “Your decree. Now.”
Ryder lifted his head, and the desperation in his eyes reached her where she stood, as real as if he had touched her soul.
“You promised me,” he whispered. “You promised you wouldn’t give up.”
She felt her breath catch.
“I’m not giving up,” she said. “I’m trying to save, ”
“Lies,” he rasped. “Don’t lie to me. Not now.”
“Ryder, ”
“Say what you feel,” he said. “Not what they want.”
Her lips parted… but what she felt would kill him.
She felt the curse coil again, saw Ryder jerk in agony. His hands slammed into the ground. Stone cracked beneath him. The crowd stepped back, gasping.
“Sienna, ” He choked. “Please, don’t do this. Don’t let them win.”
She took one small step backward. The crowd saw it. Theron saw it. Renna saw it.
Ryder saw it most of all.
His expression shattered.
“No,” he whispered. “No, no… Sienna, don’t you move away from me.”
Her throat trembled. “If I move toward you, you’ll die.”
“And if you move away,” he rasped, “I’ll die anyway.”
Silence fell over the courtyard.
Sienna closed her eyes for one brief heartbeat.
She saw the future if she chose him,
Ryder writhing in pain, torn apart by a goddess who hated their bond.
His life ending with her name on his lips.
Not because he was weak.
But because he loved her.
She opened her eyes again.
Ryder was staring at her, waiting for her to save him.
Theron was waiting for her to choose duty.
Renna was waiting for her to fall.
And the crowd…
The crowd waited for a queen to stand tall.
“Sienna,” Ryder pleaded. “Don’t break us.”
She swallowed the scream clawing up her throat.
“I have to protect you,” she whispered.
“You’re not protecting me,” he snapped, voice hoarse with heartbreak. “You’re protecting their fear.”
She flinched.
“You’re choosing fear over love.”
Her breath trembled. “I’m choosing your life.”
He shook his head. “No. You’re choosing the crown.”
She took a step forward, helpless. “Ryder, ”
The curse lashed at him instantly.
He fell to one knee.
A strangled cry tore out of him.
Sienna stopped moving, tears burning behind her eyes.
“Don’t come any closer,” he gasped. “Don’t speak. Don’t… don’t look at me like that.”
“I can’t pretend I don’t care,” she forced out.
“You can,” he whispered. “You’re about to.”
Her heart cracked open.
Theron raised his staff one final time.
“Sienna of the Moon Court,” he said loudly, projecting his voice. “Your realm demands the truth. Declare whether Ryder Thorn is a danger to your rule and your life.”
The immense weight of the moment settled over her.
The eyes of her kingdom.
The judgment of her council.
The curse tearing the man she loved apart.
She lifted her chin.
Her voice trembled, but she didn’t let it break.
Her heart screamed as she formed the words.
“I…” she whispered.
Ryder waited.
Bleeding.
Shaking.
Breaking.
Her next breath was a knife.
“I, Queen Sienna of the Moon Court…”
The courtyard leaned in as one.
“…declare that, ”
Her voice caught.
Ryder’s eyes widened… hopeful… terrified… raw.
“…that Ryder Thorn…”
Her hands trembled at her sides.
“…is no longer…”
Her throat closed violently.
She forced the words out anyway.
“…mine to protect.”
Ryder froze.
The curse pulsed.
The wind stilled.
The crowd erupted.
Ryder’s soul cracked open.
And the world began to unravel around them.
Chapter 68
Ryder Hears the Fatal Words
“Say it again.”
Ryder’s voice trembled across the courtyard, low and broken, carrying a kind of pain Sienna had never heard from him, not even in battle, not even when the curse first sank its claws into him. He stared at her as if he hadn’t understood her words the first time, as if repeating them might reveal some hidden mercy.
Sienna’s fingers curled at her sides. “Ryder… please don’t, ”
“Say it again,” he whispered, taking a small step forward before the curse yanked him back like a chain hooked through his ribs. He staggered, gasping, but didn’t take his eyes off her. “I need to hear it. I need to know… I didn’t imagine it.”
The entire courtyard went still.
Guards shifted uneasily.
Renna smiled like a predator watching its prey fold.
Theron waited with the patience of a man who’d already decided the ending.
Sienna didn’t answer.
Ryder lifted his chin, though even that small movement looked like agony. “You said… I’m not yours to protect.”
Her jaw trembled. She didn’t move.
For the first time, Ryder’s expression shifted, not with anger, not with the torment of visions, but with something deeper. Something far worse.
He looked betrayed.
“Sienna,” he breathed. “No.”
His voice cracked open like a wound.
“You didn’t mean that,” he said, shaking his head slowly. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“I, ” Her throat closed.
“Tell me,” he pressed, his tone jagged. “Tell me this is another one of Theron’s games. Tell me this is Renna’s trap. Tell me you’re lying.”
“Ryder, ”
“Tell me,” he insisted again.
“I’m trying to save you,” she whispered.
“You’re killing me,” he whispered back.
