My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 203

Sera

My mother’s eyes flickered, the pupils contracting as if I’d shone a torch in them. She didn’t scream. She didn't throw another judgment. A small, thin smile pulled at the corner of her mouth—a ghost of the woman who knew how to survive a king's temper.

"Good luck then," she answered.

I reached for the iron latch, my fingers wrapping around the cold metal. I paused. I looked back over my shoulder.

"I actually have a surprise for you," I said. I let a bit of the ice bleed into my expression. "You'll love it."

Irina shifted against her pillows, the movement making her wince as the fresh stitches pulled at her skin. "What is it?"

I shrugged, the wool of the tunic rubbing against my bruised ribs. "It wouldn't be a surprise then, would it?"

She gave a single, jerky nod. I turned away, the latch clicking as I prepared to step out into the hall.

"Seraphina."

The use of my full name stopped me. I turned around, my spine rigid.

Irina was struggling to her feet. She pushed the furs aside, her legs shaking as she found the floor. She grimaced, her hand flying to her bandaged side, the white linen already showing a small, blooming spot of red. She didn't stop. She walked toward me, her pace slow and dragging, her slippers scuffing through the grey feathers on the floor.

She reached me and stopped. She was so close I could smell the sharp camphor and the lingering, metallic scent of her own blood. She reached up. Her hand was soft—too soft for this mountain—as she cupped the side of my face.

I stumbled out of the room. The iron door hit the frame behind me, the sound echoing down the empty corridor like a gunshot. I hit the wall opposite her quarters, the stone freezing even through the wool of my shirt.

I couldn't draw air. My chest was a cage that was three sizes too small. I felt the panic rising, a hot, suffocating wave that made my vision blur at the edges. I slid down the masonry, my boots dragging against the floorboards, until my ass hit the ground. I buried my face into my knees, my fingers digging into my own scalp so hard I could hear the silver pins in my hair groan.

The tears came then. I sat in the dirt of the hallway, shaking with the force of them, the vacuum in my chest finally breaking open.

"What the fuck was that?" I breathed into the dark. My own voice sounded like a stranger's.

I sat there on the cold stone, the Alpha’s Luna, the woman who had hidden a murder and broken a Lord, crying like the child I wasn’t allowed to be anymore.

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