Chapter 91 Ninety four
“Ryder… why are you here?”
Her voice slid through the darkness before he even stepped out of it, sharp as a blade and trembling under the weight of something she didn’t dare name. The moonlight cut across her face as she turned, catching the silver in her eyes, the faint glow beneath her skin that hadn’t been there weeks ago. She looked like someone the world should fear, yet all Ryder saw was the woman he kept breaking for.
“I couldn’t stay away.” His words were low, rough, dragging through his throat like each one hurt to speak. “Not tonight.”
Sienna exhaled shakily, and the breath misted between them in the cold air of the garden. “You shouldn’t have come,” she whispered. “Every step you take toward me pulls that curse tighter.”
He stepped closer anyway. His boots crushed the roses Renna once planted, roses he’d always hated. “I don’t give a damn about the curse.”
“You should.” Her voice cracked and she caught it quickly, pressing her lips together until her composure returned. “You know what it does to you. You know what Lunaris warned.”
“Lunaris,” he muttered, jaw clenching. “She’s been haunting me since last night. Whispering things I didn’t ask for. Showing me things I never wanted to see.”
Sienna stiffened. “What things?”
Ryder hesitated, swallowing hard. The moonlight threw his face into harsh angles, his jaw tight, his eyes darker than they should’ve been, shadows clinging to him like second skin. “Visions,” he said finally. “Visions of you. Dying.”
Her breath caught in her throat, and for a moment she stood perfectly still, as if even breathing would shatter her. “She showed you that?”
“Every time I get near you.” Ryder closed the last distance between them, stopping only when they were a breath apart. “Every time I think of touching you, or talking to you, or, ”
“Don’t.” Sienna’s hand shot up between them, pressing firmly against his chest. Her palm trembled at the warmth of him. “Don’t say the rest.”
His eyes dropped to her hand, then lifted again, burning into her. “Why? Are you afraid I’ll say something true?”
“I’m afraid you’ll die because of it.”
Ryder laughed, quiet, bitter. “I’ve already died for you once. What’s one more time?”
“That’s not funny.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
The air thickened between them, heavy with everything they’d lost and everything they still were to each other. Her fingers curled slightly, not enough to pull him closer, not enough to push him away. Just enough to feel the heartbeat beneath her palm, strong, steady, alive.
She closed her eyes, fighting the pull. “You shouldn’t be here.” The words barely escaped her. “The Citadel isn’t safe. And I’m not safe for you.”
Ryder leaned in, lowering his head until his lips brushed the top of her hair. Just the faintest touch. Barely there. Enough to steal her breath. Enough to break something soft inside him. “I don’t care.”
“You should care,” she whispered against his chest. “Because the curse doesn’t want you near me. And neither does she.”
His hands tightened at his sides as another flicker of pain shot through him, quick, sharp, like a blade cutting through his ribs. He staggered slightly, and Sienna caught him on instinct, fingers gripping his arm.
“Ryder?” Her voice rose in panic. “What is it? What did she do?”
He shook his head, breath uneven. “Another vision.” He didn’t want to say more, but the words tore out of him anyway. “You’re on the ground. There’s blood everywhere. I can’t, ”
Sienna stepped closer, her entire body trembling at the image. “Stop.”
“I can’t,” he said. “Every time I try to get closer to you, she shows me another way you die. Another moment I fail to save you. Another punishment.”
Sienna swallowed, her throat tight. “Lunaris is afraid of us.”
Ryder lifted his head, eyes narrowing. “Afraid?”
“She thinks we’re the final form,” Sienna whispered, her voice trembling with urgency. “She thinks our bond will finish the curse instead of breaking it.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.” Sienna stepped back, wrapping her arms around herself as if the cold finally caught her. “She cursed you because she loved someone who betrayed her. And she marked me because I was born from that bloodline. You and I, ”
“Don’t say it,” he cut in, too sharply.
“You and I were never supposed to meet.”
Silence. Heavy, suffocating.
Ryder looked away, jaw tightening. “Too late for that.”
“It is.”
She tried to look strong when she said it, but the sadness beneath it slipped through her expression like a crack in polished glass. He hated seeing that. Hated being the cause of it. Hated that the world had twisted something as simple as love into something that punished them both.
“Sienna,” he said softly. “Look at me.”
“I can’t.”
“Look at me.”
She did. Slowly. And once their eyes met, neither of them moved.
He lifted a hand toward her face, slow, cautious, like he was approaching a wounded animal. His fingers hovered inches from her cheek. She leaned forward the tiniest bit, breath catching.
The curse punished him instantly.
A sharp burst of agony speared through his skull, dropping him to one knee. His hand snapped back as if burned. Sienna gasped and dropped with him, pressing a hand to his back.
“Ryder! Ryder, look at me. Ryder, ”
He groaned through clenched teeth, gripping the stone path so hard his knuckles whitened. “She’s doing it again. She’s doing it right now.”
“What is she showing you?”
“You,” he said, voice tight with pain. “You’re standing right in front of me. Just like now. But then you fall. Your neck, ” He cut himself off, shaking his head violently. “I won’t watch it again.”
Sienna cupped his face, forcing him to meet her eyes. “Then don’t.”
“I don’t have a choice!” His voice cracked. “Every time I even think about getting close to you, she shows me how it ends.”
“And every time you pull away,” Sienna whispered, “you leave me to face her alone.”
Those words hit him harder than the curse.
He stared at her, really stared, and for a moment everything inside him twisted: fear, longing, anger, regret. It all tangled into something fierce and unspoken.
A rustle from the hedges broke the moment.
Sienna jerked, pulling her hand away as two guards approached from the east path. Ryder instinctively stepped back into shadow, body coiling with tension.
“Someone’s been seen near the Queen’s chambers,” one guard said. “Search the garden.”
Ryder’s jaw clenched. “They’ll find me.”
“No.” Sienna grabbed his wrist, surprising both of them with the strength in her grip. “You need to go. Now.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to.” Her voice was fierce, desperate. “If they catch you, Lunaris won’t need to kill you. The council will.”
He shook his head. “I can’t protect you if I leave.”
“You’re not protecting me by staying,” she shot back. “You’re dying.”
Guards’ footsteps grew closer.
Sienna’s breath shuddered. “Ryder, please.”
He hesitated, just long enough for her to see it hurt him to go. Just long enough for her to know he’d stay if she asked one more time.
She didn’t.
She let go first.
He swallowed hard, stepping backward into shadow. His eyes never left hers. She felt every inch of that gaze like a ghost-touch along her skin.
“Say something,” she whispered.
“I can’t.”
Then he vanished into the darkness, leaving her alone beneath the cold moonlight.
The roses rustled. A chill crept over the garden. And just as the guards reached her side, she felt it, the unmistakable presence watching her from somewhere deeper in the shadows.
Not Ryder.
Something older.
Something colder.
Something that waited for her next breath.
The air tightened around her like a warning