Something inside him snapped then, not physically, not visibly, but in the space between them. She felt it. Like the tearing of a thread that had bound them for too long to name.
Renna stepped forward. “Your Majesty, he needs to be removed from the grounds. His presence is a threat to the order here. Allow the wardens to take him.”
“Touch me,” Ryder growled, “and I’ll tear off your hands.”
A few guards flinched back.
Theron’s staff struck the marble. “Enough!”
Ryder’s eyes flicked to him, full of hatred, full of wild power, and for a moment Sienna feared he would strike. But he didn’t. He was too busy looking at her.
“Say it again, Sienna,” he murmured, voice quiet but shaking. “Say what you said. Make me believe it.”
Her heart pounded so loudly she thought it would split open.
She tried to look away from him.
She couldn’t.
He was everything she had fought for. Everything she had tried to save. The first warmth she had felt after the war. The one person who had looked at her and seen not a queen, not a weapon, not a goddess’s echo, but a woman.
And now she had to destroy him to keep him alive.
Her lips parted.
Ryder froze.
“Sienna,” he whispered. “Please don’t.”
Her voice shook despite her efforts. “Ryder Thorn… is dead to the Moon Court.”
The crowd gasped.
Renna smiled wider.
Theron’s expression softened with satisfaction.
Ryder’s entire world stopped.
“No,” he whispered. “Don’t do this. Don’t, ”
“Ryder,” she breathed, “please stop fighting this.”
“I can’t,” he rasped. “Not if you, ”
His voice dropped lower. “Not if you stop loving me.”
She flinched.
“I never said I stopped loving you,” she whispered.
He looked like she had stabbed him.
“Then why?” His voice tore out of him like a cry from a wounded beast. “Why would you say that? Why would you do that to us?”
Her breath trembled. “Because you will die if I don’t.”
He shook his head violently. “No. No. That’s not, ”
“Sienna,” Renna cut in sharply, “the realm must hear the full declaration.”
Sienna closed her eyes.
Ryder’s breath hitched.
“Say it,” Theron commanded.
She opened her eyes, and they gleamed with tears she refused to let fall.
“Ryder Thorn,” she said, each word a knife through her own heart, “is dead…”
Ryder staggered back.
“…to me.”
The world broke.
Wind whipped through the courtyard.
The moonlight flickered.
The earth trembled under their feet.
A ripple of power tore through Ryder, wild, violent, merciless.
“Sienna,” he choked, stumbling. “Don’t. Don’t say it again.”
But she had already said it.
The curse struck him like lightning.
He collapsed to the stone floor with a strangled cry, clutching his head as images of her death flooded him faster and harder than before. His body convulsed. His breath ripped unevenly through his chest. His claws scraped against the ground.
“Sienna, stop it, please, stop, ”
She tried to move toward him instinctively.
The curse surged even harder.
Ryder screamed.
Guards backed away. Wolves in the crowd ducked behind each other, unsure if they were watching a man breaking or a monster awakening.
The ground beneath Ryder cracked like dry earth under a storm.
Silver energy whipped out of him, hot and blinding. The sigils across his skin glowed fiercely, pulsing like they were about to burst.
“Ryder!” Sienna cried.
“Don’t come near me!” he shouted back, voice shredded. “If you love me, stay away, ”
“I can’t just watch you, ”
“YOU HAVE TO!”
The blast of power knocked several guards backward.
Renna stumbled.
Theron raised his staff to shield himself from the shockwave.
Ryder pushed himself upright with a desperate gasp, hair wild, eyes glowing like molten gold bleeding into red. The curse twisted through him so violently his shadow warped along the ground, stretching into something monstrous.
“Look what you’ve done to him,” Renna cried triumphantly. “Look at the creature you defend!”
Sienna snapped toward her, fury blazing in her eyes. “Shut your mouth! You know nothing, ”
Ryder roared.
Everyone fell silent.
His roar echoed through the courtyard, shaking the pillars, rattling the banners, vibrating through the chests of every wolf within hearing. It wasn’t human. It wasn’t wolf. It was something forged from agony itself.
He staggered forward, pain etched into every muscle.
“Sienna,” he rasped, voice barely more than a broken breath, “why did you do this to us?”
Her voice cracked. “To save your life.”
He took another unstable step, expression twisted in grief.
“You didn’t save me,” he whispered. “You destroyed me.”
“No,” she whispered. “Ryder, please, ”
He pressed a trembling hand to his chest as if trying to hold his heart together. “It hurts. It hurts worse than the curse. Worse than the chains. Worse than anything Lunaris ever did to me.”
She covered her mouth, tears spilling now.
He looked at her one last time, one long, shattered, final look.
Then his body arched violently as the curse erupted through him in a blast of silver fire.
The courtyard exploded in light.
Sienna screamed.
Guards dove for cover.
Renna shrieked.
Theron stumbled backward.
And Ryder,
Ryder disappeared inside the storm of power ripping itself out of him.
When the light finally dimmed,
All that remained
was scorched stone
and the faint echo of his last breath