The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon (Celine and Bastian) novel Chapter 174

Cap 174

Johan

“You…”

The man who has been asleep in a hospital room for more than a year has just woken up. His eyes snap open. and an intense golden light ignites in his pupils as they lock onto me. For a few seconds, he seems disoriented, as if his mind is still trying to piece together where he is and why a stranger is watching him from across the room.

“Easy, friend. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m just here to wake you up from your nap.”

Rufus, that is his name, according to what I have been told, tries to get up too quickly. His legs don’t respond, and he loses his balance, forcing himself to grab the edge of the bed to keep from falling. He breathes heavily, still weak, but the confusion disappears from his face as soon as he looks at me again.

“Where is she? What did you do to her?”

He takes a step toward me. His hands begin to transform, and his fingers lengthen into claws. A deep growl vibrates in his chest as his golden eyes become even more intense.

I take a step back.

“She’s home, with Bastian Thorn and his family. I’m not the enemy… or at least, not anymore.”

“Get out.”

I look at him for a second and cannot help a small smile.

“I just came to bring you back to the world, and that’s how you talk to me.”

I turn around to leave him alone, but before I reach the door, I stop.

“It’s been a year and three months since that night, Rufus. Take things slowly. The world you knew no longer exists.”

I don’t wait for an answer. The only thing I hear behind me is a low growl filled with warning.

I step into the hallway and close the door. I walk toward the stairs while running a hand through my hair. The hospital is apparently one of the few places that hasn’t suffered major damage during the war. That doesn’t mean it is in good condition. The hallways are filled with wounded people, exhausted doctors, and nurses moving from one place to another, trying to care for too many people with far too little time. There are men with battle wounds, women who arrived from destroyed settlements, and sick children sleeping in makeshift beds because there are no rooms left.

I descend the first few steps and hear the sounds of the hospital blending together behind me: orders shouted across the halls, hurried footsteps, restrained crying, and the occasional groan of someone who has just woken up after surgery.

I shake my head. I cannot help feeling something uncomfortable in my chest, although it is not because I

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The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon

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believe all of this is my fault. It isn’t. I was a prisoner too. The Order had my family in its sights and knew exactly where to strike to force me to obey. If I refused, Larissa, Vladimir, and Sebastian would pay the consequences. I didn’t have many options that night, and even if I had wanted to stand against them, I wouldn’t have been able to save them all.

That doesn’t change the fact that I was the one who opened the portal and took Celine to the laboratories, but I am not going to carry a guilt that does not belong to me. I did what I had to do to keep my family alive, and when I had the opportunity to choose, I chose to help her. It wasn’t heroism. It wasn’t regret either. It was a decision, like so many others I have made in my life, only this time, she wasn’t an ordinary person.

She was my destined mate.

Damn it. My mother, my brother, my father. They knew exactly which threats to use to force me to obey, and if I hadn’t taken Celine to them, they would have killed them. I didn’t have many options that night.

I stop for a moment in the middle of the stairs and look down at the activity in the hospital from above.

Celine survived.

My family survived.

I survived too.

Not everyone was that lucky.

I resume my descent without stopping. I cannot change what happened or erase the decisions I made to keep the people who matter to me alive. I’m not going to pretend that I am a different person now, either. I am still

a dark witch. I have never had a problem doing things other people consider monstrous, and I doubt I am suddenly going to become a kind man because I discovered that I have feelings.

But Celine changed something in me.

I don’t know exactly what.

Maybe it was the first time I did something without thinking only about my own survival or that of my family.

Maybe it was the first time I chose someone because I wanted to, and not because I was forced to.

And now I have to live with all the consequences.

I reach the last step and find one of the doctors running toward another room with a child in his arms. I step aside to let him pass.

I watch him disappear down the hallway and continue walking.

The world Rufus has just returned to is completely different from the one he remembers.

And, to be honest, so is mine.

I left that castle desperately, as if I were running out of oxygen and the only thing I needed was to get away

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The Second Chance Of The Rejected Moon

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