Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 125

Chapter 125

Maya

“Him!”

I stared at Rohan, my mind reeling.

The rival heir. The man who had haunted the edges of my life since I arrived at Blackridge. The villain in every story the heirs had told me.

“He is your mate?” I asked Astrid, the realization hitting me like a physical blow.

‘He is the reincarnation of the man I loved before the world turned to shadow, Astrid confirmed, her voice thick with a ghostly grief. ‘He has followed my soul through every cycle, through every failed incarnation, waiting for the moment the Eclipse would stir so he could find me again. He didn’t kidnap you to harm you, Maya. He rescued us. He is the only one who remembers the truth because his bloodline was the only one Aelara couldn’t bend.

I looked at Rohan, and for a second, the stone walls of the cell seemed to dissolve. I didn’t see the rival heir. I saw a man who had died a thousand deaths just to find a girl who didn’t even know his name.

“You’re… him,” I breathed. “The original mate.”

Rohan knelt by the bed, ignoring the violet light that licked at his skin. “I am yours, Maya. Not because a wolf forced me to be. Not because I need your power to feel like an Alpha. I am yours because our souls were cut from the same cloth before the first Eclipse ever darkened the sky.”

The horror of it began to sink in. My entire understanding of destiny–the Triple Bond, the fated connection to the three heirs, the ‘meant to be‘ nature of my life at the Alpha House–was a lie.

A beautiful, elaborate cage manufactured by Aelara to ensure she was never alone and never weak.

I thought of Tylon’s protective arms, and my heart felt like it was being squeezed by a cold hand. I thought of Caden’s laughter, and it felt like a dream I was being forced to wake up from.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head as tears finally spilled over. “No, I can’t just… I can’t just let them go. I can’t let her go.”

‘You have to, Astrid said, and now the silk was gone from her voice, replaced only by the blade. ‘Because if you don’t, she will eventually consume them. She will drink them dry, Maya. Is that the love you want for them? To be batteries for a goddess who doesn’t even know their names?‘

Rohan held out his hand, the silver dagger glinting. “The ritual is ready, Maya. We just need the blood of the host to begin the separation. We have to do it now, before the heirs find us. Before they bring their noise back into your head and drown out the truth.”

I looked at the door, then back at the man who claimed to be my soul’s true half.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to the heirs, to Aelara, or to the girl I used to be.

Rohan reached for my wrist, and as the blade touched my skin, the room exploded in a roar of violet light. Inside my head, for the first time since the kidnapping, I heard a sound.

It wasn’t a voice.

It was a scream of pure, unadulterated fury. Aelara was hitting the glass wall of the suppression, and she was starting to leave cracks.

“Do it!” Astrid shrieked. “Do it before she breaks through!”

Rohan’s hand hesitated, the silver blade hovering just a fraction of a millimeter above the blue vein of my wrist. The violet light in the room pulsed, reacting to the sudden, violent tremor of my body.

“No!” I gasped, the word tearing out of my chest with more force than I knew I had.

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