Chapter 99 Hundred and two
"Don’t move," Sienna whispered under her breath, though the words never truly left her throat.
But Ryder heard them.
He always heard her.
He froze beneath the shadow of the stone pillar, his chest rising and falling with a slow, dangerous rhythm that made the torches shift as though they feared breathing near him. His dark hair fell across his forehead in disheveled waves, sweat glistening along the sharp edges of his jaw. Even from across the courtyard, she could see the tightness in his grip, the way his fingers trembled as though he was holding back the curse with raw will alone.
Sienna stepped forward instinctively, but the vision, his vision, hit her before her foot touched the ground.
"Please," she whispered, trying not to lose her balance when her knees buckled beneath a sudden flash of pain that wasn’t hers, wasn’t real, wasn’t happening, but Ryder saw it. Ryder felt it. Ryder lived it.
He saw her die again.
She saw it too.
A spear through her ribs.
Her body collapsing.
Her blood spilling across stone.
Her eyes going dim while he screamed her name until his voice broke apart.
Sienna tore her gaze away with a sharp gasp, grabbing the railing beside her. The wooden edge bit into her palm, grounding her back into the moment.
"Stop," she whispered. "Stop looking at me."
Ryder’s eyes shifted, silver burning with shadows that pulsed like storm clouds. He shook his head once, hard, as though trying to dislodge the nightmare from his mind.
"Sienna," he rasped, his voice hoarse, barely carrying across the courtyard.
Her heart stuttered. It was the first time she had heard him say her name in days. Maybe weeks. Time blurred when pain was their only bridge.
"No," she mouthed.
His fingers curled into fists.
A flicker of agony crossed his face, too fast and too brutal to hide. The curse twisted through him, an invisible chain pulling tight across his bones. Sienna felt it like a distant echo, a cold pressure near her heart.
Renna stepped forward, forcing herself into the line of sight as though she wanted to be seen beside the moment she created.
"There," Renna announced loudly, pointing at Ryder with a dramatic sweep of her arm. "There is your threat. Look at him. Look at what he becomes when he sees her!"
A few in the crowd gasped when Ryder flinched violently, his muscles seizing as though struck by lightning. His veins darkened beneath his skin. His eyes flashed white, then black, then the silver she recognized, the silver that never fully belonged to the curse.
"Do not approach!" a guard shouted, pulling his weapon halfway out of its holster.
"Stand down!" Sienna snapped, the command sharp enough to make the guard jump backward.
The crowd hushed instantly, startled by her tone. Her voice held the calm of a queen, but beneath it, her heartbeat hammered like a war drum.
Ryder’s expression softened for a heartbeat when he heard her defend him, so soft it broke something in her chest. Then the curse struck him again.
He staggered.
Sienna took a step forward.
"Sienna, don’t!" someone yelled.
Too late.
The moment she moved toward him, the vision slammed into him like a blade. His knees buckled, and he crashed against the pillar behind him. His breath left him raw and broken.
She felt the echo again.
She felt herself dying in his arms.
She felt his hands covered in her blood, his desperation, his anguish, his inability to save her.
Sienna stepped back immediately, fighting tears. The vision eased its grip on Ryder, though the tremor in his fingers didn’t stop.
"Sienna…" His voice cracked. "Please. Don’t come closer."
She pressed her hand over her mouth to keep the sob inside.
He was breaking.
He was fighting.
He was trying to protect her even while the curse tried to destroy him from the inside.
Renna smiled, triumphant.
"See?" Renna said, raising her hands as if presenting a monster from a cage. "Every step she takes toward him kills her. Every glance, every breath they share, every tie between them, dangerous. She will die because of him."
Lies, Sienna thought. Half-lies, woven into truths sharp enough to draw blood.
The crowd shifted uneasily, wolves pressing closer, their instincts recoiling from the energy radiating off Ryder. He wasn’t shifting, but something darker stirred beneath his skin. Something wrong. Something ancient. Something that was not entirely his fault.
Elder Theron stepped forward, robes brushing the ground like serpents slithering around him.
"Queen Sienna," he said, voice loud enough to silence the platform. "The realm has witnessed the danger with its own eyes. You cannot deny it."
Sienna didn’t look away from Ryder.
He stood frozen, chest heaving, pupils blown wide like he was drowning in shadows. His hands kept flexing and clenching, fighting the visions. His hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. His clothes clung to him, torn in places from where he had clawed at himself during earlier visions.
He looked both powerful and destroyed. Beautiful and terrifying. Human and cursed.
He looked like her heartbreak carved into flesh.
"Stay back," he whispered, voice barely audible. "Please."
Sienna swallowed hard.
She wanted to run to him.
She wanted to touch him.
She wanted to kiss him until the curse shattered.
She wanted to tear the world open just to reach him.
She did none of it.
Instead, she forced herself to lift her chin, keeping her voice steady.
"I see you," she whispered.
Ryder’s breath hitched.
"Don’t," he pleaded. "Sienna, I can’t control what happens next. The visions… they get worse the closer I am. I can’t…"
He pressed a trembling hand to his temple. His body shook again.
Sienna felt the air tighten.
"No more," she begged quietly. "No more visions. No more pain."
But her plea only made the curse flare.
He screamed.
The sound was not loud. Not feral. Not monstrous.
It was the sound of a man breaking.
Sienna took a half-step forward without thinking.
Blood thundered in her ears.
Ryder choked on a breath, eyes rolling back for a moment before the vision dragged him under.
She felt it again, her own throat torn open, blood soaking his hands, her vision dimming as his voice cracked around her name.
"Stop!" Sienna cried. "Stop showing him that!"
Her voice echoed across the courtyard, shattering the tense silence like glass thrown against stone.
But no one, not even she, could stop the curse.
Ryder slumped to the ground, gasping, clawing at the shadows only he could see.
Sienna’s nails dug into her palm until she felt her own blood.
Her vision blurred, not because of fear, but because she felt the bond between them pull tight, desperate, hungry, protective, and doomed.
"Look at him," Renna whispered, stepping close again. "He suffers because of you. And soon, you will die because of him."
Sienna didn’t respond.
She couldn’t.
Because Ryder lifted his head again, and this time, his eyes, those cursed, beautiful, agonized eyes, met hers and held.
And Sienna saw something in them she wasn’t prepared for.
Terror.
Not of the curse.
Not of the council.
Not of the realm.
Of losing her.
"I can’t…" he breathed. "I can’t survive seeing you die again."
The courtyard held its breath.
The wind died.
Every torch flickered low.
And Ryder, shaking and broken, whispered the words she felt crack every stone beneath her feet:
"If you take one more step toward me… Sienna, I think I’ll kill you myself.”