Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 124

Chapter 124

Maya

“What spell!” I shrieked again, the violet light from the floor rising like a wall of shimmering glass. It began to close in on the bed, cutting off the air, cutting off the world, and leaving me alone in the dark with the ghosts of a thousand years. Rohan didn’t stop. He didn’t even blink. His voice continued that rhythmic, bone–deep chanting, the syllables vibrating in the very marrow of my teeth.

“Astrid, stop him!” I screamed internally, yanking at the iron cuffs until I felt the skin of my wrists finally give way, the slickness of blood coating the metal. “If he does this, if he separates us, what happens to Aelara?”

‘She will be gone, little one,‘ Astrid’s voice replied, sounding like the calm after a massacre. The parasite will be excised. The sigil will consume the rot, and I will finally take my place as your true wolf. No more voices. No more hunger that isn’t yours.‘

“She isn’t a parasite!” I sobbed, my heart hammering against my ribs. I thought of the grove–how Aelara had felt like a roar of protective fire when I was being hunted. I thought of the way she purred when Leo touched me, the way she bristled with shared pride when Tylon looked at me. “She’s me! She’s my wolf! Why didn’t you tell me this before? Why wait until I’m chained to a bed like an animal?”

‘Because you never would have believed the truth while she was whispering her lies into your blood, Astrid sighed. ‘Aelara is a master of perspective. She painted me as the villain of our history so you would cling to her. She made you think her greed was your destiny. If I had spoken, she would have crushed my voice before you could even hear the first word.‘

I looked at Rohan through the shimmering violet veil. He had stopped chanting, but the light remained, a humming cage of ancient magic. He picked up the silver dagger, the blade catching the violet glow and turning it into something wicked.

“Kidnapping me wasn’t exactly the best way to earn my trust, Rohan!” I spat, my voice raw. “If you’re the ‘good guys, why am I in chains? Why the drugs? Why the humiliation?”

Rohan walked to the edge of the circle, the bioluminescent liquid hissing as his boots neared it. “Because the heirs would never have let you hear the truth,” he said, his eyes dark with a terrifyingly singular devotion. “They are bound to the lie as tightly as you are. They think they love you, Maya, but they love the tether. They love the way Aelara makes them feel like gods. If I had come to the Alpha House with the truth, they would have torn me apart before I could finish a sentence.”

“They love me,” I whispered, though my voice lacked the conviction I desperately wanted it to have.

“Do they?” Rohan stepped closer, his shadow falling over me. “Aelara doesn’t care about Tylon, or Caden, or Leo. She never did. She just wanted the power of having them close. Why do you think she hasn’t truly spoken to them? Why is there no true communion, only the roar of the bond?”

The room seemed to shrink. The silence of the bonds–the absolute void where Tylon’s fire and Leo’s peace should have been–began to feel less like a tragedy and more like a sobriety I wasn’t ready for.

“So if we do this,” I rasped, my eyes darting between Rohan’s blade and the violet light. “If we free you and Aelara is gone forever… what happens to my bond with the heirs? What happens to the men I… I think I love?”

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