Chapter 94 Ninety seven
“I told you not to move, Ryder. Why can’t you listen for once?”
Her voice wasn’t real.
It couldn’t be.
Ryder jerked upright, breath tearing from his lungs as though he’d been drowning. His vision blurred, then snapped sharply into focus. The corridor around him returned , stone walls, dim torches, the long stretch leading toward Sienna’s chambers.
But the pain…
The curse still pulsed beneath his skin, clawing like something alive.
He pressed a palm to the wall, forcing himself to stay steady even as darkness clawed at the edges of his sight. “You’re not here,” he muttered. “You’re not real.”
But he wasn’t talking to Lunaris.
He was talking to Sienna.
Her voice had been the last thing he heard before the darkness swallowed him. A whisper, fragile, aching , the sound of her saying his name like she still believed he could be saved.
He wasn’t saved.
He wasn’t sure he was even sane.
Another pulse hit. Sharp. Hot. Blinding.
Ryder swore under his breath and caught himself before he collapsed again. He dragged in air, fighting the curse that twisted inside him like chains made of fire. “Keep it together,” he growled. “You have to see her. You have to, ”
A fresh stab of agony nearly dropped him.
Her death flashed behind his eyes , Sienna slumping forward, cold in his arms, eyes dimming. The same vision Lunaris forced into him. The same pain. The same ending.
Except now it didn’t feel like a vision.
It felt like memory.
He shoved himself off the wall and staggered down the corridor. Every step felt heavier. Every breath burned.
“Sienna...” he whispered, voice cracking like something inside him had split.
He needed to see her.
Needed proof she was alive.
Needed to hear her voice with his own ears, not through the goddess’s cruel illusions.
The corridor twisted left , then right , toward the wing where the Queen’s chambers sat nestled behind enchanted doors. He could sense her power from here, a faint hum beneath the stone, like moonlight breathing.
He reached the archway leading toward her rooms , and the curse struck again.
This time it didn’t warn him.
It attacked.
Ryder crashed to his knees, hands splayed against the cold floor as the world tilted violently. His head whipped back as a scream tore from his throat , not by choice but by force.
Another vision slammed into him.
Sienna kneeling in her chamber, breath ragged, hands trembling as blood slid between her fingers , her own blood. Something sharp protruded from her chest. His claws. His hand. Him.
“No…” Ryder gagged, trying to wrench himself away from the image. “Take it back. Take it out of my head.”
But the curse was merciless.
It showed her falling against him, fingers weakly gripping his shirt, her voice a faint tremble. “It’s not your fault.”
He saw himself clutch her tighter, his face soaked with tears.
Saw her mouth open in one last breath.
Saw her eyes dim.
The world snapped back like a whip, throwing him forward until he collapsed face-first on the stone.
His chest heaved. His fingers curled against the floor. Sweat stung his eyes.
He dragged himself backward until his spine hit the wall, crouched like a wounded animal. “None of it was real,” he whispered. “It’s the curse. It’s Lunaris. It’s not real.”
But the feeling in his bones…
The terror in his veins…
The way his heart recoiled like it recognized the moment…
What if it was real?
Not now. Not this lifetime.
But before.
What if he had done it before?
He forced his head up. Forced his eyes down the corridor where her door waited , half-glimpsed in soft moonlight.
He pushed himself upright.
One step.
Another.
Another.
He reached the turn that would bring him directly before her door and,
The curse struck harder than ever before.
His spine arched. His nails split, claws tearing through without mercy. The markings across his chest and shoulders lit up like molten silver.
“Stop!” he shouted, voice raw, echoing down the hall. “Stop doing this to me!”
The goddess didn’t answer.
But the vision did.
This time it wasn’t her death.
It was her voice.
Broken. Whispering. “Don’t come closer.”
Ryder froze.
“Sienna?” he whispered.
No vision replied.
Just the echo of his own desperation bouncing off the cold stone walls.
His head dropped, a harsh laugh tearing from him as he dragged his hand across his face. “I’m losing my mind.”
But he still stepped forward.
He couldn’t stop himself.
He reached her chamber door , silent, tall, carved with the crescent of the Moon. A faint silver light pulsed behind it.
“Sienna,” he breathed. “Open the door.”
He raised a hand , stopped inches before touching the wood.
If the curse reacted to him touching her image…
What would it do if he touched her?
He lowered his hand slowly, breathing through the pain.
“Sienna… please let me see you.”
His voice cracked.
The torches flickered.
Then he heard it.
Soft footsteps inside the chamber.
The faint rhythm of pacing.
Then stopping.
Then a whisper , her whisper.
“Ryder?”
He pressed forward, forehead against the cool wood. “I’m here.”
Silence stretched long enough to hurt. He could almost see her pressed against the other side, mirroring him unknowingly.
Her next words were shaking, torn from somewhere deep. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“I had to.”
“No,” she whispered. “The curse will kill you.”
“I’m not afraid of that.”
“You should be.”
Her voice trembled.
Ryder clenched his jaw. “I saw you. I saw what she showed me. It wasn’t real. Tell me it wasn’t real.”
Still silence.
Ryder’s heart slammed against his ribs. “Sienna?”
She inhaled sharply , the kind of breath taken right before breaking.
“I can’t tell you anything,” she whispered. “Because I don’t know what’s real anymore. Lunaris… she’s watching everything. She’s twisting everything. And I can’t risk you dying because of me.”
He slammed his fist against the door before he could stop himself. “I’m not leaving you.”
The air inside shifted. He felt it. She was closer. Leaning toward him. Pulled the same way he was pulled , by something older than fate itself.
Her voice came again, barely a breath. “Please go.”
“Sienna, ”
“If you love me, you’ll leave.”
The words shattered him.
He stepped back from the door, breath catching. “You don’t mean that.”
“No,” she whispered, “I don’t. And that’s why you need to leave.”
His hands shook. His vision blurred.
“Sienna…” he said softly, “you’re asking me to die without you.”
“And if you stay,” she whispered, “I’ll watch you die. Choose for me.”
He staggered.
That was when the curse struck again, as if punctuating her words.
His legs buckled. His vision blurred into streaks of silver. Her faint outline appeared , a ghost behind the door , her hand pressing against the wood.
He reached toward it.
The curse roared.
His body convulsed, throwing him back several steps as a blast of blinding pain ripped through his chest. He choked on air that wouldn’t fill his lungs. His back arched until he thought his spine would snap.
The last sound he heard was her scream, soft, muffled, helpless.
He collapsed to the floor.
And everything went dark.