Chasing Back His Beloved Beast Husbands Chapter 83-Fake

One hundred and one new candles burned beneath the hollow ribs of the ruined compound.

Their flas flickered gold against old stone and hanging vines, casting long serpentine shadows across the floor. lted wax pooled like pale tears around Sseraphis.

He struggled with his might but he could not rember their nas or faces, that was the cruelest part.

Not the missing mories. Not the headaches that split his skull whenever he tried to reach beyond the fog in his mind. Not even the strange fragnts of lives that felt stitched into him wrong, like stolen cloth forced into another beast’s skin.

The unbearable certainty that he had once loved beasts enough to mourn them properly and now he could not even rember who they were.

So he lit candles instead. One hundred and one to add to the previous one hundred candles, making the courtyard lively with so many lit candles.

He lit it for the forgotten and for the pieces of himself that had been buried sowhere he could no longer reach.

The wind hissed softly through the broken courtyard. Several candle flas trembled violently but none gave out.

The shadows behind him stirred. Then ca the familiar sound of lazy applause. "How touching."

The voice dripped like honey over poison. The scarlet-eyed beast stepped from the darkness barefoot, smiling with infuriating ease.

He wore crimson silk loose around his fra, exposing far too much skin. Gold jewelry glimred at his throat and wrists, chiming softly as he moved.

The beast’s scarlet eyes slid across the sea of candles before settling warmly onto Sseraphis, "You lit all these for mories you can’t even recall?" he asked lightly. "That sounds exhausting."

Sseraphis did not look at him. "You wouldn’t understand."

The beast laughed under his breath and wandered closer anyway, utterly shaless. "Mm. There’s that cold tone again." He leaned lazily against one of the ruined pillars. "You wound ."

"You recover quickly."

"Only because I adore you."

Sseraphis finally glanced at him, violet-black slit-pupiled eyes shot up feeling unreadable in the candlelight.

’Adore? Why do I feel like vomiting when I hear that?’

The beast repeated such things constantly, weaving them into every conversation with practiced ease as though affection alone could force belief into existence. But every single ti Sseraphis heard it, sothing inside him recoiled.

Those sugary words felt wrong, painful to his ears and ignited hate in his heart. They sounded so fake like hearing a musician strike the wrong note in an otherwise perfect song.

The beast noticed his expression and sighed dramatically. "You still don’t believe ."

"My instincts don’t."

The air shifted. Silence settled between them. For the first ti that night, the beast’s smile thinned slightly at the edges.

"Your instincts," he repeated softly. "Those sa instincts that left you wandering half-dead without mories?"

Sseraphis’ eyes narrowed and the candles flickered harder. He found it ridiculous to be mocked by a spirit.

The beast imdiately smiled again, smooth and effortless. "Forgive . That was cruel."

’Cruel? yes. Calculated too,’ he thought. Everything about this creature felt calculated.

Sseraphis had awoken with no history, and only fragnts of himself remaining. The beast claid they fell in love and he got hurt fighting their enemies, lost his mories temporarily and they ca there to free his body.

The spirit claid the ancient oak tree sealed away "sothing important" tied to his forgotten past.

And now the beast constantly urged him toward the sa thing. Practice the technique he’d given him so as to break the seal and free what sleeps beneath the oak.

Every conversation circled back to it eventually. Sseraphis was not stupid. Especially not when his gut scread warnings every single ti the oak tree was ntioned.

Sothing monstrous slept beneath that seal and sohow, the beast needed him to release it. "You’re thinking too hard again," Hadrian purred.

Before Sseraphis could respond, the beast drifted closer until crimson silk brushed against the floor between the candles.

Then he crouched directly in front of him. His warm fingers reached for the Sseraphis’s chin. Sseraphis allowed it mostly out of curiosity.

The beast smiled slowly when he didn’t pull away. "There," he murmured. "That’s progress. You are starting to give in to your lover."

"It’s amusent, Hadrian. I’d hardly call it submission."

"Oh?" Scarlet eyes glead wickedly. "So I entertain you?"

"At tis."

The beast laughed softly, clearly delighted instead of insulted. Then, without warning, he leaned forward. His fingers slid into the Sseraphis’s hair. His forehead touched his gently.

Spirit though the beast currently was, Sseraphis still felt the strange pressure of magic winding around them, seduction magic. It was intoxicating.

The air thickened. "You know," the beast whispered, voice velvet-smooth, "If you stopped resisting for even one night, I could make you forget every ache inside your head."

Sseraphis stared at him calmly. "Mm."

"No biting remark?" the beast teased. "You’re pretty, Sseraphis."

The beast blinked. Then grinned triumphantly. "Im being honest. The love between us is real."

"But your words still sound fake."

The grin froze on Hadrian froze. Just briefly and Sseraphis noticed, a bright smile plastered over his face for it.

’Interesting,’ he thought wickedly.

His gut hissed violently beneath his skin now, cold and sharp like unseen serpents coiling around his ribs.

’Danger!’ He heard a voice inside his head.

The beast recovered quickly, though irritation flickered behind his scarlet eyes. "You’re impossible," he sighed dramatically.

"And yet you keep trying to convince that we are in love. How can that be if you cant stand ?"

"Because one day," the beast murmured softly, thumb stroking Sseraphis’s cheek, "You’ll rember and realize that I am the one you love the most."

Sseraphis studied him for a long mont. Then he smiled faintly. "Or," he said, "I’ll rember why I shouldn’t and grow to hate you."

For the first ti since entering the courtyard, true silence fell between them. Even the candles seed to still.

Hadrian raised an eyebrow. He had to admit inwardly that Sseraphis was smart and had sharp guts. His soul was guarded against him. Because judging by the candle he was sure the snake was lighting for Aeltharion and Nytherael, his heart and soul rembered what his mind could not.c

"What if you rember that you are the one who fell in love first?"

Sseraphis’ face twisted. "Impossible!"

He would never give his heart away that easily. To let himself fall in love first after watching every beast he ever loved betray him by abandoning him? Never.

"How is that impossible?" Hadria asked. "Let tell you, you chased after shalessly until I had no choice but to agree."

The danger warnings in Sseraphis’ head went off chaotically. It made him doubt Hadrian more.

His brain had a problem putting the pieces of his past together, not his heart. Surely if what Hadrian said was true, even if he didn’t rember it, his heart would soften around Hadrian.

However, with the scarlet-eyed beast, the opposite proved true. He got disgusted and annoyed with the beast than he was ensnared by him.

"I must’ve have been blind, deaf and dumb to settle for you. No offense."

"Every offense taken," Hadrian expressed, displeased.

"Sadly, Hadrian, I don’t care."