Chapter 244: F.I.F
FIA
I sat there. The water was still cold against my feet, but I’d stopped noticing it the way I’d stopped noticing a lot of things that didn’t matter right now.
Cian’s breathing had evened out so, but the tremor in his hands hadn’t quite settled. He was staring at nothing in particular. Or maybe he was staring at everything. At the years of blind trust he’d placed in people who might not have deserved it.
The silence stretched between us. It was not uncomfortable, but it was weighted. It was heavy with plenty of things neither of us wanted to say out loud because speaking them would make them a bit too real.
Then he broke it.
"I heard you screaming when I ca to the infirmary." His voice was quiet and careful. "Did you have a bad dream?"
I pulled my legs out of the water. The night air hit my wet skin and I wrapped my arms around them, resting my head on my knees. I turned to look at him.
"Are you trying to change the topic?"
He t my gaze. There was sothing fragile in his eyes that hadn’t been there before tonight.
"I need this."
I nodded. I understood that. The need to focus on sothing else. Anything else. Even if that sothing else was my nightmare.
"It felt so real." The words ca easier than I expected. "Like I was living it."
Cian shifted closer. He didn’t touch , but he was close enough that I could feel the warmth radiating from him.
"I was trapped in what looked like this sick experintal chamber." My throat tightened at the mory. "And so man wanted to cut
open."
The water lapped at the edge of the pool. The sound was too serene for what I was describing.
"But it felt so real." I pressed my forehead harder against my knees. "And there was that na..."
I stopped. The na sat on my tongue like sothing that didn’t belong to .
"What na?"
I lifted my head slightly and looked at him again.
"When I was in Silver Creek for the trial, I bumped into both Pauline Strati and her husband."
"Alpha Dimitri." Cian’s jaw tightened at the na.
"There was a way they looked at ." I could still see it. The shock in Pauline’s eyes. The way her husband had gone completely still. "Especially Pauline. Like they saw a ghost and she called
a strange na. She called
Athena."
Cian frowned. "They thought you looked like this Athena?"
"I wouldn’t really care much about it." I shook my head. "But this strange dream I had. It was like I was so Oga nad Athena as well."
I paused, letting the words settle between us.
"It cannot be a coincidence, right? The Stratis rule a pack called Nocturne too. And the man in my strange dream. He ntioned that pack."
Cian was quiet for a mont. He was thinking.
"You think it is so kind of prophetic dream?"
"Maybe they were a lingering thought." I turned my gaze back to the water. "I wouldn’t know why. But perhaps they were. It still felt so real though."
Too real... The kind of real that left marks even after you woke up.
"You can check Skollrend’s library for genealogy records." Cian’s tone had shifted into sothing more practical and akin to problem solving. "But given it is an Oga, I doubt anything extensive will co out of it."
"It’s probably nothing." I said it but I didn’t quite believe it.
"Is it though?"
I looked at him.
His eyes held mine. There was sothing there.
"If the goddess brought you back to , then hell..." He paused and swallowed. "Anything is possible."
The bond humd between us. A warm and constant thing.
"If she does exist, you will find sothing in the genealogy records. Even if it is just a footnote." His hand found mine again and he squeezed gently. "But at least, it will put your mind at ease."
I thought about it. About the library and records and nas that didn’t belong to
but sohow still felt like it did. I even thought about the idea of a dented experintal chambers being real with n who wanted to cut people open and the word that kept appearing in my nightmares.
Fleshcraft.
I hadn’t ntioned a peep of it to Cian. The word felt too dangerous. Too heavy. It was a great sin after all and if he heard it, I wasn’t sure how he would react to it.
It was a forbidden topic among plenty supernaturals.
So I kept it to myself and buried it deep where the bond couldn’t reach.
"Fia."
The voice ca from behind us. Female as it was familiar.
I turned.
Grand Luna Morrigan stood there. The moonlight caught in her silver hair and made it glow. Her kind eyes found mine and sothing in my chest loosened.
