14:28 Thu, Oct 2
Chapter 126
Chapter 126
ATASHA’S POV
“How could you agree to her words?” Cassian’s voice cut through the cabin, sharper than I’d ever heard it. “Did you not understand that she only wanted to provoke you?”
The door had barely shut behind us before he’d dragged me here, his grip like iron on my wrist. Now, with Matron Yara gone, it was just the two of us. The air inside felt heavy, his anger pressing against me harder than the walls themselves.
I opened my mouth, but nothing came. For a moment, the weight of his stare pinned me in place, my pulse racing. Part of me wanted to lower my head, to stay quiet and let his fury burn itself out. But Matron Yara’s words still rang in my skull-you cannot shield her forever.
“You are careless,” Cassian said, stepping closer. His eyes glowed faintly in the dim light. “Do you even understand what you’ve done? You are mine, Atasha!” he growled. “Do you hear me? Mine. It is my responsibility to protect what is mine.”
I bit my lip, fighting the urge to shrink back. His claim should have intimidated me. It did, but something else pushed harder from inside me.
“Maybe it sounds foolish,” I forced out, my hands clenched tight at my sides. “But I knew what I was doing.”
He stared at me in disbelief, like I had spoken another language. “Foolish doesn’t even begin to cover it. My enemies will see to it that you fail. They’ll twist it, turn every eye against you. You don’t understand the lengths they’ll go.”
“I am not a witch,” I snapped before I could stop myself. My chest heaved, my throat dry, but I refused to look away. “And everyone will see that. I cannot keep hiding behind you forever. I am your wife, not a child you have to drag behind you. Not a weakness they can keep striking at.”
His eyes narrowed, his jaw flexing as if he were barely holding himself back.
“I am your other half,” I said, the words spilling out before I could stop them. “I cannot just stand there while they hurt you, while they target you, again and again, because of me.” I knew this was coming. Once everyone knows about my ability, they would surely use that to attack Cassian too.
His silence was deafening.
My throat tightened, but I pushed on. “I signed that contract, remember? I agreed to belong to you. Forever. But I never agreed to let you be hurt because of me. That’s not what I vowed. I will not let them use me against you again. If facing this test is the only way to end it, then I’ll face it.”
His breath came slow, controlled, but his fists had curled tight at his sides.
I could see it in him, he hated this, hated that I was speaking back, hated that the control he always held was slipping between his fingers.
And yet, beneath that fury, I knew I was right. This was the only way to end it.
14:29 Thu, Oct 2
Chapter 126
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Cassian’s hands curled tighter, his knuckles pale. “Do you think I will stand by and let them put their claws into you? Do you think I’ll let them judge you like some spectacle for their amusement? No one touches you, Atasha. No one decides your fate but me.”
His voice was harsh, every word striking like a blow.
My lips trembled, but I forced them steady. “All my life, I’ve been hiding what I could do. Every time I thought about using it, fear stopped me. Fear that if anyone found out, the people I cared for would suffer because of me. That my family would pay the price. Celeste… my mother and father… I was terrified that if I gave in and helped anyone, they would suffer because of me.”
The words spilled heavier than I meant them to, dragging the weight of every memory with them. For the first time since we entered the cabin, Cassian’s mouth closed. His glare didn’t vanish, but it faltered. His eyes narrowed less with anger and more with something else, something tangled that I couldn’t read.
A complicated look crossed his face, like the fury he’d been clinging to had cracked open, letting something harsher, quieter, slip through.
I swallowed, my chest aching. “And do you know what happened? They betrayed me anyway. They turned me into something disposable. I hid for them, I kept quiet for them, and in the end, it was all for nothing.”
His eyes flickered, but his face stayed hard.
“I’m not clever like you,” I said, my voice cracking. “I’m not a fighter, I can’t track, I can’t command soldiers, I’m not even much of a cook or the kind of omega anyone would be proud of. But one thing I’ve always known, one thing I’ve never doubted, is what my heart wants.”
My lips shook again, and I steadied myself with a sharp breath. “You were the first person who ever stood between me and death. Maybe you did it for your own reasons, maybe it was all strategy or convenience, but at least you never lied about it. You’ve always been exactly what you are.”
His jaw ticked, his silence heavier than any answer.
“I know what you are, Cassian,” I said softly. “A monster. A monster who wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if it came to it, or anyone else who got in your way. But you’re my monster. You’re the one who pulls me out of the fire, even when it burns you too. You’re the one who will take me to safety, no matter how much blood is on your hands.”
The words caught in my throat, but I forced them out, anyway. “You’re my monster.”
For a long moment, he didn’t move. His crimson eyes burned into me, his chest rising and falling like he was fighting something deep inside. The fury was still there, I could see it in the tightness of his jaw, in the way his fists hadn’t eased, but beneath it, something else stirred, something that made my stomach twist and my throat ache.
I stood there trembling, not sure if he would roar back at me, pull me close, or walk away. Then I added. “You are the monster I am willing to fight for.”
