Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 239

Chapter 239

Chapter 239

Chapter 239

ARIA

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I dove into the water and swam with speed that shocked me even as I was doing it. My body moved through the water with efficiency I’d never possessed before, cutting through the lake like I’d been born to it, my strokes powerful and coordinated in ways that went far beyond my limited swimming training. The awakened bloodline was enhancing everything that was in me. It enhanced my strength, speed, endurance, even my ability to hold my breath as I ducked underwater to reduce my profile and make myself harder to spot in the water as I kept swimming underground, trying my best to get to my destination.

The island grew closer with each stroke. Fifty feet. Forty. Thirty. I could see details now as I edged closer as it became clearer and more defined—the pedestal was carved from a single piece of stone, covered in runes that matched the ones above the tunnel entrances, ancient markings that seemed to pulse in time with the crystal they supported.

Behind me, I could hear the serpents, making hissing noises, as the bodies made noises as it glided towards the direction of the sound investigating Ivory’s distraction, I could also hear the water churning and slamming against their bodies as they converged on the far side of the lake where the fungi had created its brilliant flash.

The distraction was working. They were focused on the wrong location, giving me the window I needed to reach the objective.

Twenty feet. Ten. My hands soon found surcface as I held on and pulled, trying to steady my grip on the island’s rocky shore and I hauled myself out of the water, dripping and gasping, my entire body trembling from the prolonged exertion. But I’d made it. Had reached the island while the serpents were distracted.

Now I just needed to grab the crystal and get back before they realized their mistake.

Up close, the crescent moon crystal was even more magnificent and more beautiful than it had appeared from shore. The designs were so hermsirizing that it was actually hard to look away from it. The crystal was perhaps six inches across at its widest point, the curve of the crescent perfectly symmetrical, the surface so smooth it looked like it had been polished by expert hands.

The material wasn’t quite crystal and wasn’t quite stone-something in between, something that could only be gotten as a result of magical contribution.

It pulsed with power that I could feel even befor touching it. The rhythm matched my heartbeat exactly, like the crystal and I were somehow synchronized, connected by invisible threads. My awakened bloodline was responding to it, recognizing something important

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Chapter 239

about the crystal’s nature, pulling me toward it with intensity that was almost painful.

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I reached out, my fingers trembling slightly as they approached the crystal’s surface. The moment I made contact, the world dissolved.

Vision. Not imagination or hallucination but actual vision, memory preserved in magical form, playing out before me with clarity that made it feel more real than the cave around

I saw my mother. Young-younger than I’d ever seen her, maybe in her early twenties. She was healthy, vibrant, standing in what looked like a forest clearing with moonlight streaming across her.

And she was holding something in her hands. A crystal. The exact same crescent moon crystal I was touching now, or one identical to it.

She was speaking to someone, pleading with them, though I couldn’t see who. Their face was obscured, hidden by shadows or intentionally obscured so that I wouldn’t know who they

were.

“She’s just a child,” my mother was saying, her voice carrying desperation and fear that made my chest tight. “The suppression is the only way to keep her safe until she’s strong enough. They’ll kill her if they find out what she is. What she could become. Promise me you’ll protect her. Promise me the Council won’t find out what she is until she can defend herself.”

The other figure responded but I couldn’t hear their words, couldn’t make out anything except the murmur of a voice that might have been male or female or something else entirely.

“I know what I’m asking,” my mother continued, tears streaming down her face now. “I know the price. But she deserves a chance to live. To grow strong enough to survive what’s coming. Please. For her sake. Suppress the bloodline until she’s ready to handle what it means.”

The vision shattered.

I was back in the cave, my hand still on the crystal, my breathing ragged from the intensity of what I’d just witnessed. My mother. Pleading for my protection. Agreeing to suppress my bloodline-to limit my capabilities, to make me weaker than I should have been-because it was the only way to keep me safe from some unnamed threat.

The Ghost Council. That’s what she’d said. “The Council won’t find out what she is.” She’d been afraid of them. Afraid they’d kill me if they discovered my true nature before I was strong enough to defend myself.

I grabbed the crystal fully, lifting it from the pedestal, and the moment it left its resting place I understood with sudden, crystalline clarity what I was holding.

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Chapter 239

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