"Oh, thank the goddess." The words tumbled out and I was moving before I could think about it.
Despite her age, she half walked and ran toward . I t her halfway, my feet still wet and cold against the stone.
"You are fine, right?" Her hands were on . Checking my arms, my face, my shoulders. Looking for injuries that weren’t there.
"I am fine." I nodded and I tried my best to smile but it felt wobbly.
She searched my face for a long mont. Then her expression crumbled just slightly and she pulled
into a hug.
I hadn’t expected it. The warmth. The gentleness. The way she held
like I was sothing precious and fragile and worth protecting.
My arms ca up slowly. Because I wasn’t exactly sure how to take this in. But I ca around, and I wrapped my hands around her.
Sothing inside
that had been holding on too tight since we left Silver Creek, since I told my father off, finally let go at that mont.
With the artificial rot gone completely, she slled like lavender and old books. Safety didn’t have a sll. But if it did, this would be it. Sothing I hadn’t had enough of in my life after my mother’s death. Sothing I’d forgotten I still needed in great deal.
"I was so worried." Her voice was muffled against my hair. "When I heard what happened. I’m glad you are alright, daughter."
My eyes widened when she said the words daughter. I felt sothing close around my throat and it made it hard to speak for a long minute.
"I’m okay." My voice finally ca out, smaller than I intended. "I promise."
She pulled back just enough to look at . Her hands ca up to cup my face. Her thumbs brushed away tears I hadn’t realized were falling.
"You shouldn’t have to promise that." Her voice was firm but kind. "So things are just supposed to be."
I didn’t know what to say to that. Because she was right. And the truth of it hurt more than anything physical ever could.
Behind us, I heard Cian stand. The water sloshed quietly as he pulled his feet out.
"Mom." His voice was warm.
Morrigan’s hands dropped from my face but she kept one arm around my shoulders. She turned to look at him.
"Cian." She inclined her head. "Are you taking good care of her?"
"I’m trying." He moved closer and stopped just beside us. "She makes it difficult sotis."
I made a sound that might have been a laugh.
Morrigan’s arm tightened around . "Good. She should make your life hell. You should have been with her."
"Oh," I managed. "I actually was fine going alone and it was pack law that Cian not be present to intimidate—"
"That is no damn excuse," Mother-in-law maintained.
She then sighed as she looked between us. At the way Cian stood close enough that the bond pulled taut. At the way I leaned slightly toward him without aning to.
"You both look exhausted." Her voice softened. "When was the last ti either of you even slept properly?"
I opened my mouth and closed it. I couldn’t actually rember having a good long sleep.
Cian didn’t answer either.
Morrigan sighed again. It was the kind of sigh that said she’d expected as much.
"Co." She started guiding
back toward the main part of the estate. "You need rest. Real rest. Not whatever half sleep you’ve been managing between catastrophes."
I didn’t argue. I couldn’t. Because she was right and my body was starting to rember how tired it actually was.
Cian fell into step beside us. His hand found mine in the dark and threaded our fingers together.
The night air was cool against my skin. The wet footprints I left behind dried quickly on the warm stone.
Morrigan was talking. Sothing about making sure Thorne and Maren checked
over one more ti and also about getting so food in .
I listened but the words felt distant. Like they were coming from a place very far away.
My mind kept circling back. To Athena. To Nocturne. I couldn’t even put a finger to it. But sothing about it just felt like it was on
to find out whether I was just having the worst kind of dream or perhaps it was sothing prophetic.
The one thing that didn’t leave my mind however was....what Lady Selene had said. About
being loved by her. What exactly did that an? What even was I now? A healer from the age of legends?
Cian’s thumb traced circles on the back of my hand. The sa gentle rhythm from before. It grounded
and kept
tethered to the present.
It helped keep my thoughts from spiralling.
And for now... that was enough.
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