Chapter 224 SUFFOCATING.

Chapter 224 SUFFOCATING.


AVERY’S POV

I was trying not to black out, but everything around me was slipping into shadows. My chest burned. My lungs screamed. The floor beneath me seemed to tilt, and I could barely feel my legs anymore.

But I saw it. The blood.

Dark drops hit the floor in slow motion—from my nose… and from the corner of my mouth.

Then my body went limp over his shoulder.

Axel.

He moved with a quiet desperation, one arm locked around my thighs, the other gripping my back as he carried me out of the room. My head hung down, bouncing lightly with each furious stride. I saw glimpses of hallway lights, startled faces blurring past, then concrete as we hit the garage.

The car door opened.

He didn’t say a word.

He yanked open the trunk and shoved me inside.

I wanted to protest—wanted to say I couldn’t breathe in there—but the words never made it out.

The last thing I saw before the trunk slammed shut was his face—haunted. Determined.

Then came the black.

The engine roared, and the tires screamed against the pavement. I was tossed like a rag doll from one side of the trunk to the other. My shoulder hit metal. Then my hip. I cried out, but it barely sounded like me.

I heard shouting. Axel’s voice barking something. Then gunshots.

My body jerked again with the motion of evasive turns. Tires screeched. The sound of metal groaning under pressure filled my ears. I tried to scream but choked instead, gagging on my own blood.

The car swerved, bounced, jolted.

My heart pounded harder than it ever had, like it was trying to break through my chest and run for cover. Every inhale felt like glass in my lungs. And inside me—our baby—I felt a flutter, then stillness.

“Hold on,” I whispered, unsure if I was speaking to the baby or myself.

I felt like I was suffocating.

A fresh gush of blood slid from my nose, dripping along my jawline. My stomach cramped and my chest tightened. My baby.

I curled into myself as best I could and kept whispering to the life inside me, trying to keep us tethered.

But eventually, I gave in.

The blackness pulled me under.

Then… I let go.



It was warmth that brought me back.

Not soft, not gentle.

It was thick… damp… strange. Like something was being poured on me. I gasped, but no air came. My limbs were heavy. My body ached like I’d been cracked open and poorly stitched back together.

My body was still too weak, but my eyes opened—barely. My vision was dark at first, just dancing amber lights and a spinning ceiling far above me. Then came the scent: wax. Smoke. Something bitter and burnt.

I forced my eyes to open completely.

Flames.

Dozens of candles flickered in a wide circle around me, casting their dancing light across the floor in hypnotic waves. Shadows twisted and stretched across the walls. The room… no, the temple… was silent, ancient, and humming with something that didn’t feel alive, but wasn’t exactly dead either.

A few feet away, Axel knelt. His head bowed low, almost pressed to the floor. He wasn’t moving. His hands were resting on his thighs like he was… praying. Or surrendering.

Between us was something that looked like a mound of hair, twined and shaped into a crooked cross. Bits of bone, ash, and herbs were tangled inside.

Where…?

Recognition pierced through my fog like a knife.

Orion.

The temple.

The same one I used when I brought Akira and Axel back.

How did we get here? No, that wasn't the important question right now.

Why was I on the floor?

My body ached, cold and stiff against smooth stone.

I felt trapped.

And this time, no one was holding my hand through it.

I tried to move, but nothing happened. I wasn’t tied—there were no chains, no ropes. But my body refused to obey me. Like something unseen held me down. My fingers twitched, but even my breath felt trapped inside me.

Then came voices.

Two of them, whispering somewhere behind the candles.

“We have to hurry and finish this. They’ll be looking for her soon,” a woman said.

“Mother… are you sure this is going to work?” a younger voice replied, hesitant.

“Yes, dear. I won’t fail you, London.”

London?

I squinted, trying to focus. The flames made it hard to see, everything melting and bending. But then… they stepped into the light.

And I forgot how to breathe.

Akira.

And… Ryan?

Only—it wasn’t Ryan, not really. The woman called him London.

Akira looked different. Dressed in black from head to toe, a long gown flowing around her feet like spilled ink. It clung to her like mourning itself, sleeves long. A dark veil shrouded her hair, flowing behind her like mist. At her throat was that necklace—the one that pulsed and shimmered with a light that didn’t belong in this world.

Ryan—London—was dressed, in a crisp suit. But his eyes were distant. Hollow.

Something was wrong.

But why the name?

Why did she call him London?

I couldn’t ask. My tongue felt like ash in my mouth.

Akira walked slowly toward me, the silk of her gown brushing the floor in a whisper, her eyes glinting in the candlelight.

“Go watch the door,” she said over her shoulder to Ryan—no, London. “Make sure the men are stationed properly. I don’t want interruptions.”

He hesitated for half a breath, then turned and walked toward the arched stone exit.

My panic spiked.

I was suffocating in fear. This wasn’t something I could fight with a gun. This wasn’t business. This was beyond death.

I looked at Axel. Still kneeling. Still unmoving.

But just as Ryan reached the temple’s exit—Axel's body swayed and he collapsed.

He fell sideways, knocking over the cross-shaped heap of hair. One of the candles toppled, its flame catching instantly. The mound lit up in seconds, sparking an unnatural blaze.

A blood-curdling shriek tore through the air. Ryan's scream was deafening, his body convulsing as blood erupted from his mouth. He stumbled, knees buckling, before crashing to the ground. His body seized, limbs twitching wildly.

Akira's anguished cry echoed through the night. "NO!" She flung herself beside Ryan, grasping his shoulders and shaking him with desperate ferocity. "London! LONDON! Wake up! You were the key! Please, breathe!" But Ryan's body remained limp, his face pale and lifeless.

Akira's face contorted in pain, her eyes wild with grief. She let out a haunting, defeated wail, her voice shattering the night air. "Nooooooooooo!" The sound was an expression of sorrow and despair.

As she slowly turned, her face contorted into a twisted mask of rage, grief, and something darkly unholy. "What have you done?" she spat, her eyes blazing with fury as they locked onto me.

"I was going to grant you a swift death, a mercy killing, since he delivered you to me without a struggle," she hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "But now, because of his betrayal, I'll make sure your suffering is eternal. Not just your bodies will burn, but your souls as well."

With my last shred of strength, I whispered, "Akira, why? Why all this?"

Her eyes flashed with a malevolent glow. "You both took everything from me," she snarled, her voice cracking with ancient pain. "Your grandmother, Kore, stole the love of my life, and I was exiled from my home."

She jabbed a trembling finger at Axel. "And you—you took my daughter from me once. I won't let you take anything else. Not now. Not ever. I won't let you ruin this."

As she spoke, the candles around us erupted into a frenzy of flames, the fire stretching unnaturally toward the ceiling like skeletal fingers. The smoke thickened, choking the air with an otherworldly presence.

She dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she began to chant in a low, hypnotic tone. The flames dancing around her grew more aggressive, licking at the air with fierce intensity.

Outside, a sudden clap of thunder boomed through the sky, making it seem as though the very heavens were about to unleash a torrent of rain. Inside, the wind began to howl and whip through the space, sending shadows swirling around her like living things.